A Wedding for Julia by Vannetta Chapman Page B

very first moment you told me before I even thought I might be involved.”
    He studied the old porch, which could use some repairs, not to mention a coat of paint. “But we need to make a list of what our start-up costs would be for a new business, how much money we have, and how much we’re willing to risk.”
    “ Our start-up costs? Our money?”
    “ Ya . Together we should decide how low we’re willing to take our finances before we would admit the café is not going to work—at least for this time and place.”
    Julia rubbed more vigorously at the arm of her chair. “You sound as if we’re already married.”
    “That’s what we’re talking about, though. Aren’t we?”
    “ Ya . I suppose we are.”
    “This would be a union in every way. Together we could make a go of it, and I think it would work. But we have to be open to the possibility that it might not.” He nodded toward the lane in front of her house. “I see a lot of businesses start up and close in the first few months, usually because people haven’t thought out all the possible outcomes. Failure is a possibility, though we’ll work and pray for success.”
    “Our…our marriage would be about more than the café, though. How could you be willing to do this, Caleb?” She had been staring off into the gathering darkness, but now she turned and looked at him directly. “How can you be willing to commit yourself to me and to my mother?”
    Caleb hesitated before he answered. He’d asked himself that same question a dozen times, and he still hadn’t found the words to explain his answer. “Neither of us is getting younger—”
    “So I’m your last chance?” Her voice rose, startling a nearby bird.
    “ Nein . I told you of my prayer—my plea for a freind . I didn’t ask Gotte for a fraa , though I remember thinking how lonely I was, how it wasn’t gut to be alone. But marriage? I stopped thinking of that a few years ago, I suppose. Somehow, in my mind, that wasn’t going to happen.”
    “Surely there were women who were interested back in Indiana.”
    “ Ya , but there was always a reason why it didn’t work out. How about you?”
    Julia put both of her hands into her lap and stared down at them. “The same, at first. Lately, with my father and now my mother, I haven’t exactly been marriage material.”
    “That’s not true. I could see at Sunday’s luncheon that several men would be interested. Why have you never considered them before?”
    She shook her head so hard he could see the strings to her prayer kapp stirring in the small rays of light from the sitting room window. “They say they are interested, but they wouldn’t be. Once they visited here, I wouldn’t hear from them again. I’m not saying they are bad men, but if they saw mamm and her confusion, and then took a gut look at her hands and this house…”
    She paused long enough to also look around the porch, as if she were seeing it for the first time. “I know it looks fine from the road, but up close the years of neglect show. I’m aware of the repairs it needs. Nein . They would change their mind, and I half expect you will too.”
    Caleb scooted his chair so it was facing hers, so their knees were touching, and he reached for her hand. He held it as he had by the river at Aaron’s house. “I won’t be changing my mind. When I commit to a thing, I stay with it.”

    Something in Julia’s heart flipped over at those words. “When I commit to a thing, I stay with it.”
    Could she trust him? Did she dare?
    No doubt he thought he meant them, but then people said things they thought were true all the time. Time and trouble often proved them wrong.
    “Julia, look at me.”
    It took more strength than harnessing Missy, but she raised her eyes to his.
    “Marrying this way is unusual. The one thing we need is to trust each other. You need to trust me when I say I won’t run away from your problems.”
    She jumped up from her seat and walked to the porch