Читать книгу The Best Man - Linda Turner, Linda Turner, Marilyn Pappano - Страница 7

The church dressing room was in chaos. Street clothes were tossed aside and lavender bridesmaid dresses pulled on as the clock on the wall steadily marked off the time. The wedding should have started fifteen minutes ago, but no one was worried about that. They just all wanted to look their best when they finally got the chance to walk down the aisle.

“Has anyone seen my makeup bag? I would have sworn I put it right here with my dress.”

“It’s on the table with the purses. Lord, these shoes are tight! I knew I should have broken them in but I never could find the time. Now I’m going to have blisters. How am I going to dance? Has anyone got any Band-Aids?”

“Oh, God, I can’t believe this! I’ve got a run in my hose! I’ve got to get to the store!”

“You’ll never make it,” Janey McBride told her sister’s old school friend, Rose. “The second Thomas gets here, the minister said we could start the ceremony.”

“Can you believe Thomas had a flat on his wedding day?” her too-talkative cousin, Stella, said unthinkingly. “Talk about bad timing! It’s almost as if fate was trying to tell him something.”

Wincing, Janey shot her a reproving look and hoped her words didn’t carry to the adjoining room, where her mother and sisters-in-law were helping her sister, Merry, dress. “Since it was fate that brought Thomas back to town in the first place, I don’t think we have to look for any hidden messages,” she told her cousin quietly, frowning at her before turning back to Rose, who was staring in dismay at her ruined hose. “We can’t take a chance on holding things up a second time. You’ll just have to wear what you’ve got.”

“But—”

From across the room, a package of hose came sailing right at Rose, who caught it with a laugh. “If you ruin those, I’ve got six other pairs,” Merry said with a grin, her sapphire eyes dancing with happiness as she and her mother and two sisters-in-law, Lizzie and Angel, joined the crowd of bridesmaids. “Plus aspirin, Midol tablets, hive medicine, and every shade of lipstick known to man—and woman.”

Already dressed in her wedding dress, her dark hair swept up off her neck to reveal their grandmother’s pearls, she was beautiful. With her oval face, fine, delicate features, and elegant looks, everyone had always said she was the prettiest girl in town, but as a bride, she was absolutely breathtaking.

Just looking at her brought the sting of tears to Janey’s eyes. Quickly, she blinked them away, but not before Merry saw and frowned in concern. “I’m okay,” she assured her thickly, a crooked smile tilting her mouth. “I’m just getting sentimental. You look so pretty, and I don’t want anything to ruin this day for you.”

Understanding, Merry smiled and hugged her. “It’s not. It’s going to be perfect. You’ll see.”

Confident, she wasn’t the least bit nervous. After all, what was there to be nervous about? She’d been a bridesmaid so many times, she’d lost count of the number of weddings she’d been in. But at every one, she’d watched and learned the ins and outs, what not to do, how to avoid a disaster. Today was her day. She’d been waiting for it for years, and she had everything planned right down to the smallest detail. Nothing was going to go wrong. She wouldn’t let it. Not now that she had found Thomas again.

She and Thomas Cooper had been friends in grade school, sweethearts in high school, then drifted apart when she’d gone to college and veterinary school in Texas and he’d headed east to Harvard for his undergraduate and law degrees. When she’d eventually returned to the family ranch in Liberty Hill, Colorado, to open her own clinic, she’d thought she’d never see Thomas again. He’d settled in Chicago and joined an old, established law firm there, which was just what he’d always wanted. She’d been happy for him, but deep inside, a part of her had longed to see him. Then, unexpectedly, his mother fell and broke her hip. His father had died years before, and he had no brothers or sisters, so it had been left to Thomas to come home to take care of her.

Merry hadn’t even known he was back until she ran into him in town. A slow smile curled the corners of her mouth at the memory. It had been just like old times—only better. They’d gone to Ed’s Diner for coffee and had Ed’s famous chocolate cream pie, and they’d ended up talking and laughing for hours. Just that easily, she’d fallen in love with him all over again, and it had been the same for him.

Still, she hadn’t dare let herself even think of a future with him. Her life, her family, her business—everything that was dear to her was in Liberty Hill. And Thomas had only come back to town to see after his mother. It was understood that as soon as she was well and back on her feet, he would return to his law firm in Chicago.

But a month passed, and then another, and even after his mother recovered, Thomas showed no signs of leaving. Then one day, he surprised Merry with the announcement that he didn’t intend to return to Chicago. He’d made arrangements with his partners there to resign from the firm. He wanted to set up practice in Liberty Hill and spend the rest of his life with her. He proposed and gave her six months to plan a wedding.

Just thinking about it made her want to laugh, to dance, to sing with happiness. Thomas had wanted a big wedding to show off his new bride, and it had taken six months to get everything ready, but all the work was about to pay off. The big day had arrived, and in less than an hour, she would be Mrs. Thomas Cooper. Finally!

“It’s going to be fantastic,” Rose chimed in. “The sun’s shining, the birds are singing, and there isn’t a rain cloud in sight. What could go wrong? The church is full to the rafters, and Thomas is nuts about Merry. If I could find a man who’d look at me the way he looks at her, I’d be walking down the aisle myself. You’re very lucky, Mer.”

Touched, Merry found her own eyes welling with tears. “I know,” she choked. “Sometimes, I have to pinch myself just to make sure I’m not dreaming.”

“And this is just the beginning,” Angel said, grinning at her. Newly married herself to Merry and Janey’s brother, Joe, she knew from personal experience just how wonderful it could be. “You’ll settle in together, become a family, have babies—”

“Diapers, colic—”

At her sister-in-law, Lizzie’s, droll comment, they all laughed and the tears that threatened to ruin their makeup disappeared. “I can hardly wait,” Merry said with a chuckle. “It’s going to be wonderful!”

The others had to agree, and as they finished dressing and the clock ticked toward five o’clock, the rescheduled time of the wedding, they talked about Merry’s future with the man of her dreams. Some things were just meant to be, and they all agreed that she and Thomas were one of those things. You only had to see them together to know that they were totally devoted to each other.

Lost in the talk of babies and the nursery she planned to start as soon as possible, Merry didn’t notice the passage of time until she suddenly glanced at her watch and gasped. “It’s nearly five! Thomas should be here by now.”

“He was coming straight to the church as soon as he changed the flat, wasn’t he?” Stella asked. “He does know how to work a jack, doesn’t he?”

She hadn’t thought of that and blanched at the idea of setting back the wedding again. Everyone knew Thomas wasn’t mechanically inclined. She should have insisted that one of her brothers go pick him up, but he’d assured her he had everything under control.

“Maybe I’d better call him,” she said, stepping over to the phone. “Something must have happened.”

She punched in the number of his cell phone, only to get his voice mail when he didn’t answer. Surprised, she told herself there had to be a logical explanation. If his cell phone was in the car and he was outside loading the flat tire into the trunk, he wouldn’t even hear the phone ringing. Or he’d left the phone on the side of the road and driven off without it. He’d been so absentminded lately that she wouldn’t have put that past him.

Or right this minute, he could be lying on the side of the road, sick from the same bug that had upset his stomach last night at the rehearsal dinner.

She went pale at the thought. Worried, she turned to her sister. “Janey, what if he’s sick? You saw how he was last night. He was green as a gourd. He said it was nothing, but what if he’s got one of those nasty stomach viruses that won’t go away? He wouldn’t have told me because he wouldn’t have wanted to upset me, but he could be in trouble. Maybe the guys should go look for him.”

Somber, Janey had to agree that her concern was legitimate. They’d all seen how uncomfortable Thomas was last night, and he was just the type to keep his illness to himself so he wouldn’t ruin their wedding day. “I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about,” she assured her, “but I’ll go talk to the guys. Who knows? He may have called Nick so he wouldn’t have to worry you. I’ll find out and be right back.”

“Thank you! If something has happened to him—”

“Don’t look for trouble,” her mother advised her calmly. Always the voice of reason when everyone else was falling apart, Sara McBride was as calm and self-possessed as a saint as she quietly took charge. “Everything will be fine. You’ll see. While we’re waiting, Lizzie and Angel and I will talk to the guests and assure them everything’s okay. You just stay here and relax and think of how wonderful your life with Thomas is going to be. I know you’ll be very happy together.”

On the verge of panic, that was just what Merry needed to hear. Tears glistening in her eyes, she took her mother’s hand and squeezed it in appreciation. “Thanks, Mom. How did you know I needed to hear that?”

“Because I know my children. Don’t have a meltdown, dear. Everything’s going to work out just fine. You’ll see.”

The room reserved for Thomas and his groomsmen to dress was off the choir room and much smaller than that allotted to the women. Knocking on the door, Janey wouldn’t have been surprised to find Thomas inside, scrambling into his tux and cursing the flat tire that had delayed him.

But when her brother, Joe, answered the door and she looked past him into the room, all she saw was their younger brother, Zeke, and the rest of the groomsmen. Already decked out in their wedding finery and standing around with their hands in their pockets, there was something about their somber expressions that had her heart jumping in alarm. “What’s wrong? Where’s Thomas? He is here, isn’t he?”

“Not exactly,” Zeke replied grimly.

“What?!”

“He’s having trouble getting here,” Joe told her tersely. “Nick’s on the phone with him in the church office right now.”

Confused, Janey frowned. Nick Kincaid was not only the local sheriff, but Thomas’s best man. “I don’t understand. If he’s still having car trouble, why doesn’t Nick just send one of his deputies to pick him up?”

“Because Thomas won’t tell any of us where he is.”

The color drained out of Janey’s face at Zeke’s curt announcement, and suddenly she understood why her brothers looked so serious. “He’s backing out of the wedding?”

“I don’t know, but I’m tired of cooling my heels in here,” Joe retorted. “C’mon. Let’s go see what’s going on.”

Jerking open the door, he ushered Janey and Zeke out into the hall, only to discover that a number of the guests had grown restless and escaped to the foyer of the church, where they stood in groups of twos and threes, gossiping. At the sight of the three McBrides, they immediately stiffened and nearly choked on what they were saying. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that they were whispering about the delay in the ceremony and the fact that no one had seen the groom all day.

Joe couldn’t say he blamed them for speculating among themselves. Thomas’s behavior was damned odd, and he intended to tell him that the second he finally showed his face. For now, however, he and the rest of the family would, for Merry’s sake, act as if everything were fine.

Nodding to the guests, he forced a smile and said, “Sorry about the delay, folks. There’ve been a few glitches, but we’re getting them straightened out and should start the ceremony any minute.”

Not giving anyone time to ask what the glitches were, he led the way to the church office and shut the door as soon as Janey and Zeke followed him inside. Nick, Thomas’s closest friend for most of his life, was on the phone and prowling the length of the phone cord. Joe took one look at his scowling face and swore. Whatever breakdown Thomas was going through, Nick had obviously made little progress with him.

Furious, Nick, in fact, wanted to string him up by his thumbs. “Dammit, man, this is just prewedding jitters!” he growled into the phone. “Calm down and think about what you’re doing. Think about Merry. I know you love her. You always have. And she loves you. The two of you belong together. Give yourself a chance and talk to her—”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Thomas retorted. “I thought I could do this, but I can’t. I can’t marry her. It would be the biggest mistake of my life.”

“You don’t mean that. Talk to her—”

“You talk to her. Tell her whatever you like. Tell her I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt her. But I can’t marry her. I can’t make her happy. I can’t be the person she needs me to be. So I’m going back to Chicago where I belong.”

“No!”

“Goodbye, Nick.”

The phone went dead in his hands, and with a muttered curse, Nick quickly punched in the number to Thomas’s cell phone, but he’d turned it off and the call couldn’t be completed. Swearing, he slammed the receiver down on its base, and completely forgot he was in church. “Damn him, I can’t believe he’s doing this!”

Her brown eyes wide in her pale face, Janey was the first to break the ominous silence that had fallen. “What exactly is he doing?”

Nick hesitated, wondering how the hell he was supposed to tell Merry’s family that the man she loved with all her heart was going to leave her standing at the altar. What could he say that would possibly make sense of this? Nothing, dammit. Nothing at all.

“He’s jilting her, isn’t he?” Zeke snarled as Nick struggled to find the words. “And he’s too much of a coward to come here and tell her to her face.”

Nick winced. Like it or not, that pretty much summed it up. “He’s got it in his head that he can’t be the man Merry needs him to be, and getting married now would be nothing but a mistake. He’s going back to Chicago.”

“The hell he is!” Joe growled, and headed for the door. “C’mon, Zeke. You and I are going to have a talk with Mr. Cooper about the proper way a man treats the woman he claims to love.”

Nick wouldn’t have blamed them if they’d wanted to do a hell of a lot more than talk to Thomas. If it hadn’t been his responsibility as sheriff to enforce the law, he wouldn’t have minded popping his old friend a few times himself. It was no more than he deserved. But beating the tar out of him wouldn’t change anything, and at the moment, they had a much more serious problem to deal with. Merry still didn’t know she wasn’t getting married today.

Quickly stepping in front of the door, he blocked Joe’s path and didn’t so much as blink when the oldest McBride gave him a look that could have blistered paint. “You’re forgetting Merry,” he said quietly. “Somebody has to tell her.”

That stopped both brothers in their tracks. Swearing, Zeke tugged off the tie that threatened to choke him and threw it across the room. “This is going to kill her, Nick. She’s nuts about the bastard.”

No one knew that better than Nick. Best friends with both Merry and Thomas since first grade, he’d watched them fall in love in high school, then again, just last November when Thomas came back to town to take care of his ailing mother. For as long as Nick could remember, Merry had never had eyes for anyone else but Thomas.

“I’ll tell her,” Joe said grimly. “Something like this needs to come from family.”

Nick knew he was probably right. When a woman heard this kind of news, she needed her loved ones around her to cushion the blow. But he loved her, too, dammit! And he’d never been so frustrated in his life. He’d have given his right arm to protect her from this kind of hurt, but it was too late for that. All he could do for her now was break the news as gently as possible and be there for her when she needed a friend.

“I’d like to do it, if you don’t mind,” he said huskily. “I was the only one who talked to Thomas, and as the best man, I feel like it’s my responsibility. I should have seen this coming. I knew something was troubling him, but I thought it was something to do with work and having to reschedule everything so he and Merry could have a month for their honeymoon. If I’d just cornered him and made him talk to me, all of this could have been prevented.”

Her brown eyes kind, Janey patted his arm in sympathy. “This isn’t your fault, Nick. None of us could have predicted this, so don’t beat yourself up over it.”

“We all know who the bad guy is here,” Zeke added, “and it isn’t you.”

“I’d still like to be the one to tell her,” he insisted. “She’s going to blame herself, and she’s not the one who did anything wrong. Thomas is the one with the hang-up, not her. I don’t know how I’m going to make her understand that, but I’d like all of you to be there. And your mother, too, of course. She’s going to take this hard.”

The three McBrides exchanged glances and came to a decision without saying a word. “All right,” Joe said. “We’ll do it your way. Janey, where’s Mom?”

“She and Angel and Lizzie were helping everyone get dressed, but Mom said something about talking to some of the guests. They’re getting restless.”

“I don’t blame them,” he muttered, pulling open the door. “I’m a little testy myself. C’mon. Let’s go find everyone.”

Pacing nervously, Merry glanced at her watch for the third time in a single minute, worry eating her stomach. What was taking Janey so long? She’d promised she’d be right back ten minutes ago, and she was nowhere in sight. Something was wrong with Thomas, she thought, swallowing a sob. He’d collapsed somewhere and was in the hospital and nobody wanted to tell her. That had to be it. Nothing else but some kind of horrible illness would keep him from her at a time like this. Dear God, what if instead of a stomach virus, he had appendicitis and his appendix had burst? Right this minute, he could be lying on the side of the road somewhere, dying. She had to go to him!

Horrified, she whirled and headed for the door, determined to find her brothers and Nick and make one of them take her to Thomas. But she’d only taken two steps when there was a perfunctory knock at the dressing room door and Nick and her entire family walked in.

At the sight of their somber faces, she paled, her worst fears realized. “Something’s happened, hasn’t it? He’s in the hospital, isn’t he?” When no one answered, tears welled in her eyes. “Oh, God! He’s not—”

“He’s not dead,” Janey said quickly, reading her mind. “So don’t worry about that. He’s perfectly fine.”

“Then he’s here? Thank God! I’ve been worried sick.”

In spite of the fact that it went against tradition, she would have rushed to the men’s dressing room to see for herself that he was really all right, but the grim look that remained on everyone’s faces held her motionless where she was. “What is it?” she demanded when her heart started to pound in alarm. “What’s wrong?”

For a moment, she didn’t think anyone was going to tell her. Then Nick stepped forward and took her hand. “He’s not here, Merry,” he told her gruffly. “He’s gone back to Chicago.”

“He has not,” she retorted, chuckling in relief. For a second there, she’d thought something was seriously wrong! “We’re getting married, silly. Cut the joking. Where is he, really? The minister must be getting impatient. We’ve got to get this show on the road.”

Her hand still in his, Nick tightened his fingers around hers. “I’m not joking, Mer. There isn’t going to be a wedding. Thomas had a panic attack and freaked out at the idea of getting married. I tried to talk him out of it, but there was no reasoning with him. He left for Chicago ten minutes ago.”

Stella gasped, and somewhere behind her, Rose murmured, “Oh, God!” but Merry never so much as flinched. No! She stared up at Nick with large, unblinking eyes, denial echoing over and over again in her head. There had to be a mistake. Thomas wouldn’t do this to her. Nick must have misunderstood. This was all just some ridiculous misunderstanding. It had to be!

But there was nothing but sympathy in his eyes, nothing but regret and sorrow in the murmured words of her brothers and sister and sisters-in-law as they gathered around her to hug her and reassure her that everything was going to be fine. Clinging to denial, she submitted to their hugs, wondering all the while when someone was going to spill the punchline to this awful joke. Then her mother came to her, tears glistening in her beloved eyes as she slipped her arms around her and folded her close against her heart, and Merry’s defenses began to crumble.

“Mom?”

“I’m so sorry, dear. I know how much you love him. I can’t imagine what’s going on in his head right now, but I’m sure he never meant to hurt you.”

So it was true. Practically the whole town had gathered to see her marry Thomas, and it wasn’t going to happen. Without a word of explanation, he’d literally left her standing at the altar.

The pain hit then, sharp and excruciating, right in the heart. She wanted to cry out, to scream No! but her throat closed like a vice. Tears flooded her eyes, and she couldn’t seem to blink them away fast enough. Numb, all she could do was hug herself and rock back and fourth as hurt swamped her, threatening to drag her down into the dark void that suddenly yawned at the edge of her consciousness.

Lost in her misery, she suffered the hugs of Rose and Stella and hardly heard the words of condolences that swirled around her. It was like a funeral, she thought dazedly as she sank into the nearest chair and her wedding dress billowed around her. A death, only no one had died. Except her. She should have been wearing black.

Zeke squatted down in front of her, concern lining his face as he took her cold hand. “You don’t have to worry about anything, Sis. Do you hear me? Joe and I will talk to the guests and tell them the wedding and reception have been cancelled. Lizzie and Angel are going to go back to the house and help the caterers pack everything up while we wait for everyone to clear out of here. You don’t have to see or talk to anyone until you’re ready. Okay?”

“As soon as we get the all clear from Angel and Lizzie, we’ll take you home,” Joe added huskily. “To Mom’s house, not yours. There’s no reason for you to face Thomas’s things tonight. Tomorrow, Zeke and Nick and I will load his stuff into my truck and take it over to his mother’s.”

Enveloped in misery, Merry just barely held back a sob. She had such a wonderful family. They all had busy lives and didn’t always agree on things, but in times of trouble, they closed ranks. And she loved them for it. Unlike Thomas, she could count on them to be there for her through thick and thin and to protect her when she was hurting.

And right now, she was battered and bruised and more hurt than she’d ever been in her life. Like a wounded animal, she wanted to just crawl in a hole somewhere and hide from the world. But she couldn’t. Thomas had publicly humiliated her in front of the whole town, and if she didn’t face her friends and family now, she didn’t think she’d ever be able to look them in the eye again.

The decision made, she blinked away her tears and lifted her chin proudly. “No, I’ll talk to the guests. They were invited to my wedding, and I should be the one who talks to them.”

“Says who?”

“You don’t owe anyone anything.”

“Are you sure you want to do this, dear? It won’t be easy.”

Even as her mother cautioned her, Merry knew she understood this was something she had to do. Thomas was the bad guy here, and she wasn’t going to hide away like she had something to be ashamed of. The light of battle glinting in her sapphire eyes, she rose purposefully to her feet. “I’m sure. And I’m not cancelling the reception, either. It’s already been paid for, and everyone’s expecting a party. They’re going to have one.”

“What?!”

“You can’t be serious!”

“Maybe somebody should call a doctor. I don’t think she’s in any condition to be making these kind of decisions.”

Joe scowled at Stella, shutting her up with a single hard glare, and turned to Merry. Struggling to hang on to his patience, he was frustrated and furious with Thomas, and his control snapped. “Dammit, Merry, no one will expect you to go through with the damn reception. It’s crazy. So just hush and let us take care of things!”

At any other time, she would have snapped back. This wasn’t the Dark Ages and she didn’t have to hush and go meekly along with whatever the men in the family wanted. But he was upset and concerned and, like everyone else, more than a little emotional. And for that, she could forgive him. But she was still going through with the reception.

Love squeezing her heart, she pulled him close for a fierce hug, then quickly stepped free before she dissolved in tears. “I know you’re just trying to protect me, and I appreciate it,” she said with a smile that wasn’t quite steady. “But I’ve made up my mind and I’m not going to change it. Tell Lizzie and Angel the reception’s a go.” And not giving anyone a chance to argue further, she turned and sailed out of the dressing room with the train of her wedding dress trailing behind her.

Muttering among themselves about the McBride stubbornness that they all had more than their fair share of, there was nothing Joe and the rest of the family could do but follow.

She’d thought it would be easy. Caught up in her determination to do what she considered the right thing, she would march down the aisle, give a no-nonsense explanation to the overflowing crowd, and invite everyone back to the ranch for the reception. But as she started down the center aisle alone in her wedding dress, she could almost feel the shocked surprise that rippled through the crowd. Row by row, silence fell like a stone as people caught sight of her. By the time she reached the spot where she and Thomas were to have stood to take their vows, the church was so quiet, the very air itself seemed to hum. And every eye was on her.

Her heart pounding, she would have liked nothing more than to turn tail and run. But these were her friends and relatives, people she’d known all her life, and she’d kept them waiting long enough.

Gathering her courage, she faced them squarely, with a forced smile that didn’t come easily. “I imagine you’ve all been wondering what the holdup is, and I can’t say I blame you. We had a few unexpected delays, and now Thomas has decided he doesn’t want to get married today, after all.”

A collective gasp went up from the crowd, along with more than a few less than complimentary comments about Thomas. But it was the sympathy she saw in people’s eyes that almost shattered Merry. Touched, she struggled to hold back tears, but it wasn’t easy. Her throat was tight, her heart hurting, and it was several long moments before she could manage to even talk. And even then, her voice was betrayingly husky with emotion.

“I apologize for keeping you waiting, but I was just as surprised by the turn of events as you are. Needless to say, there won’t be a wedding, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have to miss out on a good party. I’ll meet you back at the ranch in a few moments, and the reception will continue as planned.”

For a moment, there was nothing but stunned silence, then everyone began to whisper. Suddenly, from the back of the church, one of the cowboys who worked at the ranch jumped to his feet and let out a holler that rattled the church’s stained-glass windows. “Does this mean you’re available again, Merry, honey? All right! Can I have the first dance?”

Caught off guard, she had to laugh—she couldn’t help it. A wide grin splitting his face and his blue eyes dancing with excitement, he looked like he’d just discovered there was a Santa Claus after all. “You certainly can, Slim,” she said with a chuckle. “I’d be honored.”

“I want second,” another cowboy called out.

“Hey, I was going to ask her!”

“So what took you so long?”

Flattered, Merry found herself blinking back tears again. “Don’t fight, boys. I’ll be happy to dance with all of you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get out of these shoes—they’re killing me! I’ll see all of you back at the ranch.”

She hurried up the aisle before the tears could fall and found her entire family waiting for her at the back of the church. Her sisters-in-law, Elizabeth and Angel, had joined the group, along with Zeke and Elizabeth’s daughter, Casey, and although they didn’t all agree with her decision, they were totally supportive.

Tears glistening in her mother’s eyes, her smile tender with love, she said, “Your father would be so proud of you, dear. I know that wasn’t easy for you.”

“It was the right thing to do,” she said simply. “I’m not going to hide away like I did something I should be ashamed of.”

“If anyone should be ashamed, it should be Cooper,” Zeke said tersely as they all retreated to the dressing room again to wait for the crowd to thin out. “Damn, I’d like to give him a piece of my mind!”

“Don’t worry,” Joe retorted in a low-pitched voice. “He’s going to pay. He’ll have to live with this the rest of his life, and he probably doesn’t even realize it.”

Still furious with his old friend, Nick had to agree. “No, he doesn’t. He’s not thinking at all—he’s panicking. Once he calms down, he’s going to regret this, but by then, it’ll be too late. It’s already too late.”

Nick had to only look at Merry’s pale, drawn face to know just how badly she was hurting. And there was nothing he or anyone else could do to help her. That, more than anything else, frustrated the hell out of him. Tonight should have been her wedding night, the night she’d planned to spend in some secluded, romantic setting with her new husband. Instead, she would dance the evening away with a bunch of drunk cowboys, then spend what was left of the night alone with dreams of what might have been.

Nick didn’t know how she would bear it. No woman deserved that, especially one as kind and caring and beautiful as Merry. She could have graced the cover of any fashion magazine in the world—she was that gorgeous—and Thomas had walked away from her. He must have been out of his mind.

Wishing he could get his old friend alone for just five minutes, he tore at his tie. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think I’m going to go change out of this monkey suit. This damn tie’s choking me to death.”

Quickly seconding the suggestion, Janey said, “I think that’s an excellent idea. Merry, don’t you want to change? With all that bead work, your dress must weigh a ton. Your suitcase is still in my car. Why don’t you let one of the guys get it for you so you can put on something more comfortable?”

Merry was tempted. Janey was right—the dress was incredibly heavy—and the most beautiful wedding dress she’d ever seen. She’d fallen in love with it at first sight and hadn’t needed to look at any others to know that this was The Dress, the one she’d dreamed of wearing when she walked down the aisle to Thomas. But that dream had turned into a nightmare. And the dress no longer represented her hopes for the future with the man she loved, but his betrayal.

And that was why she wasn’t taking it off. Not yet. With every step, the weight of it tugging at her would remind her of Thomas and just how close she’d come to making the biggest mistake of her life. God, what a fool she was! She’d loved him, trusted him with her heart and soul. And what had he done? Kicked her in the teeth in front of the whole town.

Numb, she still couldn’t believe it. They’d been friends their entire lives—she’d loved him for longer than she could remember. She’d thought she knew him inside and out, better than she knew herself. If someone had told her he was capable of hurting her this way, she would have called them a liar. She would have been wrong.

“No, thanks,” she told Janey. “I’ll just wear this for now. It can’t be returned, so I might as well get some use out of it while I can.”

Her eyes sad, her sister said quietly, “You don’t have to torture yourself this way, Mer. Why don’t you let me take the dress and get rid of it?”

Just that easily, the tears she’d thought she had under control were back, filling her eyes and silently spilling over her leashes. “Maybe later,” she said thickly. “For now, I have to wear it. I have my reasons.”

Afraid she was going to shatter if she didn’t get her emotions under control, she quickly changed the subject and forced a bright smile. “Enough of this. The church has cleared out, so let’s get out of here. We’ve got a party to go to!”

The reception was held at her mother’s house, the large, sprawling family homestead that had been added on to by generations of McBrides over the last century. With porches stretching across the front and back of the house and a huge patio under the trees out back, there was more than enough room to accommodate half the county.

Which was a good thing, Merry thought as she, Janey, and her mother approached the house in the limo that had been rented to drive her and Thomas to the reception. Cars lined the drive for a quarter of a mile, and still others spilled onto nearby pastures. Everyone in town appeared to be there, and Merry couldn’t say she was surprised. This was a party that no one in their right mind was going to miss.

She’d wanted a wedding that people would talk about for years to come, and it looked like she’d gotten it. But Lord, she hadn’t expected it to be under these conditions! Thomas should be at her side, damn him, with his ring on her finger and hers on his! Instead, he was on his way back to Chicago with his tail between his legs, and she was the one left to deal with the consequences of his cowardice.

Too late, she realized she should have cancelled the reception. She must have been out of her mind to think she could carry such a thing off. People would expect her to smile prettily and graciously accept their hugs and kisses and words of condolences, and she just wasn’t in the mood. She appreciated their support, but what she really needed was some time to herself.

Reading her thoughts, her mother said quietly, “You don’t have to do this, you know. No one would think badly of you if you thanked everyone for coming, then slipped away by yourself.”

“We can handle the party,” Janey assured her. “Why don’t you go back to your place and have a good cry? You’d feel better.”

For all of two seconds, she actually considered it. Then she remembered Thomas’s things. His clothes hung beside hers in her closet; his pillow lay beside hers on her bed. Not wanting to have to move into her house after they returned from their honeymoon, when they would both immediately return to work, he’d spent the last week transferring his things from his apartment to Merry’s house. Just thinking about facing that now, when she felt like she would shatter at any moment, had her shaking her head in panic. “No, I can handle it. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

The limo pulled up before the homestead then, and any time she had to compose herself was gone. Guests started swarming toward the car, and she was left with no choice but to paste on a smile and step out to greet them when the driver opened the door for her. Immediately enveloped in hugs and sympathy, she was passed from one person to the next, then the next, and carried along with the crowd to the back patio, where tables had been set up for the reception. There, even more people were waiting for their chance to talk to her.

Overwhelmed, she felt tears sting her eyes, and in spite of her best resolve not to cry, she couldn’t help herself. Horrified that she was going to fall apart right there in front of everyone, she looked around for an escape route, but she was cut off by the crowd at every turn. Then, just when she thought she was going to thoroughly embarrass herself, a drumroll sounded from the band that was set up at the opposite end of the patio.

“Ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention, please,” the lead singer called out loudly. “The guest of honor has arrived and the band would like to salute her with a song. Merry, this one’s for you.”

Giving her a thumb’s up signal, he turned to the band. With a nod of his head, he and his musicians swept into a rousing rendition of “I Will Survive.”