Forgiving Paris: A Novel(76)

He could watch Eliza with her family for the rest of the afternoon, but he tried to find his voice. “It was your great-grandfather, Lizzie.” He looked from her to her mother and brother. “He believed you were all alive. After talking with him, I couldn’t let the idea go.”

He could tell her later how he hadn’t gotten word that her mother and brother were found until three days ago, when he returned home from Honduras. CJ, his undercover agent friend, was working a drug ring in eastern Pennsylvania when he got a tip on her family.

Jack hadn’t been sure it was them until he flew there and met with the pair himself. He needed only one look at Susan James to know without a doubt. This was Eliza’s mother. She looked like a carbon copy of Eliza, a little older, darker hair. But the same blue eyes, same smile.

And since then he had come to learn something else about the woman. She and Eliza had the same heart. Her brother was twenty-one, and Jack could see the resemblance in him, too. So he had flown her family here for the moment that was about to happen.

As they reached the aisle, an older man stood and took his place near the gazebo. He wore a suit and he nodded at Jack.

“That’s the pastor,” Jack whispered near her ear. “The woman is his wife.”

“I can’t believe this.” Eliza looked like she could barely feel the sand beneath her feet.

Her mom hugged her again and stared at her. Like all she wanted was to stare at Eliza as long as she could. Finally she stepped back. Tears still shone on her face. “I have something for you.” She walked to a bag behind the folding chairs and returned with a simple bouquet of white stars, a flower native to Belize. “I think you might need this.”

“True.” Jack kissed Eliza’s cheek and then he left her and walked down the aisle. He took his place next to the pastor. Everything was moving in slow motion, like the dream he’d imagined every day since he last saw her.

Eliza took the flowers, and kissed her mother’s cheek. The two held hands for a long moment and then Susan James went back to sit in the front row, across the aisle from the pastor’s wife.

Jack couldn’t stop smiling at the look on Eliza’s face. His note asking her to wear white today had to have given away the fact that a wedding was coming. But this… Jack blinked back tears. This was greater than anything he could’ve imagined.

Daniel stood beside her and held out his arm. “May I walk you down the aisle, Lizzie?”

“Yes!” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Yes, Daniel, you may walk me down the aisle.” She was clearly trying not to cry, trying to soak in every moment. Jack could tell.

The aisle wasn’t long or glamorous, but until his final breath Jack would remember the way Lizzie James looked walking toward him, clinging to the brother she thought she’d lost forever. Even then she had eyes for Jack alone. And he realized they were no longer on a private stretch of Belizean beach.

They were on holy ground.



* * *



THE SWEET SCENT of the flowers in her hand made her certain she wasn’t dreaming. But nothing else about the moment seemed real. Her mother and brother were alive! And they were here, with her, beside her!

God had brought them back to her. And He’d brought her back to Jack. All in one beautiful day. She had no idea how he’d found a pastor here on the Placencia Peninsula, but that didn’t matter. The man looked kind and he had a Bible in his hands.

She reached the end of the aisle, and Daniel put his hands on her shoulders. “I love you, Lizzie.”

“I love you, Daniel.” She hugged him for a long while, and then he sat down beside their mother.

Eliza looked at the woman. She hadn’t changed. Her hair, her face. Just like the images Eliza had imagined every time she looked out at the ocean. Their eyes held for a long moment, and then Eliza turned to Jack.

“I’m Pastor Joseph.” The man smiled. “Looks like we’ve got much to celebrate today.”

You have no idea, she wanted to say. But she only nodded. Somewhere in heaven, she hoped Jack’s parents and Shane had a front-row spot. Because if God could do this, He could do that, too.

The pastor continued. “I understand you two haven’t seen each other for a year’s time.” He shook his head. “I’m sure you don’t have vows prepared. But do you both intend to—”

Eliza raised her hand.

“Yes, Ms. James.” Pastor Joseph looked confused.

“I have vows.” She smiled at Jack and gave a small shrug of her shoulders. “I had all year to memorize them.”

Jack chuckled. “Me, too.”

The pastor nodded. He looked a little dazed. Surely he’d never done a wedding like this one. “Okay then. Lizzie… Jonathan. Marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman, a covenant ordained by God. Are you two prepared to enter into that covenant now?”

She met Jack’s eyes. They both nodded and said, “Yes… we are.”

“Very well.” Pastor Joseph looked at Daniel. “Do you and your mother approve of this union?”

Eliza’s brother reached for their mother’s hand as he nodded. “We do.”

“Lizzie, you may join your groom.”

“Thank you.” Eliza loved the old pastor. He seemed determined to keep the sense of reverence and propriety even when the wedding wouldn’t take more than five minutes. As if he could tell something very special was happening in his presence.