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  “Marco, I’d like you to meet my mother,” Spring said. Mother held out her hand, and Marco shook it. Spring tried to look nonchalant, but she could tell by the assessing look her mother gave Marco that Aunty had divulged even more about Spring’s interest in him. Fortunately, her mother wasn’t the type to make mortifying comments.

  “Hey! Spring!” Pete, wearing a University of Florida T-shirt and cutoffs, bounded over.

  Spring smiled at him but mentally crossed her fingers. What would unpredictable Pete say?

  “Brought plenty of chaperones, I see!” Pete announced to the world at large. “Good idea! Marco’s quite the Don Juan!”

  She could always count on Pete to be excruciatingly tactless. “Does anyone have a gag I could borrow?” she said wryly.

  “Hey! I just call ‘em like I see ’em,” Pete announced.

  She glanced at Marco to see his reaction. He didn’t look like he’d even noticed Pete’s teasing. His warm regard, centered on her, brought a blush that worked an intense path throughout her body.

  She imagined Marco’s reaction to the surprise she was busy working on. He’d be so happy. They’d celebrate with another fiesta!

  Spring trailed the elderly real estate agent and Marco inside the empty downtown church, just a stone’s throw away from Mamacita’s and the Hacienda Bakery. It must have been empty well over a year. Broken windows had been boarded up and cobwebs fluttered from the high ceiling in the breeze from the open front doors. In the neglected sanctuary, the stained-glass window behind the pulpit still translated sunshine into brilliant blue, gold and red beams of light, cast over the dusty interior.

  “Well, you’ve seen it all, then,” the rotund real estate agent said. “Any other questions?”

  “I don’t think so.” Marco’s eye roved over the large room. “I’ll stop at the bank and get the financing and paperwork started.”

  “Okay. I’ll be going, then. Are you and the lady staying?”

  Marco looked to Spring. “We’ll look around just a bit longer.”

  “Then, be sure to lock up.”

  Marco and the man shook hands. When the realtor had departed, Marco ambled over to Spring and sat down beside her on an old wooden pew. Seeking connection with her, he slid his arm around her shoulder. For many minutes, they sat in silence. Did Spring feel the way he did about being here?

  “It’s very satisfying, isn’t it,” she said, answering his unspoken question.

  “It’s a start,” he admitted. He stroked Spring’s arm with the hand that secured her to him. “I’m glad you agreed to come with me.”

  She looked up at him. “I was so happy you asked me to join you! This location is perfect. A good-size parking lot. The bus stop right on the corner. And there’s room for expansion in the open area at the rear.”

  He drew in a deep breath. So much had happened in the past few months—ever since Spring had come back into his life. “I think I’ll send the garden show committee ladies roses.”

  “Roses?” She gave him an arch look. Had someone let her surprise slip out ahead of time? “Why?”

  “Because if they hadn’t guilted me onto the committee, you wouldn’t have come back into my life.”

  Spring lost her breath for a moment, then she inhaled deeply. “I feel the same way.”

  “You do?” Marco looked as if he couldn’t believe it.

  “Yes.” She nodded, then decided to let actions speak louder than words. She kissed him.

  He turned her in his embrace and gathered her closer. He kissed her.

  She closed her eyes, concentrating all of her senses on the touch of his lips on hers and the delicious rush of pleasure his caress brought her. “Marco,” she whispered against his mouth, “I love you.”

  Her own words shocked her. But she couldn’t mistake Marco’s actions. He wasn’t a man to kiss a woman whom he didn’t—

  “I’ve loved you since the first time I saw you in Professor Warnock’s freshman biology class,” he murmured.

  Her breath caught in her throat again.

  He kissed her.

  “Why didn’t you let me know?” she asked, dazed at hearing his declaration of love.

  He shrugged. “How could I? You were so beautiful, so aloof, so blond! And I had no time or money for dating.”

  She nestled her face in the curve of his neck. “We were both too young, I guess. That was my very first college class. I was so nervous that day, I felt sick.”

  He chuckled against her ear, a lovely sensation to her. “Every guy in the room had a hard time keeping his eyes on the prof. They were all sneaking peeks at you.”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t—don’t—like it when men do that.”

  He nodded. “It made you shy, didn’t it?”

  She looked up at him. “You understand that?”

  “Yes, you never liked men hanging all over you, and then that night…” He let his voice fade.

  She appreciated his tact. He was bringing up one of the worst nights of her life. She snuggled closer to him. “I’ve never forgotten how you rescued me that night.”

  “And I regret I didn’t get to break that guy’s nose. That’s what I wanted to do! I still think you should have reported him to the university. He was a pig.” Marco’s handsome face darkened with anger.

  His strong reaction after all these years—was it an indication of how he felt about her?

  That dreadful night, she’d gone out with a blind date. It had started as a double date, but the other couple had wanted to neck. Uncomfortable with this turn of events, Spring had asked her date to walk her back to her dorm. On the way, he pulled her off the lighted path into the bushes. He’d made it clear he wanted more than necking. Frightened, she’d run away from him—straight into Marco, who’d been walking home from the library. Marco had sent her “date” on his way and walked her back to her dorm himself.

  “I’d have liked to give him a black eye along with the broken nose, but I didn’t think you wanted to make a big deal out of it.”

  “You did just what you should have.” She sighed. “That all seems a million years ago.”

  “And I feel like a different man since you came into my life again. And the cruise—it opened my eyes to how much I was still carrying the past around with me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You were right. I was still thinking of myself as different from everyone because of being an Hispanic immigrant and having to pay for school by working and…charity.”

  “Scholarships,” she corrected him. “You shouldn’t have let that bother you. A lot of students—”

  He pressed his finger to her lips, then kissed her right, then her left, eyebrow. “I’m seeing things clearly now. Yes, I faced discrimination when I was younger. But I’ve been holding onto it in a way that…was keeping me from life…from you.”

  She lost her breath again. She inhaled, trying to reel in her rampant reactions. “Let’s leave the past in the past.”

  “I plan to…focus on the future.” He ran his fingers into her hair, lifting it and watching it fall. “I achieved my goal to become a doctor. Now my objective to provide free medical services can begin. It will take years, but I don’t mind.”

  She nearly voiced her good news for him then, but squelched it. The work wasn’t finished yet. She’d wait until the right time, then surprise him. She traced the bow of his sculpted lips.

  In response, he outlined the line of her ivory cheek with his forefinger. “When do you have to go back to Wisconsin?”

  She thrilled at his touch. “I don’t. I’ve resigned my position. I’m staying in Florida.”

  His eyes widened with surprise. “You are? You want to move here? I hadn’t…I’d hoped….”

  “Aunty needs me, and I just couldn’t bear to go back—”

  He cut off her words with another kiss.

  She didn’t mind at all. The future, their future looked so bright. And the best was yet to come. The garden show wa
s just around the corner. She still had a lot of work to do before then, but she’d accomplished her goal for Marco, the man she loved and who loved her.

  She whispered, “You’ll be coming to the garden show, won’t you?”

  “Do you want me to?” Grinning, he nudged her nose with his.

  “Yes, I think it would mean a lot to Verna Rae, Eleanor and Aunty.” And me. And you.

  “I’ll be there, then.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The phone in Aunty’s front hall jingled. “I’ll get it,” Spring called out, and picked up the beige receiver. “Hello.”

  “Spring! You’ll never guess!” Doree shouted, “I found him! I found our grandfather! I just talked to him on the phone!”

  Spring’s mouth opened but no words came out.

  “Did you hear me?”

  “You talked to our grandfather?” Spring swallowed with difficulty. “He’s alive?”

  “Alive and kicking!” Doree crowed. “He retired to Long Beach, California.”

  “How did you find him, Doree?” Spring’s mind raced. “I can hardly believe what you’re saying.”

  “Believe it! I just started by finding out all the Bill or William Smith’s who’d served in the Navy in World War II, trained at Great Lakes and were reported dead or wounded in the Pacific in 1945. You’d be amazed at the information I found.”

  Spring tried to put the brakes on Doree’s runaway enthusiasm. “How do you know he’s Mother’s biological father?”

  “Because I asked him.”

  “You asked him!” No, Doree, no! “We all agreed not to contact Mother’s natural family unless we had to—”

  “I didn’t ask him about Mother. But after all the hours of research, I had to call him. I was just going to act like I was doing research on World War II veterans who’d been mistakenly reported lost in action, but he was so nice. I ended up asking him if he’d known a woman named Connie Wilson.”

  “Doree, you didn’t!” They should have known not to leave an issue so delicate up to Doree. “How could you?”

  “Well, I could and I did. And he said yes he’d been engaged to a Connie Wilson in Milwaukee in 1945, but that she’d died while he was away at sea. He even said that after he’d recovered from being wounded, he went to her hometown. But her parents wouldn’t speak to him, except to tell him Connie was dead and that they didn’t want to have anything to do with him.”

  “He did?” The cruelty of her great-grandparents withholding the truth about their daughter and her child from the man she loved made her chest tighten as though they’d pierced her own heart. “Why didn’t they tell him the truth? That he had a daughter?”

  “I don’t know. But he said it took him nearly ten years to get over losing her. He didn’t marry again until 1956. And get this, sis, he’s got three grown children.”

  “Mother has half brothers and sisters!” This was more than she’d ever expected!

  “Yes.” Doree sounded smug. “Three other possible donors, if Mom should need them.”

  “Praise God. This is almost too much to take in all at once.”

  “That’s why I didn’t tell him that I was his natural granddaughter. I didn’t want to give him a heart attack.”

  A movement in Spring’s peripheral vision made her pause. Oh, no! “Mother?”

  Looking dazed, Mother walked out from the doorway to the living room. “What have you girls done?”

  Spring tightened her grip on the receiver. “Doree, Mother’s here in the hallway.”

  “Oh, no!” Doree moaned into Spring’s ear.

  Taking a deep breath, Spring turned to face her mother. “Doree, Hannah and I have been trying to locate your natural parents—”

  “You know I told you I didn’t want you to do that!” Mother’s voice quavered.

  Spring had never seen her mother this pale, or shaking the way she was. “Mother, here, sit down.” Spring pulled out the chair from the phone table.

  Mother sat down, but in spite of her wan face her expression turned stormy. “Why did you go against—”

  “We had to. If one of us had matched as a bone marrow donor, we wouldn’t have pursued this.”

  “But—”

  “But what if your remission ended. We couldn’t take the chance.”

  Looking somber, Aunt Geneva walked out of another doorway. “I overheard you, too. I think we all ought to sit down and talk this over calmly. Tell Doree we’ll call her back in a bit.”

  Spring obeyed her aunt, grateful for backup.

  Frighteningly white now, Mother looked up. “You knew about this, Aunty?”

  “Yes, and it’s all for the best—if Bill did indeed survive. Don’t you realize that he loved your mother and would have wanted you?”

  Mother began to weep.

  Aunty looked to Spring. “Let’s all go out in the Florida room. It’s time for all the old secrets and pain to come out into the light of truth.”

  An hour and a full box of blue tissues later, the tragic love story of her natural parents had been revealed to Mother.

  Holding the receiver again with Doree on the line, Spring watched her mother wipe her eyes.

  “I wish this…had been explained…to me years ago,” Mother said haltingly. “I always thought that my natural parents didn’t want me.” She inhaled deeply, her tears drying. “That’s why I was so adamant about not trying to locate them. I didn’t want to be rejected twice.”

  “Oh, Ethel,” Aunt Geneva lamented, “if I or your mother Gloria had known, we would have told you. Your natural parents loved one another and would have been married—if only Connie’s parents had kept their noses out of things.”

  “Let me talk to Doree again.” Mother reached out her hand for the phone. “Doree, call Mr. Smith back, tell him about what happened to…my mother, his sweetheart, and ask him if he’d like to meet me. If he truly loved my mother, I’ll take the chance.”

  “Wow, Mom. I will.” Doree hung up.

  “Time will tell.” Aunty sighed. “Now I’m ready for some lunch. I feel like I’ve just chopped a pile of wood. And I’ve never lifted an ax in my life!”

  Though still teary, Mom chuckled at this.

  Spring felt her spirits lift again. Only the tiniest doubt remained that Grandfather Smith would refuse to talk to Mother. Oh, Lord, after years of misunderstanding and pain, please let this be a time of happy reunion!

  The April Garden Show judging had nearly ended. The airy Golden Sands Country Club, open to the public for the day, teemed and hummed with well-dressed residents and tourists in shorts and T-shirts, examining the colorful prize plants. In one area, an extensive variety of blooming orchids had been judged, while in another, tea roses of every shade were displayed. The main corridor was devoted to an educational display of Bird of Paradise. Area nurseries and greenhouses had set up sample garden displays on the lawn. The show had broken all past attendance records.

  In the midst of stellar success, Spring’s only problem was that Marco still hadn’t shown up. And it was almost time!

  “What’s keeping him?” Aunt Geneva in a purple dress with gold buttons fretted for the tenth time.

  “I don’t know.”

  Eleanor appeared at Spring’s elbow, her floral-print chiffon skirt swishing about her. “That Marco, where is he?”

  “I don’t know.” Spring couldn’t hold back the nerves eating at her stomach. “He promised me faithfully that he’d be here.”

  “Well,” Verna Rae crowded closer to Eleanor, “if he isn’t here, we’ll just have to go on without him.”

  Spring worried her lower lip. No, Marco, not another emergency call from the hospital. “That’s the head judge signaling to me. They’re ready to hand out the prize ribbons.”

  “No stopping now,” Aunty said in bracing tones. “We’ll just have to proceed—Marco or no Marco.”

  Spring nodded, her optimism drooping by the second. She and the other three garden show committee members walked to the
front of the large ballroom, which was filling with attendees taking their seats to see the prizes bestowed on winners and take part in the second part of the gala.

  One last time, Spring turned back to the entrance. Marco strode in and paused, looking around. She stood on tiptoe and waved at him. He’s here! He won’t miss it!

  She wondered if the happiness she concealed would burst out of bounds before the time came to reveal the joyful news for Marco. It was only minutes now!

  Marco wended his way through the crowd toward her. Dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and silver tie, he was more devastatingly striking than she’d ever thought him before. His mere glance turned her into sweet, melted joy. Marco, my love.

  Spring saw the transformation in him, which had come in the past few weeks. Smiling, he stopped to greet Golden Sands members and other friends, shaking hands and nodding toward her, the picture of easy but dignified charm. My cup runneth over, Lord. Aunty’s health is improving. I’m staying in Florida, and Marco and I have a future, a wonderful future ahead of us. Thank You, Lord. It’s almost too many blessings to believe. I accept them with a grateful heart.

  Marco reached her and put his arm around her shoulder as though they’d been a couple for a thousand years. A glow like tropical sunshine coursed through her.

  Happiness and thankfulness clogged Spring’s throat. This wonderful man loves me! She tried to tell him everything with her smile. Marco, I love you.

  She and Marco sank down side by side in the front row. He knit his long, tanned fingers with hers. This simple act made her heart hum with a silent ecstatic melody. Aunt Geneva went to the podium, and for the next fifteen minutes, prizes in various categories were awarded to beaming winners. When this had been wrapped up, Aunty signaled to Spring.

  Shaking inside but exultant, Spring stood up and made her way to the podium. Love expanding within her, she let herself send a special glance to Marco. His eyebrows were lifted in question. She sent him a tremulous smile, then cleared her throat.

  “As you know, the Golden Sands April Garden Show is in its thirty-fifth year. This year the Golden Sands board approved an addition to the program which we hope will become a part of this yearly event.”