C.J.’s heart trembled when he felt the warm little hand burrow into his, like a baby animal into its nest.

“Did you hurt yourself?” Emma was looking at his cane.

C.J. cleared his throat and managed to mutter, “Yeah…a little bit.”

“Are you going to get well?”

“Oh, yeah,” said C.J. He was still looking into Caitlyn’s eyes. “I’m going to be fine.”

“Then I guess it’ll be okay,” said Emma. She looked up at him, and for the first time ever, he saw her smile. “You have to walk an awful lot at Disney World, you know.”

C.J. didn’t think of himself as macho, but he wasn’t all that crazy about the idea of weeping in public, either. Panic-stricken, he looked over at Caitlyn. She was smiling at him, her eyes silvery and overflowing with all the love a man could ever wish for.

“We’d better be going, then,” she said, picking it up from there. “It’s a long way to Disney World.”

“After that where will we go?” Emma asked, uncertain again.

“Home,” C.J. said gruffly, still looking at Caitlyn. He was thinking of his wish, his impossible dream, and the miracle that had granted it to him. Or…Providence?

Caitlyn’s eyes softened, and so did her smile. “Yes, home,” she said. “You’ve got those bar exams to study for. And…we’ve got a wedding to plan.”

KATHLEEN CREIGHTON

has roots deep in the California soil but has relocated to South Carolina. As a child, she enjoyed listening to old timers’ tales, and her fascination with the past only deepened as she grew older. Today, she says she is interested in everything-art, music, gardening, zoology, anthropology and history-but people are at the top of her list. She also has a lifelong passion for writing, and now combines her two loves in romance novels.