“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.
Never mind that she had only her sundress and bare feet. Eliza might as well have been wearing a gown fit for a queen. And this sandy spot of beach might as well have been a cathedral. She handed her bouquet to her mother and walked to the spot in front of Jack. He took her hands in his.
“Jonathan.” The pastor nodded at Jack. “You may go first.”
For a long time Jack only looked at her, like he was trying to memorize her face, her eyes, everything about this moment. “I, Jonathan Jack Ryder, I ask you, Lizzie James, to be my lawfully wedded wife. When all the world is falling down around us, I will hold you up. And when you can’t see through to tomorrow, I will help you believe.”
He searched her eyes. “I promise to stand by you and pray for you, love you and lead you to God. Again and again and again. And when life gets loud, I’ll remind you that even in the beginning when it was you and me against the world, we were never alone. Because God ordained you for me… and me for you.” He blinked back tears. “I love you with my very life, Lizzie.”