The Matchmaker's Match

{Chapter} 36

Wade covered her fingertips with his hand. “I guess so.”

Aubrey scrunched her face up playfully as she examined his scar. “I think it’s kind of attractive.”

Wade laughed and pulled her into his arms, pressing his lips to hers. All thoughts of the past few months were put aside to make room for the here and now that day in the Dylan house.

**********

Adam reread the letter in his hand until he nearly had it memorized. It had taken months before Katie’s father finally answered his letter, claiming that he had taken his time in “thinking it over”. Now that the answer was in his hands, he couldn’t believe it. After all the waiting and nearly despairing over Mr. Morris’ answer, he finally received it in the handwriting of Katie’s mother.

Dear Adam,

Mr. Morris and I took our time in thinking this through. We know that you are a good man and that you would take care or our daughter. To be honest with you, I think Mr. Morris had more of a quarrel with the thought of Katie having a beau than he did with the young man she loved. Katie wrote and told us all that you did for her. How you saved her life and pretended to break off the relationship to save her relationship with her father. Mr. Morris concealed these things from me until a week ago out of fear that I would answer you before he had a good chance to think it over. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. While Katie and her father have grown apart for the time being, she is very dear to us. Mr. Morris and I have reached the decision that you may have our daughter’s hand under the condition that you build a house for her before the wedding as you promised. I look forward to having such a fine young man for a son-in-law. Thank you very much, Adam, for all that you have done.

Sincerely,

Josie Morris.

Adam grinned at the best news since the verdict for Alex Harrison’s forty years in prison. He had to find the perfect way to tell Katie the news.

**********

Toni slapped the newspaper down on the table in front of her husband.

“Can you believe this? It’s absolutely appalling!” She exclaimed.

Erik bent over the newspaper and read of the election and how Lincoln was voted into office as the President of the United States.

“I figured as much, sweetheart,” he said with a sigh.

“I don’t trust that man. It’s gonna be a tough four years if you ask me,” Toni walked to the window and looked out. “What if we do go to war, Erik? What if the South doesn’t secede? This could go on for years and years.”

“If it does, then we can’t stop it. We can’t worry. God has it all under control,” Erik bounced Sandy on his knee.

“Would you fight?” Toni asked, not looking at him.

She heard Erik take a deep breath. “Yes,” he stated. “I’d fight for Georgia.”

Toni ducked her head. “I don’t guess I can fault you for that.”

Erik stood, placing Sandy in his chair and walking over to stand beside her. “We shouldn’t ruin a perfectly good Sunday with politics. We’ll worry about it enough when the time comes.”

Toni nodded. “You’re right. The Dylans and the cowboys will be here in a few minutes. Might as well set the chairs at the table.”

Toni was right. Within the next few minutes, the McBride house became full of the people they knew and loved. The three of their cowboys, Wade, Aubrey, Jay, and Katie all sat around their table as Erik opened his Bible and read to them.

“Psalms eighty-eight three says, Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.” Erik closed his Bible and looked at them. “God’s a faithful God; I think every one of us knows that. When we can’t see past what we’re going through, He sees the big picture and all of what He has planned. When we won’t think of anyone but ourselves, He’s thinking about us and working for our better good. My point is that, even when we’re going through what seems like the worst time of our lives, God is always gonna finish what he started in our lives. He ain’t gonna leave us hanging, and He ain’t gonna make us do it on our own.”

Everyone around the table nodded in agreement. They all knew that Erik’s words were true. Even at their darkest point, God was the light that saw them through.

**********

“Adam, this is a perfectly lovely way to ruin a Monday, don’t you think? Come out in the middle of Texas in November and get lost. At least we’ll die together,” Katie huffed as Adam led her up on top of a rise.

“We’re not lost, Kate,” Adam reassured her.

“Sure. Then where are we, since you’re in the know?” Katie asked.

Adam pulled his horse to a halt and dismounted.

“Come here and I’ll show you.”

He helped her dismount her horse and led her a few feet away to where four large stones were placed quite a ways apart. She arched an eyebrow and looked at him.

Adam grinned and led her to stand between two of the stones.

“What do you think of this being your view from your front porch every morning?” Adam asked, turning her to face where he was wanting her to look by her shoulders.

Katie looked over the wide-open view of Texas in front of her. It was just as they had imagined it when they had planned their future all those years ago.

“It… It would be perfect,” she breathed.

Adam walked to stand in front of her and gave her a letter. Katie took the letter and opened it to find her mother’s handwriting. She read the letter over and over again until she felt sorry for Adam having to stand there in the silence. She looked up at him.

“He gave his blessing. I…I don’t believe it,” she said with tears of happiness threatening to spill from her eyes.

Adam took the letter from her and stuffed it in his back pocket before taking her hands in his.

“Kate, it’s been the craziest few months since you came back into my heart. Now I can’t imagine a day without you.” He knelt down on one knee, and Katie’s heart hitched. “From the very first day I met you, you’ve been changing me. The way I think, the way I act, the way I react to anything. You were there when I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life. When the scars on my heart were still wounds, you were there to help me heal. You made me feel like a brand new man. You can always see inside me when I’m trying to hide something from you. It’s always been you, Kate. Would do me the honor of fixing me for the rest of our lives?”

Katie was crying now, squeezing his hands in hers. She nodded and fell into his arms, tackling him back on the ground.

“I’ll love you for the rest of my life, Adam Sterling,” She said through her happy tears.

Adam rolled until he lay on top of her. “How about forever?”

Katie nodded. “Forever.”

His head lowered until her lips locked with his. Katie was the happiest she had been in five years at that moment. There in the square of where their future home would be, in the circle of her beloved’s arms, she knew that she, the matchmaker of Sundance, Texas, had finally found a match for herself.

*Wail* The Epilogue is all I have left! Pardon me while I indulge in a good cry...