Love Inspired January 2014 - Bundle 1 of 2: Her Unexpected Cowboy\His Ideal Match\The Rancher's Secret Son (34 page)

“I don't see what you have to say about it,” Alexandra sniffed.

“He might have a lot to say about it,” Maryanne muttered. Carissa cut a sharp look at her, at which point she rolled her eyes. “Oh...just marry the woman, Phillip, and have done with it.”

Phillip gaped at her. “But you...you said she'd targeted me!”

Maryanne waved that away. “I only wanted to see if you'd defend her, and you did. It's as plain as the nose on your face that you adore her.” Carissa gasped. “Even your brother says it's just a matter of time before you marry, so do it.”

Grace screamed with delight and jumped off Alexandra's lap. Running to Dallas, she threw up her arms, crying, “Auntie!”

Dallas caught her and swung her up. Glancing around guiltily, she explained, “I told her she couldn't call me that until...that is, unless...”

“No more bffn!” Grace declared, grinning.

“Best friends
for now,
” Carissa murmured.

“You haven't reformed at all!” Phillip blurted. “What on earth made you think...?”

“I don't know,” Dallas all but wailed, half in apology, half in defense. “It's just that when I saw you with these three and then her, it seemed like a match. But all I ever did was tell them what a good guy you are.”

“And that you need us,” Tucker put in.

“As much as we need you,” Nathan added in a rusty voice.

Carissa's mouth fell open. “Nathan?”

Suddenly Phillip squeezed her hand hard enough to break bones.

“I, um, don't know that I really have very much to offer, n-nothing that you and your mom don't already have,” he said.

“Yes, you do,” she said softly, urgently.

“Do I?” he asked, finally looking down at her.

“Oh, Phillip,” she whispered, clasping his hand with both of hers, “you've given me more hope than anyone ever has.”

“Hope,” he echoed. “It takes more than
hope,
sweetheart.”

“I have hope because of the things you've done,” she said, “everything from grief support to moving us in here, taking a hand with the kids, coming up with the app and inviting me to take part, even getting your family and friends to buy in. You've even made me feel pretty again.”

“You aren't pretty,” he told her. “You're beautiful. And I love you, Carissa. I love all of you.”

She twisted, shook free of him and threw her arms around his neck. “I love you, too! I have for a long time. I didn't dare dream that you could feel the same way.”

“Shhh.” He folded her close. And felt Nathan's arms steal about his waist from behind. He reached down a hand to the boy, only to feel Tucker jumping up and down on his foot and Grace climbing him like a tree. Chuckling, he caught them all up in the sweep of one arm.

“Daddy Phil,” Grace piped, “Doc Doc is crying.”

“What?”

“Doc Doc is crying.”

Phillip looked around to find his father with big tears rolling down his patrician cheeks.

“I am so proud of you, son,” Murdock said in a thick voice. “I daresay, Carissa and the children are the best thing that's ever happened to you, but you put your mind to making Chopper Apps a success for them, and you've done it.”

“The app!” Phillip exclaimed, setting down the children and catching Carissa's hand. “I forgot.”

He strode for the door, towing her with him. She threw a hopeful smile at the assembly, motioning for them to follow. Teacups rattled in saucers as everyone rose to join the parade. Up the stairs they went to the attic. Carissa brought the system online. A few keystrokes brought up a rolling ticker. Dallas gasped.

“Are those actual numbers of people who have downloaded the app and are viewing the climb?”

“This is unbelievable!” Carissa exclaimed.

Phillip put his hands to his head in shock. “Praise God!” he finally breathed. “It's beyond my wildest dreams.”

“I knew it!” Murdock exclaimed, hugging Maryanne. “Call your brother and tell him.”

Excitedly, Phillip pulled out his phone. He'd muted it during the church service and now found that he had numerous messages. As he began thumbing through them, Carissa rose from her chair.

“What is it?”

“They're all companies who want to buy advertising,” he said, stunned. “We've done it, babe. We've done it!”

Carissa lifted a hand to her trembling lips. “God did this,” she whispered. “He made it all happen.”

“Yes,” Phillip agreed, hugging her. “Oh, yes. And I thought He didn't even notice.”

“Are we billionaires?” Tucker asked excitedly.

Phillip laughed. “No, son, we're not, but we're considerably better off than we were. And tomorrow,” he went on, gazing into Carissa's deep blue eyes, “I think we should go buy a certain house.”

Maryanne clapped her hands. “It's a wonderful house,” she promised the children.

“A wonderful house,” Carissa agreed, tears standing in her eyes.

The aunties began talking excitedly about all the furniture up here that needed a good home, while Maryanne told the children about the house. Phillip noticed that Nathan went to stand beside Murdock and that his father's hand rested comfortably on the boy's shoulder.

Carissa looked around and asked, “Where is Alexandra?”

“The Hedgespeths slipped out the front door as we were headed upstairs,” Dallas reported.

Carissa nodded knowingly. Phillip caught her hand. “Maybe she finally knows she's beaten.”

“What she knows is that Carissa with a husband is much more formidable than Carissa without a husband,” Dallas said, “especially if that husband is a Chatam.”

Carissa smiled and wrapped her arms around Phillip's waist, while Odelia quoted from Scripture.

“‘
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.'”

“No pity for me,” Phillip said, looking deeply into Carissa's wondrous blue eyes.

“Or me,” she replied happily.

So he kissed her, finally, there in front of God and everyone.

Epilogue

W
atching Phillip watch his wife of hours laugh and flit about the room in a formfitting dress of knee-length pale peach accompanied by a matching swirl of organza veil that reached her slender waist, Odelia Chatam couldn't help smiling. He had ditched his suit coat and loosened his tie as soon as he'd come in the door, rolling his shirtsleeves to his elbows. Then he and Carissa had spent the next half hour welcoming wedding guests into their home, while his sisters and his mother had hurried to lay out Hilda's buffet. It was a most unusual wedding reception, but quite enjoyable. Then again, it had been a most unusual wedding.

The bride had been escorted down the aisle by both of her sons. Her daughter had served as the flower girl, and the groom's parents had stood up with the happy couple as best man and matron of honor.

Smiling happily, Phillip carried a canned soft drink over to the living-room window seat and folded himself down beside her, giving her that you're-my-favorite-aunt smile of his. Oh, yes, she knew it well and treasured the knowledge. She saw no harm in it. The aunties all had their favorites among their nieces and nephews. It didn't mean that they loved the others any less.

“You don't mind that we did it here instead of Chatam House, do you?” he asked softly.

“Not a bit,” she told him, patting his hand. “Now, Hypatia may be another story. You know what stock she sets on big, formal wedding receptions.”

Phillip grinned and tweaked the pouf on her pink pillbox hat. “Hypatia did a swell job on your wedding and reception, as I recall.”

Odelia clasped her hands together, feeling the pink poufs of her earrings sway at the ends of their chains. “Didn't she, though?”

His laughter boomed across the room, and heads turned in their direction. Odelia felt herself blush. Perhaps she had gone a tad overboard with the wedding, but she'd waited fifty years for it, after all. “Thankfully, my sister is the epitome of good taste,” she admitted sheepishly. “I think she kept me somewhat in line.”

Phillip leaned over and kissed her cheek.

“Oh, Phillip, I'm so happy for you,” Odelia told him warmly.

He looped an arm about her lacy pink shoulders and gave her a squeeze. “Thank you. Who knew responsibility would be such an adventure?”

Speaking of adventures, three of them ran up just then to tug at him.

“Come on, Daddy Phil,” said little Grace. She looked like a doll in her layers of pale purple organza, a huge, floppy bow tied about her pale red head. “Mom says it's time.”

“All right. Okay,” Phillip said indulgently, getting to his feet. “Time for what?”

“To throw the flowers,” said Tucker.

“The bouquet,” Nathan corrected, adjusting his new glasses on his nose.

“They're gonna do it at our pool,” Tucker announced proudly, “and all the single girls has got to go line up, even the aunties.”

“Well, that leaves me out,” Odelia said happily.

“Not me!” Grace trilled, clapping her hands and hopping in place.

“We'd better get you a good spot, then,” Phillip told her. Reaching down, he grasped her by the waist and threw her up to sit on his shoulder, then they went galloping off for the French door that opened onto the patio at the end of the dining space, Grace giggling with delight, her organza skirts flopping. Tucker ran behind them, but Nathan paused to send Odelia a long-suffering look that didn't fool her in the least. He couldn't hide his happiness as he went off after them.

Odelia hurried to catch the arm of her husband, who was happy to abandon a conversation about the crisis in health care to escort his wife outside to watch the festivities. She had to bite her lip as the boys prodded Hypatia and Magnolia into line on either side of Grace, who couldn't even stand still in her excitement. Poor Hypatia tried her best to offer a gracious smile, but Magnolia barely managed not to look disgruntled. Dallas stood directly behind Grace, her hands placed lightly upon the girl's shoulders. Perhaps a dozen others crowded in behind them next to the sparkling pool, which Garrett Willows had decorated with plants from his garden shop, The Willow Tree.

Phillip delivered to his bride the silk version of the champagne rose and ivy bouquet that Carissa had carried at the church, both creations of Jessa Willows. He kissed her then grasped her by the shoulders and physically turned her back to the group of single women waiting to catch the bouquet. Carissa closed her eyes, lowered the bouquet and flung the flowers backward over her head. They soared half the length of the pool and dropped straight toward little Grace, only to pass over her head. Dallas reflexively lifted her hands, palms up, only to have the bouquet bounce off them and fly over the heads of several others to land in the pool, where they floated prettily for several seconds while everyone gasped then finally laughed.

“Perhaps we're to have a respite from romance at Chatam House,” Hypatia said hopefully, coming to stand beside Odelia, even as Carissa apologized to Dallas and Phillip used the pool net to drag in the bouquet.

Dallas shrugged and laughed, but Odelia's heart went out to the girl. Dallas was such a romantic. Perhaps she was a tad exuberant, a bit dramatic, but Odelia was the last one to hold that against the girl. Surely God had someone in mind for her niece. She just wasn't cut out to live alone. Then again, God knew best, as He constantly proved.

Just look at what He had wrought this time. Odelia watched as Tucker and Grace pitched in to rescue the silk bouquet, plucking it from the pool net and mopping it with a thick beach towel. Nathan had the good sense to rescue the thing before they beat it to pieces. He presented it to Dallas with a slight bow. She accepted the poor thing with a smile, holding it out to one side, as it still leaked. Phillip and Carissa watched arm in arm, as proud as any parents could be. Meanwhile, Murdock and Maryanne watched them, expressions of utter joy on their faces.

Nathan escorted Dallas toward the house. As they passed by, Murdock laid a hand on the boy's shoulder and fell in beside him. Between them, Phillip and Murdock would provide everything any boy could ever need in the way of male guidance.

Sighing happily, Odelia patted her husband Kent's belly then reached up to straighten his pink bow tie. Yes, indeed, God's plans were always best, and if He chose to make Chatam House a center of romance, who was she to object? After all, spreading love and joy to the world through the doors of Chatam House was not such a bad thing. Perhaps it was not a grand ministry like that of their older brother Hub, a retired pastor now, or a clear calling like that of their nephew Morgan, a professor at Buffalo Creek Bible College. But three old ladies could do worse. Much worse. And it wouldn't be nearly so much fun.

Odelia giggled as Kent sneaked a kiss at the same time as the bride and groom did.

Not nearly so much fun or so sweet.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from FIREFIGHTER'S NEW FAMILY by Gail Martin.

Dear Reader,

Change is a constant fact of life. Some change is sudden and wrenching. Some change, like growing older, comes upon us so gradually that we don't even realize it's happening.

I'm always intrigued by the ways God chooses to make changes in our lives. He can blind us with His glory, as He did Paul on the road to Damascus, or He can work subtly in our hearts, one moment, one need, one challenge, one desire at a time.

Like Phillip Chatam, we all feel, at some point, that we are beneath God's notice, but it's never true. He's always ready, always shaping circumstances, to change what needs to be changed to bring us into His will, where true happiness is to be found.

All we have to do is ask. Have you asked to be conformed to God's will? Do it, and live your own story.

I hope you've enjoyed reading the Chatam House series as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Be sure to look for the next Chatam book, featuring Morgan Chatam, later in 2014.

God bless,