Return to Me by Robin Lee Hatcher Read Free Book Online

orange chicken salad. With a long flight ahead of her today and a stressful meeting with store personnel tomorrow, she wanted comfort food in a bad way.
    They ordered their lunch, and as soon as the waiter departed, Wyatt reached for Elena’s hand. “Can I take your mind off work for a minute or two?”
    She smiled and squeezed his fingers in return. “Please do.” “I’ve been rethinking our decision to wait until I’m out of semi-
    nary to get married.”
    Nerves fluttered in her stomach. “You have?”
    He nodded. “I know God’s called me to the ministry, but it’s going to take time to see it come to fruition. There’s seminary, and after that, I’ll probably serve as an associate pastor for a time. It may mean two or three moves and a number of years before I have a permanent position as a senior pastor. Even that may be optimistic.”
    She nodded, not sure what to say.
    He cleared his throat. “Something happened yesterday that got me thinking about kids.” He leaned toward her. “Our kids.”
    “Our kids?” They hadn’t talked about having children. It was assumed but never discussed.
    “We’re both thirty-five. If we wait much longer to start a fam- ily, we might be too late.” His grip on her hand tightened. “It would mean doing with less, but we’re both financially well off. We could make it through the lean years until God takes us to a permanent church home.”
    It dawned on her, in that moment, with Wyatt’s hand holding hers, that their marriage would bring many changes into her life. By fall, he would be a seminary student, and one day he would be a pastor. Sooner or later, she would have to leave her position with Burke Department Stores. Someday she would be expected to fol- low wherever her husband’s calling led them.
    “What do you think about a June wedding, Elena?”
    She wasn’t sure what she thought. Confusion wrestled with excitement. An hour ago she’d believed their wedding was at least a year or two away. Plenty of time to plan the ceremony and recep- tion. Plenty of time to train her replacement at Burke’s. Plenty of time to prepare for all the adjustments that would have to be made in her well-organized life. And now it needed to be done in two months? Was she ready for that?
    He leaned toward her and his voice softened. “Is it enough time to make the arrangements and still have the kind of wedding you want?”
    As she met his loving gaze, Elena’s thoughts quieted. This was Wyatt. Her Wyatt. Whether it was two years, two months, or two days, she wanted to be his wife. She was ready. “It’s enough.” She smiled. “It will have to be, won’t it?”
    He brushed his lips across hers, then drew back. “We’ll have lots to talk about when you get home from San Diego.”
    “Lots.”
    “I love you, Elena.”
    Any lingering doubts that two months might be too little time dissipated with those words. She would never tire of hearing them. Not if she lived to be a thousand. “I love you, Wyatt. With all my heart.”
    “Do you mind if I tell your father what we’ve decided? Or will you see him before you go?”
    She smiled again. “No, I won’t see him before I leave, and I don’t mind if you share the news. He’ll be delighted.”
    =

    Elena’s prediction about her father’s delight was an understate- ment, judging by the fervor with which he shook Wyatt’s hand and slapped him on the back.
    “This is what I’ve prayed for,” Jonathan said as the two men sat down in the spacious living room of the Burke home.
    Wyatt could almost read the older man’s mind: I’m ready to
    become a grandfather. Stop wasting precious time.
    “If I’d known about this,” Jonathan continued, “I would have asked someone else to go to San Diego.”
    “Elena didn’t have a chance to tell you. I sprang it on her at lunch today.” Wyatt looked out the windows that afforded a pan- oramic view of the Boise Valley, aglow with lights an hour after sunset. “As soon as