Page 43 of The Promise in Poppies
“Some days I wish we’d planned our wedding for the spring instead,” Olivia admitted. “We’d both love to attend the Rose Festival in Morocco. It would be the perfect honeymoon, but it’s held in May.”
“Can’t you move the wedding up a few months?” Eliza asked with a grin.
“Not without making a lot of vendors very unhappy.” Olivia tried to sound lighthearted, but Cassie caught a glint of uncertainty in her eyes. Did she still have doubts about the wedding details?
“I know this sounds strange,” Kat began in a tentative tone, as if she was almost too embarrassed to finish her confession. Cassie caught a brief glance between Kat and her mother, and, curiously, the latter’s encouraging smile seemed to give Kat the courage to continue. “I’m actually glad Jack’s mother has taken over most of the planning for our wedding. She actually enjoys it, while I find the limitless choices far too stressful. There’s only one decision I want to make. Well, besides picking the groom,” she said with a playful laugh, adding, “And that’s the dress.”
Her admission sent the women into a boisterous discussion of styles, fabrics, and necklines, and the gift baskets were forgotten in favor of bridal fashion trends.
Cassie stole away to the kitchen and set a kettle on the stove to start a pot of tea. A gentle rain tapped against the windows, and the crackle of thunder punctuated the conviviality in the other room. Her mother’s laughter carried above the rest, and Cassie’s chest squeezed at the pleasant, lilting sound. It was a sound she barely recognized, due to its scarcity. And yet, she heard it more and more frequently these days, a realization that warmed her heart.
“Would you care for some help?” Maggie didn’t wait for a response and began arranging oatmeal cookies she’d brought on a serving plate while Cassie prepared the teapot. When she’d finished, Maggie reached into her large tote bag resting on the counter. Cassie expected her to produce another container of snacks, but instead, she withdrew a small ivory blanket with tiny red poppies embroidered along the lace border.
“I’ve been meaning to give this to you,” Maggie said softly.
“Maggie, it’s beautiful.” Cassie gently grazed the soft, creamy fabric that was clearly a blanket intended for a baby girl.
“Of course, I realize you don’t know if you’re having a boy or a girl, but I have my suspicions. And I have quite a knack for these things.”
Cassie caressed the delicate crimson petals painstakingly stitched with love as tears sprang to her eyes.
A daughter…Somewhere, deep down, she’d had the same feeling, but she hadn’t wanted to say it out loud. Boy or girl, she’d love her child the same, but she couldn’t shake the inkling. “Did you make this?”
“Several years ago. Decades, really. In some ways, it feels like another lifetime.”
“I don’t understand.” Cassie met her gaze. Why would she make a baby blanket for a granddaughter that didn’t exist yet?
Maggie’s features softened, and her voice escaped in a faint, wistful breath. “I made it for our daughter, Hope.”
“Oh, Maggie.” Cassie’s heart broke in two, and her hand instinctively fell across her stomach, as if the act were a silent prayer of protection.
“It was a long time ago. A miscarriage. I never even got to hold her.” Maggie’s eyes flooded with tears for a lost child she still loved dearly. “In many ways,” she whispered, “I imagined she’d be a lot like you.”
A whimper caught in Cassie’s throat, and she flung her arms around Maggie’s neck, dampening her soft silver-streaked curls with her tears. “I’m so, so sorry, Maggie,” she murmured.
“Thank you, sweet one. While I still think of her often, the Lord has comforted my grieving heart.” Maggie leaned back and lovingly brushed a tear from Cassie’s cheek. “He’s also given me two more daughters to call my own.”
Cassie blinked back a wave of intense emotion, knowing Maggie meant her and Penny. In turn, Maggie had become a mother to her in every sense that mattered, permanently sewn into the fabric of her life.
Growing up, she’d often prayed for a family, daydreaming not only about her mother’s sobriety, but finding her father and extended relatives like grandparents, aunts, uncles, and too many cousins to count. Maybe even siblings.
Lately, those dreams materialized less frequently, and not because the desire had waned, but rather, because it had been fulfilled by the people around her. People like her husband, Maggie, Frank, Beverly, and the women in the next room.
On the same wavelength, Maggie said, “Over the years, the Lord has taught me that not all families are related by blood, but they’re no less real.”
Cassie smiled through her tears, believing with every fiber of her being that Maggie’s words were true. Another clap of thunder shook the windows, but Cassie didn’t flinch. The people in her life—her found family—helped her weather the storms, both real and metaphorical. With this much love surrounding her, was there any hurdle she couldn’t overcome?
CHAPTER26
DONNA
Donna popped a morsel of hand-pulled honey taffy into her mouth, smiling as she chewed the buttery-soft sweetness while she observed the unusual relay race unfolding in the town square.
Jack and Colt had chopped a pile of tree rounds into neat logs, which they then loaded into wheelbarrows. At that point, their respective teammates, Luke and Reed, took over, careening the wheelbarrows through a winding course before reaching the next leg of the relay where Grant and Landon unloaded the logs, stacking them in a neat pyramid. Until finally, Rhett and Vick now competed to start a campfire in a stone pit using only the materials around them—twigs, leaves, and pine needles—and an old-fashioned flint kit. The first team to ignite a steady flame would win.
There were several such relays throughout the first day of the Founders Festival, all mimicking survival skills the miners would have needed in the mid-1800s. Donna remembered competing in a few with her dad, and watching Rhett and Vick now, lobbing good-natured heckles back and forth as sparks flew into the late afternoon sky, wrapped her in a nostalgic embrace.
Spending time with Rhett over the last several days had started to soften her heart toward the past, helping her look back with fondness and gratitude for the time she’d spent with her father rather than dwelling on his death. She still missed him terribly, but holding on to her sorrow meant she was missing out on all the wonderful memories, too. They were a blessing, a gift she’d neglected for far too long. And she owed her epiphany to a man intent on creating new memories. A man who’d seen her worth when she no longer could.
