Her Wedding Wish

“Yep,” Dad was saying. Always brief on words but long on heart. “You said the RV drove real fine. Yep, real fine.”

“I’m sure it did. Don’t remember it.”

“Well, it did.”

Jonas noticed her standing there and it was hard to tell by the look on his face if he was glad to see her or not. When he looked at her, he had to feel more pressure to remember. And that was the last thing she wanted. He had pressure enough.

“Dani.” Dad turned in the chair and winked at her. “I’m gonna take Jonas with me.”

“What? Where?” Jonas looked confused. Maybe a little panicked.

He might not remember that she was always on his side. That she would never forsake him, even when it came to her own family. “Dad, Jonas might not be up to working with tools yet.”

“Tools?” Jonas’s eyes widened in surprise.

He could not know that it was a family thing, he and Dad and Spence, always eager to fix what was broken. He would not remember how it used to be, that when Dad assumed Jonas’s help in all kinds of family construction projects, Jonas would find a moment to come up to her and lean close so that only she could hear. He would say in that affable way of his, “I don’t remember getting my draft notice.”

No, Jonas did not have any idea how they would chuckle quietly together before he would go off to help her dad.

Now, Jonas seemed uncertain, but when he looked down at his hands she realized why. After so much nerve damage, he could not handle carpenter tools. What could she do to reassure him? “Dad, you give Jonas a rest on this one. He’s recuperating. He can watch if he wants to and keep you company, but it might be better if he rests.”

“Yep. Gotcha.” Dad nodded once and rose to his feet as if that were settled. “Well, what do you say, Jonas? You want to come keep an eye on me?”

“You need it.” Humor glinted in his hazel eyes, and his lopsided grin could not be dearer.

Danielle felt hope buoy her. “I’ll bring back some tea for both of you.”

“Thanks, missy.” Dad scooted Jonas’s walker closer within reach. “C’mon, son, we’ve got work to do.”

“Yes, sir.” Jonas struggled to his feet and winked at her over the top of her dad’s head.

Danielle practically floated to the kitchen, full of gratitude that her whole family was together again.

Chapter Four

Over the noise at the dinner table, Danielle heard her grandmother lean over to Jonas and say, “How is it that you are still so handsome?”

A blush pinkened his cheeks, making him even more good-looking. “Just luck.”

That made Gran chuckle in that light, joyful way of hers.

Danielle looked up from cutting Madison’s hot dog, and her pulse turned heavy, as if she had peanut butter in her veins. Could he be remembering? Just luck. That was what Jonas always used to say whenever Gran would ask that question. Wouldn’t that be perfect if he did remember? If he did defy the doctors’ dim prognoses for his memory loss, too?

“Mommy?” Madison tugged on her sleeve to get her attention. “I wanna biiig piece of cake. Pleeeease?”

“No, not yet and you know it, princess.” Danielle scooped a generous spoonful of the potatoes au gratin that Katherine had brought. “I know you want these.”

“Taters!” The little girl agreed cheerfully and flashed her dimples, confident that she was adorable and had more than one person’s attention at the table.

Katherine peered around Madison’s head on her other side. “Let me take over for you. I would love to and I’m closer to the taters.”

“Thanks.” Danielle handed over the cartoon character, child-sized fork.

It was wonderful to see her sister so happy. Marriage suited her, and Jack was the right kind of husband—good, strong and loving, a man who always did the right thing. It was another of her prayers answered. And as she scanned the table, she saw nothing but a testimony to that wondrous power. Katherine wasn’t the only newlywed sister at the table.

There were her younger twin sisters. Ava had Brice at her side, chattering away to him and to Tyler. Amusement and love mixed together as Brice watched her with a besotted grin on his face. They’d married in the spring, and Ava was always the happy sort, but she practically shone like the sun these days. Love and married life had transformed her.

Aubrey, although identical to Ava, couldn’t have been more different. She was quieter, and so was her husband-to-be, William. Their love was a tacit statement that still waters ran deep. Their wedding was coming up soon, and they had included the kids in their wedding party.

Lauren, home now from California, was finishing her master’s in business at the local campus. She and Caleb had married last month in a sweet May ceremony that had been as low-key and as lovely as Lauren herself.

“Mommy! Guess what?” Tyler called out across the table.

She blinked, drawn out of her thoughts. She focused on her little boy’s face and recognized that wide-eyed excited expression. Ava and Brice had been talking about their dog to him. “What?”

“If I had a dog, do you know what? Then Rex wouldn’t be lonesome when he came over here.”

Rex, the mentioned golden retriever, popped his head up from beneath the table to shine his puppy dog eyes on her.

Help, she wanted to plead silently to Jonas, but that bond between them was no longer there. She couldn’t look at her husband and have him know instinctively what she needed. He would not be coming to her rescue. She sighed, lonely. How could she be otherwise? She missed her husband. “We’ll talk about a dog later, cutie.”

“Yeah, but…I gotta lot of reasons why we should get a dog.” Tyler looked so hopeful.

“I know. You keep making that list, okay?”

“Yeah.” He breathed out a long sigh. It was hard being a kid and dogless.

Across the table, Spence nodded to her, as if in agreement. He was not fond of dogs, especially near the table. Poor Spence. He had a good heart but had a hard time letting it show. It was no surprise to his family or anyone who knew him that he hadn’t found a woman who could look past the gruffness to the sweet man inside. And, if he kept going, she was afraid he never would.

But it was the empty chair next to Spence that troubled her. Rebecca—the youngest—was late. Again. And, as experience had taught them all, that could only mean one thing—trouble with that boyfriend of hers, Chris. What if this serious relationship took a more serious turn? It was something that turned Danielle’s stomach cold. Chris was the kind of young man who seemed nice—there was never anything specifically he’d done that made her dislike him. Except for the fact he was not entirely nice to Rebecca.

Rebecca, who saw only the good in everyone, couldn’t see it.

Gran’s merry voice broke into her thoughts. “Jonas, they tell me you aren’t remembering things so well. You’re not alone, boy. It happens to the best of us. Do you remember me?”

“Nope. Not a thing.”

“Then you don’t know how you and Dani met.”

“N-no. I do not.”

Danielle plainly read the shame on her husband’s face. She placed her hand on his shoulder, still so wide and strong. “Gran likes to think she’s the reason we’re together.”

Jonas quirked his brow. “That so, Gran?”

The elderly woman, so rosy and dear, chuckled warmly. “Your marriage is a testimony to the power of prayer. My husband was still with me back then, and one night, when we were just back from snowbirding in Scottsdale, we met with Ann and Silas Donovan, Brice’s grandparents. We were all in the same boat. We had grandchildren but no great-grandchildren. I saw this as a totally unacceptable situation, so I decided to take it to the good Lord and start praying.”

“Is that so?” Jonas didn’t seem to understand that it was their marriage, and their firstborn son, who’d been that long-awaited great-grandchild.