“Wow! It’s so good to see all my stuff!” Cassie exclaimed, entering the room Beth had been using during their stay with their grandparents. Beth had taken special care to set out many of Cassie’s favorite things to welcome her home. A pink musical jewelry box, several stuffed animals and a doll with long scarlet pigtails that Cassie had named “Micah,” after her redheaded aunt.
“Thanks, little sister,” Cassie said with a smile, and gave Beth an enormous hug.
Hope smiled at both daughters, so relieved to be able to see them, together like this, again. “All right, you two. We’re goin’ downstairs for fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy.”
“Biscuits?” Cassie asked.
“With honey?” Beth added.
“Yep,” Hope confirmed, directing both children out into the hallway and down the staircase. “And coleslaw, iced tea and brownies for dessert.”
“But Grandma hasn’t had time to cook. She just got home today. Just like I did!” Cassie stated. “And, you’ve been with me all morning, Mom. Who fixed lunch?”
“Your father,” Hope answered with a sly smile.
“Dad can’t cook food like that!” Beth remarked. Then her nose crinkled up in a frown. “Can he?”
“No, but he can drive,” Hope answered, enjoying the sound of her girls starting to giggle. “So…he picked up food at our favorite restaurant. Okay?”
“Okay!” the kids agreed, and took off toward the kitchen to enjoy their first meal together in a long time.
Later, with the table cleared and leftovers put away for dinner, the girls went outside with both parents to look over the new treehouse their father had built during Cassie’s hospitalization.
It was shaped like a box. A really big one. And a rope ladder hung to the ground for climbing up.
“The green roof is neat, Dad,” Beth offered the moment she noticed the addition of paint. “And the little flower box by the window is cute! We’ll plant something pretty in it.”
“This is so cool!” Cassie exclaimed, reaching for the ladder leading up to the enclosure. But after putting her feet on the first rung, she stopped and glanced toward her mother.
Eric dropped his gaze to the ground and waited for Hope’s response.
But Hope just smiled and nodded. “Go on, honey. You’ll love the view.”
The child didn’t waste a second in scurrying up the ladder to explore the new play place, and Beth was close behind.
Hope pushed back a strand of blond hair before Eric reached out and caught her hand in his.
“Thank you,” he said, studying the satisfied look in her crystal-blue gaze. “What changed your mind?”
She tilted her head to look up into the sunny skies above them and shrugged casually. “I climbed up there the other day. It’s not so high.”
Eric nodded. “I told you it wasn’t. I’m glad you checked it out for yourself.”
“So am I,” she replied, returning her attention to the girls. “I can’t keep them from everything in life that might harm them, Eric. I realize that. I’ll try to use good judgment about when and where to set limits.” She paused. “Okay?”
He nodded again. “Fair enough.” Then he looked across the yard. “Here come Mom and Dad.”
“Should you be out here, walking around?” Hope asked when Grace and Ed joined them under the large oak tree.
“I have to get out and do something,” Grace responded. “If I watch another talk show, I think I’ll scream.”
“The girls and I will check out some books for you at the library the next time we’re there,” Hope offered, taking great pleasure in the feel of her husband’s strong, firm grasp of her hand.
“Hey, Mom? Could we have a couple of old blankets and pillows for up here? And do you think you could make us some curtains?” Cassie yelled out the side window of the treehouse. “It would look more like a home, then.”
“Yes, honey. And maybe, if Grandma’s feeling well enough, she could help, too,” Hope replied.
“Sure, I enjoy sewing. We’ll come up with something to decorate that treehouse. Now, let me get up there and see how much material we’ll need—”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Eric said. He released Hope’s hand to reach for his mother’s right arm, just as Ed took hold of Grace’s left.
“Eric’s right. You’re keeping your feet planted firmly on the ground, Gracie,” Ed Granston stated.
Grace laughed. “I can see I’m not going to have any fun with you two watchdogs around.”
“Get your surgery over with next week, recover well, and we’ll let you do whatever the doctors say you can. Those are the rules of the house for now.” Ed’s voice was low but authoritative, and for a change Grace gave in.
“All right. If that’s the way you want it, Edward, you can cook supper, do the laundry, mop the floors…” The older couple turned to walk toward the two-story house, their voices growing faint as they neared the back door.
“I hope your mother knows I’ll help with whatever needs to be done,” Hope commented. “I told her I would.”
“I know you did,” Eric responded. “I wish they’d keep her hospitalized until the surgery’s over, but that’s just not the way they do things now.”
“She promised she wouldn’t overdo it, Eric, but I know she wanted to be home to see us renew our wedding vows,” Hope said. She turned her head to see Eric’s expression when she spoke of the ceremony, wondering again if he was as committed as she was to holding their marriage together. She longed to reach up and straighten the collar on Eric’s soft green shirt, but instead, folded her hands in front of her.
“That’s one reason I think tomorrow is the time to have the ceremony,” Eric stated. “Then she’ll go ahead with the surgery early next week like the doctor wants her to do.”
Hope agreed. She had the same feelings Eric did about wanting Grace to move ahead with the surgery. But did Eric have any of the same feelings she had over renewal of their marriage vows? Could those words be said by him with love, as they once were? Or only with hope that love would return?
“Eric, would you care if I called the pastor who married us? Reverend Mullens is retired now, but I know he lives over in Silver Springs Apartments.”
“The thought hadn’t occurred to me to do that, but that’s a great idea,” he responded. “Of course, if he can’t come, Rob could always take care of it.”
Hope nodded in unspoken agreement.
“C’mon, girls. We’ve got things to do,” Eric called to their kids. “You can play out here later.”
And down they came, climbing carefully down the ladder and running toward their parents.
“You should wear your old wedding gown tomorrow,” Beth said with a grin. She grabbed her mother around the waist of her coral print skirt. “You’ll be a bride all over again.”
“Yes,” Hope answered, leaning over to kiss her daughter’s golden hair. “All over again.” Then she glanced up at Eric. His expression was almost wistful, and she wished he’d say what he was thinking. Was he doing only what he should do in reconciling with her? Or was it what he wanted, too, somewhere deep in his heart?
The next few hours were spent making calls and completing arrangements for a brief ceremony the next day at the Granston house. Hope invited their former pastor to come, and even on such short notice, he agreed to do so.
Then Hope dug her wedding gown out from the bottom of a box in which she’d stored many keepsakes over the years. She tried it on in the privacy of her bedroom, without the children around. Her fear had been that seeing it again would reduce her to tears. And she was right. The dress was lovely, still, after all the years, and she’d kept it for the girls to wear, if they chose to, on their own wedding days. It hadn’t occurred to her until recently that she might have reason to wear it again. But here she was, fourteen years later, looking at her own reflection in a full-length mirror, wearing a wedding gown…that didn’t quite fit. She wiped her eyes, not sure whether they were tears of happiness for what was or sadness for what used to be. In her marriage—or in her clothing size.
Just then there was a knock on her bedroom door.
“Who is it?” Hope asked quietly while sliding out of the dress.
“It’s Angela. Listen, I’ve already ordered the food we need for tomorrow, including the cake. Let’s run over to the mall for an hour or so to pick up a few other things we need.”
“Come on in,” Hope called out, pulling a pair of jeans and a red top from the closet. “Let me get dressed, and then I’ll be ready. Although I don’t know how you can pull all this together in just one day.”
“I have friends in high places,” Angela said as she stuck her head in the doorway, “and, where there’s a will, there’s a way…or something like that.”
“Or maybe you’re afraid if Eric and I don’t do this right away, we won’t do it at all?”
“Maybe I am,” came the reply. Then a flash of amusement crossed Angela’s face. “Just get your clothes on and let’s get out of here. Our husbands are watching the kids, so this is our chance to go shopping. You probably need some new shoes or jewelry or something for this big day, anyway.”
Hope laughed, but nodded in agreement. “Yes, I do, Angela. I need a new dress, but…maybe we’re doing this whole thing too soon. I mean, Cassie just came home from the hospital. How can I leave her with you and Adam so soon?”
“Are you kidding? First of all, you’ve spent so much time at the hospital that you’ve hardly been separated from her at all. Secondly, Cassie wants to stay with her cousins to have some fun. And thirdly, she wants her mother and father back together again—really together again—like you haven’t been in a very long time.” Angela reached out to squeeze Hope’s arm. “Trust me. You need time alone with your husband. There’s a time for everything, the Bible says. And for you and Eric, this is it. It’s just a feeling I have.”
Hope exhaled slowly. She hoped Angela’s “feeling” was accurate, because, at the moment, Hope had little feeling of her own to go on except maybe apprehension. About the future. About lost love that might never be found. And about disappointing the children—something neither she nor Eric could bear to do a second time. They were committed to trying again, and Hope prayed they could make it work.
After Angela and the others had left for the night, Hope and Eric tucked the girls into bed with prayers and kisses, then left the room in silence. They’d only taken a step or two when Hope spoke the words that had been rushing through her mind all evening. “Do you think we’re doing the right thing?” she asked, tilting her head to one side to look into his eyes. “Honestly?”
“Yes,” he answered matter-of-factly. Maybe too much so to please Hope, but the warmth of his smile eased some of the tension. “It’s the right thing.” Then he reached out and touched her cheek gently, with a tenderness in his expression that Hope needed in that moment of doubt. “We can make this work. You’ll see.”
Hope watched him descend the staircase to talk with his father, who Hope knew was waiting for Eric in the living room. She turned and went into her own room for the night, and, picking up her Bible from the nightstand, she knelt by her bedside, bowing her head to pray. With her face buried in a lovely pink-and-blue heart quilt made for her by her mother-in-law, she thought mostly of her marriage: mistakes, wrong accusations, secrets kept. She and Eric had come a long way from where they were that bitter night when he left her. But they still had a long way to go.