Promise Me A Rainbow (50 page)

But she didn’t have the time. Joe came and stood next to her, then Fritz and Charlie, all of them waiting, because it was up to Della to decide. The silence lengthened, and Della stood and stared back at the four of them, unrelenting and immovable.

“Come home,” Joe said quietly. “I want—
we
want—you to come home.”

She shook her head. No.
No
. But then her bottom lip began to tremble and the tears spilled down her face.

“I—” she began, but she suddenly stopped and bowed her head.

“Della—” Joe said, his own voice breaking with emotion.

Della looked up at him; Catherine could see the effort she was making. Her mouth still trembled and she wiped furiously at her eyes. She swallowed hard.

“I’m late for your . . . wedding, Daddy,” she whispered, and she flung herself into his arms. Joe rocked her back and forth, his eyes finding Catherine’s. “Come here,” he said, holding out his hand to her. “Come here, all of you.”

They stood in the street, hugging, kissing, stopping traffic, but trying to mend the breach that had nearly torn them apart. They would have their work cut out for them, Catherine knew that, but they had made a start.

She leaned back so that she could look into Joe’s eyes again. He smiled, and she saw nothing but love there.

Three and a fifth children
and
him, she thought, except that it was more like three and
three
-fifths children now.

“I love you,” she whispered, standing on tiptoe so he could hear.

The sun was indeed shining on her back door, and somewhere, not far away, a gnome mother named Daisy held her sleeping child and smiled.

The End

(Continue reading for author biography)

Cheryl Reavis is an award-winning short story and romance author who has also written under the pen name “Cinda Richards.” She describes herself as a “late bloomer,” who played in her first piano recital at the tender age of thirty. “We had to line up by height—I was the third smallest kid,” she says. “After that, there was no stopping me. I gave myself permission to attempt my
other
heart’s desire—to write.” Her Silhouette Special Edition,
A Crime of the Heart,
reached millions of readers in
Good Housekeeping
magazine. Her novels
, The Prisoner, Patrick Gallagher’s Widow,
The Bride Fair
and
A Crime of the Heart
are all Romance Writers of America RITA winners.
Promise Me A Rainbow, The Bartered Bride
and
Blackberry Winter
were RITA finalists. A retired public health nurse, Cheryl makes her home in North Carolina with her husband. She loves hearing from readers and invites them to contact her at:

[email protected]
.