Her Wedding Wish Read Online Free Page B

him.
    Danielle saw the pain in his eyes when he turned toward her. “It’ll come, Jonas. One step at a time. I have faith you will remember everything. You just can’t push it. You’d better come to the table, both of you. Do you need help?”
    “I can do it.” He put down the photo album and began to struggle with his walker.
    Tyler, such a good little boy, grabbed the walker by the handle. “Let me help, Dad. I’m real strong.”
    “Real strong,” Jonas agreed, kind even when pain lined his pale face. “Thanks, buddy.”
    Danielle’s vision blurred and she finished setting the table. The man toiling with his walker, scooting forward one slow step at a time, reached the table exhausted.
    “I’ll let myself out,” Katherine said quietly from the kitchen. “Jonas, I’m going to keep praying for you.”
    “Th-thank you.” He looked weary as he eased into the chair.
    When she laid her hand on his big shoulder, Danielle could feel the tension corded up like hard ropes. How difficult this had to be for him, coming to a home and a life and a family he could not remember. He was weak and wounded and not the man he was. He must have been able to see that, she realized now, seeing himself in the photo album.
    A downside she hadn’t anticipated.
    Aching for him, she left her hand on his shoulder and kept the contact between them. “Goodbye, Kath, and thanks again.”
    Katherine glanced over her shoulder as she snagged her designer purse from the counter. “I’ll see you all tomorrow. Good night, and, Jonas, it’s so good to see you home.”
    Danielle felt her husband nod in acknowledgment, but her heart was too full of emotions too complicated to sort out. Tyler was climbing into his chair at the table, and Madison was mutinously—although adorably—running after her departing aunt, then looking at her parents, who were not acknowledging her mutiny, and her lower lip stuck out farther.
    “All right! Mexi-fries!” Tyler pumped his fist in victory. “I getta say grace. Can I? Please? ”
    “If it’s all right with your dad.” It felt fantastic to say that again, but Jonas only looked at her bewildered, as if he had no idea why it would or wouldn’t be his call. So she answered in his place. “I guess it is. Let me get Madison to the table.”
    “No.” Madison looked pretty determined as she studied her father. She clutched her cell phone tightly.
    “C’mon, ple-eeeeese. ” Tyler was about to burst with so much excitement. “Daddy, she’s been like this a lot. I’m tryin’ to be a good big brother, but it’s hard.”
    “I can see that,” Jonas said quietly with a wink.
    Not willing to scoop the child up and risk a meltdown, Danielle knelt to size up the situation. “Don’t you want Mexi-fries?”
    Madison bobbed her head once in a serious nod. Her tiara winked as it caught the overhead light.
    “Then come to the table, princess.” Danielle held out her hand, palm up, hoping for a little toddler cooperation.
    Madison turned her serious gaze to her daddy on the far side of the table. “I wanna sit by yew, Mommy.”
    Over the top of their daughter’s head, she could see the hurt on Jonas’s face. As little as Madison was, she knew there was something different—much different—about the father who’d come home to them. Tyler was too excited to truly notice, but would his security be blown apart when he did?
    I’ll cross that bridge when I get there, she reminded herself. Prayer, tonight, would help as it always did. With the Lord’s grace, perhaps Jonas would recover quickly enough that Tyler wouldn’t realize it. Jonas had already defied the doctor’s dim prognosis so far. Yes, she decided, steeling her spine, she would rely on her faith. God would make this right.
    “I’ll scoot your chair closer to mine, how’s that?” Danielle waited for Madison to consider this. When the toddler placed her sticky little hand on hers, Danielle sighed with relief. One tantrum avoided. “Good