A Vow to Cherish Read Free Page A

excitement was contagious, and John couldn’t begrudge him his eagerness to be on the road.
    The morning was chilly for June, but the birds were singing and the sky was clear. He put an arm around Ellen and drew her to him as they strolled back up to the house. “Well, Mrs. Brighton. Looks like it’s just you and me.”
    She glanced up at him beneath tendrils of auburn hair. “Are you trying to make me cry again?”
    “No, ma’am. Actually, I kind of like the sound of it…just the two of us. No phone ringing off the hook, no doors slamming, actual food in the refrigerator.” He chuckled. “Why, we might even be able to finish a conversation in one sitting.”
    She leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed contentedly. “Won’t that be nice?”
    They stopped and stood in the driveway looking up at the big house.
    John sighed. “I wish Oscar and Hattie could see how the kids have turned out. They’d be pleased with all the happiness this old house has held for us.”
    “Yes, they would,” Ellen agreed in a thin voice that told John her thoughts were far away. “I miss them.”
    Oscar and Hattie Miles had become surrogate parents to John in his college years and had been like grandparents to the Brighton children. The elderly couple had been gone for several years now, but John saw their faces before him now, indelibly etched in a cherished niche of his memory.
    Oscar Miles had immigrated to the States from London when he was just fourteen, and though he’d cherished his American citizenship, he’d never lost the trace of London that lingered in his deep voice. His wife was a plump and cheerful angel with a halo of white hair. If he closed his eyes, John could almost taste the sweet, flaky tarts and cobblers and English scones Hattie had seemed determined to stuff him with.
    It was at her table that John had found true meaning in his life. For Hattie had shown him God. God had been as real and as personal to her as Oscar was, and her relationship with her God was not much different than her friendship with her husband.
    One night, after Oscar shared his own experiences of faith—faith in a living God through His Son Jesus Christ—John could no longer find a reason not to believe.
    That night John had found healing for the pain of an absent father and a distant mother. He’d found meaning for his work with the children at school and a reason to hope for their future, as well as his own.
    Then John had introduced Ellen to Oscar and Hattie, and they had grown to love her as their own. They were ecstatic when John announced their engagement. And when he told them that he and Ellen wanted to keep his apartment after their marriage, Oscar proceeded to paint the kitchen and have new carpeting put in the living room. Hattie all but banished John from the place while she scrubbed floors and washed windows and swept away cobwebs.
    With Ellen’s collection of furniture from the farm, and John’s mishmash acquired at garage sales and flea markets, the apartment soon became a quaint and cozy haven. They had spent many a leisurely afternoon browsing flea markets and dusty antique shops, finding just the right touches to make the rooms of the apartment their own. John taught Ellen the fine art of bargaining, and soon she was wheedling the stingiest of proprietors into incredible deals. Ellen reveled in making curtains and pillows for the tiny bedroom and drove John crazy arranging and rearranging the furniture.
    He grinned to himself. She still did that sometimes. But he’d learned to put up with it, even enjoy it as one of the quirks that made her his Ellen. He reached to caress the back of her neck.
    She leaned into him and let out a murmur of pleasure. After a minute she turned back to meet his eye. “What are you thinking about?”
    “Same things you are. Life. How fast it’s going by.”
    “You’ve got that right. It’s scary.”
    “Scary, yes. But good. Life is good.”
    And it was. He breathed in the