Out of the Shadows (23 page)

“And you deserve some credit for something else, too.”

“Like what?”

He scribbled something on Gus’s chart. “Like showing me that God
does
answer prayers.” He tucked his ballpoint into his jacket pocket. “I’d almost forgotten the lesson Adam’s mother told me, years ago.”

“Yoke ye not to unbelievers,” the Bible said. Happy as she was that Wade had professed his love for her, Patrice couldn’t help but wonder if
this
conversation had been an answer to her prayer last night, asking for God’s guidance, asking Him to show her a sign if He wanted her to spend a lifetime married to Wade. “And what lesson was that?”

“‘Ask and ye shall receive.”’

Patrice didn’t have to ask what he’d prayed for; his loving smile made it clear: he’d prayed to win her heart!

Gus stirred, grunting slightly. “What’s a guy gotta do to get a bite to eat around this place?”

“‘Ask and ye shall receive,”’ Wade said again, grinning.

W
ade stood at the front of the church, tugging nervously at his cummerbund.

“Stand still,” Adam said from the corner of his mouth. “You’re fidgeting worse than your nephew.” He looked out into the congregation and saw Frank Jr. sitting there in the front row like a proper little gentleman. He winked at the boy and admitted that Adam was right. He
was
fidgeting an awful lot. And as if to prove his inability to stand still, he ran a finger under the starched white collar of his tuxedo shirt.

“May as well relax, pal,” Adam added. “These things never get started on time.”

Tucking in one corner of his mouth, Wade wished Adam would dispense with the brotherly advice; rather than calming him down, it was having the exact opposite effect.

“Think of something pleasant,” Adam said as if on cue. “Like, the reason you asked Patrice to marry you in the first place. I remember that helped time pass faster for me.”

At last. Some advice he could sink his teeth into!

Wade took a deep breath, then stared at the gleaming toes of his black rental shoes. He’d asked Patrice to marry him because he loved her. But it was more than that. Much more. She’d given his life purpose, stability. He had an incentive to get up in the morning, now—one not motivated by obligations to his patients, but propelled solely by how she claimed his presence had improved her world. Quite a chest-puffing notion, knowing a woman like that respected and admired him that much!

Quite a responsibility, too. Precisely why he’d started viewing just about everything in life with different eyes. She’d made him feel like a man, a real man, for the first time in his life. So was it any wonder he felt obligated to start acting like one?

When he’d told her about his part in the train accident, she’d said he’d punished himself long enough. She’d taken his hand in hers and prayed aloud that he’d come to believe that God had forgiven him. Wade believed that now, and finally, he knew real, blessed peace.

The organ music suddenly grew louder, its notes bouncing from every door and window, from every wall and pew in the tiny old-fashioned church. The powerful chords seemed to seep through the soles of his shoes to the marrow of his bones, reverberating in his hard-beating heart. He knew from having attended the weddings of relatives and friends that the music was a signal.

The bride would soon appear.

He looked up, saw the faint outline of her, standing proudly in the shadows beside her tuxedoed, wheelchair-bound father.

She was everything to him. The girl of his dreams. His wife to be. The woman who had completed his life.
Patrice Cameron. It had a nice ring to it, and Wade knew who he had to thank for making it all possible.

As “The Wedding March” began, he watched her stand a little taller, throw her shoulders back, take a deep breath.

Patrice had been determined to have a small, intimate wedding, with only their closest friends and loved ones present. Wade had a feeling his whole life would be that way—intimate and loving—thanks to Patrice.

When she took that first step toward him from out of the shadows, Wade remembered what his mother had told Adam so many years ago, and he murmured the line to himself now:
When things look darkest, God’s word brings me light, and I feel like I’m stepping out of the shadows.
It’s what Patrice had done for him, by inspiring him to meet God and believe in the power of faith, as one reborn. If it hadn’t been for her, he wouldn’t have a growing relationship with the Lord now. And he wouldn’t have had the courage to work through his fears and doubts about his ability to be a good husband. Turns out he was nothing like his father, after all.

A bold ray of sunshine slanted down from the skylight and he watched, openmouthed, as Patrice stepped into it. She’d made no attempt to hide her scar, he noticed. “Out of the shadows,” he whispered.

“What’s that, buddy?” Adam whispered.

“Nothing,” Wade answered as she took her place beside him.

And looking into her beautiful smiling face, he added, “‘Ask and ye shall receive.”’