Free The Wonder of You by Susan May Warren

contacting the adoption coordinator, trying to see if we can take her temporarily.”
    Max glanced at her from where he leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets. He needed air. “Anyone want water? Or coffee? Chocolate?”
    Amelia shook her head, frowned.
    He escaped anyway, stalking all the way out into the foyer, then beyond, to the cool, pine-scented night, the stars watching as he pressed his hands to his face.
    “Honey? Are you okay?”
    See, he couldn’t hide anything from his wife   —not his stress and certainly not his regret.
    Imagine her hurt when she discovered her groom regretted marrying her. The thought landed like a knife in his chest, and he bit back a cry of pain. He wanted to keep running out into the night but couldn’t when he felt her hand slide into his.
    “What’s going on?”
    Oh, she was beautiful   —looking at him with those blue eyes in the way that could infuse a sort of light into his spirit. He reached out and twined his fingers into her silky hair, aware of how rough and big his hands were. “I’m just wondering how we’re going to tell your family   —your overly protective, in-your-face family   —that we eloped.”
    It had been an impulse, really   —birthed after Max’s hockey team lost their play-off round. Grace had met him in the tunnelafter the game, wrapped her arms around his neck, and whispered, “Cancún. Let’s do it.”
    And with her sweet smell, her soft body against his, her voice like a song in his ear, Max couldn’t deny that he longed, with every bone in his body, to be married to her. To take her in his arms, lose himself in her embrace.
    He should have pushed her away, let common sense grab hold. Maybe right now, she saw that in his eyes.
    “You have regrets,” she said, taking his hand from her hair, holding it. “But you shouldn’t. You’ve been putting me off for almost a year, and frankly, I would have married you last fall in front of a justice of the peace with a hobo for a witness, so the fact that you made me wait until after the season ended is pure cruelty, mister.”
    She lifted her arms around his neck, pulled his head down. “I don’t think I could have waited much longer.”
    Then she kissed him, and he was a weak man because he wrapped his arms around her, sank into her kiss. She tasted of the lemonade and salty fries from their stop at McDonald’s, smelled of the lilacs she’d picked in Minneapolis before their trek north. Her body fit perfectly against his, as if she’d been made for him, or him for her, and when he held her, the world dropped away.
    Her touch could heal him. Convince him that yes, marrying her had been a gift to him from God to help him endure, the one thing on earth that could make his life worth living.
    She leaned back and said, “I need to get inside and see if Ivy’s made any headway with her emergency placement with my parents.”
    Her eyes glowed with an unfamiliar shine. Max frowned as he followed her inside.
    “I think we’re done here,” the doctor said. “It seems as thoughyour sister-in-law pulled a few strings. The adoption coordinator called and said they would release her into your custody, so she’s free to go with you. Just keep an eye on her, maybe check on her in the night.”
    Yulia ducked her head again, her lower lip caught in her teeth as she played with the phone.
    “She seems to be coping,” Max said.
    Grace crouched before the girl and used a voice Max recognized from when he sank into a surly, defeated postgame mood. “Would you like some ice cream?”
    The girl looked at her, wearing a blank expression. Undaunted, Grace straightened and held out her hand.
    Yulia hesitated for a moment but then, one hand holding the phone, took Grace’s in the other and let Grace help her off the table.
    Grace led her toward the parking lot. “Max, can you follow us? I’m going to ride with Amelia.”
    He nodded, watching his wife climb into the backseat with Yulia and put her