Small-Town Dreams (18 page)

He laughed. “I’ll make a deal with you. You stop lying to me, and I’ll watch the way I talk in the future.”

“I do not lie!”

“Then you still contend that you simply can’t live in Mountain View. We’re too rustic. Too isolated. Don’t have enough cultural opportunities to suit you. Or as many career opportunities.”

She straightened her shoulders, which he’d have thought was impossible considering her spine-stiff stance.

“That’s about the size of it. Yes. I’m sorry if that hurts your feelings, but frankly I don’t see why it should. It isn’t as if I’d be with you even if I wanted to stay here. Which I can’t—don’t,” she was quick to add.

Something in him twisted, and the game came to a crashing end. Either she was lying or he’d badly misjudged yet another woman he loved. He had to know. Now. He grabbed her hand, propelled her over to the easel and flipped back the cloth with which she’d so carefully hidden the painting.

“And you don’t love that man enough to give up your plays and stores and snowplows?” he demanded, then felt lower than a bug when a tear leaked out of the corner of her eye.

“I love him. I love him enough to give up the home I found here in Mountain View. Enough to give up the thousands of stars that tell me God is watching me. Enough never to look at another tree coming into leaf and not to remember the promise of a love that was doomed years before it began.” She looked at him then, her tears flowing freely.

His heart broke and rejoiced all at once. She
did
love him enough to move to Mountain View. “Cassie, I—”

“No! You wanted to hear how I feel! Do you want to know how long it takes before I cry myself to sleep every night, too?”

He could resist no longer. He engulfed her in his embrace and held on for dear life. “Shh. It’s going to be okay,” he promised in a whisper, his lips against her hair. He silently vowed never to let her go and prayed he’d never have to.

Irma, God bless her, had known that all he needed was to see Cassie again to realize that she was God’s gift to him. Now he couldn’t understand why he’d thought God would have allowed her to enter his life only to let circumstances snatch her away again.

Once he’d seen her he
had
known. He just hadn’t been a hundred percent certain that Cassie had been trying to set him free of his guilt when she’d told him she had changed her mind about their marriage. He also hadn’t really been certain he had enough to offer her. This was the rest of their lives he was talking about.

But what he’d forgotten was that nothing had ever been in short supply in Cassie’s life except the one thing he
could
give her. His unconditional love.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he whispered into her hair. “I hate it that you’ve been so unhappy. And I didn’t mean to make it worse or make you cry. But I had to know for sure that you lied to me in December. I didn’t want you with me if you had to sacrifice the kind of life you need to have to be truly happy.”

She tried to move away, and he loosened his hold enough so she could look up at him. “You big dope.
You’re
what makes me happy. But what about Regina? You said she was willing to try to work it out with you.”

He kissed her on the nose before letting her go. He wouldn’t hold her against her will, either literally or figuratively. “But I didn’t say I was willing to let her try.”

She sniffled and dabbed at her eyes with her paint-splattered cuffs. “But you have to. Don’t you?”

He shook his head. “Not when our marriage ended because of adultery.”

She smacked him on the shoulder. “Why didn’t you say so?”

He grinned. “I thought I just did.”

“Is that why she never looked for you?”

“Actually, she eventually wanted to. It was Ronald Chernak who vetoed the idea. He was angry that his son pulled a disappearing act when he needed him.”

Cassie frowned. “Why the disappearing act?”

Josh was suddenly struck by the fact that Cassie had automatically assumed the transgression had been on Regina’s part. “Because it was worse than a wife having an affair and a brother nearly destroying a business. David took off after learning that Regina’s affair was with his brother.”

“That snake!”

Josh smiled at her outrage. “Actually, he’s not so bad. Neither is Regina, for that matter. Just before I left, he finally explained why she turned to him. I don’t condone what she did, but I can understand a little.”

“How can you forgive them?”

“Come on, let’s sit down and I’ll tell you all about it.” He put his arm around her and guided her to the couch, keeping her in a loose embrace as they sat. “As I told them, I don’t
know
them, so forgiveness is easy for me. I never felt the pain of their betrayal. David Chernak did. Apparently it devastated him. But I’m Joshua Daniels.”

“Then you’ll keep the name Henry helped you pick out?”

Josh nodded. “Much to Ronald Chernak’s annoyance.”

“You still don’t call him ‘Dad’ or ‘Father.’”

“Maybe someday, but not yet. Nancy—maybe a little sooner. I feel closer to her than to him but they are both largely strangers who just spent a month trying to force memories on me that just aren’t there. And after hearing about the last weeks of David Chernak’s life, I think I understand why the Lord let those memories be wiped out.”

He told her all about those weeks, when a decent man searched for evidence to prove his innocence and found betrayal of the highest form in the midst of his own family.

“Even your mother knew?”

“Yeah. Since all this happened, she has become a Christian and has come to see the mistakes she made. Actually, so have Will and Regina. That made my decision about the validity of their marriage a little easier. I think their present Christ-based marriage, even though it took place before they accepted Him, is the one that has to stand, especially because of Devon, their son. Will’s pastor and Henry both agree.”

“You said you understand what happened between Will and Regina. Care to share that one?” she asked, a perfect eyebrow arched in enquiry.

“According to everyone I talked to, David was more than just in love with Regina. He was obsessed with her and every bit as formidable as Ronald. Which I gather caused many a clash between David and his father. Regina is sort of timid, believe it or not, and was totally overwhelmed by him. She started talking to Will, asking advice about how to construct a life of her own within her marriage. One problem was that she had nothing to do with her time. She wanted a baby, but David didn’t want to share her even with their own children.”

“I can see why you still can’t reconcile yourself to the person you used to be. But Josh, you have to try. Apparently you weren’t entirely blameless in the failure of that marriage. I think you need to force yourself to refer to David as
me
and
I.
And to your parents as your
mother
and
father.
”

Josh nodded, accepting the reason he kept the truth of his origins at a distance. Everyone had mentioned it, but Cassie had gotten to the core of the matter. He was in denial about who he had been.

“I’m so different from that other person, but in a lot of ways Will and Jim Dillon say I’m the same. I guess that’s what worries me. Ronald—” He broke off and sighed. “My father,” he forced himself to say, “thinks I turned Will in to the authorities. When he accused me of it, I said it was the right thing to do if
I
did it. But I wasn’t looking at it the way he was. He saw it as the act of a jealous sibling striking out. I saw it as turning in a felon.”

Cassie turned to face him and put her hand on his shoulder. “That doesn’t matter. You can’t start feeling guilty for having done things that the person you are now would never do. It is probably all a matter of environment. You aren’t possessive or obsessive now. It was probably something in your upbringing that made you that way. You’ve readily forgiven unforgivable acts on the part of your family, which proves you aren’t a vindictive person. You didn’t want children back then. You love them now. How do you feel about having some of your own someday?”

He grinned. Leave it to Cassie. “Well, I guess that’s up to you. Are you still willing to marry a mountain preacher and itinerant carpenter?”

She pulled his face down to hers. “Just try getting out of it this time, buster,” she warned, and kissed him.

I
t was a day to acknowledge miracles, Winston Jamison mused as he looked on while his only grandchild took her vows to Joshua Daniels. That was miracle number one, considering the different worlds the two hailed from.

The second miracle was that a year ago he would never have welcomed a man like Joshua into the family. The Lord had certainly been working on his heart since last Thanksgiving when he’d encouraged Cassie to return to Mountain View and fight for their love.

Because Joshua Daniels was in their lives, Winston’s own faith had been restored, after years of ignoring the God he’d been raised to honor. That was a big miracle number three.

He glanced next to him at Irma, who was dabbing her eyes, and at Henry, who looked just plain pleased as punch. These folks were miracles all on their own. Loving, giving, wonderful people who had changed more lives with their faith and kindness than he bet you could count.

Across the aisle were Joshua’s real parents, and his brother’s wife and son, who occupied the pew behind them. Will was Joshua’s best man, which as far as Winston was concerned was a pretty big miracle too.

Another was that from what he gathered, Ronald Chernak had done a complete about-face after Joshua’s abrupt departure from Florida. If he understood correctly, something Joshua had said to the man had finally penetrated his armor and had gone straight to his heart. Now he was proud of the progress his older son had made toward building a new life. And maybe he hadn’t yet turned his heart to Jesus, but the Lord had time to work plenty more on him.

Winston looked back to the front of the church where Pastor Jim Dillon was officiating over this important day in so many lives. Cassie smiled as Joshua repeated the solemn words Pastor Jim gave him and slipped the ring on her finger. It was the ring that Winston himself had given his own beloved wife nearly fifty years ago. He hoped Josh was as accepting of his wedding gift to them as he had been about presenting Cassie with her grandmother’s wedding set.

Cassie had told Winston about the old Swenson place last Thanksgiving when she’d been so full of stories about Mountain View and so brokenhearted over losing the young man she loved. From that conversation, he knew that Joshua longed to renovate the bed-and-breakfast back into a family home—and Josh was about to get his chance.

His eyes once again drank in the sight of his beautiful granddaughter, as Josh leaned forward and gave his new wife their first kiss as a married couple. Then they turned, he in an impeccable blue suit left over from his old life and she in silk and pearls.

When you got right down to it, love was the greatest miracle of all.

Dear Reader,

Why is it that we so often think God is up in heaven trying to spoil our fun and that He wouldn’t send things or people into our lives to make us happy? How often do you look at something and say, that can’t be good for me, it’s what I want.

Maybe it’s the fault of how we were taught the Commandments—or the GREAT SHALL NOTs—as I once heard them called. True, there are a lot of prohibitions listed there. But if you really look at them, He gave them to us as a guideline for our lives. Keeping them keeps us from getting hurt as much as possible by the world. He is a loving God. Our Father. As Pastor Henry explained to Joshua, God wants His children to be happy.

So don’t shy away from the good things this life has to offer. Just do as Joshua and Cassidy did. Pray. Seek His guidance with an open mind and heart. And accept His answer no matter what it is. He’s the only one who knows if what you’re asking will really bring you lasting happiness or not.

Be happy until next time,