Love Inspired January 2014 - Bundle 2 of 2: Bayou Sweetheart\The Firefighter's New Family\Season of Redemption (8 page)

“I'll get there eventually,” she replied with a wink.

He glanced over at her, his expression as golden and bright at that setting sun. “But time for you to rest now, okay?”

“I will rest. I'll have a good rest tonight. It's nice to be able to sleep after a good day's work.”

He nodded at that. “Maybe I'll sleep better tonight, too.”

Callie walked with him back toward the big garage where she kept her larger tools. “I hope so. You shouldn't work too hard, either.”

“Maybe I should try dancing in the rain,” he replied.

“Could do you some good, unless you melt when you get wet.”

He smiled over at her. “I think some of the good people of Fleur would enjoy watching that happen.”

She stopped a few feet away from her truck. “I know business is about business and we're not supposed to take it personally, but...I wish there was a way to compromise, to save the shipyard. Not just parts of it, but all of it. Everyone here needs a job.”

He stared off into the sunset then cut his gaze back to her. “I'm trying, Callie. I mean that.”

Callie wanted to believe him.

“That's all I can hope for,” she replied. After he helped her close up the toolshed and they'd both washed the grime away, she turned to face him again. “Guess I'll get going.”

“See you soon,” he said.

Callie called to Elvis and loaded him into the truck. When she backed out and turned onto the long driveway, he was still standing there watching, his silhouette surrounded by the last of the sun's rays. And she remembered his words to her at lunch.

“He stayed,” she said to Elvis. “He stayed and watched us home.”

Chapter Eight

“D
on't cry. If you both start crying then I'll cry and we'll all ruin our makeup.”

Callie looked over at her baby sister. Brenna was wearing their mother's wedding gown, but she'd altered it a bit and added some new lace across the bodice. The lace covered Brenna with a demure tease of material that moved down the delicate cap sleeves and came together with one pearl button at the back of her neck.

“I can cry since I'm the oldest,” Callie said through a sniff.

Alma nodded then wiped at her eyes. “And I can cry because I'm still a newlywed myself.”

Brenna blinked back her tears. “And I can cry because I'm marrying the most wonderful man on earth and I'm afraid I'll do something to let him down, to let both of you down. And Papa—”

“Enough with the letting down,” Alma admonished, her hand slapping gently at Brenna. “You are going to have a long, happy life with Nick. And we are going to be two of the greatest aunts ever to your children.”

Brenna bobbed her head. “I expect to be an aunt one day, too. Alma, you hear me?”

Alma grinned. “I hear you.”

Callie and Brenna both caught on to that grin.

“What?” Brenna asked while her sisters continued to fuss over her dress. “Out with it, Alma.”

Alma's eyes grew misty again. “Oh, all right. I didn't want to steal your thunder but...”

Callie clutched Alma's hand. “Are you pregnant?”

Alma couldn't speak. She nodded, swallowed, smiled, cried.

“Oh, oh,” Brenna grabbed Alma and pulled her close. Callie put her arms around Alma, touching on the lace of Brenna's dress.

“A baby,” she said, the thought of it crushing her with a sweet intensity. “We're going to have a baby.”

Brenna stood back to stare at Alma. “Does Julien know?”

“Yes,” Alma replied, still blubbering. “We found out last week. I'm six weeks along, and I wasn't going to say anything until after the wedding but...I wanted y'all to know.”

“I'm glad you told us,” Brenna said, giggling through her tears. “So glad. What a nice wedding surprise.”

Callie hugged Alma again. “The best. I'm so happy for you.”

Alma found the tissue box and passed it around. “Let's keep it among family for now. I can't believe it. We've only been married six months.”

“That's kind of how things work,” Callie pointed out. “For some people.”

Brenna gave her a sharp look. “You can still have a family one day. Tomas—”

“Is not available,” Callie said. “I told y'all about the odd conversation I had with him last week.” Well, she hadn't told them everything. For some reason, Callie was very protective of her time with Tomas. She thought about telling her sisters that he'd grown up nearby, but for some silly reason she held even that little snippet of information to herself. “He went through a lot with his wife. I think he still has cold feet in the love department. And to be honest, so do I. Tomas and I are just friends. Very tentative friends.”

“But he held your hand. You told us,” Alma said while she followed Brenna around, making sure her hair was perfectly styled in an upswept do.

“He did hold my hand and we had a nice lunch and he helped me plant part of the garden and... But that does not make us an item. I'm working for him. Nothing more.”

“Tomas is supposed to be here tonight,” Brenna reminded her for the tenth time. “And I was supposed to be ‘just working' with Nick. Now I'm wearing a wedding gown and he's waiting for me at the front of the church.”

“I'm well aware of that,” Callie retorted. “And I'll smile and be nice to Tomas, but I won't pin my hopes on him. That's just not fair to him or me.” She shrugged, causing her chiffon bridesmaid dress to shimmy. “Besides, I like being single. I like being able to do my own thing. Since Dewayne left, I don't get teased or fussed at for going to church, for believing in God, for eating pie, for buying shoes. I don't have to answer to any man, ever again.”

Her sisters didn't look convinced.

“It's not about answering to a man,” Brenna, newly minted in the wisdom department, replied with a knowing look. “It's about
the man
and figuring out the answers together. You know—the one man meant for you. The one God has chosen for you.”

“So Dewayne wasn't my chosen one?”

Brenna thought on that. “Dewayne was stupid, plain and simple. But God gave you the strength to see that and now you are free. Free to find
the man.
”

Alma shot Callie a quirky glance. “Our little girl has grown up.”

“I've fallen in love,” Brenna corrected. “And if we don't get out into the narthex, I'm going to miss my own wedding.”

“I think Nick will come looking for you if you don't show up,” Callie said, deliberately pushing away Brenna's telling comments. “Let's take one last look in the mirror and then...it's showtime.”

The three sisters turned toward the wide, full-length mirror in the bride's room just off the main hallway.

“We sure clean up nice,” Alma said, smiling over at Brenna. “You look beautiful.”

Brenna regarded herself in the mirror. “So do both of you. I can't believe I'm getting married!”

She shot Callie a hopeful look.

Callie looked through the mirror at her sisters. “He said he might start attending church. Tomas, I mean.”

“Well, that's a start,” Brenna said, smiling back at her with joyous eyes. “And tonight counts toward that, technically.”

“It does, yes,” Alma agreed. “If he's here, that's a brownie point in the right direction.”

Callie prayed Tomas would gain that brownie point. “His wife was addicted to prescription drugs. I think it was an overdose. I think that's why he took her away and...she never came back.”

“He told you that?” Brenna asked.

“Yes. He told me the part about the prescription drugs. He also told me that he'd stayed. He'd stayed with her. He said I need to remember that.”

“He's in love with you,” Brenna said on a sigh.

Callie ignored the lifting of her heart. “And why would you think that?”

Brenna turned to look at her sister without the benefit of the mirror. “He's telling you he'd never leave you the way Dewayne did. He's telling you that he cares, Callie.”

Callie pulled away and started gathering their lilies-and-baby's-breath bouquets. “Or he could be telling me he's afraid to care.”

Alma fluffed skirts and tidied curls. “I'm thinking he'll dance with you tonight.”

“Of course he will,” Brenna said, grinning. “He'll dance with you and you'll feel it. You'll see it in his eyes.”

They heard a soft knock, then a booming voice. “Is dis wedding gonna start sometime today?”

“Papa,” Brenna said, her expression near panic. “How do I look?”

Callie smiled at her sister. “Like a beautiful, happy bride.”

“I am that,” Brenna replied. Then she kissed Callie and turned to kiss Alma. “I love you both so much.”

“We love you, too, sweetheart,” Callie said. “Ready?”

Brenna nodded, her eyes misty. “I wish—”

“Mama is right here,” Callie finished for her sister. “Right here with us.”

“Always,” Alma added. She shot a look at Callie, understanding in her eyes.

Because she'd gone with Callie to the doctor two days ago and they were waiting to hear the report on Callie's latest checkup and mammogram.

* * *

Tomas found a seat near Nick's family. He'd rather sit in the back of the church, but Nick had asked him to join the large entourage of Santiagos who'd made the trip from San Antonio to attend the wedding, including Nick's aunt Serena. She'd helped decorate Fleur House, so it would have been an insult to say no.

After shaking hands and waving to Nick's aunts, uncles and cousins, Tomas adjusted his tie and settled back to look at the aged church. The altar was covered in a burst of flowers in shades of pale, creamy whites and yellows mixed in with rich, lush pinks, purples and blues. He smelled the scent of lilies and thought of Callie.

She always smelled like fresh flowers.

He should have stayed away, but he wanted to see Callie in that blue dress he'd heard so much about. Even if he'd tried to scare her way, even if he'd tried to tell her the brutal truth, he knew that sooner or later, he wanted her with him. But he had to keep that revelation to himself because he had to measure it and accept what that might mean in his life. Callie might not want the same thing. She might reject him.

So he waited, his heart trembling as memories of his own ill-fated wedding burst forth with the same intensity as the flowers on the altar. He watched, nervous and on edge, when Nick and his best man and two other groomsmen got into place at the altar. Nick spotted Tomas and gave him a big, happy smile.

Tomas smiled back. And then he turned as a cute little girl and boy came up the aisle, the girl tossing flowers while the boy looked uncomfortable and rebellious as he carried the rings on a satin pillow.

Tomas laughed along with everyone else and then went still.

He smelled her perfume but he didn't dare turn until she walked right by him.

Callie, her hair caught against the nape of her neck in some kind of twist that was covered in the tiniest of white flower blossoms, her dress such a light, sweet blue, it looked like a distant sky.

She walked with a straight-backed regal step, the dress wrapped around her shoulders in soft pleats that seemed to open and flow like cascading water in a sash down her back. Tomas inhaled, his breath stolen, his mind swirling through that mist of sweet, flowery perfume.

He forgot to notice Alma or even the bride. He only had eyes for Callie. He didn't understand how one woman could make him feel so young and vulnerable and filled with anticipation, could make him so scared. He didn't understand why watching Brenna and Nick say their vows could make him hurt and hope at the same time.

But he sat still and watched and listened and he heard the gentle echo of God's voice covering this beautiful, old building in a soft, strong promise. “I am here. I am here.”

I am here, Tomas.

Had he only imagined that? Or had the music sounded like a voice? He couldn't be sure. But he felt a sense of peace, all the same. In spite of his doubts regarding his newfound feelings for Callie, Nick had to wonder if it wasn't time for him to come home to his faith.

And when it was over and the bride and groom had pledged their love and promised to honor God in all things, he couldn't understand the tears that seemed to mist in his eyes as Callie walked by.

But he did understand the tearstained brightness that shone right back at him from her sky-blue eyes.

Callie was scared, too.

* * *

“He's coming toward us.”

Alma's elbow poke caused Callie to jump and gasp. “Well, don't act like we know that.”

“I was warning you,” Alma replied. “Smile. Act as if you're having a ball.”

“I am having a ball,” Callie retorted. “The flowers held up, the food is wonderful and our sister is smiling. All in all, a very good day.”

“We did it,” Alma said, grinning. “And I didn't throw up, not once.”

Callie forgot all about Tomas and her sharp-edged need to avoid him. “I'm so excited. I can't wait. We'll put together a nursery. But which room? The cottage is tiny.”

“We'll be okay,” Alma said, looking past Callie. “And we'll discuss this later. You've got a bigger fish to fry right now.”

“Don't...leave me.”

But Alma was already heading in the other direction. Which left Callie standing there like an awkward schoolgirl.

She smelled his expensive aftershave before she knew Tomas was there beside her. Turning, she managed a smile. But the sight of him in a lightweight wool suit and intriguing striped tie held that smile too tightly.

“Hello,” he said, his eyes doing a dance over her face. “You look beautiful.”

“I bet you say that to all the bridesmaids.”

“No, only you. I've been waiting to speak to you all night.”

“Oh, something wrong with my work so far?”

“You're off work tonight, but everything is good there.” He took her by the elbow. “I think you promised me a dance.”

“I don't recall—”

“Or maybe your sisters promised me you'd dance with me.”

“My sisters are always messing where they shouldn't.”

“Forget that,” he said, tugging her along. “Callie, may I have this dance?”

Callie knew she should say no, knew she should run in the other direction. This nice, polite Tomas with a smile was even more disconcerting than brooding, distant Tomas with a frown. But the music was inviting and his smile was enticing, so she couldn't refuse.

Just for tonight,
she told herself.
Just for this one lovely, happy night, I can pretend that I'm okay. That I'm happy and healthy and...in love.

“Yes,” she replied. “I'd...like that.”

Tomas took her in his arms and held her in such a gentle, respectful way, she felt delicate and precious and secure.

They danced a slow and easy waltz, his hand on her back, his gaze on her. The way he looked at her, his eyes searching and secretive, caused the wall she'd tried so hard to build up between them to crumble like dry clay. Callie didn't want this dance to end.

She didn't understand why this particular man—a man who was brooding and difficult and way too much of a challenge—made her feel so many things in so many ways. She didn't understand why Tomas made her want things she'd decided not to want, ever again. She couldn't reason why she just knew that somehow, someway, they'd wind up together.