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When I can manage a proper walk beside you, I intend to ask something important. In the meantime, may I take you to supper at Bass and Emily’s on Sunday? I promise to behave better than the horse.

Jesse

She sent her answer by Tater.

Mr. Pickett,

Sunday will do. As for the important question, I suggest you ask it before I discover how badly your horse behaves.

Eden

He had laughed so hard Bass came in to see what he’d broken.

Now the question had long since been asked and answered. On a cold December afternoon, Jesse stood outside Flat River’s church and tried to decide whether he feared the long aisle or the prospect of all his family watching him walk it.

“You can still sit at the front and let her come to you,” Nate offered.

“You can still let me marry without practicing medicine for five minutes,” Jesse replied.

Bass adjusted the collar of Jesse’s coat. “You’re certain?”

“I asked her. She said yes. I’m reasonably certain.”

“I meant the walk.”

“That too.”

The church door opened, spilling lamplight onto the snow. Inside, the benches were full. Jesse heard Maddy laughing somewhere toward the front and Aunt Cleo telling her to save her breath for the hymn.

He stepped over the threshold with his cane in his left hand. Bass and Nate walked close, but neither took his arm.

The aisle was longer than it had any right to be. His right foot landed awkwardly twice. Once he paused to get his balance, and the whole church seemed to wait with him.

T

The next step was easier.

At the front, he stopped beside the reverend. Bass moved into the first pew; Nate followed, though Jesse could almost hear the warnings piling up behind his brother’s teeth.

Then he saw Eden.

She wore a cream dress with pale blue ribbon, and there was nothing careful about her smile. She looked pleased to see him, as if he had arrived exactly as she hoped.

She made her way down the aisle and stopped in front of him.

“You came,” Eden whispered.

“There was a fine-looking woman I hoped to meet.”

“Did you?”

“Ask me in a minute.”

Reverend Billings cleared his throat. Jesse drew himself upright and faced the woman who had crossed two states believing she might find a husband and then refused to become anybody’s convenient answer.

He loved that about her. He loved her laugh, her plain speaking, the letters tucked into her book, and the way she had never once promised him he would recover exactly as he had been.

She had promised to be there when she chose to be. She had chosen him.