Noah laughed again. “God had to send me four boats, two helicopters and several flotation devices. But I don’t feel so bad—Ellie hasn’t found it much easier.”
“I hope you proposed. At least told her you’d be a worthless failure without her….”
“I told her—” Noah stopped. He looked at George in silence for a moment. “I told her I’d made a commitment to love her forever and would never let her down. She said she thought I was real ethical.”
George smirked and shook his head. “Why, Noah, I bet that just swept her off her feet. She must be out shopping for a trousseau as we speak.”
“Crap,” Noah muttered. “I’ll get that straightened out tonight. I’ll steal her away from the rehearsal party and make sure—”
He was cut off at the sound of people entering the church, laughter accompanying them. The Booth and Riordan parties entered from the front of the church, just those partaking in the ceremony, to keep things simple. The group included Walt, Vanni and Shelby; Luke, Sean, Maureen and two ushers—Tom Booth and Aiden Riordan. Noah shook hands, bussed the lady’s cheeks and made introductions. The bride and groom and their attendants wandered to the front of the church, murmuring in awe at how beautiful it finished up, Shelby pointing out where the flowers would go.
“Let’s get this over with,” Walt blustered to Noah. “They’re setting up some mighty fine-looking food back at the house and those Riordans are circling like starving dogs. I’d like to get back there while they’re still sober enough to make the toasts.”
Noah looked at his watch yet again. “Let’s give Ellie another minute—she’s helping with the music tonight. Tomorrow is a no-brainer, she can just start the CD and—”
“You sure she’s coming, Noah?” Walt asked. “I saw her wrangling a couple of big suitcases down the stairs…”
“You saw her what?”
“When we were driving into town, past the Fitch house. She was on the stairs with a big suitcase—one still on top, one already sitting behind her car. I thought maybe she was…”
“Oh, God, no,” Noah said. “George, handle this for a few minutes. Lucy, stay!” And then he bolted out the side door and ran down the street like the seat of his pants was on fire. Or like he might be losing the love of his life.
When he got to the Fitch house, he saw exactly what Walt had described—a big suitcase sitting beside the open hatch of her PT Cruiser and the door to her apartment standing open. He took the steps two at a time. When he got to the top of the stairs and looked inside, his heart stopped. There she stood, beside her bed, an open suitcase sitting amidst several neatly folded piles of clothing ready to be packed.
“Ellie! No!” He rushed to her. “God, no! You can’t be leaving me! Don’t!” He grabbed her face and covered her mouth in a hard, desperate kiss. Her eyes flew open in stunned disbelief; she stopped breathing. He released her mouth but not her face, which he held in his hands, his fingers threaded into her hair. “You can’t go, Ellie, you can’t. Don’t you know how much I love you? God, I’d be nothing without you. I never thought I’d get to feel like this again, but you brought me back to life. You took the loneliness away and brought laughter back into my life. Ellie, you’re everything to me—I can’t make it without you. If you leave, I don’t know what I’ll—”
She just stared at him, a slight smile on her face. “Really? You don’t say.”
“Listen, I know I’m not a good romantic, I know that. I realized just a little while ago that I—Oh, hell, I told you how responsible I was, not how much you light up my life. I told you about my vow and how I could stick to it, not how life without you would be all gray and sad and awful. I didn’t tell you everything you mean to me. I promised myself I’d take care of that tonight, for sure. I was almost too late.”
“Tell me now,” she said.
“Now?” he asked, dropping his hands from her face.
“Right now,” she insisted.
“But I haven’t prepared!”
“I know. That’s the whole idea,” she said. “I’m listening.”
He cleared his throat. “Ellie. Dammit, you saved my life. I was a wallowing, pathetic, self-pitying—” He stopped talking at the sound of her soft laughter. “You’re not supposed to laugh at my attempts to be romantic.”
“Noah, that wasn’t romantic. That made me wonder what I ever saw in you. Start over.”
He grabbed her face in his hands again. “I want to be with you forever. I want to lie beside you every night, holding you close, whispering to you that I love you more than anything in the world, that you turned my whole world upside down just when it needed to be turned upside down. I want to make forever promises to you out loud, in front of God, and I want you to promise to be my woman, my wife, my one and only love, my best friend and my conscience. You’re never easy, Ellie, but you’re sure never boring…”
“I don’t know about that last part,” she commented.
“God, I love you so much. If I lost you, I don’t know what I’d do. I’d go after you, that’s what I’d do. I’d find a way to get you back. You know we’re perfect together. I know you feel it because I can feel you feel it.” He grinned roguishly. “We sure fit together perfect, don’t you think? You told me you loved me—tell me again.”
“I love you, Noah. I tried not to. I usually screw up love situations. But, apparently, we have that in common.” She grinned. “A good start.”
“You won’t leave me?”
“Why would I leave you? I adore you. And unless I’m completely stupid, you just asked me to marry you.”
“I did. We should give the kids some time to get used to the idea. And we should find a house that can hold us, but as soon as we can work out the details, we should get married.”
“Okay,” she said. “Am I late for rehearsal?”
“We were waiting for you,” he explained. “Then Walt said he saw you struggling with luggage and thought maybe you weren’t coming, that you were leaving.”
She laughed a bit. “Noah, these are Vanni’s hand-me-downs. I thought I had time to unpack them before the rehearsal.”
He was shocked silent for a moment, absorbing this, then he grabbed her and kissed her hard. And he said, “I have a feeling I bit off more than I can chew with you.”
“No question about that, Your Holiness.”
The church was decorated in fall floral arrangements. The ribbons that held turning leaves, dark yellow roses, coral tulips and red calla lilies together were brown, orange, yellow and red. Two big sprays at the front of the church tied the whole look together. The decorations were an amazing complement to the shining dark wood of the pews.
Ellie’s role in the ceremony was small but important. When everyone was ready, she pressed Play on the stereo, then went back to sit beside Paul Haggerty so she could hang on to Hannah. The priest and Noah entered from the right, standing together at the front of the church. Luke and Sean Riordan entered from the left. Vanessa came down the aisle and, Hannah, standing in Ellie’s lap, raised a fat little hand and yelled, “Mama!”
Vanni beamed at her and blew her a kiss as she passed.
Ellie glanced over her shoulder to smile at her children, seated with Jo and Nick. As she did so, she noticed that Jo and Nick were holding hands and it gave her a lift in her heart.
Right behind Vanni was Shelby, her glorious long hair pulled back and held away from her face with a few small flowers and flowing down her back to her waist. She looked so petite next to her towering uncle Walt; so radiant as he passed her hand into Luke’s.
Noah began the ceremony. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God—and in the face of this company—to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony, which is commended to be honorable among all men and therefore—is not by any—to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly—but reverently, discreetly, advisedly and solemnly. Into this holy estate these two persons present now come to be joined.”
The priest was next with his part. “Marriage is the union of husband and wife in heart, body and mind. It is intended for their mutual joy—and for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adversity. But more importantly—it is a means through which a stable and loving environment may be attained.”
Next the reading of 1 Corinthians 13, which they also shared, reading every other verse, beginning with Noah. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or clanging cymbal…”
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud,” said the priest.
“Love never fails,” said Noah, nearly completing the verse.
And then the priest finished with, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
Ellie watched Noah with admiration in her eyes, but Noah didn’t watch Ellie—he was busy. He focused on the couple before him, on the priest beside him. They presented the bride and groom their candles and they lit a unity candle together. He was so at ease, at peace before his own congregation. He was so beautiful. His smile was filled with joy and love; his eyes glowed. He spoke to the bride and groom softly, so softly no one but the couple could hear. He chuckled at something Luke said.
“There is no wedding sermon today,” Noah said. “The bride and groom have decided that the exchange of their vows will provide their message, after which Father Demetrius and I will have the honor of pronouncing them husband and wife. Shelby? Luke?”
Shelby handed off her bouquet and faced Luke, taking both his hands in hers. And she began: “Luke, I love you. I promise that each day I have you in my life, I will show you my love.”
Noah’s eyes drifted to Ellie’s and a smile played about his lips as the bride and groom spoke.
“Shelby, I love you. In each day of our lives together, I will show my love. And where there is injury, I will pardon without hesitation.”
“Where there is doubt, Luke, I will have faith in you.”
“In times of despair, you will be my hope.”
“In times of darkness, I will find my light in you.”
“When there is sadness, let me bring you joy.”
“Luke, I will not so much seek to be consoled as to console.”
“I will seek to understand, not just to be understood.”
“I will love, not just crave love.”
“I pledge you my heart, my life.”
“And I pledge mine to you.”
“I, Luke Riordan, take you, Shelby MacIntyre, to be wife, my best friend, my lover, my partner, the head of my family and other half of my heart. Forever.” He slid a ring on her finger.
Shelby slid a ring onto his finger. “I, Shelby MacIntyre, take you, Luke Riordan, to be my husband, best friend, lover, partner, head of my family and other half of my heart. Forever.”
“With God’s blessing,” Noah said. “Father Demetrius and I pronounce you husband and wife.”
The priest made the sign of the cross over them and invited them to seal their vows with a kiss.
As their lips met, the setting sun shone through the stained-glass window behind them, casting a glow over them. Ellie looked over their heads to Noah’s eyes and smiled. The shine in his eyes lit her to the marrow in her bones.
He was home. And she was home with him. Forever.
I am deeply grateful for the continued and dedicated early readings and fantastic suggestions made by my friend Michelle Mazzanti of the Henderson District Public Libraries. I count on you more than you’ll ever know.
Kate Bandy and Sharon Lampert, my dear friends, my right arm and my left, thank you for early reads, traveling with me on book business and staking out bookstores to hand sell books.
Colleen Gleason, you scary-smart writer you, my deep appreciation for critiquing, brainstorming, reading early drafts and making the most terrific suggestions.
I have the most wonderful team assisting, keeping me straight, giving moral and professional support and I’d be so lost without you. Thank you, Nancy Berland of the Berland PR Agency, Liza Dawson of Liza Dawson Associates Inc., and Valerie Gray, executive editor of Mira Books. You are true goddesses.
Thanks to Jeanne Devlin of the Berland Agency and Cissy Hartley of Writerspace.com. I reap the benefits of your many hours of creative work. I am so lucky to have you in my camp.
It is with humble appreciation I’d like to thank the entire Harlequin team. I know that I have the fun job and you do all the heavy lifting and I am profoundly grateful. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this wonderful opportunity to spend every day in Virgin River.
Thanks to the men and women who gather at the virtual Jack’s Bar online—your enthusiasm is often the bright light on a cloudy day. You’re like family and I enjoy your company so much.
And, finally, to the thousands of readers who have written with comments and suggestions, with your personal stories and encouragement, I am indebted to you. I take each e-mail very seriously and you’ll never know how much it means to me that you take the time to write. Bless you.
FORBIDDEN FALLS
Copyright © 2010 by Robyn Carr.
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