An Unexpected Match (18 page)

Matthew couldn't help feeling nervous as he opened the box and looked at the round diamond in an intricate white-gold setting. He might have used this ring once before, but his first wife hadn't liked it and had wanted to choose something closer to her tastes. Now he awaited Haley's response to the ring that meant something in his family.

The look on her face spoke volumes before she said a word. “Oh, Matthew. It's so beautiful.”

“Will you wear it?”

“I'd love to.”

He grinned. Lifting the ring out of the box, he reached for her hand and slipped it on her finger. It was a perfect fit, both in physical size and in appearance. He should have known. Of course, this was Haley Scott who saw the beauty in everyone and everything, even him when he didn't deserve to be seen through such a benevolent view.

She had always been everything he couldn't bear and everything he needed, and now she was the only woman with whom he could ever imagine sharing his life.

Aware of their growing audience this time, Matthew dropped one sweet kiss on his new fiancée's lips. He didn't have time for more than that, anyway, as Elizabeth squeezed between them. Both laughed, showering kisses and tickles on her instead. Matthew hoped their lives together would always be this way, not perfect, but full of laughter, silliness and joy.

H
aley stood in front of the mirror, checking her makeup one last time and smoothing her hands down the narrow skirt of her bridal gown. She grinned at her reflection. As it turned out, she had found a use for a nearly used silk gown with an empire waist, and hers was a more traditional use than as silk bathroom curtains.

Just three months after her original wedding date—the third Saturday of June instead of March—she was wearing the dress to marry the love of her life. As it turned out, she would be the first Scott sister to marry after all, but she found that it didn't matter to her as much as it once had.

She'd insisted on keeping the guest list shorter this time. There was a certain discomfort about inviting some of the same guests to whom she'd recently returned wedding gifts, though it did help that many of those guests from the first ceremony would have been on the groom's side of the aisle. Amy Warren and Trina Scott tended to share the same friends anyway, church friends, and those friends couldn't have been happier about this wedding.

When the restroom door opened, Haley expected to see her sisters in the lilac bridesmaid dresses they'd reclaimed from the bridal shop's consignment racks, or even their mother, who'd be beautiful in her light pink dress. Instead, her future mother-in-law stuck her head inside the door.

“Haley, are you ready, dear?” Amy stepped to the mirror and patted her hair with nervous hands. She straightened the waist of her rose-colored mother-of-the-groom gown.

“I'm ready. How about you?”

Amy continued to fuss with her appearance though not a single silver hair was out of place. “You know me. I've been waiting for a day like this one for years now.”

Haley grinned at her in the glass. If only everyone could be as blessed as Haley would be in the mother-in-law department. She'd loved Amy Warren like a mother since she was a little girl.

“Matthew tells me you'll be going back to college in the fall.” Amy reached in her purse and touched up her lipstick.

“Just part-time. Lizzie finally wants to go to preschool now, so I'm going to try to work around it. Matthew doesn't want me to give up my dreams for us to have a life together.”

“That sounds like my son.”

“What he doesn't realize is that all my dreams have already come true.”

“That sounds like
you.
”

When Haley glanced over at her, she had to blink back tears. It wouldn't do to mess up her makeup now. “This marriage has to be great for you and mom, having another way to connect your families.”

“Are you kidding? This proves that Trina and I are amazing matchmakers after all. And you kids doubted our abilities.”

Haley glanced sidelong at her. “So you're going to stick with that story, then?”

Amy chuckled and then hugged the bride, careful not to get makeup on her gown. “Well, it didn't happen the way we planned, but it just goes to show you that God has a sense of humor.”

“Good thing when He's dealing with the Warrens and the Scotts.”

They shared another laugh as Amy helped Haley slip the combs of the veil into her hair and settle the blusher over her face. Arm in arm they emerged from the restroom to find some of the other women waiting in the hall.

“About time,” Caroline said. As usual, she looked amazing, this time with her light brown hair in an elegant updo.

Jenna came down the hall to join them. “They're calling for the mothers to get in there. It's time for the ushers to seat you two.”

After a round of hugs that left everyone misty-eyed the best friends headed off hand in hand, leaving only Haley, her sisters and Lizzie to line up and follow them into the church vestibule.

“You look so pretty, Miss Haley…I mean, Mommy,” Lizzie said as she touched the skirt of Haley's gown.

“So do you, sweetie.” Haley was pleased that the bridal shop had located a flower girl dress that closely matched the bridesmaid dresses they'd already purchased. “Don't worry about calling me—”

“Mommy. I like to call you that.”

Haley liked hearing it, too. Pretty soon it would even be true since Matthew's ex had agreed to relinquish parental rights, clearing the way for Haley to adopt her. For a third time in only a few minutes, Haley felt tears threatening again. If she allowed her thoughts to dwell on
her late father, who couldn't be there to share this moment, she would lose the battle with her tears altogether. Her father was there in spirit, anyway.

The processional music began then, and Lizzie hurried to her place so she could drop rose petals to lead the way for the bride. Haley's sisters followed her in, Caroline escorted by Dylan and Jenna by Logan.

The serious moment faltered when Lizzie dropped her basket, sending a few of the petals to shower wedding guests. Jenna followed that moment by tripping noticeably, requiring Logan to help her right herself so they could continue down the aisle.

Chuckles filled the sanctuary as Haley stepped to the doorway leading into the room. As she'd predicted, a knot formed in her throat over her father's absence, but one look at the man waiting for her at the altar caused all her sadness to drift away.

Matthew's shoulders lifted and dropped. His smile was contagious, and the love and trust in his eyes took her breath away. What had she ever done to deserve such a blessing as Matthew Warren? Their life would be filled with wonderful, messy and loud moments, and Haley couldn't imagine anything she would want more.

As she took her first few steps toward the husband and the future she'd dreamed of, a calm of certainty settled over her.
Thank You, Lord.
When she reached him, Matthew took her hand and settled it in the crook of his arm. The love so visible in his eyes filled her heart with joy. She and Matthew were so different, and yet their differences had drawn them together as nothing else ever could have. They'd found completion in each other's arms.

 

 

Dear Reader,

 

As women, we have various relationships in our lives, but for many of us, some of the closest and most enduring of those relationships are with our female friends. Some of us are blessed enough to have a best friend who has followed us through our hills and valleys, thanked us when we've supported her and forgiven us when we've failed her. I have a friend like that. My connection with Melissa has spanned the years and the distance. She is my trivia expert and the person I trust most as a sounding board.

The miniseries, WEDDING BELL BLESSINGS, was born out of my relationship with my best friend. We used to joke about having arranged marriages between her three sons and my three daughters. Unfortunately, our children appear to have a vote in this, so it probably won't work out the way we've planned. But the idea does make for some fun fiction. The relationship between Amy Warren and Trina Scott, the matriarchs in this series, is based on my relationship with Melissa. God has blessed me by giving me such a dear friend.

I love hearing from readers and may be contacted through my Web site at www.danacorbit.com or through regular mail at P.O. Box 2251, Farmington Hills, MI 48333-2251.

 

1. What do Amy Warren and Trina Scott call their idea for creating arranged marriages between Amy's three sons and Trina's three daughters? When did they first come up with the plan?
   
2. How is Haley Warren different from her two older sisters, Caroline and Jenna?
   
3. How does Matthew's birth order position as firstborn play into his personality, and how does it affect his relationship with his single mother and his brothers, Dylan and Logan?
   
4. What happened in Matthew Warren's adolescence that made it difficult for him to put his trust in people? How was that history repeated in his young adult life?
   
5. Haley believes that Matthew trusts her to care for his daughter and in a more personal way later but then discovers she's wrong. How important is trust as a foundation in a relationship?
   
6. Why do Amy and Trina believe Caroline Scott would be a good match for Matthew Warren? How important in a potential match is it for the couple to have many things in common?
   
7. Haley Scott and Matthew Warren are opposites in many ways. Do opposites really attract, and do people with such radical differences make good matches?
   
8. Just like in his life, Matthew's faith is all about obligation. Do we as Christians sometimes get caught up in the details of church and forget to simply praise God?
   
9. How is Haley's faith different from Matthew's? How does she help him to remember what it's like to experience true faith?
   
10. In what ways is Haley not a great child-care provider? Are there ways she is also great at her job?
    
11. Many parents think they would choose better partners for their children than their own children would. Are arranged marriages, or at least arranged introductions, still a possibility in the twenty-first century?
    
12. When Haley was just fourteen, she made an important announcement to Matthew, then nineteen. What did she say and how has it affected their continuing friendship over the last nine years?
    
13. At one point, Matthew mentions that for church employees, Easter is a working day, often a time when he worked overtime. Do we as Christians sometimes lose sight of the importance in what should be the most significant holiday of the year for believers?
    
14. Amy Warren and Trina Scott have been best friends through the birth of their children, through Amy's divorce and the loss of Trina's husband. Do you have any steadfast friendships like that, and how important are long-term friendships in a woman's life?
    
15. In the story, Reverend Boggs gives a sermon on the sacrifice Abraham was willing to make for God. What sacrifices are we willing to make to build a stronger relationship with God?