It was the morning of Craig’s wedding and Lorri couldn’t shake the black mood that hung over her. It had seemed so far off, and now it was here. Agitated with Craig and Tiffany for getting married here in her town, she couldn’t help but feel like it was a personal attack.
Her phone rang, breaking the obsession for a moment, but for the first time since the day she’d given Ryder her phone number, she let it go to voice mail when he called.
The next phone call was Pam, but Lorri wasn’t up to admitting the emotions or being consoled for them so she let voice mail get that one too.
Lorri was overwhelmed by her mood. The thought of the friends she and Craig had spent so many years socializing with rejoicing in his happiness with someone else practically in her own backyard was eating away at her.
Why is this bothering me so much?
Even Mister’s silly antics couldn’t shake Lorri from the foul mood.
She went to her purse and pulled out all the cash she had and stuffed it into the forget-about-it jar. “That should cover me for the whole doggone day.”
She forced herself to go upstairs to the loft and work on the painting of the mill that she’d started, but nothing came to her. She’d sat there with paint on the tip of her brush so long that it became tacky. She dabbed one spot on the canvas, then got up to wash out the brush. She went back to her bedroom and closed the door. Mister whimpered from the hallway as she crawled into bed.
Tears over the marriage that was behind her now continued to fall. She couldn’t make sense of the sorrow she was feeling. This is what I wanted.
She woke up an hour later, feeling sorry for herself.
She dragged the box she’d tucked on the top shelf of her closet down and sat on the bed with it. It held all kinds of memorabilia that she hadn’t been able to part with. From the corsage Craig had given to her for homecoming, to their old marriage license, almost too faded to read.
My wedding day had been no more special than paying the water bill downtown.
They’d driven to the courthouse. Craig had refused to wear a suit, instead wearing khakis and a purple polo shirt. She wore a flowered dress she usually saved for special occasions. They hadn’t even taken the whole day off work, instead meeting on their lunch hour that Friday afternoon. But she’d been happy with it then. She still remembered how her excitement had pushed her up the steep city building steps as she clung to Craig’s hand. All she wanted was to be out of her parents’ house, away from the drama that pulled all the attention onto Jeff. That marriage license had been her ticket out.
Their wedding day had been a nonevent. Not horrible, just not special. Her relationship with Craig had been more like roommates than a marriage. There had never been any fireworks. No special thoughtful gestures just because, but Craig had been there when she needed him. He’d comforted her when things went wrong and he’d been there through the worst of times. Maybe some of that was because their relationship had started so young. Each other’s first, and both desperate to grow up and have freedom.
It had rained earlier. Shamefully she’d hoped for a hurricane to dampen Craig and Tiffany’s day, but of course that hadn’t happened. It was a beautiful blue-sky afternoon.
She wondered if Craig would wear a tux. Would there be lots of guests? Would she know most of them? How many tiers would the cake have?
Did we even have a cake to celebrate our wedding? Certainly we must have.
Something happened while those questions rolled through her head.
The need to know consumed her.
She’d been to Ryder’s often enough now she knew how to get to The Wedding Ranch the back way. He’d accused her of crashing Cody’s wedding, so certainly crashing this wedding shouldn’t be that hard. There wouldn’t even be security.
It wasn’t like she planned to stand up and object to the wedding. She just wanted a little peek. What was wrong with that?
She didn’t have much time though. Lorri leapt into action, showering and putting on makeup, fluffing her hair. She slipped into a simple buckskin-colored dress, black belt at the waist, and black shoes.
She twisted in front of the full-length mirror. Tasteful, she thought. Subtle enough to blend into the background, which is exactly what she planned to do. Five more bucks in the forget-about-it jar was not going to cover this.
The whole drive to the back entrance of Ryder’s property Lorri told herself this was a bad idea, but that didn’t stop her. She parked and started walking toward the venue.
Hopefully, no one noticed her tromping through the field. Leaves had started to fall from the trees, and there wasn’t near the coverage there had been when Cody and Kasey got married here.
She stepped out of her shoes, carrying them before she broke an ankle. That would be awful. She could see it now. The ambulance four-wheeling through the hayfield to get to her. Way worse than almost being run over by a runaway steer. At least there’d been a silver lining in that. If it hadn’t been for that crazy cow, she might not have ever met Ryder.
What am I doing here?
But she’d already come this far. Satisfying her dying curiosity wouldn’t take but a few minutes.
She quick-stepped between two buildings, and tucked herself inside the tall tobacco barn. There were no benches set up outside like there had been at Cody and Kasey’s wedding. She remembered Tinsley talking about how creative the twins were, switching up the venue to make each event unique. Today the venue had an enormous amount of pink.
She turned, and standing only a few feet away from her was the bride with her back to her. She’d recognize her a mile away even if that little Yorkie hadn’t been dancing along the edges of her lacy train.
Lorri skirted back outside, almost sick to her stomach. Tiffany’s wedding gown was beautiful. Soft off-white, simple, and elegant. Even though summer was over, Tiffany’s body was still as tan as if she’d walked off the beach under the tropical sun yesterday.
Leave. Just leave.
But her feet had other ideas. Crouching slightly, she walked around to the other side of the tobacco barn. Her heart pounded so loud she was certain anyone within three yards could hear it.
She slipped her shoes back on, and tried to look like she belonged as caterers rushed past her carrying covered pans into the old barn.
Standing off to the side, she recognized a lot of the guests, laughing and enjoying themselves. Her eyes hopped from one couple to the next. She knew the majority of the guests. Stacy and Carmen and their husbands stood talking to another couple. Embarrassment flooded over her. What am I doing? What did I expect?
Her breath caught in her throat when she heard someone call out her name from behind her.
She turned in that direction.
Ryder? He was walking toward her wearing a huge smile.
She glanced at the surrounding people. Everyone was so busy with their own conversations no one else seemed to have noticed, thank goodness, but figuring out how to explain what she was doing here to Ryder after the big deal she made about him accusing her of crashing Cody’s wedding, that wasn’t going to be elegant at all.
“Hey, you look beautiful. I didn’t know you were coming today.”
She couldn’t lie to him. “Surprise.” She backed into the building. Thankfully he followed without her having to tug him in like it was a kidnapping.
“Friend of the bride?” he asked.
“Definitely not. She’s marrying my ex-husband.”
Ryder’s neck lurched forward. “What?”
“I shouldn’t be here.” She grabbed his hands. “I was just so nosy, and was going to take a little peek, and now here I am—how am I supposed to get out of here without them seeing me?”
He laughed. “No way. You really are crashing this wedding.”
She peeked around Ryder and saw Craig walking in her direction. “It’s not funny. It’s horrible and I’m humiliated to have to admit it to you, but now my ex is coming this way.” She pulled in close to Ryder’s chest. “Please don’t let him see me.”
She could feel Ryder’s breath on her forehead.
“That’s the guy who cheated on you?” Ryder’s jaw pulsed. “Doesn’t surprise me.”
“Shh. He’s coming.” She ducked, pulling herself closer to Ryder, all the while wishing to disappear.
Craig’s voice carried over the noise. “Lorri? Is that you?”
She tensed, dreading the next moment when Craig got close enough to confront her.
A gentle hand tipped her chin. Ryder pressed his lips to hers.
It was doubtful that even holding her breath, bracing herself for the worst, could leave her this dizzied. She responded to his kiss, relishing the way his strong hands moved her so effortlessly, and with just the brush of his lips, her heart beat twice as fast.
He walked her into the shadow of the building out of sight, but then didn’t waste a second. “Come on.” He grabbed her hand and broke into a run.
Unsteady from that kiss, she let Ryder whisk her away and then out through the bushes. Cars were double and triple parked all around them.
She followed behind him as he zigged, then zagged, and finally darted between two vehicles heading for a merlot-colored gangster-style car in the middle of the driveway.
“Go. Get in,” he said, swinging her past him into the bushes next to the car.
“What? I can’t steal someone’s car.”
“Jump in the passenger seat and hunker down. I’ll be there in a minute.”
She hesitated, but she didn’t have much choice. Hoping for the best, she waited until the valet walked off to park another car. She darted out and jumped into the front passenger seat of the fancy ride.
Collapsing into a puddle on the floorboard she wished she could wiggle her nose and disappear. If anyone discovered her, she didn’t know how she’d talk her way out of this one.
The door handle clicked, and the driver’s-side door opened. She heard the jingle of keys and the engine turned over. She opened her eyes, relieved to see the familiar leather cowboy boots mash the gas pedal.
“Stay down,” he whispered. The car swerved to the left and then to the right, then sped along for a ways before it halted. “Come on, my friend Lorri. You can get up. The coast is clear.”
She scrambled to get her legs up under her, and turned to sit in the seat. “Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry. This is so not like me.”
He kept laughing. “I’ve never driven a getaway car before.”
As mortified as she was, she had to laugh too.
“You were seriously married to that guy?”
“I was.”
“Well, those two are a piece of work. They deserve each other. They have been a huge pain for the twins. Bridezilla and that little dog, and your ex, well, he is about the biggest blowhard I’ve ever met.”
“That’s him.”
“You deserve better.”
“Thank you.” She took in a big breath. “Cody’s wedding was so beautiful, and we had such a wonderful night. The thought of Craig and that woman getting married there, experiencing that, it gnawed at me.”
“It shouldn’t.”
“I just couldn’t let it go. I had to see for myself, and I was so relieved that although it was way nicer than my wedding to Craig, it was nothing like the night we were there.”
His eyes were soft, his voice kind. “I think that had more to do with the company than the venue.”
Her mouth grew cottony. She touched her lips. “It was a night I’ll never forget.”
“Me either.”
“Then why can’t I let this go? I don’t want to be with Craig. I’m very happy. So why did I do that?”
“You’re asking the wrong person. I’ve been trying to figure out how to move on for years. The past is what we know. The future … it’s uncharted territory.”
“It is.” She pressed her fingers to her face. “I’m so embarrassed.”
“Well, no one knows but you and me. Let’s pretend it didn’t happen.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“You’re dressed real pretty. Let’s turn this around. A do-over. I just picked you up for an afternoon date.”
“A date?” Is he kidding? “A real date?”
He nodded.
She took in the fine interior of the vehicle. “This is a really nice car.”
“A ’34 Ford five-window coupe. It belonged to my great-grandfather. He bought it new. When he died he handed it down to my grandfather. My dad was never the car guy I was, so when my grandfather died no one was surprised when he left it to me. Pop-Pop and I would tinker on this thing for hours.” He lovingly patted the steering wheel. “I always feel close to him when I’m driving this.”
“That’s so special.”
“I was supposed to drive the bride and groom away today.”
“What? Oh my gosh. You’ve got to get back.”
“Nope.” He shook his head. “They don’t deserve to enjoy it. I texted Ross. He is over the two of them, too. He said he’ll play dumb and blame the vendor.”
“Leave them stranded?”
“They won’t be stranded. There are a hundred cars in that lot. Besides I was just driving them around the block to where the jackass groom parked his car so they could drive themselves to the airport. He was too cheap to book the whole excursion.”
“He must be paying for it. He’s much freer with other people’s money.”
“He’s a winner. I can’t picture the two of you together. Not at all.”
“We were young.” There was really no other explanation, except that sometimes you needed distance to see the real picture. She’d gotten oodles of advice over the years, plenty of folks telling her he was no good. “In my imagination, I saw him for who I wanted him to be. Not who he really was.”
Am I doing that now with Ryder?
“I have to ask you something.” She pulled her feet up into the seat of the car and faced him. Almost afraid to hear the truth … she had to know. “About that kiss? Was that my imagination too? Is there really any way that two people who’ve known each other for such a short time could—”
Ryder pulled off to the side of the road, leaned over, and put his hand behind her neck, kissing her again, only there was no rush.
And this time she had no question what it meant, as she tried to catch her breath.
He sat back.
She touched her lips. “This is real, isn’t it?”
“So real. I was afraid to say it out loud else it might disappear, but this—you and me—this isn’t going anywhere.”
“Oh my gosh.” She held her hands to her heart, as a tear slipped down her cheek.