When I Fall in Love (Christiansen Family) (32 page)

Owen joined them. “What did he do to her?”

“Owen, stay out of this,” Eden started.

“There you are!” Casper’s angry voice jerked Grace’s head up. Her brother stormed in, still looking as rough-edged as he had this morning.

“Casper, are you all right?” Ingrid said, rising, but Casper was advancing hard, something wild in his eyes.

Still, no one expected him to launch himself at Owen. He tackled his brother to the ground, slammed his fist into his face. “What did you do to her, you jerk?”

He hit him again, but Owen had reflexes born from being the youngest and grabbed Casper’s arm, the next blow just grazing his
face. “Get off me!” He pushed Casper, and they rolled over in a tangle, wrestling, their fists finding ribs.

“Casper! Owen!” Ingrid ran toward them.

Grace got to her feet, grabbed her mother’s hand. “Stay back!”

They banged a table and dishes crashed to the floor. Amelia screamed.

Jace plowed into the battle. “Guys
 
—break it up!”

John, Darek, and Ivy walked in. Tiger ran ahead, but Ivy caught his hand.

Grace’s stomach hollowed at the look on her dad’s face.

“What on earth
 
—?” He ran over, but Darek beat him to the pair. Jace got hold of Owen while Darek hauled Casper up.

Owen’s eye patch had fallen off, the ugliness of his wounds laid bare. Blood ran from his mouth, his nose, his eye plumping. “He started it!”

Casper had shaken Darek off and now leaned over, clutching his knees, breathing hard. “Get him away from me.”

“What is wrong with you, Casper?” Ingrid’s voice shook, but Grace heard the fury gathering. “Have you been drinking?”

The look on his face pained Grace. The expression of a broken heart.

“No, Mom. I haven’t been
drinking
. There’s only one member of this family who drinks and destroys things.” He looked pointedly at Owen.

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Why don’t you tell me why the first time I met Raina, when she thought I was you, she said, ‘Go away, Owen!’ Why she accused Darek
 
—our family, actually
 
—of using people. And why Dad had to ask me if I’d ever hurt her. It wasn’t because of
us
, was it, Owen?”

What
 
—?

Grace looked at Owen, at the disheveled, angry, reckless person her brother had become, and suddenly she saw it. Owen and Raina sitting at the end of the dock the night of Darek and Ivy’s wedding. Raina laughing as Owen charmed her.

Oh no.

He didn’t. They didn’t . . .

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Owen snapped. “I never hurt Raina. We . . . So we hooked up.” He lifted a shoulder, nonchalant, but Grace could see how he glanced at their mother, couldn’t hide the flicker of embarrassment.

It was only going to get worse.

“You . . . hooked up,” Casper said softly, and the expression on his face was so terrible, Grace glanced at Darek.

He slid a hand over Casper’s shoulder.

It was then that her heart finally shattered because her brother Casper, the one who had never been anything but light and laughter and teasing, put his hand over his eyes and wept.

Silence descended around them.

Finally Ingrid took Grace’s hand. Then Eden’s. “John, I’ll leave you to get our boys to the church. I guess we’ve all forgotten this is actually Eden and Jace’s happy day. I’ll expect smiles, even if you fake it, for the next six hours.”

She glanced at Amelia, then turned. “Come, girls. We have to put on our pretty faces.”

Focus on life.

Max drove right to the warehouse, the words thrumming in his head for the last two hours.

He wanted to throw his cell phone out the window, shout at the top of his lungs,
Grace, I’m on the way!

No doubt she thought he’d abandoned her. Hopefully Jace had given her the message.
Tell Grace I’m sorry.

He could almost see her staring at Jace, incredulous.
Sorry? What did that even mean?

It was Hawaii all over again.

He got out of the car, started for the reception hall. Stopped.

What if Jace had told her the reason Max had to see his brother? What if . . . what if she knew?

Max stood in the lot, the heat of the afternoon on his shoulders, trickling down his back. What if she knew and she looked at him with pity?

Suffering can either destroy you or it can save you. Because without suffering, we don’t need more; we have enough. But when we suffer, we can’t help but reach out.

Reach out.
Past pity, past fear, for Grace.

And for grace.

God, I know You don’t hear from me that often, but I’m feeling desperate here.
In fact, he felt desperate pretty much all the time.

Maybe he needed God all the time too. He blew out a breath.
Give me courage.

He opened the door to the warehouse.

Out drifted the odor of burning sugar, acrid and sharp. He took off at a run through the reception room, to the kitchen.

Two assistants were fanning smoke where it emanated from the sink. Ty was running water into a pot, causing a hiss from the darkened mess inside.

“What happened?”

Ty looked up at him, his eyes wide. “We had a little kitchen fire.”

“A little kitchen fire? The entire venue stinks, and there’s smoke everywhere.”

“It’s my fault. I was stirring the mango sauce and it started to boil up, and pretty soon I couldn’t stop it, and then it spilled over and began to burn . . .” This from a skinny, long-haired student who held a rag to his hand.

“Did you hurt yourself?”

“It’s just a burn
 
—”

“Run some water over it, then go find a couple fans, see if you can get them going in the hall. Ty, let’s get more made.” Max glanced around the kitchen. “Where’s Raina?”

“She never made it in.” Ty opened the fridge. “And then they had a big fight.”

“Who had a big fight?” Max reached for his chef’s jacket. “Raina and Grace?”

“No. I think it was Jace and . . . maybe Owen?”

Oh no. Owen was here? He’d forgotten that.

“I think it was the other brother. The one with dark hair. He came in and beat up the other one,” said a girl with short blonde hair.

He stared at them. “The Christiansen family had a fistfight?”

“Yeah,” Ty said. “Sort of. I just know that Grace and her mom and sisters took off, and then Mr. Christiansen made all the guys reset the tables. We helped, but the sauces got started late and
 
—”

“Has anyone made the bread?”

“I did,” the blonde said. “It’s cooling, about ready to slice.”

“And the pig?”

“Nearly roasted, sir,” said a girl with dark hair pulled up in a net.

“Ty, let’s get started on that sauce.”

But Ty just stood at the open cooler door. “We’re out of mangoes.”

“What else do we have?”

“I don’t know. Some ginger. Carrots. Red onions.” Ty looked at Max. “Four oranges and two limes and a coconut.”

“C’mon, chefs. Think outside the box.” Max went to the cooler, pulled out the ingredients. “If there’s one thing hanging with Grace Christiansen taught me, it’s that you have to reach out and try. You never know what is going to taste good.”

The words left his mouth, and he let them hang in the room.

Reach out and try.

He grabbed the bag of red onions and handed them to the blonde kitchen assistant. “Julienne these.” Then he shoved the carrots into the arms of the brunette. “Clean these and grate them.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Someone find me a bottle of white wine.” He picked up the tray of oranges. “And a knife, please.”

Ty handed him a knife and he sliced the fruit in half. “I need these juiced.”

Max returned to the cooler, found garlic and the coconut. After he crushed and minced the garlic, he pulled out a pan and went to the stove. He retrieved the olive oil, added it to the pot, began to heat it.

“Onions!” The cutting board slid next to him, and he began to add them to the pot, stirring. He glanced at the clock.

The ceremony would be starting soon. Shoot, he should have left earlier, should have made his uncle wake him. He didn’t realize he’d overslept until they returned with a stringer of walleye and were frying them up for breakfast. The sweet camaraderie of his brother and his uncle had mended the wounds from the panic of
the night before. Helped foster the courage to drive home and face Grace.

Max tossed the garlic in, and the tangy redolence curled around him. The onions turned translucent. “Carrots!”

Ty brought them over. “What are you making?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“Really?”

“It’s going to be great, though.”

“What if you make a mistake?”

“Then we figure out something else, right? C’mon, buddy. Just because it’s not perfect doesn’t mean it won’t be delicious.” The carrots sautéed to a beautiful, rich orange. “Get me the orange juice.”

He poured it into the pot, turned the heat down. Grabbed the white wine and added it. Added more. Put the top on. Okay, please let this work.

Please,
please
let this work.

Because his words to Ty sank in and suddenly seemed right
 
—he and Grace might not have the right ingredients for happily ever after, but maybe they could make their own version of it.

Maybe the recipe wasn’t always worth following.

Maybe, in fact, it was time to improvise.

E
DEN WOULD TAKE
J
ACE’S BREATH AWAY.
Grace stood behind her sister, pulling out her train, layers and layers of fluffy chiffon. “You are gorgeous.”

Eden seemed stunned herself, staring into the floor-length mirror. Her dress outlined her slim figure
 
—a V-neck, cap sleeves, princess-style, with a cluster of fabric flowers at the bustle. Not overly beaded, just enough to catch the light. And in her hair, loosely twisted into a chignon at the nape of her neck, a simple veil that fanned out to her waist.

“He won’t be able to speak,” Grace said as she handed Eden her bouquet of orange-and-white roses, blue plumeria.

Eden met her eyes, then turned to Grace, catching her hand. “Are you okay?”

Grace tightened her jaw against a well of heat in her throat. She just had to keep breathing, keep focusing on Eden and her perfect day and everything she had in front of her and
 
—

She pressed a hand to her mouth, looked away. “I don’t think so.” She wiped her hand across her cheek. “I’m so silly. It’s not like Max and I
 
—” She shook her head. “We probably didn’t have a future anyway.”

“Why would you say that? Of course you did
 
—you do. He loves you
 
—even Jace can see that.” Eden touched her cheek. “But the bigger question is, do you love him?”

Grace drew in a trembling breath. “Yes. I do. He makes me feel as if I could do anything. Go anywhere. He makes me a better version of myself.”

“So . . .”

“So
 
—for how long, Eden? Ten years? Less? And then I get to watch the man I love die an excruciating early death. And what about kids? He’d leave them behind
 
—”

“Shh.” Eden pulled her into her arms.

Grace held on. “I don’t know if I’m strong enough to walk toward Max, knowing I’m going to have to let him go. Maybe he was right to push me away.”

“Grace. You’re one of the strongest people I know.”

“But I’m not. I’m . . . scared a lot of the time. And I’m trying to be the woman who trusts in Jesus, but I just feel like I’m going to . . . well, that I won’t be strong. Not at all. And the worst part is . . .” She stepped out of Eden’s embrace. “I haven’t told him I love him. I wanted to but . . . I think I was scared. Maybe he was right to believe that I would run away. Maybe
 
—”

A knock, and then the door burst open. Tiger ran into the room, dressed in his mini tuxedo, Ingrid on his tail. Her mother
wore her game face, the one reserved for those moments when she hid her emotions for the good of the family. Whether those emotions were about Casper and Owen’s fight or her oldest daughter walking down the aisle, Grace didn’t know.

She wouldn’t easily purge Casper’s fight with Owen from her own mind either. The event cast a wretched pallor on the day. Watching her brothers tangle on the floor
 
—well, she’d seen it in jest for years. Never in hatred. They all needed their game faces today.

Her mother came up to Eden with a genuine smile, however. “You are a sight to behold.” She took Eden’s hand, surveyed the dress. “Wow.”

“Mom, they’re almost ready.” Amelia had followed her in, wearing the same blue bridesmaid dress as Grace. She wore her auburn hair in a similar chignon, and for a second, the sight of her stunned Grace into the realization that her little sister had turned into a grown woman.

Who was headed to Europe for her first year of college.

Oh, if only Grace possessed that kind of courage. To leap out in faith, to trust and believe
 
—

“Aunt Eden, you’re so pretty!” Tiger said.

“Are you ready to carry the ring, big man?” Eden asked.

He nodded. And the sight of him, his blond hair all slicked into place, dressed like a miniature version of her brother, so adorable she could gobble him up, made Grace want to weep.

She’d never have one of these. A miniature version of Max. Or if she did, how could she protect him from the fate of his father?

Yes, Max had been right to push her out of his arms.

“Ready?” Ingrid said to Eden.

Eden nodded.

Grace picked up Eden’s train and followed her out. At least one of the sisters would marry her prince.

“Eden Joy Christiansen, do you take this man, Jace Maynard Jacobsen, to be your lawfully wedded husband . . . ?”

Grace listened to Eden say her
I do
, captured by the expression on Jace’s face.

Max had looked at her that way. In the park, before his phone call.

He could look at her that way again.

Oh, she loved him. Standing here beside Eden, the sense of it could send her to her knees, make her weep.

She took a breath, kept her smile.
Oh, God, I love him. But I’m afraid.

Do you love Me?

The voice rumbled through her, the question filling her so she could almost taste it.
You know I do.

Then feed My sheep.

“Jace Maynard Jacobsen, do you take Eden Joy Christiansen to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

Give him your heart.

She stilled, hearing the voice twine through her like a whisper.

“I do,” Jace said.

Grace couldn’t help her tears.
I will, Lord. But how
 
—?

Walk with Me. Trust Me.

The words settled over her like a breath, a fragrance. Walk with Jesus. Trust Him. Yes. It would be, in truth, the only way. But perhaps that was the point. The more she needed, the more she would lean into Him. The more of God she’d discover.

More.

Could it be that Max was part of God’s
more
for her?

She glanced at her mother, sitting in the pew just a few feet away. Oddly, Ingrid’s smile was not on Eden, but on Grace.

Live dangerously.

Maybe living dangerously had more to do with faith in a big, unpredictable God than it did doing something foolish. And maybe she didn’t have to do this alone on earth, either.

“You may kiss the bride.”

Jace leaned down and sweetly kissed his wife, catching her face in his hands. “I love you,” he said, loud enough for Grace to hear.

More.

Yes, being with Max, loving Max, would fill her life with more, not less, even when their days turned dark and difficult.

Grace handed Eden her bouquet, casting a look toward the back of the church, where Casper and Owen stood sentry on either side of the door, both looking like they’d rumbled for the Sharks and Jets.

Eden and Jace walked up the aisle, Grace following with Jace’s friend Sam. Amelia came out of the pew and followed behind.

Grace nearly broke into a run when she reached the narthex, handing Amelia her flowers. “I gotta get to the reception.” She turned to Casper. “Give me a ride?”

“With pleasure. Let me grab my stuff.” He took off down the hall, clearly as anxious as she to escape.

She did notice, however, that he stopped and kissed Eden on the cheek, shook Jace’s hand as he dashed by.

“You’re still wearing your dress,” Amelia said. Thankfully, Eden was a smart bride and had let Grace pick out her own attire. She could easily hike up her short blue dress for the motorcycle ride.
Sure, it might not be ladylike, but at least she’d get to the reception hall before anyone burned the place down.

Casper reappeared, holding a backpack and his helmet.

Grace hooked his arm. “Let’s go.”

He didn’t look back as he headed outside. Nor did he say a word as he retrieved an extra helmet from his seat. He turned to fasten it on her head. “I’m leaving, Grace.”

She caught his hands. “Wait
 
—what?”

“I gotta go.”

But
 
—

“I was asked to be part of a treasure diving crew in Central America this fall, and I kept putting it off because . . . well . . .” His jaw tightened. “I thought I might be sticking around. But I can’t.”

“Casper,” she said softly, “don’t run away.”

His expression bore more pain, more truth in it than she could bear. “No. I’m just . . . changing scenery for a while. I’ll be back. I promise.”

“Mom and Dad?”

“They know.” He kissed her on the cheek, then fitted on the helmet.

She blinked back the bite in her eyes.

He got on the bike, held out his arm for her.

Grace climbed on, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Be safe, Casper. And come back to us.”

She felt him sigh, his rib cage rising and falling hard as he gunned the bike.

She hung on to him, her eyes closed as they drove through Minneapolis toward the warehouse. It pulsed inside her to tell him that Raina needed him, but they weren’t her words to say. And who knew where Raina had vanished to?

Keep him safe, Lord. Heal his heart.

Casper dropped her off at the warehouse. Flipped open his visor. “Don’t burn anything.”

“I love you, Bro.”

He smiled, but it didn’t touch his eyes.

And then he was gone.

She stood on the sidewalk, watching him go. Oh, Casper.

Just before she turned away, she caught sight of her car, parked down the street away from the warehouse. Or at least, what looked like her car.

Raina? Grace ventured toward the car, peered into the window.

Raina stared straight ahead, hands cupped to her mouth, tears running over them. She stared in the direction Casper had driven.

When Grace knocked on the passenger window, Raina nearly jumped through her skin. Her bloodshot eyes widened.

“Can I come in?”

Raina wiped her cheeks. When she leaned over to unlock the door, Grace saw that her hair looked greasy. Had she slept in the car?

Grace slid into the front seat. “Hey.”

“I’m sorry I stole your car.”

Grace gave her a smile. “In the scope of things that happened today, trust me
 
—you can have this old clunker.”

One side of Raina’s mouth tweaked up. Then it vanished and she looked again in the direction of Casper’s exit. “Where did he go?”

“I don’t know. Central America, he said.”

“Roatán. There’s some sort of pirate dig there.”

“He was always a treasure hunter.”

“He said that.” She closed her eyes. “I hurt him. I really hurt him.”

“Yeah, you did,” Grace said. “But . . . that’s the risk we take when we love someone. He’ll be okay.” She touched Raina’s arm. “What about you? Are you . . . ? Did . . . ? I need to know, for my parents’ sake. Did Owen do something to hurt you? Should we know about anything?”

“Just that I’m stupid and fall hard for Christiansen men. Although Owen was just a weak, stupid mistake. Maybe it was the wedding and I was lonely, and you were going to Hawaii and I felt sorry for myself and . . .”

“And Owen is dark and troubled and needed someone too.”

She nodded. “I never meant to fall in love with Casper
 
—I especially never meant to hurt him.”

“I know,” Grace said. She took her hand. “So the baby is Owen’s?”

Raina nodded.

Oh, boy. “You should have told me. I would have listened.”

“How could I tell you that? I was so ashamed, and you love your family so much. You’d do anything for them.” She glanced at her. “Even agree to be a maid of honor
and
cater your sister’s wedding.”

“Agreed; that was a bad idea. But . . . I am not ignorant of my brother’s mistakes, believe me. I am on your side. I would have listened. Where did you go? I was so worried.”

Raina looked away, out the window. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have taken off. I know you needed me.”

“It’s okay. But . . . are
you
okay?”

“Maybe I should just . . . leave.”

“Raina, you don’t have to leave. You’re not alone
 
—”

“But I am, see? Aunt Liza will be furious with me, and besides her, I have no one. I certainly can’t ask your family for help
 
—”

“What are you talking about? Of course you can! You’re a part of our family now.”

Raina shook her head. “No, I’m not . . .”

“Yes, Raina, you are. With or without Casper
 
—or Owen, for that matter.” Grace couldn’t stop herself from reaching out, pulling Raina to her in a tight hug.

Raina surrendered with a shudder.

“It’s going to be okay.” Grace smoothed her hair. “We’ll figure it out.” She put Raina away from her, met her eyes. “God is going to do something good, something more with this, I promise.”

Raina tried a smile, but it fell.

“Are you still up to catering? Because I fear they’re falling apart in there.”

“I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I thought I saw smoke coming out through the double doors earlier.”

Grace didn’t wait for Raina to get out of the car.