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“Who found you?” Rebecca added.
“They found him and Cal six years ago, but it was deemed too risky to go after them. I sent through an inquiry a few weeks ago to see about his status. If they’d ever found anything,” Paige said looking to Joel’s mother.
“I’ve tried hundreds of times and never got the slightest hint that they had found him,” Elaine stated.
“It helps having friends in high places and when the vice president and the president tell you to get them out, they’d better listen. And when you hit a brick wall turning to them for help getting through it is the only way to roll,” Paige said with a smile.
“I don’t know how you managed to do it but I’m glad you did and now you’re marrying my son. A beautiful daughter-in-law and hopefully a son and wife who can forgive me,” Grant said giving her a kiss on the forehead. “How are you feeling by the way?” he added in a whisper. “Does Joel know?”
“Yes, and I’m fine. I can’t believe you were in DC when I was and that we were able to talk,” she said accepting his hug easily. She’d used all her favors to get answers to what happened to him, wanting Joel and Elaine to have them, have peace about it finally. The last thing she ever expected was that he was still alive, mostly forgotten about in that prison after so long, so many changes in guards and regimes.
“So am I Paige.”
“What are you two whispering about?” Sam asked suspiciously.
“Whether or not he likes our country’s leaders,” Paige told them. “Now, who’s going to come to the wedding?”
She laughed as her friends converged on her and her eyes met Joel’s. It was going to be okay; she knew it.
∞∞∞
“Relax dude, there is no way Paige is going to skip out on you now,” Sam said as Joel waited anxiously beside the preacher.
“Easy for you to say, Kendra was ready and waiting on you,” he replied as he adjusted the neck of his tux. How he let Paige talk him into it was unknown, but he had to admit, she’d pulled it all off. The garden was magnificent and from what he’d heard of the dress from the girls, it was beyond expectations.
He was also nervous thanks to the last-minute arrival of the vice president and his family along with the president’s. Now that was the last thing, he’d expected but once they’d heard about the ceremony there was no way to keep them away. Everyone loved Paige but he’d somehow won her heart.
“Dude you’re gonna make me sweat if you don’t cool it,” Sam stated with a grin to his best friend. “Paige will be here any second and everything will be cool…see here comes Hillary now.”
Joel breathed a bit easier as Hillary then Kendra began to move towards them. Her dress was cut to conceal her slight tummy from having Josh and he knew Paige had chosen the off the shoulder style with sleeves for Tami’s sake. She wanted all of her friends besides her to look their best and she had poured through magazine after magazine trying to find the perfect design. When Tami appeared, his breathing became even easier and when Nicole began skipping up the aisle stopping every few feet to toss rose petals on the ground a smile broke out on his face. Maggie followed behind her as Tristan held onto a leash, the small pillow with the rings securely attached to her.
“Last chance to run,” Sam whispered as Paige and their father appeared.
“Not a chance,” he stated unable to take his eyes off her. She looked breathtaking and more beautiful than any woman he’d ever seen, but there was something about the dress that seemed familiar.
“Is that…Mom’s dress?” Sam asked looking at him.
“I don’t know. It could be,” he told him wondering if that’s why it felt familiar to him. Paige and Cord reached the end of the aisle and the pastor stepped up.
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We’re here today to celebrate the union of Paige and Joel, a union that I’ve wondered about for many years and one that I’m sure everyone here can agree took far too long to arrive at. But as we all know, God works in mysterious ways and as Paige and Joel told me themselves this past week, was the right path for them and for countless others. So, with that, who gives this woman to be wed?”
“I do,” Cord stated as her brother, Ed, Bobby, Harry, Jesse, Craig, Moose, Rabbit, and Tristan added their own ‘we dos’.
“You always did have a large following Paige,” Pastor Walter laughed. “I can remember the first time I met Paige, she was about ten, headstrong as anyone could be.”
“No change there,” one of the miners called out eliciting laughs.
“She was also up on the very top of the church’s roof, walking across it as though it was a balance beam to get the multitude of sports equipment that had gotten stuck there over the years. It was also the first day I met Joel and Sam because they were standing on the ground below, Sam trying to get her to fall and Joel telling her to get down before she broke her neck. It was interesting because there was no fear in her tiny little body. Paige was without a doubt defying gravity at that moment and years later, I asked her if she had ever worried about the things she’d attempted not working out. She smiled, tilted her head and told me, God put the ideas in her head and wanted her to try them, so she put herself in his hands and he guided her every step of the way. Now she and Joel are putting their lives in his hands and are following him down this aisle together.”
Paige smiled into Joel’s eyes and felt everything he did surround her and pull her in.
“Paige and Joel would like to say a few words. I’m sure that’s not surprising to anyone here…Joel, if you’d like to start,” Pastor Walter said nodding to him.
“Paige, you stole my heart fifteen years ago the same way you stole Sam and my treasure when we were kids…with a smile that proved you had nothing to hide and a laugh that said everything would be okay. I’ve loved you perhaps too much at times, so much that I let you go no matter how much it hurt to do it. Then you reappeared in my life so momentarily that it nearly destroyed my faith. When we were trapped below the ground, I told myself I would do whatever it took to find you and bring you home and then out of nowhere your voice called out to us and I knew in that instant that my prayers had been answered. We had some obstacles getting here…misunderstandings, overstepped boundaries…but every moment that I wasn’t with you I was thinking about you.
“I never knew why you chose me back then. You were the prized girl, everyone loved you, everyone wanted to be with you, and you chose me. You have given me so many things Paige without a single demand but there are two things that I treasure most. You gave me my father back and you gave me your heart. I will work every single day to be the man who deserves that because it is so precious and open. Everyone here knows that and I will never question the why, as long as you never tell me to not worry, because I always will. I love you baby, and I will love you long after this life ends.”
Paige took a small breath as she gazed up at the man who she’d love for so long.
