Read Online Her Wedding Wish by Jillian Hart - Free Book Online

stayed, who loved with all their hearts, who stood for what was right.
    “Sitting there in the sanctuary surrounded by people I loved and trusted, it came to me that I was afraid. It went beyond being cautious, so I asked for the Lord’s help. I gave up my fears to Him and vowed to try to follow where my answered prayers would lead me.”
    “I wasn’t so bad.” While his grin was back, his eyes remained sad for her. “Did I t-talk to you?”
    “Yes. You came up after the service and when Dad invited you out to brunch with us, I took it as confirmation. You sat beside me in the restaurant and we just clicked. We talked as if we’d been friends all our lives, and there was something there, something rare that scared me. I think it was what I felt from the very start, when I first spotted you leaning up against the rail fence. It was like finding part of myself, the better half, and finding that I had come home. It’s so frightening to accept, because it is so very much to lose. You are so very much to lose.”
    “You didn’t lose me. I’m still here.”
    Her eyes welled with tears and a sob lodged in the middle of her throat. She felt the tangible weight of all the fear she had refused to let herself feel after Jonas was shot, all of the terror she locked away because it had been too overwhelming.
    At the time, she’d pushed aside all her anguish because being calm and having a positive outlook for Jonas’s sake was more important. But now it rolled over her like a tidal wave. No one really knew—not the doctors, not the well-meaning nurses, not even her family or their minister—how deeply she loved her husband.
    Only God did, Who could see into her heart.
    Jonas, however, could not—he no longer could—and only stared at her with a thousand questions in his eyes. “Tell me about our first date.”
    There was so much to say, so much more that couldn’t be put into words. Love was like that, the greatest pieces of which could only be felt. “What do you want to know?”
    “Did I ask you out after the brunch with your family?”
    “No. You didn’t get a chance to talk with me alone. My family kept butting in, nosy as always, bless them.” She could feel the kiss of the summer sunshine on her face and smell the sweet scent of strawberries from that long-ago day drifting in from the farmer’s fields across the road.
    “They liked me at first?”
    “They adored you. What I will always remember is the way you took my hand to help me into the car. Your hand was strong and tender all at once. You stood so tall next to me, and your hand was so big compared to mine. And your touch was intimate.”
    “How do you mean?”
    “Like when our hands met, our spirits did, too.”
    He watched her with unblinking eyes, his gaze thoughtful, with realization on his face. “I was already in love with you, too. Love at first sight.”
    “That’s what you told me, later.” Happiness, that’s what the pressure was, expanding painfully in her throat. The man before her, with a shaky smile and the side of his face still a touch paralyzed, with his slightly gnarled left hand and the walker tucked off to the side of the couch, was no longer a complete stranger. “Do you remember me at all, Jonas?”
    “No. But I’m going to.” He reached out and gathered her hands. His movements were slow, his touch tender, as he wrapped her hands with his.
    She felt her heart tug. Her spirit awaken. Her soul sigh in recognition.
    “I want to. Help me remember, Danielle.”
    She would not fail him. She hadn’t given up on him in the hospital, when his survival had been nothing but the smallest chance. She would not let go of him now. “I will, Jonas. I promise you.”
    “Mommy!” Madison stood in the shadowed light of the hallway, scrubbing her sleepy eyes with her little fists. Her stuffed bunny was tucked in the crook of her arm. “I want some water. Minnie does, too.”
    “Okay, bubbles.” It took a little piece out of her