‘You’re gorgeous,’ she said.

He believed her. He couldn’t help himself.

Then he read aloud the letter Puny had found, and they agreed that the timing couldn’t have been better:

I once dreamed, but never truly imagined, that I would one day salute someone as “wife.” It is a designation of the greatest virtue, and though a simple word, has deep and complex meaning.

As for the complex, you are nearly an entire family to me. Wife, mother, sister, child, and that bewildering cousin, daughter of Aunt Lily, who astounded us with her brains and ingenuity. She was after doing more than climbing a tree, she wanted a watchtower built among its topmost branches. This task she assigned to Louis and me and we were gravely honored to do it, though at risk of life and limb. Like you, Nealey could whistle loud enough to pierce the eardrums and was actually the first female I ever perceived to be truly sexy. You are the second.

It is surely a tough go being almost an entire family to someone who has but one living cousin, a son, and a brother six hundred miles distant. I congratulate you. The astonishing thing is, you make this superhuman feat appear effortless.

I have searched for a more profound way to speak my admiration for your courage in spending the rest of your life with me. I will continue the search and get back to you.

In the meantime, beloved, just this—

You are the very best—to say the very least.

Bookends forever.

A viro tuo adorante

Following her traditional Christmas dinner of oyster pie, they enjoyed two treats verboten at this hour: coffee and chocolate. Tonight, caffeine had a practical virtue—it would keep them awake for their journey to the manger.

They were in the bedroom, changing into snow clothes, when the phone rang.

‘Hey, buddy! Merry Christmas!’

‘Hey, Dad.’

Dooley’s breathing seemed rapid, as if he were just in from a run.

‘Sorry to call so late.’

‘Not so late at all. We’re headed up the street in a few minutes.’

‘I have somethin’ to tell you. We were going to tell you tomorrow, but the weather . . .’

‘Right. We won’t see you tomorrow, but we’ll have Sammy and Kenny over for a good meal. I’m all ears.’

‘It’s not a friendship ring.’

There went the breath out of him.

‘I mean, it is, but it’s really . . . you know.’

‘Don’t make me say it, son. You say it.’

‘It’s an engagement ring. It’s done. I swear to God, I love her, it’s done. I couldn’t take it anymore.’ Dooley laughing. ‘Man!’

‘Let me put you on speakerphone.’

‘No, no, please. Whoa. You tell Cynthia. I’ll tell Sammy and Kenny and Harley tomorrow. Gotta go, Dad, see you later. We love y’all. Pray for us.’

He stood with the cordless in his hand.

She walked in from the bathroom. ‘Who was that?’

‘It’s not a friendship ring,’ he said.

They burst into laughter that went on for some time. They hugged, he whooped, she whistled like Nealey. Downstairs, Barnabas barked. His dog had just passed a hearing test with flying colors.

‘An engagement party!’ she said. ‘Maybe spring break. Olivia and I could do it together, what do you think?’

‘Make me a list. Will work for food.’

He wouldn’t say anything now, but he was thinking of the rose garden for the wedding. June, of course. The low stone wall. And they would need an arch. Seven Sisters would be the perfect climber. In four or five years, a sight to behold . . .

While she finished dressing, he imagined telling everyone who would listen.

‘Fill ’er up,’ he would say to Lew. ‘Dooley’s engaged.’

‘To that good-lookin’ girl of Doc Harper’s with th’ long legs? Drives th’ BMW?’

‘That very one.’

‘Ol’ Dooley, he’s th’ man,’ Lew would say.

And Mule. ‘Th’ Dooley that used to wear overalls an’ had a way of expressin’ himself?’

‘That Dooley, yes.’

High five. Mule would pass the word to J.C.

‘If Esther is still on this earth,’ Winnie might say, ‘she will definitely want to bake th’ cake. I hate that, but such is life. Congratulations, and have a brownie—just one won’t hurt.’

‘Mazel tov!’ Abe would say. ‘May you live to finance the education of your grandchildren!’ That would be a stretch, but he enjoyed the thought.

He imagined the look on Hope’s face, Hope who loved romance both in truth and fiction. ‘Life goes on in such a wonderful way!’

Esther B. would no doubt be thrilled.

‘Don’t even think of lettin’ anybody else bake th’ cake,’ she would say.

‘He has to get through vet school first, Esther. The wedding could be a few years out.’

‘I could be dead as a doornail a few years out. Let Winnie bake it, then, but tell her not so much buttermilk as th’ one she did for th’ Bradshaws’ fiftieth.’

He could hardly wait to get the news out there.

•   •   •

HE HAD THE KEY in his pocket and the box in a basket.

They were close to heading out to the sidewalk to meet Sammy when the phone rang.

Lace’s cell. He handed the phone to Cynthia and went searching in the hall closet for his warmest scarf. He fumbled around without finding the scarf, but fished out a far better hat.

‘They’re so happy!’ Cynthia came along the hall with a report. Killer blue eyes, his wife.

‘She says they’ve worked long and hard to make this important decision and they’re still a bit fragile. She says they need to get used to knowing instead of wondering. No engagement party—not anytime soon, anyway.’

‘I understand that.’ He put on the old black hat, pulled it down as far as it would ride.

‘And we don’t need to tell anyone yet.’

‘Aha.’

She buttoned her coat. ‘She said they’re thinking about a wedding after his first four years of vet school. A long time to wait for a great hurrah.’

‘I agree.’

‘That’s how long I might have waited,’ she said, ‘if I hadn’t taken matters into my own hands.’

‘Say on, Kav’na.’

She squashed a knit cap on her head. ‘She said if we wanted to do something around the time of the wedding . . .’

‘Absolutely. Of course. Marching bands, elephants . . .’

‘And llamas! They hope to be raising their own flock,’ she said, brightening at the thought. ‘They have such lovely eyelashes, llamas!’

•   •   •

OVERSEEN BY THE HEAVENLY HOST, the three Magi proceeded up the plowed street and let themselves into the darkened store.

They moved the camel close to the stable, along with two angels and the wise men—one kneeling, two bowing—and at midnight, the crèche was complete.

Cynthia laid the babe on the straw in the manger. ‘“Love came down at Christmas . . .”’

‘“Love all lovely, love divine,”’ he said, quoting the lyrics of the hymn by Christina Rossetti.

‘“Love was born at Christmas . . .”’ she said.

Sammy looked at his scrap of paper. ‘“Star an’ angels g-gave th’ sign.”’

When they glanced up, they were astounded to see a young family looking in, noses to the glass, and the father giving a thumbs-up. Someone else had come, possibly from afar, to visit the manger.

They had been in the store a day or two ago, they said, and the children had begged to come back for the child to be born.

Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, he did a little of both. It wasn’t every day that a parson got payback.

•   •   •

IT WAS LATE, but not too late. The round-trip in the snow had energized him, not to mention the coffee and chocolate. He sat at his desk and wrote Henry Talbot.

Dear Henry,

A blessed Christmastide to you. Am grateful to know of your whereabouts—please keep in touch. Here are the few words I prayed with a searching and repentant heart:

Thank you, God, for loving me and for sending your Son to die for my sins. I sincerely repent of my sins and receive Christ as my personal savior. Now as your child, I turn my entire life over to you.