For a moment, she closed her eyes, happy to join him in letting go of the past. “Yes, I understand.” Touching his cheek, she added, “I am so grateful that you are here with us today. Let’s make a new start.”
“Ah, good. Good.” Jules blinked back tears behind his spectacles. “I can’t express how much that means to me. Also, I am looking forward to meeting my new grandson.”
His tone was so simple and honest that Adam reached out to pat his arm. “That’s very generous of you, sir.”
“Not at all. I am grateful to be included as member of your family, and to have an opportunity to meet that beautiful child I saw running past outside. Do you think he will like the rocking horse I brought for him?”
“Oh, Papa, how wonderful. Paul will love it!” Cathy hugged her father again and exchanged glances with Adam, who wore the heart-melting smile she adored. “What a splendid day it is!”
“Indeed,” her husband agreed. “A splendid day to be married.”
The wedding was performed under the rose arbor with only two dozen guests, including Cathy’s original class of students. When it was time for Paul to produce the ring, it slipped out of his pudgy fingers and rolled into the rose bushes. It was Alice who braved the thorns, pressing her nose to the gold band, and crying, “Woof!”
Adam bent down to retrieve the ruby ring Cathy had chosen from the treasure chest. After their adventure, he had taken it to the jeweler to be sized and had the man engrave “Rowing in Eden” inside the band. Now, slipping it onto his unsuspecting bride’s wedding finger, he smiled at the sight of her tears.
“With this ring,” he murmured, “I thee wed.”
In the end, Adam was holding Paul in his arms and Alice was sitting on the hem of Cathy’s gown as they kissed and the minister pronounced them husband and wife.
Everyone was hungry. The guests moved to the arcaded verandah to eat Retta’s callaloo, flying fish with spices, baked yams, rice, and thinly sliced fried plantains. Josephine’s special coconut cake was delicious, but the best part of the afternoon came when Cathy announced that they would make ice cream. Out came the ice cream freezer that had been banished to the storage room since Christmas. Byron and Theo chipped a block of ice while the cream and eggs and vanilla warmed on the stove. When the freezer was filled and packed with ice, everyone began to take turns at the crank.
“Is it ice cream yet?” cried Paul as he tried out his new carved wooden rocking horse on the verandah.
Jules bent near him and asked, “Would you like to help me make the ice cream?”
Moments later, watching her father guide Paul’s little hand on the crank, Cathy felt as if her heart would overflow with joy.
“I couldn’t understand it at the time,” she told Adam, looking back at him with a radiant smile, “but that ice cream maker was an absolutely perfect gift.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist, and she leaned into his strength as they stood together, surveying the party and basking in the glow of their hard-won love.
The End