Aimee was seated far back in the crowd, and she didn’t make eye contact with Jacob during the whole program. He had waved before he took his seat at the rear of the platform where she couldn’t see him.
She’d kept putting him off when he wanted to talk about the future, but now in spite of anything, even Samantha’s objections, she would marry him if he asked her. She knew she loved him, and that he was the right man for her.
Jennifer apparently hadn’t been able to slip away from her father’s group, but after the ceremony, she joined them.
“Mrs. Blake, it sure would be nice if you’d let Sam come for a sleepover tonight,” she said. “Dad is still calling the shots at home. I’m grounded from going out. I don’t blame my parents. I was getting too wild, but I’m just plain bored.”
Aimee had noted an absence of the flippant, adultlike air that Jennifer had been exhibiting for a year or more. She believed that during her convalescence, the girl had come to terms with her behavior.
“I won’t agree until I talk to your parents. Now that school is out, I’m willing to ease up on the restrictions. I’ll call from my cell when we get to the car.”
“They’ll say it’s okay,” Jennifer said confidently. With a cute grin, she added, “Riding herd on me is getting to be a bore.” She looked at Chloe, who had seemed quieter than usual, perhaps awed by Jennifer’s dominating personality. “You might as well come, too, Chloe. Madison is away this weekend.”
Chloe’s face turned red, and she stammered, “I’d like to, but I don’t know what Grandma will say.”
“Let’s see if Jennifer’s parents agree, and then I’ll check with your grandmother,” Aimee suggested, secretly pleased that Chloe was being included.
Aimee spent the next two hours confirming with Mr. Nibert that Jennifer could have a sleepover, getting permission from Mrs. Slater for Chloe to go, stopping by Chloe’s home for overnight clothes, going to her own home for Samantha to pack and then delivering all three girls to the Nibert home.
It was seven o’clock when she finally semicollapsed in the lounge chair, disappointed that there wasn’t a message from Jacob. He hadn’t been calling as often as he had, and she made herself believe that it was because he was too busy with the bicentennial. But his responsibilities were behind him now, and she hoped he would contact her. When he hadn’t called by eleven, she went to bed. She was still awake when the phone rang an hour later. Startled and fearful, she picked up the phone.
“Aimee, this is Stella Milton. I hope I didn’t wake you up.”
“No, I’m in bed, but I haven’t gone to sleep. My mind is still full of today’s activities to rest.”
“It was a nice day, but I didn’t call to talk about that. Jacob hasn’t come home, and I’m worried about him. I thought you might know where he is.”
Aimee chose her words carefully, for she didn’t want Stella to know that they weren’t seeing each other much. “I haven’t talked with him today,” she said, “and I don’t know where he is.”
“I guess I’m a worrisome old woman, and I don’t often check on Jacob’s whereabouts, but I had a message from his grandfather, and I wanted to pass it along. I’ve tried his cell phone and the phone in his apartment. I suppose I wouldn’t be worried if I hadn’t noticed that he’s been preoccupied the past few days, as if he’s worried about something. I haven’t seen him like this since he was a boy.”
“Have you tried the office? He might have gone there after the ceremony,” Aimee suggested.
“I didn’t call the office because the switchboard would be off,” Stella said. “I contacted the security guard at the complex. He said that Jacob came there this evening, but he didn’t see him leave. I’m worried.”
Throwing back the covers, Aimee said, “Samantha is at a sleepover, so I’ll go check on him. He loaned me a key to the office a few weeks ago so I could borrow some counseling videos he had received. I haven’t returned it.”
“I probably should go with you,” Stella said.
“No, that isn’t necessary,” Aimee assured her. “I’ll call you as soon as I find him. Don’t worry. I’m sure he’s catching up on work he’s missed the past couple of weeks.”
As she quickly dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, Aimee wished she was as confident as she pretended to be. Fearful pictures of what she might find at Jacob’s office flitted through her mind. To calm her nerves, when she was dressed, she knelt beside her chair, and with her hand on the Bible, prayed for God to guide her.
Because Saturday-night traffic wasn’t heavy in the section of Benton where Jacob’s office was located, Aimee arrived at the security gate more rapidly than she anticipated. She punched in the entrance code, waved to the guard and drove to the parking lot in front of the building. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or alarmed that Jacob’s car was still parked in the lot. Light shone from his office window.
She inserted her key card into the slot, punched in the code, opened the door and walked quickly upstairs. The door to Jacob’s office stood open, and catching her breath, she hurried inside. Jacob was slumped over his desk, his hands outstretched. She stifled a scream.
“Jacob,” she said, and he didn’t stir.
She rushed to the desk, searched for and found a steady pulse in his neck. “Thank God,” she breathed. She shook his shoulder until he stirred.
“Jacob,” she said loudly.
He raised his head and stared at her. He shook his head as if to clear his vision. “What’s going on? Why are you here?”
She laughed in relief. “Well, you’ve almost scared Stella and me to death. It’s after midnight. Are you sick?”
“Yeah, sick,” he said, “but not the kind of sick you mean. My spirit is sick. I had a few things I needed to do, and I’ve been here since eight o’clock. I took some medication for a splitting headache, laid my head on the desk and that’s the last I remember. I’m not used to taking pain medication, and it put me out. I left my cell in the car.”
Aimee took her cell phone from her purse. “I’ll call Stella and tell her you’re all right.”
While Aimee talked to Stella to put her mind at ease, Jacob walked around the room, swinging his arms. He dropped to the floor and executed several push-ups.
“I’ll go wash my face and meet you in the snack room. I think I’m awake enough to drive home, but I’d better drink a cup of coffee or a soda.”
“Which do you prefer? I’ll fix it for you.”
“Make it a Coke. And fix something for yourself.”
Now that Stella knew that Jacob was all right, and since her cell phone was on if Samantha should need her, Aimee decided there was no better time or place to find out where she stood with Jacob. He came into the snack room while she was pouring the drink over the ice cubes.
They sat on opposite sides of one of the tables. “I’m glad you came, Aimee. The reason I didn’t go home was because I need to tell you something, which I should have told you before this.”
“I’m aware that there’s something wrong between us,” she said. “What have I done to push you away?”
“You haven’t done anything.” He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, apparently reluctant to speak. “A few weeks ago I had a call from Megan Russell, telling me that she was coming to the bicentennial and wanted to see me.”
His voice was absolutely emotionless, and Aimee felt momentary panic as her mind jumped forward.
“At first,” he said, “I refused to see her, but when she called again last night, I went to meet her in Pioneer Park after the celebration.”
Feeling as if the breath had been knocked out of her, Aimee whispered, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know what to do,” Jacob said, and his voice sounded tired. “I kept hoping she wouldn’t show up, and I’ve been almost desperate wondering if her presence in town would stir up that old scandal again. When I met her today, she indicated that she had only arranged to meet me to apologize for the way she’d treated me.”
A tense silence surrounded them, and Aimee clenched her hands until the nails pierced her skin.
Jacob’s voice drifted into a hoarse whisper. “She told me some things that shocked me so much that I don’t know if I should ever repeat them. However, our interview had one important outcome. I’d always wondered if I should have protected her name and married her anyway. After what I heard today, I’ll never think that again.”
Aimee sensed that what Megan had told Jacob had hurt him terribly, and she didn’t want to add to his pain. “You don’t have to tell me anything. What happened between you and Megan is in the past, the same as my marriage to Steve is behind me. I love you, Jacob, love you for what you are now. You’ve become a fine man in spite of that unfortunate experience.”
Jacob lunged out of his chair as if he’d been stung by a hornet. His weariness seemed to have disappeared as he pulled her upward, and Aimee knew she’d said the right words to bring him around.
Jacob snuggled Aimee close for a few precious moments before he held her at arm’s length. “I love you, too, and I’ve wanted to tell you so for weeks, but there never seemed to be a right time. Does this mean you’ll marry me?”
“Yes. That is, if you want to take on me and my teenager.”
Aimee’s feet seemed to be drifting on cloud nine and happiness filled her heart as his hands slipped up her arms, pulling her closer. She put her arms around his neck, and she felt his lips touch hers. After a heady moment, she buried her head in his shoulder.
“Have you talked this over with Samantha?” he whispered into her hair.
She shook her head. “This is between you and me. I want Samantha to be pleased about it, and from something she said a few days ago, I think she will accept it, but whatever she says, I won’t change my mind.”
“I’ll do everything I can to win Samantha over, but as you say, it will be the two of us.” He smiled and quoted a line from the marriage service, “‘And these two shall be one.’ But I won’t marry you with secrets. Let’s go into the lounge.”
Seated close together, with Aimee’s head on his shoulder, Jacob told her everything he had heard from Megan about David Harwood. When he finished, he said, “If I make this public, it will hurt numerous people, but it doesn’t seem right for this town to honor a man who’s lived a lie for years. What is the right thing for me to do with what I’ve heard?”
“Do you think she’s lying?”
“No. She had a picture of her daughter who could be a twin of the girl with Mrs. Harwood today.”
Aimee chose her words carefully. “David Harwood is in the hands of a merciful God who will judge him. You and I can’t do it. And we certainly shouldn’t add any more pain to Mrs. Harwood, who has held her head up in Benton all of these years and stayed with him in spite of his infidelity.”
“Then you think I shouldn’t repeat it.”
“No, you should not,” she said confidently. “Actually, I don’t think it’s your secret to tell. You also need to consider the effect this would have on the residents of Benton, those who’ve looked up to Mr. Harwood. And on his innocent daughters. For all we know, this may have been the only mark on his character.”
“That’s sound advice, Aimee, and I’m going to follow it. I need to consider Mrs. Harwood and her children. If this news should be made public, they would be hurt very much.”
“Exactly! Although you were hurt by all of this, you’ve survived the ridicule and become a respected man in Benton. It’s time to move on and put the past behind you.”
Jacob pulled her close into his arms. “That’s exactly what I wanted to do, but I wrestled with my conscience for hours, trying to make the right decision.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “So I’m moving on. Tell me when you’ll marry me.”
“Let’s give our families a few weeks to get used to the idea and get married before fall.”
Jacob’s eyes brimmed with tenderness. “It can’t be too soon for me.”
It was time for them to leave, but Aimee was too content to break this magical moment when she knew with certainty that she and Jacob had been made for each other. They had both lived through the storms of their separate lives before they’d finally found a safe harbor in each other.