Three Down the Aisle (17 page)

Nor did Melanie seek him out. It hurt too much simply to see him, his big hands so gentle with the fragile plants he was tending. It hurt to know that those hands would never touch her with such tenderness again.

Today she had watched from the cottage’s kitchen window and imagined his work-roughened hands on her skin, remembered the tenderness with which he’d coaxed responses from her body.

Maybe it was need or yearning, but suddenly, with a flash of insight, she knew exactly what love was. It was a man who didn’t believe in it risking his heart by asking her to marry him. It was a man who couldn’t find the words showing her over and over again with his steadfastness and tenderness that he loved her. It was a man who hadn’t gone away because she’d said no, but instead had stayed, proving his love with his presence and commitment. It was a man who trusted her enough to ask her to become the mother of the daughter he adored.

Hands shaking and heart pounding, she walked outside and knelt in the dirt beside him. He glanced at her, his eyes filled with desire and shadowed by questions.

“Yes,” she said quietly, praying that single word would be enough. Like him, she wasn’t sure she knew what else to say to make things right, to grab forever.

He gave her a puzzled look. “Yes?”

Her lips curved. “Have you forgotten the question?”

After an eternity, hope suddenly shone in his eyes. “How could I?” he asked simply. “It’s the most im
portant one I’ve ever asked.” He searched her face. “Are you sure?”

“That I love you? Yes. Without question.”

“Enough to stay here?”

“Yes.”

“What about the rest?” he asked. “Do you know how I feel?”

Even now he was leaving it to her to figure things out, but she no longer minded. The truth was in his eyes. “About you loving me? I know that, too. Someday you’ll see the feelings for what they are, and then you’ll say the words. I can wait. I just can’t wait alone.”

He nodded slowly. “I was thinking a summer wedding,” he said, reaching into his pocket.

His tone was nonchalant, but Melanie could see the vulnerability in his eyes. He still wasn’t sure of her, wasn’t sure of any of this, but he was taking a gigantic leap of faith for her, for both of them.

“The garden should be in shape by then,” he continued as he withdrew a velvet jeweler’s box and held it out. “What do you think?”

Melanie took the box with shaking hands and opened it. The diamond inside sparkled like the sun. She grinned. “Is that why you’ve been working so hard out here?”

He gave her a chagrined look. “I guess subconsciously I was hoping you’d change your mind.”

“And if I hadn’t?”

“Then I would have found the words,” he said confidently. “They’re in my heart, Melanie.” He pressed her hand to his chest. “Can you feel them with each beat?”

She smiled at him. “Steady and enduring,” she said at once. “They’re good words, Mike.”

“And love?” he asked quietly. “You didn’t feel that?”

She lifted her gaze to his. “It’s in your eyes,” she told him. “In your touch. In everything you do.”

He sighed. “As long as you know,” he said.

He took the ring and slipped it on her finger. It was a perfect fit.
They
were a perfect fit.

“I’m sorry I ever doubted it,” she said.

“Maybe we both have to learn to have more faith,” he said quietly. “We’ve been given a gift. We simply have to nurture it.”

Her eyes stinging with tears, Melanie glanced around at the profusion of flowers that had come from this man’s nurturing touch. Love was blooming everywhere. “I think you’re just the man to show me the way.”

C
olleen D’Angelo stood at the back door of Rose Cottage, staring out at the garden, tears in her eyes. Melanie regarded her mother worriedly.

“Mom, are you okay?”

“I’m speechless,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “It’s beautiful, just the way it was when your grandmother was alive. How on earth did you remember it so clearly? I’d forgotten.”

“I didn’t,” Melanie admitted. “I showed Mike a picture, and he knew exactly what to do. It’s almost as if he felt some sort of connection with grandmother. He fussed and badgered until I agreed to let him put the garden back the way it had been.”

“He’s a wonderful man, this Mike of yours,” her mother said, smiling at her. “He’s making you happy?”

“Of course,” Melanie said, laughing. “We’re getting married in an hour.”

“That’s more than enough time to change your mind,” her mother informed her. “I can’t believe you want to move here. You’ve always been such a city girl.”

“Mike’s here,” Melanie said simply. “And when we get back from our honeymoon, I’m going to open my own marketing firm. Mike will be my first client. Not that I want him working any harder than he already does, but he won’t be nearly as demanding as other clients might be. He’ll forgive my mistakes while I’m learning the ropes. And Jeff and Pam want me to put together a marketing proposal for the nursery. Starting out with two clients isn’t bad.”

Her mother gave her a fierce hug. “I’m so happy for you. Your father’s fit to be tied that you’re not coming home. Don’t be surprised if he punches Mike in the nose for taking you away from us, instead of giving the bride away the way he’s supposed to.”

Melanie stared at her with alarm. “Dad wouldn’t really do that, would he?” She asked because it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility. He was a very protective dad, and he’d been regarding Mike with suspicion ever since they’d arrived for the wedding.

“Not as long as Mike keeps you smiling,” her mother assured her.

“That won’t be a problem,” Melanie said, just as her sisters burst into the kitchen.

“Hey, why are you two standing down here in your robes crying? We have a wedding in less than an hour,” Ashley announced.

“I think they’re having the
S-E-X
talk,” Jo teased.

“Ah, that must be it,” Maggie chimed in. “See how flushed Melanie’s cheeks are.”

“Stop it, girls,” their mother ordered in the no-nonsense tone they’d learned early to obey.

“Yes, ma’am,” they chorused, then burst into giggles.

Melanie grinned at them. They’d laughed more in the past twenty-four hours than they had in years. She was going to miss them desperately.

Maybe she’d just have to figure out some way to lure them to Virginia. Surely the magic of Rose Cottage hadn’t been used up on her and Mike.

“Daddy, stop wiggling,” Jessie said, her expression solemn as she surveyed him. “You look gorgeous.” She twirled around. “How do I look?”

“Like a fairy princess,” Mike said, his heart in his throat. Melanie’s insistence that Jessie give him away, rather than taking the more traditional flower-girl role, had been just right. Jessie was taking her responsibility very seriously. Jeff had hardly anything left to do in his capacity as best man.

“I’m feeling extraneous,” he grumbled, running a finger under the collar of his shirt. “Tell me again why I’m wearing a tux, when I could have been sitting in the crowd in a suit?”

“You’re the best man,” Jessie told him. “But I’m more important.”

Jeff laughed as Mike scooped Jessie into his arms. “You are indeed, short stuff. Now let’s get this show on the road.”

The three of them took their places in the garden as the organ music began. Mike’s gaze locked on the back door of the house, where first one D’Angelo sister emerged and then the next. They were all beautiful in their rose-colored gowns, but there was only one sister he was desperate to see.

Then Melanie emerged in a slim gown of white silk and lace, a bouquet of white roses and lily of the valley from the garden in her hands. Her gaze locked with his, and a radiant smile blossomed on her face. It was a stark contrast to the glower on her father’s features. Max D’Angelo didn’t scare Mike. He knew the man wanted only the best for his daughter, and Mike intended to exceed his expectations. He had a hunch he’d be just as fiercely protective when Jessie found the man of her dreams—say, thirty years from now.

When Melanie reached Mike’s side, the minister asked, “Who gives this couple to be wed?”

Max D’Angelo glanced down at Jessie standing solemnly by his side and tucked her tiny hand in his. “We do,” they said together.

“My love for you will be eternal,” Mike said when the time came, clearly taking Melanie by surprise with vows he’d labored to write himself. “Like this garden, it will have cycles, but it will always bloom and thrive. It will weather every storm and reach for the sunlight. If we nurture it, our joy will be bountiful.”

“Oh, Mike,” she whispered, looking as if she might weep.

“Don’t you dare cry,” he said. “Or I’ll never say anything romantic again.”

She laughed at that, and the world righted itself. He sighed, gazing into her sparkling eyes. This was it, he thought. This was love—looking into Melanie’s eyes and finding that his world was complete.

“I thought I was the one who had all the words,” Melanie said slowly. “But you’ve left me speechless, Mike. ‘I love you’ doesn’t seem to be nearly enough, and yet it’s everything. I love you and your daughter. I love the family we will become, the children we will
have somewhere along the way. I love that you’ve taken me into your heart, and I promise you will always be in mine.”

Mike grinned at her. “Not so speechless, after all.”

The minister cleared his throat. “My turn?” he inquired.

“Absolutely,” they both said.

“Then I now pronounce you husband and wife.” He gazed out at the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen, I present Mr. and Mrs. Mikelewski.”

Jessie tugged on the minister’s clerical robe. “What about me?” she asked, drawing laughter.

“And daughter,” the minister said.

Mike was about to reach for Jessie, but Melanie was there first, scooping her new daughter up in her arms, then reaching for Mike’s hand. Together the three of them walked down the aisle.

A family, he thought happily. The way it should be. The way it would
always
be.