Ricky’s gaze met Allie’s and he nodded slowly. “Yes, I definitely have a reason for living.”
“We will leave you with Allie now and see you later at the hospital,” she promised, then leaned down to whisper. “Don’t waste a minute, niño. I think she is ready to say yes.”
Ricky grinned. “I hope you’re right, Mama.”
Allie looked from him to his mother. “Right about what?”
His mother patted her cheek. “It is not polite to eavesdrop.”
After the others had gone, Ricky gazed into Allie’s eyes. “Come here,” he commanded quietly.
She stepped closer, her eyes bright with unshed tears, and took his one unbandaged hand in hers. “You had to go and prove me right, didn’t you?” she chided.
“I was right,” he contradicted. “I told you I’d always come home, no matter what.”
“Then I guess you win,” she said.
Hope rose up inside him. “Oh?”
“That is if you still want me.”
The pain, which had been dulled for a while by the pills, came back full force, but he fought it. The moment was too sweet to let anything ruin it. He drew in a deep, relaxing breath and focused on her. “You’re saying yes?”
“I thought I was the one who couldn’t hear,” she teased.
He reached up and touched her cheek gently. “Can you hear what my heart is saying now?” he said, his gaze locked with hers.
She rested her hand against his chest, where she had to be able to feel the steady, reassuring beat of his heart.
“I believe I can,” she said.
“It’s beating because I knew I had to get back to you, because I promised. You’re the reason I’m alive. Now we’re even.”
Her tears spilled over. “I was so scared,” she whispered.
“I can’t swear to you that it will never happen again,” he told her honestly. “But I love you, Allie. I want us to have years and years together with kids of our own who are as smart and brave as their mother.”
She gave him a watery smile. “Smart, maybe,” she teased. “But brave? I don’t know about that. You’re the strong one.”
He tucked a finger under her chin. “No. It’s always harder being left behind than it is to be taking the risks. I know that.”
“And I know that it wouldn’t be any easier if I walked away now. I would always wonder and worry. You’re in my heart, Enrique Wilder, for better or for worse.”
“Tom wants to have a double wedding,” he told her. “What do you think?”
“Anytime, anyplace,” she said. “I don’t want to waste another minute.”
As if to prove it, her mouth settled lightly against his. Ricky was pretty sure that kiss could heal whatever injuries he had. It definitely would be a potent incentive for never taking an unnecessary risk.
“Ricky,” she murmured when she pulled away, looking a little dazed. “I think you’ve given me back my music.”
“Oh?”
A smile spread across her face. “I’m pretty sure I heard bells.”
He laughed. “I know I did, querida. I know I did.”
Epilogue
Allie still couldn’t get over the way her mother had gotten into the spirit of the wedding preparations. She had insisted on taking off the spring semester and coming to Miami a month ahead of time. She had taken up residence in the guest room at Ricky’s. She’d made no comment at all about the fact that Allie was living in the master bedroom with her fiancé.
In fact, she seemed to approve of her prospective son-in-law from the instant they met. Allie constantly found them with their heads together, looking through the replacement photo albums she’d brought, filled with some of the same pictures that had been lost in the hurricane. Allie knew that Ricky and Jane had had a hand in the creation of those albums and she was touched. Her mother couldn’t have brought a better wedding present.
But if the instant bond between her mother and Ricky was a surprise, more shocking was the immediate connection the very staid Grace Matthews had formed with the exuberant Mrs. Wilder. They had designated themselves in charge of the planning for the double ceremony, leaving little for Allie or Nikki to do. Once in a long while, her mother consulted Allie about her preferences for this hors d’oeuvre or that one, but in general she seemed to be having the time of her life.
Allie observed all this with mounting confusion. What had happened to the woman she knew, the woman who preferred faculty teas to family dinners, the woman who had difficulty expressing her feelings?
Finally she insisted on taking her mother to lunch to get an explanation. Her mother seemed startled and vaguely insulted by her questions.
“You’re my only child. Why wouldn’t I want to be involved in your wedding?”
Allie struggled to come up with an explanation for her confusion that wouldn’t hurt her mother’s feelings. “Ever since I moved down here, you and dad have been…I don’t know how to put it. Distant, I suppose. After the hurricane you seemed almost relieved when I told you it wasn’t necessary for you to come down to take care of me.”
Despite her careful wording, her mother looked crushed. “Oh, darling, I am so sorry you felt that way. We were just so terrified of hovering the way we did when you first lost your hearing. We thought that would make things worse for you. And when you said you were doing fine, we felt we had to take you at your word.”
Tears filled her eyes. “Don’t you know that it was agony for us to have you in the hospital so far away after such a tragedy? When you told us you didn’t need us? It would have been so easy to insist you come home where we could look out for you or to rush down here to coddle you. But if we’d done that, you might never have fought so hard for your independence.” She managed a faint smile. “You might never have gotten involved with Ricky.”
Allie was stunned by the explanation. “You did it for my sake? I mean not just lately, but staying away when I first moved here?”
“Well, of course. Why else?”
“I was afraid you were disappointed in me, maybe even ashamed. I thought you were glad I’d gone so far away.”
The tears in her mother’s eyes spilled down her cheeks. “Allison Matthews, your father and I could never be disappointed in you,” she declared indignantly. “We were devastated when you lost your hearing. We blamed ourselves for not taking better care of you. Of course it saddens us that you lost your music, but for your sake, not ours. We’ve loved you from the instant you were born. And we have never been more proud of you than we are now.”
She swallowed hard, clearly struggling for composure. “You’re remarkable, Allie. Can’t you see that? Years ago you took a great tragedy and turned it into a challenge, which you have more than met. You did that again after the hurricane. You’ve found a truly wonderful man who obviously loves you. I expect we’ll have gorgeous grandchildren we can dote on in no time. I’ve never seen you look happier. What more could a parent possibly want for a child?”
Her own eyes stinging with tears, and suddenly feeling as if her entire world was right again, Allie reached across the table and squeezed her mother’s hand. “I love you, Mom.”
In an afternoon of surprises, her mother responded in sign language. “I love you, my darling daughter.”
That night as she snuggled close to the man who would be her husband in a few days, Allie recounted the story.
“I’m happy for you,” he said. “I know how much you wanted your family around, even though you stuck that brave little chin of yours up in the air and declared it didn’t matter if they were.”
“My hunch is that if we give them a grandchild, we’ll have a hard time getting rid of them.”
He pulled her astride him, then grinned as he began to move inside her for the second time that night. “By all means, then, let’s give them what they want.”
Ricky stood next to Tom at the front of the church his family had attended his entire life, tugging at the tight collar of his fancy shirt.
“Remind me never again to wear one of these things,” he grumbled.
“You say that at every wedding,” Tom pointed out.
“Well, thank goodness there are no more sisters or best friends to get married. I should be safe.”
“Only till all those nieces and nephews grow up,” Tom retorted just as the music began.
Ricky turned to watch as his sisters started down the aisle in their pastel bridesmaid gowns. Nikki and Allie had agreed that they both wanted the Wilder women as their attendants. In fact, they had agreed on every single detail. He had a hunch that all Nikki cared about was getting Tom’s ring back on her finger. She hadn’t even batted an eye when Allie had insisted on having Jane as her matron of honor. As for Jane, she had been moved to tears by the request.
Now as Jane reached the front of the church, she gave Ricky an impudent wink, then took her place as the music swelled and everyone turned to watch for the brides. He peeked at Jane’s feet, but, for once, to his disappointment, she wasn’t wearing her bright sneakers.
Then his attention was riveted to the back of the church as the organist shifted into the familiar notes of “Here Comes the Bride.”
Nikki came down the aisle first, wearing a simple white satin cocktail-length dress and carrying a bouquet of orchids, her gaze locked with Tom’s all the way.
Then Allie appeared in the arched entryway, resplendent in a simple gown of white silk with tiny pearls around the scooped neckline. The narrow skirt fell to the floor, then extended in back to a short train. Rather that wear a tiara and veil, she had opted to have a strand of pearls woven into her upswept hair. Ricky hid a smile as he spotted the errant curls that had already escaped the tamed style to caress her cheeks.
“I might not hear the words, so I want to see everything very clearly,” she had told him. “A veil would just get in the way.”
He watched as she glanced up at her father, who gently patted her hand where it was looped through his arm. Then she focused all her attention on the cadence of Nikki’s steps. Her lips pursed, and he knew she was humming the music as she began her walk down the aisle on her father’s arm, a sweet-smelling bouquet of roses and camellias clutched in her hand. Misty-eyed, her father kissed her cheek before he released her into Ricky’s care.
Ricky hadn’t told her in advance what his intentions were, but he saw the joy begin to shine in her eyes when the minister accompanied the words of the ceremony with sign language. Ricky repeated his own vows, not only speaking them but signing them.
“So you will hear them well,” he told her. “And keep them in your heart forever.”
“Next to the love I have for you,” she told him.
Then her voice rang out clearly in the old, Spanish-style church, promising to love, honor and cherish him, “all the days of our lives. Whether they be many or few, I will be grateful for each one.”
And then, to his surprise and his family’s evident delight, she repeated the vow in halting Spanish.
She made the commitment with such love shining in her eyes, such a solemn tone to her voice, that Ricky knew he would do everything in his power never to let her down.
“We’ll be together through eternity,” he mouthed softly, and saw her lips curve into a smile.
That smile said more than a thousand words.
At the reception after the ceremony, Tom and Nikki took them aside. Tom looked as if he were in shock.
“We have something to tell you,” Nikki said, her face radiant. “I just told Tom after the ceremony, so excuse him if he seems a little dazed.”
“What?” Allie said, her gaze intent on her friend’s face.
Nikki beamed. “I’m pregnant.”
“Oh, my gosh,” Allie said, a grin spreading across her face. “You must be ecstatic.”
“I am,” Nikki confirmed. Her expression sobered a little as she glanced at her new husband. “I’m not so sure about him.”
“It’s still sinking in,” Tom said. “Me, a father? I can’t believe it. I guess this means I’m about to change jobs.”
At Ricky’s startled look, he shrugged. “I promised her I’d do it when we started a family. We’re just a few years off our timetable.”
“You actually don’t seem all that upset about it,” Ricky noted.
Tom’s expression turned thoughtful. “You know, I can’t honestly say that I am. After what happened to you on that last trip, I began to see why Nikki was so shaken every time I left home. You scared the dickens out of me, too. I’ve been thinking the last few weeks that maybe I’ve had enough thrills and lived to tell about it. There’s no point in pressing my luck, not when I have so much to live for.”
Ricky gave Nikki a kiss, then hugged his friend. “Congratulations, you two. I’m really happy for you. I’m going to miss you at work, though. It takes a long time to find someone you’re willing to trust with your life.”
“There are plenty of guys on the team ready to step into my place. You’ll be fine.”
Ricky glanced at Allie and knew her doubts were being magnified a hundredfold by Tom’s announcement. When the other couple had walked away, he tucked a finger under her chin.
“Hey, don’t look so worried. I made you a promise. I intend to keep it.”
“You’d better,” she said fiercely. “I expect to have years and years with you. Besides, it takes time to have all those kids we’ve been talking about.”
He grinned. “Want to sneak out of here and get started?”
She gestured toward the cake, which still hadn’t been cut, and the band, which was just getting ready to start playing. “I think we’d be missed. Besides, you promised to teach me to tango tonight.”
“The tango is a very seductive dance,” he pointed out. “I could give you an even more amazing lesson in the privacy of the bridal suite upstairs.”
“No band.”
He slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. “We won’t need one.”
“Hey, it’s bad enough that one of us can’t hear the music,” she teased.
“Not true,” he said, his gaze locked with hers. “The music’s in here, querida.” He tapped his chest. “And I can hear it loud and clear.”
Her lips curved slightly, and she tilted her head as if listening intently. “Come to think of it, so can I.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4026-5
A LOVE BEYOND WORDS
Copyright © 2001 by Sherryl Woods
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