The Wedding Chapel (43 page)

Then she was going to finish her book and do more shows, and Jimmy didn’t know what all. He only cared that he was going to be with her, watching from backstage. Suited him just fine.

Behind the altar, the string quartet began to play, the sentimental notes of “Because” causing Jimmy’s eyes to crest with tears.

“Because you come to me . . .”

His Colette was coming to him.

Taylor entered first, pretty as a picture, and Jimmy felt such love for her. She wore a pretty blue dress that swept across the top of the floor. She nodded at Jimmy, but her eyes were all for Jack.

“. . . a wider world of hope and joy I see . . .”

Then came his Colette, and Jimmy just knew his heart was going to explode.

She was a vision in a simple white gown befitting her stature, leaning on the arm of Ford, her eyes glistening.

Jimmy swallowed the lump forming in his throat that threatened to undo him. He tugged at his shirt collar and tight bow tie.

In the midst of the wedding brouhaha, they had dealt with Drummond, who didn’t take the news well.

But Monday evening Jimmy got a call. “Ardell and I want you and Colette to come to the house. We’d like to talk.”

For the next three nights, they sat together talking, hashing out every emotion from anger to confusion to hurt to joy.

Drummond wrestled with the new knowledge that he was adopted. Jimmy grappled with missing the chance to raise his own son. Colette concluded it was time to finally forgive herself for “ruining everyone’s life.”

But in the end, it boiled down to the words Jack so wisely offered. “The way I see it, the family just got bigger, better, and more interesting.”

Colette arrived at the altar as the strings bowed the final notes of the song.

Jimmy offered her his hand and Reverend Stebbins opened with a prayer.

Then he heard it, right above his head, the
whoosh-thump
of the chapel’s heart. It started off distant and faint, then became louder, drawing near with each word of prayer.

It rushed through Jimmy with such a force he couldn’t breathe. He raised his eyes to the light beyond the stained glass.

Lord?

Colette squeezed his hand and the
whoosh-thump
sank deeper and deeper, and little by little began beating in time to his own heart.

“Dearly beloved, it’s a joy to be gathered here today . . .”

Jimmy peered at Colette. Now he knew. At last their two hearts had become one.

COLETTE

The strange look on Jimmy’s face concerned her. He jerked, clutching his chest, his lips moving in silent recitation.

“Darling?”

He turned his gaze to her, smiling.

“Dearly beloved, it’s a joy to be gathered here today . . .”

Reverend Stebbins’s words drew them together, facing forward.

But she pressed her shoulder to Jimmy’s, clinging to his broad, strong hand. “Are you quite all right?” she whispered.

“Never better, Lettie. Never better.”

“Colette and Jimmy, will you face one another?” the reverend said.

Turning, Colette fell into Jimmy’s eyes, the love she had for him so many years ago maturing in this moment.

They repeated their vows, properly this time. “I, Colette Elizabeth Greer, take you, James Allen Westbrook . . .”

“I, James Allen Westbrook, take you, Colette Elizabeth Greer . . .”

They exchanged rings and bowed their heads for another prayer.

“Well, it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you Mr. and Mrs. James Westbrook. By the power vested in me—”

“Might I have a word?” Drummond was on his feet, hand in the air.

The reverend checked with Jimmy, who nodded.

“Go on.”

Drummond smoothed his hands over his suit pockets, visibly nervous. “I learned this week that these two are my parents.”

The collective gasp was small. Colette surveyed the sanctuary. Most everyone knew already, save for those few members of the
Always Tomorrow
family who were able to fly in.

“I’ve spent this week working through the news. Wearied these two with conversation after conversation. I’ve concluded the commercial had it right: life comes at you fast. Jack, I guess that phrase was a bit of brilliant advertising.”

The small ripple of laughter broke the tension.

“Colette asked me to walk her down the aisle, but I declined. In
fact, I wasn’t sure I wanted to come today.” He pressed his fist to his lips, clearing his throat. “The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. Mom’s dead, Dad’s dead, and I had no one to rail at but God.” His emotional monologue had the room captive. He’d have been a good actor. “The more I ranted, the more He showed me my own life, my own mistakes.” He pointed to Taylor. “I got some mending to do with this girl. And, like finding out I was adopted, I didn’t know she’d been hurt by something I’d done.”

Colette reached for Taylor’s hand. They were going to be good friends, she just knew it.

“I guess I just want to say it’s easy to feel wronged. To hold a grudge. Until we take a look at our own life. Colette here made the best decision in the moment to give me up to her sister to raise. She was a good mother who gave everything for me, so I can’t fault her. And Coach here practically raised me on the football field, so I feel kind of blessed to know I got my athletic genes from him.”

Colette could not imagine a more fitting, more beautiful wedding. It was honest and real, without pretense or the trappings of tradition.

Drummond stepped toward the altar. “I just want to say, I’ll be there for you both. Any hatchets that might be remaining, I want to bury.”

“I met a lovely young heiress once,” Colette said. “Corina Del Rey. She’d recently married a prince. And she told me that what God taught her through a very tremendous ordeal was to love well.” She peered at Jimmy. Then back to Drummond. “Shall we do the same? Love well. That doesn’t mean it will be perfect, but we’ll be like the Lord. Love anyway.”

“I reckon that’s the best we can all do.” Drummond kissed Colette on the cheek and shook Jimmy’s hand.

When he returned to his seat, a serenity passed through the chapel. It was finished. The pain, the heartache, the lies, righted toward love, peace, and healing.

“Jimmy, Coach, you may kiss your bride.”

To cheers and a standing ovation, Colette received the kiss of her beloved, felt the sweetness of her tears blending with his.

“I love you, Jimmy.” She wiped the water from his cheeks.

“And, Colette Westbrook, I love you!”

As they turned, the photographer stepped into the aisle, hitting the shutter, and the first day of the rest of their life began with a kiss and a photograph.

EPILOGUE

C
HRISTMAS
,
ONE YEAR LATER

H
EART
’
S
B
END
, T
ENNESSEE

T
aylor, you ready?” Daddy called up from Granny’s living room. “Your carriage awaits. Emma and the girls have already gone to the chapel.”

Ready? Yes. She was ready. Wait, diaper bag. Where was the diaper bag? With Ardell. Check. Who also had baby JJ. Check.

Because today Taylor was not a mama.

She was a bride. Check.

Emma had her bag of supplies—makeup, hair spray, water, bobby pins, toothbrush and toothpaste, second pair of shoes—and was waiting for her at the wedding chapel.

Her gown—a gift from Colette and her designer friend—was silk and tulle, trimmed in fur, and the wide, simple, creamy white skirt reminded Taylor of a first snow.

While she would always treasure her beach elopement, she was glad for this day to affirm her love and commitment to Jack in front of their friends and family.

“Tay?” Daddy’s voice moved up the stairwell. “About time. You ready?”

With a final glance around the upstairs master suite in the house she and Jack spent the last year renovating, Taylor exited the room. She was ready.

From the bottom of the stairs, Daddy smiled up at her, looking dapper in his tuxedo, the lights from the Christmas tree bouncing over the gleaming hardwood.

“You look beautiful.”

“I’m nervous!” She used the sleek polished banister to hold her steady, one hand gripping her skirt as the enormous folds glided over the stairs. “And I feel so empty without JJ in my arms.”

“Enjoy it while you can. Besides, by the time Ardell, Sarah Gillingham, and your mother get done with him, he’ll be so spoiled you might not want him back.”

She laughed. “You have a point.”

Daddy walked Taylor to the door, pausing before stepping onto the porch. “Thank you. For this past year, for giving me a chance to be your daddy again.” His eyes glistened as he cleared his throat, glancing down at his new shoes. “Means everything to me.”

“I’m the one who needs to be thanking you for this year. For helping Jack and me return to Heart’s Bend, renovating Granny’s house, and for forgiving me for being—” It still hurt to remember how wrong and bitter she’d been.

He wiped the dew from the corners of his eyes and reached for the door. “Come on, it’s your wedding day. Besides, we’ve been through all this. You’re my girl and I never stopped loving you. I’m glad we finally got to the truth. Now, don’t make your old man cry.”

“Okay, but you started it.” Taylor shot him a sly grin as she moved across the threshold, holding her skirt high while Daddy gathered her train.

Colette and Jimmy’s journey had righted a lot of relationships
this past year and set a course for new ones. But not without the tears that came with confession, repentance, and forgiveness.

Mama admitted to the affair and repented, seeking forgiveness from everyone. She and Daddy got along like old friends now, and Ardell finally took her place as a member of the family, playing the doting stepmother and grandmother.

Forgiveness went a long way in healing body and soul, and splashing the world with joy.

Like they agreed, Jack turned down London, and as they started collecting baby gear, they realized a cramped New York apartment was not where they wanted to raise little Jack James Samuel Drummond Gillingham either.

Back in January, Sam and Sarah Gillingham legally adopted Jack. What a beautiful day at the courthouse, watching God weave His tapestry of their family together, in spite of weakness and failings.

After that day, Jack changed. He’d been adopted, given a new name, and those old pains from his natural father began to shrivel and die.

FRESH offered Jack a job as vice president of advertising, but he didn’t want the corporate grind so he launched out on his own. It was hard to do top-level advertising outside New York, but he found clients he adored who never would’ve fit under the 105 umbrella.

As for Taylor, she did work for Jack as he needed, but weddings and birthday parties became her primary photography venue, and—shocker—she loved it. It was the most fulfilling work she’d ever done.

She and Jack had come a long way in twelve months. It wasn’t an easy trail, but one that was well worth it.

For the first six months, they decided to counsel with Jesus every morning, waking up to pray and read Scripture.

It was the least romantic endeavor Taylor ever tried. But the most glorious and rewarding.

Sometimes she and Jack sat across from each other in stony silence. Sometimes they prayed together or shared a verse. Sometimes they continued the argument from the night before. But they determined to stay faithful.

One morning, along about the six-month mark, the atmosphere changed. Their prayers came easy. Love blossomed between them.

There were a few times Taylor had heard the
whoosh-thump
heartbeat of God, but mostly she walked in faith. As she drew closer to Him and Jack, the need for a tangible reassurance began to fade. Like the removal of training wheels or a crutch.

But the day she heard baby JJ’s heartbeat at their first ultrasound, she knew . . . The heartbeat she’d heard as a kid musing on God, those few times in the wedding chapel, was the sound of life. Of love.

After the ultrasound, she knew she’d not hear it again. It was God’s last word to her on
that
particular matter.

He loved her, and He loved life.

“Let me help you now.” Daddy offered Taylor his hand as she started down the porch steps, on her way to the—

“A horse and carriage?” There was supposed to be a limo parked by the curb.

“A gift from the Gillinghams.”

At the edge of the walkway, Daddy and the driver assisted Taylor and her grand gown into the carriage, tucking her in with a thick blanket. Daddy climbed in next to her as the driver chirruped to the horses, the rhythm of their hooves trotting them into the crisp pink layers of twilight.

She’d see Jimmy and Colette for the first time all fall. They had arrived back in Heart’s Bend just in time for the wedding. They’d been on a worldwide book tour to promote Colette’s new memoir. Her story hit the
New York Times
number one slot the week it debuted. She and Justine changed the story to focus on the rekindled
love of her life, and how being married at eighty-two proved God was in charge of the impossible.