...continued from previous page

"Would you like any help?" offered Charlie, completely in the dark as to what he was up to, but willing to help if he wanted her company.

"You could tell me which of these goes best in the frames I bought," replied Adam, opening the envelope and pulling out several large photos of their wedding.

"What are you doing?" wondered Charlie, taking a seat on the couch beside him.

Adam looked up from stuffing a photo into a picture frame. "I thought it was obvious what I was doing," he replied dryly. Then he flashed his handsome Clark smile and nodded to her for an opinion. "What do you think?" he asked. He held up a large photo frame decorated with wedding doves, and pointed to the famous couple in the picture. "That shows my face well, doesn't it?"

"I've never known you to be self-conscious," Charlie laughed.

"I'm not," he insisted, "but I need these to show our faces really well."

"That wedding photo of us is so big, you can't help but notice our faces," answered Charlie. She began matching photos to the frames, while Adam placed them behind the glass. "What are these for?" she finally asked.

"I was wondering when you'd ask," grinned Adam.

"I don't want to become a nag."

Adam gave Charlie a loving wink. "You're not." He inserted the last picture and picked up the largest picture frame showing their wedding. "I need to put this in your father's room," he explained. "Somewhere he can easily see it."

"You'd better hang it on the wall," warned Charlie, getting up and following Adam to Chuck's room. "He might accidentally knock it over if you don't put it somewhere safe."

By the time Adam returned with a hammer and fastener, Chuck was sitting on his bed, quietly watching. Charlie was also curious what Adam was up to, and patiently held the frame Adam had asked her to hold.

Locating a spot at the foot of the bed where Chuck would see the frame every time he opened his eyes, Adam hammered the fastener into the wall and took the framed picture from Charlie. "I think that should do," muttered Adam, taking a step back to see his own handiwork.

Charlie was about to ask Adam why he had gone to so much trouble to hang a wedding picture in her father's room, when Chuck answered the question for her.

"Charlie," the seated man spoke up, "did you get married?"

The rest of the wedding frames were strategically placed around the house, so that Adam had the freedom to embrace Charlie in front of Chuck, and no longer expect to have her dragged away. All it took was a reinforcing point at one of the wedding pictures, and Chuck would nod that he understood. He didn't always look as though he liked it, but he understood.


The morning of their first anniversary, Adam was awakened by a kiss from Charlie. His eyes fluttered open, and he happily accepted another.

"Sit up," she smiled, pulling free of his arms. "Daddy and I made you breakfast in bed."

"Daddy?" Adam sat up, only to see Chuck standing at the foot of the bed, holding a tray with two plates and a pitcher of orange juice.

continued on next page...

<< Love Stories Last PageLove Stories Next Page >>