Levi stood in the bedroom doorway, imagining what it would be like to come in after morning chores to find Eden making their bed. The wedding ring quilt she’d bought at the auction would be rumpled and tossed aside. She’d reach for a corner, and he would sneak up behind her, wrapping his arms about her waist. She’d try to shoo him away, but he’d ignore her and kiss her neck until she stopped resisting. The quilt would fall from her hands and the two of them would—
“Levi? Are you in here?”
He jerked away from the doorframe, nearly spilling the last bit of coffee from his cup. “In the back,” he called.
Eden rounded the corner into the narrow hall, her face beaming when she saw him. “After Mother and Father bought us the new cookstove for the house, I didn’t expect any other wedding gifts, but last night they surprised me. Look, Levi.” She held up the basket that swung on her arm and gestured for him to follow her to the bed. “Look what they gave me.”
Thankfully, when she sat, she placed the basket between them. After the direction his thoughts had been running, he needed the barrier. At least for one more day.
She reached into the basket and extracted a cloth-wrapped bundle, her excitement palpable. Eden laid it on her lap and folded back the edges of fabric to reveal a familiar oval frame. “Our bouquet! Isn’t it wonderful? When I was making it, I used to imagine it hanging above our . . . well . . . our . . . um . . . marriage bed.”
Eden suddenly dropped her gaze to her lap, and Levi grinned. So he hadn’t been the only one thinking such thoughts.
“When Father bought it in the auction, I was happy to know that it would stay in the family. But I never dreamed Mother would guess how much it meant to me, how it reminded me of you and our courtship, nor that she would actually present it to me as a wedding gift. Is it not marvelous?”
“Very thoughtful.” Did she know how adorable she was when she was excited? “If you leave it here, I can hang it tonight.”
“Would you? That would make everything perfect!”
Yep. Definitely adorable . . . and delectable.
“Oh, and you must see what Daddy gave me.” She pushed a folded sheet of paper at him. “Read it.”
Levi took the paper from her and scanned the contents. Gratitude welled in him as he read.
“I don’t know if it is even legal to deed over a single room of a house, but Daddy did it anyway. The library and all its contents are mine to do with as I please for as long as he owns the house.”
Her father had lived up to his agreement, and Levi would forever be in his debt. Although all Mr. Spencer had asked in return was that Levi make his daughter happy—a debt Levi was glad to make payments on for the rest of his life.
“Your father knows how much the library means to you.”
“Yes. Even more now, because it is where I fell in love with the man who is to be my husband.” She looked at him, her lips parted in invitation.
Kissable lunged to the top of his adjective list. Levi bent toward Eden. His mouth covered hers. His hand lifted from his lap, aiming for her nape, when a masculine voice boomed from the front of the house.
“Eden! What’s taking you so long? Your mother’s growing warm out in the carriage. Hurry along.”
Levi sprang to his feet. “You didn’t tell me your father was waiting out there,” he accused in a hoarse whisper.
“Sorry,” she whispered back, fidgeting with one of her hairpins. “I . . . um . . . forgot.”
The way she looked at him from the corner of her eye and bit her lip gave him the impression that he was responsible for her forgetful state, an idea that filled him with such satisfaction, he couldn’t possibly be upset with her about it.
“Grant?” The man’s voice sounded decidedly less pleasant. “Best get out here, man.”
Eden rolled her eyes. “We’re coming, Daddy.” She grabbed Levi by the hand and tugged him out to the parlor.
Mr. Spencer’s gaze raked his daughter as if verifying that every button was done up, and then glared at Levi. “Took you long enough.”
“I was showing him the gifts you and Mother gave me. I haven’t even had a chance to tell him about our outing yet.”
Levi squeezed her hand. “Where are you going?”
“Not just me,” she said. “You’re coming with us.”
“But I have work to do here to get ready for—”
Eden shook her head, interrupting him. “It’ll have to wait. The train will be arriving in an hour, and we can’t be late.”
“Why do we have to meet the train?” It seemed like a waste of time to him. Everything was in place for the ceremony tomorrow. All he had to do was add a few finishing touches to the cabin—hang some curtains Georgia Barnes had sewn for him, pick some flowers for the jars Chloe had spread throughout the house—little things to surprise his bride. He didn’t want to go wait on a train.
“Please, Levi. You have to come.” Those big eyes of hers got all dewy, and Levi’s resistance wavered. “I sent away for something special, and it is to arrive today on the train. It is my wedding gift to you. You have to be there. Please say you’ll come.”
“All right.” As if there were ever really any question. “Let me get my hat.”
The train rolled in twenty minutes late. Levi had watched Eden pace the platform for the last ten, her parents having left them in order to lunch at the café. But when the whistle blew and the brakes squealed, she ran back to him and pulled him up off the bench.
“Levi, I have to tell you something.”
He scrunched his brows. What was going on in that beautiful head of hers? She’d had twenty minutes to tell him something. Why would she wait for the train to actually arrive before bringing it up?
“All right,” he said.
Eden gripped his hand between both of hers and gazed up at him, her fidgeting having finally stopped. “Since the day I met you, you have challenged my assumptions and pushed me beyond boundaries in my thinking that I didn’t even realize existed. I am a better person because of you.”
Humbled and overcome with pride in this woman who was about to be his wife, Levi struggled to find words to express what he felt. “Eden, you are . . . everything to me.”
In the background, people had started to disembark the train, and porters dashed to and fro, but Levi kept his gaze on the woman before him. She glanced over her shoulder once, then turned back and squeezed his hand.
“You encouraged me to expand my life in new directions and step out in greater faith. I want to do the same for you.”
Prickles of unease skated across the back of his neck.
“No matter what happens,” she said, “remember that I love you and believe in you with all my heart.” And with that cryptic pronouncement, Eden swiveled around to his side and faced the handful of passengers making their way toward the depot.
Passengers who looked strangely familiar.
Tension immobilized his muscles—all except his heart, which beat an increasingly rapid staccato rhythm against his ribs.
“Levi?” a feminine voice called—a voice he hadn’t heard in years.
“Mama?” he choked out, his voice broken.
She separated herself from the wide-shouldered man at her side and ran—yes, ran—to him and threw her arms around him, pinning his elbows to his sides when he failed to release Eden’s hand fast enough.
“Oh, my boy. How I’ve missed you.”
Levi absorbed the affection like the ground absorbed water after a drought. “I’m thorry, Mama.”
His mother let go and stepped back, wiping tears from her cheeks yet smiling as wide as he’d ever seen. She patted his face like she had when he’d been a boy, and that simple gesture seemed to erase all the poor choices he had made since then and offered him a place back in her good graces. She looked him up and down, then apparently satisfied that he hadn’t wasted away while they’d been apart, she turned her attention to Eden.
Leaning forward, she hugged Eden with the same
enthusiasm with which she’d hugged him. “Thank you, dear girl. Thank you for giving me back my son.”
Levi didn’t catch the rest of what she said, for a shadow fell across his face, and he sensed another’s presence. His father. The man stood before him, his face more haggard than Levi remembered, his hair grayer around the temples, his eyes full of regret.
This was what he’d feared, why he’d never gone home, never even sent a letter. His father’s disappointment cut through him like a blade.
“I don’t warrant it, Pop, but I beg you to forgive me.”
His father just stood there, not saying a word. He pulled his hat from his head, and stared at the ground for a moment. When he finally looked up, his eyes were suspiciously bright.
“I . . . uh . . . hear you got a shop of your own, nowadays.” He coughed as if something had lodged in his throat. “Care to show your old man around?”
His eyes dampening, Levi nodded. “I’d like that, Pop.” Holding his breath, he reached out and clasped his father’s shoulder. Not only did the man not flinch, he clasped Levi’s arm in return. The grip of acceptance.
His father stepped close, his low murmur vibrating in Levi’s ear. “If your choice in bride is any indication, son, you’ve gained a great deal of wisdom in the last few years. I’m proud of you.”
Levi swallowed hard, the words he feared never to hear again falling like a healing balm upon his soul. His gaze sought out the woman who’d made it all possible and found the mossy green eyes he loved so well.
He mouthed the words thank you. She replied with a silent I love you. And Levi’s heart shouted his joy to the heavens.
About the Author
KAREN WITEMEYER holds a master’s degree in Psychology from Abilene Christian University and is a member of ACFW, RWA, and her local writers’ guild. She is the author of A Tailor-Made Bride, which was honored as one of the Best Western Romances of 2010 by the Love Western Romances Web site. To Win Her Heart is her third novel. Karen lives in Abilene, Texas, with her husband and three children.
Books by
Karen Witemeyer
A Tailor-Made Bride
Head in the Clouds
To Win Her Heart
Resources: bethanyhouse.com/AnOpenBook
Website: www.bethanyhouse.com
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Karen Witemeyer, To Win Her Heart
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