Ken sat in front of Marcus’s desk and studied the room. He couldn’t believe how little had changed in the last fifteen or so years. Different church, different room, but the desk and decorations remained the same. Framed photographs of youth groups with the brass year plaques covered one wall. While Ken sat there, he counted twenty-three photos. He knew four of them contained his brothers and him.

His body ached. They’d worked hard all weekend building the house. On his way home tonight, he’d impulsively called Marcus. He had an appointment with a group of young men from his youth group that night, so he could meet Ken at the church at seven-thirty. Ken had immediately taken the next exit and headed straight for the church.

He got there about seven-thirty-five. He’d found the side door unlocked as Marcus had instructed and followed the directions to his office.

Within five minutes of sitting down, Marcus rushed into the room clutching a worn Bible and three books. He set them on the corner of his desk and shook Ken’s hand. “Sorry, I’m late. It’s good to see you.”

Nerves suddenly flooded Ken’s chest. He smiled, anyway. “No problem. I have sat on the receiving end of your counsel. I know how it can go.”

“That’s right. You have.”

When Marcus counseled one of the students in his youth group, he took no phone into the room with him, and the room had no clocks. He intentionally made it an area of no interference. Ken had gone to him the day after he had gotten drunk at that party. He had been hungover, embarrassed, and concerned at the way his psyche had processed the alcohol. Marcus had prayed with him and talked to him, and helped him through the strange emotional time.

“Thank you for seeing me tonight.”

“My door is always open to you.” He gestured toward him. “You look like you worked hard today.”

Ken looked down at the dusty jeans and T-shirt. “I helped build the house for Daisy’s mission.”

“Oh, right. That was this weekend. We had a big state youth counsel that interfered, so we couldn’t get out there this time. Labor Day weekend is always tricky.” He moved around and sat in his chair. “How can I help you?”

Ken cleared his throat. “Well, sir, I plan to ask Daisy to marry me. I came to ask for your blessing.”

Marcus raised both eyebrows, then leaned back in his chair. He rested his elbows on the arms and tapped his fingers together. “I see. She told me you know about her situation.”

“Situation?” Ken repeated softly. Pushing down the knee-jerk anger, he calmly clarified his statement. “You mean the baby?”

“Yes, Ken. Of course, I mean the baby.”

“Then, yes. She told me.”

He waited. Marcus stared for several long moments, then asked, “How do you feel about it?”

“The baby? Or the situation?” He didn’t air quote the word situation, but he thought about it.

Marcus glared at him. “Are you asking her to marry you because she’s pregnant?”

Ken sat back, and his eyelids lowered. “Honestly, I expected better from you, Marcus.”

Marcus waved a dismissive hand. “I hope you understand that your expectations aren’t my priority. My daughter is my priority.”

Ken felt his lips purse. He hadn’t considered that. It had escaped him. It shouldn’t have. “Fair enough. But would you have asked me that question if I was the baby’s father?”

“That’s a moot point. You’re not the father.” Marcus tapped his upper lip with his fist. “The question is important, or else I would not have asked. In fact, this is a very important conversation. Nothing is easy about being the parents of a baby.”

Ken waited for more clarification, but none came. Finally, he asked again, “Would you have asked me that question if I was the father?”

Marcus leaned his chair back and stared up at the ceiling for several moments, then said, “I think so. Yes.”

Ken let out a breath. “Okay. I want to marry Daisy because I love her. But it’s more than just that. I believe God made me just for her. I believe God designed her to be my wife. Before I knew she was pregnant, I bought the engagement ring, and I bought a house to build for her. The baby pushed up my timetable, a timetable that only existed for her sake, really. I would have married her after our first date.”

Marcus sat straight in his chair with the squeak of springs and put his elbows on the desk. He leaned toward Ken as if about to convey some deep secret or vital piece of information. “And as you go into this marriage, when this little human being interferes with your new relationship, how will you feel? Will you grow to resent the child? Will you take exception to the way that her attention will be split?”

The men stared at each other for several moments. “Would you ask me that question if I was the father?”

Marcus let out a heavy sigh. “No. I don’t think so.”

“Fair enough.” Ken leaned forward, too. He rested both elbows on his knees. “In my heart and in my mind, the baby’s already mine. Don’t much care what a paternity test would say. Doesn’t matter. What I know is that I want to love Daisy as Christ loved the church, and I want to raise that child under an umbrella of love and wisdom that can only come from a household that puts God first. Much like Joseph raised Jesus as his son.” He sat back. “So that is what I intend to do with your blessing. I am the father.”

Suddenly, Marcus grinned and clapped his hands together once. “Ah, Ken, that makes my heart happy.” He stood and walked around his desk. Ken stood with him, not surprised when this man he had loved so much as a teenager pulled him into his arms and tightly hugged him, then slapped his back hard. “You have my blessing!”

Immediately the nerves released. He felt them skate down his arms and through his fingertips. He smiled and barked a laugh. “Thank you! Now I just need to convince Daisy.”

The soreness didn’t set in until Daisy sat on her front porch Monday night. She’d worked—physically hard work—since seven Friday morning. As soon as she sat, the muscles finally gave in, and the thought of moving inside lost any appeal. She needed a shower, a snack, and her bed for the next twelve hours, in that order.

Instead, she lay her head back against the bench and used her toe to keep the swing gradually moving. Aloud, she said to herself, “Maybe you can just stay outside tonight. That would be fun, right? Like camping.”

No matter how perky she made her voice sound, camping out on her porch did not appeal to her. The sound of Ken’s truck had her sitting upright. She heard the slamming door, then he appeared in the glow of the porchlight. With a gentle smile, Ken said, “I wondered if you’d even still be upright.”

“I sat and then my muscles said, ‘Okay, we’re done.’” She toed the swing, and it slowly swayed. “I was just talking myself into sleeping out here tonight.”

“Fun. Like camping out.”

“Exactly.”

He sat in a chair, and for a long moment, neither spoke. Every few seconds, she toed the ground, and the swing gently swayed beneath her. The slight squeak of the swing chains broke the silence around them. Ken just sat there. She didn’t really know how to start, so she said nothing.

Finally, he cleared his throat. The sound startled her. She stopped the swing with the ball of her foot and looked at him. He said, “I handled that talk at Jon’s wedding badly.”

She snorted. “You’re not the only one.” She crossed her fingers in her lap and stared at them. “I’m so embarrassed about that day. I don’t even know what to say.”

“You have no reason to feel embarrassed.” She lifted her head and looked at him. His mouth firmed. His eyes glowed with intensity. “I handled that talk badly. I should have apologized right away. Instead of staying put, I should have chased you down and let you vent.”

Breaking eye contact, she looked back down at her hands. “I thought your family would turn away from me. I love them so much and didn’t want to lose them, didn’t want you to be placed in the middle.”

Ken moved quicker than she expected. Before she could react, he sat next to her on the swing, covering both of her hands with his hand. His skin felt warm, the callouses rough. “Daisy, my family knows about the baby.”

“Yeah, now. I had lunch with Valerie.”

He squeezed her hands, and she looked up. He shook his head. “Before the wedding, before you had dinner at their house that first night, both my parents already knew.”

Emotion flooded her throat. They had treated her with such kindness, had welcomed her like someone special and treasured. “Do they think the baby is yours, like Jon and Alex?”

“No. I don’t hide anything from my folks.” He reached out and cupped her cheek. “They know this. I love you, and, as far as I’m concerned, the baby’s already mine. Or, I want it to be.”

Even though she opened her mouth to speak, nothing came out. She slapped her hand over her mouth and tried to choke back a sob. Before she could think, he had his arms around her, the exact thing that she needed all along. She breathed in the smell of him, listened to the pounding of his heart, felt the warmth of his skin.

“I’m sorry I left like that,” she said, remembering storming out of that pool house in the middle of the wedding festivities.

“Me too.” He pressed his lips to her hair. “I missed you.”

She raised her face to look at him. “I was in such a bad place mentally and emotionally. I don’t know how to explain where my head was. It was almost like I was looking for an opportunity to walk out. It was so strange.”

He nodded. “Your stress level would probably fell most humans.” He leaned back and cupped her cheeks with his hands. “If I’ve contributed to your stress at all, you need to tell me. I want to help you, not burden you.”

“You don’t add to my stress. Like I said, my head was in a very strange place, and I’m out of that now. People are starting to find out. It’s not been the horrible thing I thought it would be.” She shrugged and thought about her lunch Thursday with her grandparents. “Well, almost not horrible. My grandparents had a problem. My grandfather even cried.”

Ken’s eyes roamed down her body. “Soon, it’ll be hard to hide. I can see it.”

She felt a flush of heat and ran her hands over her slightly rounded stomach. “Sixteen weeks. That’s crazy.”

He shook his head slowly from side to side. “Not crazy. Wonderful.”

He leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. That very instant, everything in her world set back to right. It all fell into place, and she knew everything would turn out okay. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into his kiss, trying to let her lips convey her feelings in a way that her voice never could.

His lips spoke to her in return. Clouds swirled around her at this mountaintop altitude. The air felt thin, and the wind felt cool against her skin. Her pulse rushed in her ears, sounding like a roaring surf.

Ken ripped his mouth away and pressed his forehead against hers, his eyes closed, his breathing ragged. He had a hand gripping her hair and slowly relaxed, eventually running his fingers through the strands.

He raised his head enough to look into her eyes. “Marry me. Marry me, Daisy.”

She smiled and said, “I thought you’d never ask.”

“I’m not asking anymore.” He pulled the ring box out of his pocket. “I’ve had this in my pocket since the middle of July, in case you think the baby is motivating me in any way.”

She held her hand out and noticed the faint tremor. “Ken, I can tell you in all honesty that I believe the baby is not what’s motivating you. I can’t believe it’s taken you seventeen years to finally ask me to marry you.”

They laughed together as he slipped the ring onto her finger.

Daisy slipped the file folder into her bag as she and Ken walked out of the courthouse doors. Inside the manilla pages lay their birth certificates and now their wedding license. She couldn’t stop the grin that covered her face.

He had just asked her to marry him thirteen and a half hours ago, and now they already had their license. Both of them agreed that they didn’t want to wait much longer. Sitting on her porch swing, she had said, “We either do it now, or we wait until the baby comes. I don’t want to be waddling on my wedding day.”

Ken had kissed her with passion and promise and said, “Not waiting is good for me.”

She thought about that conversation as she chuckled and blushed at the same time. When he got into the truck cab with her, he asked, “Penny?”

Heat flooded her face, and she fanned herself with her hand. She couldn’t possibly share those thoughts with him, not even for a penny, so she said, “When you say move fast, you move fast.”

“There’s things I don’t want to rush, but we aren’t there yet.” He started the truck while Daisy felt her entire body tingle. Immediately, cool air conditioning broke the heat. He half-grinned and said, “As long as you’re not waddling.”

About twenty minutes later, he pulled into the parking lot of her office. She stared at the words Gálatas Seis on the glass door. Ken started to turn the engine off, but she put her hand on his to stop him.

“Wait.”

He took his hand off of the key and looked at her. “Okay.”

Her mind whirled with all the plans they had made last night and today. They had talked and planned and talked, and now that the time had come, she suddenly didn’t want to do it anymore. “Could we wait?”

He raised both eyebrows. “Wait? What for? ‘Weight’ is what broke the bridge down.”

She chuckled at the pun. “It was a good idea to have Bev marry us using her notary. But I really want to wear my grandmother’s veil and have my father perform the ceremony.”

He stared at her for several long seconds and finally said, “Okay. Just tell me what to do.”

She put her hands on either side of his cheeks and leaned in and kissed him. “I’ll call my mom. You call your mom. We’ll get married Thursday. That gives us enough time.”

He smiled and ran a finger along her jaw. “How about we give it till Friday. That way, my mom won’t completely lose her mind.”

She smiled. “Deal. Can you take me to the house now? I want to see it.”

He put the truck in reverse and backed out. She watched the scenery go by as they left the shopping center and headed to the new neighborhood. It didn’t take long to drive the seven short miles there. As he turned onto the street, he gestured at a street sign and said, “Jon’s new house is down that road.” Barely a quarter of a mile later, he put on his blinker to turn into a drive and pointed at another street sign. “Brad’s house is down that street.”

He turned onto the drive, and she watched as the Tudor style house came into view. Angled roofs and arched windows with gray and tan brick mixed with dark shutters made her feel like she had completely come home. A large porch wrapped around the entire house. She could barely wait for him to walk around the front of the truck and open her door.

She stepped onto the porch and looked up, seeing rings already in the ceiling, waiting for her porch swing. The grin that covered her face grew wider as he unlocked the front door.

In a graceful move, much like a choreographed dance step, Ken picked Daisy up beneath her arms and set her feet across the threshold inside the house. She remembered that Ken held several black belts in the martial arts. Even so, the casual naked display of raw strength and perfect control surprised her.

Then, it occurred to her that he had carried her across the threshold. This wasn’t his house. This was her house. This was their house. His strong, calloused hands built this house for a future that included her. Daisy scanned Ken’s face for any trace of emotion but found nothing except the usual silent half-grin.

Before Daisy could even speak, he said, “Furniture comes next week, but you can get a good idea. Still have to finish the back room. Been living in there while I finished the rest of the house.”

They walked into a foyer area, and she smelled fresh paint, clean wood, and varnish. She looked up at the skylight that lit up the room. The main room had a fireplace with a mantle that just waited for family pictures. The dining room cabinetry looked so beautiful, and she couldn’t wait to choose a china pattern that would complete this room. The kitchen opened into a large breakfast area with a glass wall that looked out onto the backyard. Brushed nickel appliances gleamed in the recessed lighting. An island separated the kitchen from the dining area, and its black granite countertop added a richness to the room. She walked to the pantry that could easily measure almost as big as her current bedroom.

Through the kitchen, she found the unfinished room. It had bare drywall walls and plywood floors. A single bed sat against the wall, and two folding chairs pulled up to a card table.

Ken said, “I haven’t quite decided what this room needs to be yet. Maybe a family room or a game room.”

The room had enough square footage to turn it into anything they wanted. She pushed open the back door and stepped out onto the back porch. Ken pointed at the trees tied with red tape. “Those are coming down. Pool goes there.” He gestured at the stakes in the ground. “Not sure about the pool. Was gonna leave that up to you, what with a little one on the way. But we have it staked out, so it’s ready just in case.”

He took her upstairs, and her feet sank in the plush carpet in the master bedroom. She exclaimed over the sunken bathtub and the walk-in closet. She ran her fingers over the fireplace’s mantle and opened the doors that took her out onto a balcony terrace.

He showed her three more bedrooms. “Didn’t know which one you would want as the nursery. This one has its own bathroom. The other two share the main bathroom.”

She ran her hands over her slightly rounded belly and said, “I don’t know that it’s important to decide right now. Let’s get moved in and see how the house feels first.”

His smile made her heart skip a beat. “Reckon the baby will sleep in our room for a while anyway. Plenty of time.”

She held her arms out and spun, laughing as the joy inside of her just burst out. “I cannot wait to live here with you.”

He went to her and said, “You’re the one putting it off. I’m good for it to start today.”

She laughed and said, “That’s true. Speaking of which, I better start calling some family if we want to have this wedding by Friday.”