her own age. They didn't understand how precious it all was or how quickly it passed.
Ben did. It was one of the many reasons why she loved him.
Another wave of apprehension swept over her. Ben was so happy that Graciela was coming home for the wedding. Happy and anxious and hopeful—so hopeful that it almost broke Laquita's heart. He wanted to make things right between him and Gracie. She had told him that they had come a long way over the last few years and that he should be proud of the progress he and his daughter had made toward becoming a family. She had also told him that he shouldn't expect miracles. Maybe Gracie had gone about as far as she was able to go with him and he should accept it and be grateful to have this much.
He had no idea that Laquita was praying for a miracle.
Everyone had said she and Ben would never last, that the age difference would put an end to them before they had a chance to get started but they were wrong. The only reason she ever wished Ben could be younger was so she could have him with her longer. Other than that, she wouldn't change a thing.
Except to give him back his daughter.
#
"Can I get you anything else, Mrs. C.?" Rachel Adams wiped away an imaginary streak from the crystal-clear library window of the house on the hill. "Another pot of tea or some of that pumpkin bread maybe."
Ruth Chase smiled and shook her head. "Nothing, thank you, Rachel. I'll be more than fine until dinner."
"Are Noah and Sophie eating dinner with you?"
Ruth's smile widened and Rachel smiled back at her. Grandmotherhood was proving to be as delightful as everyone had said it would be. "Sophie loves your Greek salad. If we have some feta, perhaps you could—"
"Done," said Rachel. "It's good to see the little one smile after all she's been through."
"That it is." She pointed toward a stack of books near the doorway. "I found some wonderful books on the Renaissance for Storm. She's welcome to keep them as long as she likes."
Rachel thanked her. "I'll send her in to get them as soon as she comes home from school."
"No hurry," said Ruth. "They're here waiting."
Storm was Rachel and Darnell's eleventh and last child. Storm was fourteen years old, beautiful, and more charming than the law allowed. Ruth thoroughly enjoyed having the child living under her roof. In truth she enjoyed all of the Adamses, including their extended family of brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, and the scattering of in-laws. Ruth had first opened her home to them three years ago, right after the flash flood that had washed away the home by the river and everything in them. Two of the Adams children had been badly hurt, as had Darnell himself when he tried to save them, but God was kind that day and let them live. The Urbanska family hadn't been that lucky. All six of them, lost to nature's fury.
The town had leaped into action. The fire department organized a food drive. The police department collected donations of money, clothes, household goods. Families took shelter where they could but the huge Adams clan faced being split until Ruth heard about their plight and offered her home. "I'm rattling around this place like a marble," she said when Darnell expressed reluctance to accept her generosity. "I'd love the company. Why should all those bedrooms go to waste?"
Darnell and Rachel finally agreed but with the proviso they be allowed to work around the house to earn their keep. The plan worked out so well that a temporary arrangement quickly turned into a permanent situation that was highly agreeable to all.
If someone had told her twenty years ago that the family of hippies who lived down by the river would move into her house and turn it into a home, she would have laughed out loud. If someone had told her that her son would return at last from Europe with a beautiful little daughter in tow, she would have been astonished. Life, she had learned, was nothing if not surprising.
Like the fact that Rachel's eldest, Laquita, was marrying Ben Taylor. Ruth was too old to be shocked by much of anything but that news did give her a moment's pause. The age difference alone was reason enough to think twice, but given both Ben's and Laquita's personal histories—well, there had certainly been more than a fair