AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We’ve got something else to say,” he announced as Charlotte and Melonie drew closer to Lizzie.
“We’ve picked out a name for our little girl.”
Everyone got quiet.
“We’re naming her to honor the person who has stood by us, all of us—” Lizzie indicated Mel and Charlotte “—all our lives. In about four months you’re all going to meet Coralee Caufield.”
“You are naming that baby for me?” Corrie’s eyes grew wide, then filled with tears. “You don’t have to do that, you know. It’s a fine name for an old Southern woman like myself, but—”
“It is the perfect name,” Lizzie told her. “Stop fussing and be blessed. We couldn’t name our little one after anyone better, and if she turns out to be a strong, gracious, faithful woman like her Grandma Corrie, then we’ll be the happiest parents ever.”
Tears slipped down Corrie’s cheeks. Then Lizzie’s. But before Charlotte and Mel could join in, Corrie stepped back. “Well, now, this is not the time for tears, Fitzgeralds! This is a time to celebrate so much good this past year.” She reached back and lifted her little cup of punch and raised it high. “To new life. New chances. And to a baby, born in a manger, in a land unknown, I say Alleluia!”
A chorus of Alleluias rang out around them, and when Heath was finally able to grab a quiet moment with Lizzie, nearly two hours had passed. He put his arms around her from behind and laid his hands over their growing child. “Happy, Mrs. Caufield?”
“The happiest.”
He kissed her cheek, then offered a sweet kiss to her mouth. “Thank you for making this the best Christmas ever.”
She’d come to Idaho wanting to make the best of things, but never expecting to have the best of things.
But God knew. Through the winding and changing and uprising, he knew.
She leaned back against him, happier than she’d ever dreamed possible, then tipped her face up for his kiss, a kiss she wanted to enjoy forever as tiny lights twinkled around them. “The first of many, my love.”
* * * * *
