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absurd idea that Jecca didn’t at first understand it. “They think I’ll leave when I see that he’s a conscientious, hardworking doctor who cares deeply about the people under his care?”
Nell grinned. “Yes.”
“Nell,” Jecca said, smiling, “they’re going to see that I have too much work of my own to do to begrudge Tristan whatever time he needs for his work. Now, what do you think of this sketch?”
The truth was that Jecca was willing to make any compromise, any sacrifice, for a man who’d done what Tris did for her. A college friend of his had been begging him for years to move to New York and go into practice with him. Tris had never considered the idea, but after Jecca walked out on him—and after Joe had told him a few hard truths—he’d called his friend and said he’d be there.
The only person Tris told about what he was doing was Reede, and Tris had sworn him to secrecy.
Sometimes Jecca marveled at the enormity of what Tristan had done. For her. For no other reason than that he loved her more than anyone or anything else in the world. When he’d left his beloved practice he hadn’t known anything about Jecca’s offer of a job that would take just three years of training. Tris thought he was leaving Edilean—his roots, his home, his family—forever.
When Jecca told him about Mr. Chambers and that in three years she would be able to move back to Edilean and still keep working, there had been tears in Tristan’s beautiful eyes. He’d tried to hide them, but they were there. Jecca wanted to hold him but she also wanted to save his pride.
“But I will not have my office in that room off my father’s new store. That’s where I draw the line. He’ll have me waiting on customers—”
She didn’t finish because Tristan leaped on her, started kissing her face, and telling her he loved her. He made love to her with such passion, such all-out abandon, that for two days afterward, she lived in a daze.
After that, Tris’s mood changed completely. She often heard him on the phone with Reede telling him to buck up, that he’d be there “soon” to take back his job.
Every day Tris ran off patient records from his e-mail files, and he often called people in Edilean. Jecca got to hear his “doctor voice” as he soothed and calmed people. Sometimes she heard him explain the same thing three timesng he often to a person. Tris never lost patience with them, never seemed to be in a hurry. No wonder they love him so much, she thought.
They visited Edilean as often as possible. Jecca never minded that Tris was gone most of the time visiting his former patients. To them, he was their doctor, not Reede with his curt bedside manner.
As for Jecca, she had made a lot of friends in Edilean. Whenever she was visiting, she never missed a 3 P.M. workout with Lucy and Mrs. Wingate, and she loved catching up on all the news and gossip.
It was on their third weekend home that Mrs. Wingate asked when she and Tris were going to get married.
“I hadn’t thought about it,” Jecca said. “We’ve been so busy that . . .”
They were having tea at the Wingate house, Jecca was still glowing—Mrs. Wingate frowned on saying they were “dripping with sweat”—from the kickboxing workout they’d just done. Lucy looked up from the teapot and Joe put down the invoice he’d been reading. He was now living at Mrs. Wingate’s house, ostensibly in his own apartment, but he spent all the time he could with Lucy. Nell was also there, and she looked at Jecca with her young-old eyes.
Jecca knew she was outnumbered. “I saw some winter white charmeuse that would make a great wedding dress.”
They didn’t quit staring at her. “All right! I’ll set a date. I just have to talk to Tristan first.”
That wasn’t enough for any of them, but they knew it was all they were going to get. Jecca settled back with her tea and for a moment thought of the apartment building in New York. She used to love that people didn’t know where she was going or when she would return, but Edilean had changed her. Now she liked that so many people cared about her.
“Let’s see,” Jecca said solemnly. “Dad to walk me down the aisle, two honorary mothers of the bride to sit in the front row, Kim as my maid of honor, and . . .” She looked at Nell. She was too tall and too old to be a flower girl. “And Nell as a second maid of honor. You wouldn’t mind holding my bouquet while Tris and I exchange rings, would you?”
With a shout of delight, Nell leaped onto Jecca. They both would have gone over backward if Joe hadn’t caught the arm of the chair and held it.
That had been weeks ago, and last night had been the most beautiful wedding Edilean had ever seen—or at least that’s what everyone told Jecca and Tris.
Whether that was true or not, to Jecca it was beautiful. There was a huge tent set up on the lawn at Tristan’s house, and it seemed that everyone in Edilean had shown up. She hardly knew any of them, but Tris knew everyone. Kim and Nell had been dressed identically in grown-up dresses of a pretty bluey-purple that complimented both of them. Jecca’s gown—designed by her and made by Lucy—had been extraordinarily beautiful. Mrs. Wingate had spent days and nights hand embroidering crystal beads on the bodice.
The ceremony had been sweet and reverent. When the pastor—Laura Chawnley’s husband—spoke to them, it was as though Jecca and Tris were alone in the world. She smiled at him when he lifted her veil and he leaned forward ean,Rto kiss her cheek. The pastor said, “Not yet,” and the guests had quietly laughed.
Tris slipped a ring on her finger that had been created by Kim, and Jecca gave him one made from the same nugget of gold. It seemed right that the gold had been together for centuries and that it should unite her and Tris forever.
After the ceremony there’d been dancing and wonderful food. It was late when she and Tris left. They’d had to hug Nell a lot to reassure her that they were going to return.
“You’ll come back even if you passionately love New Zealand with all your soul?” she’d asked seriously.
Tris knelt down to her. He knew what she was really asking. “I promise I won’t leave you again. I shouldn’t have run off the other time and not told you where I was.” He’d told her this many times before, but she still needed reassurance.
“And I’ll see if they have any interesting stuffed animals in New Zealand,” Jecca said.
Nell nodded solemnly and let her mother pull her away so Tris and Jecca could leave.
