Thank you, Lord.
Caffey sighed with relief over her dinner, for she hadn’t caught up with Rhee Ryland again. Not with the endless round of pictures. Not with the bride herself consoling Caffey in the powder room, Nikki’s mom fussing over hair and makeup after the crying jag that had set everybody to worrying. Without exactly lying, she’d mumbled some faked reason that hadn’t made much sense at all. She’d almost lost it again, worse than in the gazebo, when the bridal couple entered the big white tent. And when Nikki and her dad danced together. Her own dad hadn’t made it to her wedding at the Plaza.
Thankfully, this time she held it all together.
None of them knew, and could never know, the pain that had assaulted her senses, wracked her heart during the ceremony. Oh, she had loved Everett once and gone into her marriage with high hopes and endless dreams. She’d been so young, so idealistic at twenty, a college girl who hadn’t stood a chance against the dashing, daring, über-sophisticated man of thirty-seven. Everett had wooed her relentlessly after catching her eye at an art gallery opening—a requirement for one of her classes. Today’s joyful vows and blessed wishes had only reminded her of what she’d lost.
How much she’d messed up.
Make that how much Everett had messed up.
She’d held on to her loyalty until his shakedown, his treachery. His arrest. His suicide after skipping out on a bail bigger than the income of most Third-World countries.
No, she didn’t dare let herself drown in Rhee Ryland’s deep black eyes again, or get entwined in those arms again, arms strong enough to protect her from all she feared. She didn’t dare drink in Rhee’s scents of sunshine and outdoors and leather. All things that reminded her of the home in Montana she’d left so willingly for the city. Reminded her how much she missed the parents she’d let down. Reminded her how much she missed a man’s company. A man’s touch.
Her tablemate, Zak’s cousin and best man, did his best to flirt over dinner, but he’d never do. Nothing against him, but he was a college kid, and with Rhee Ryland in the vicinity, he didn’t stand a chance despite being tall, dark, and handsome in his own right. Try as she might, she couldn’t completely keep her eye from Rhee. From time to time, she caught him at the bar, although she never did find his table.
The DJ started up a slow waltz.
“Dance with me.” The outdoor scent of him and his voice entered her realm at the same second. Cousin Dale looked up, surprised and proprietary as if somehow his position as best man laid claim to her.
It was dangerous, Caffey knew better, but couldn’t resist. After all, Rhee was a wedding guest who’d be leaving town soon enough. How much trouble could he cause in one night? Besides, he was Zak’s friend. Mild-mannered computer geek Zak who held a pet adoption once a month at the feed store, who taught Sunday school and despite his paunch, rode a horse like the wind. Dear gentle Zak wouldn’t have anybody scary for a chum.
“Sure.” Her heart thumped, but he didn’t grapple her close like guys did when they didn’t know how to dance. He had style on the dance floor and obviously knew how to lead. Into his rhythm, she ached to relax. As for her, Caffey knew what to do, too. Her years of country line dancing and high school thrashing hadn’t impressed Everett one single bit, and he’d marched her off to private lessons long before their wedding day— Which of course, had made the society pages, the local news channels. Even supermarket tabloids.
“You feeling better?” He muttered close to her ear.
“Yes. Thanks. Sorry we didn’t connect for that cold drink.”
“It’s all right. This makes up for it.”
His voice lulled, and she almost longed to lean in against his shoulder, rest her head, let the dusk flow around her. As the music slowed to its finale, she forced herself to retain her upright position. Rhee Ryland was way too tempting.
Her senses returned. It was far wiser to get away. “I—I best keep Dale company.” She took her left hand from Rhee’s right and tippled a little wave to her tablemate who had slinked into a full-on pout as he glared at her.
Somehow triumphant, she almost grinned as Rhee grimaced. “Your date?”
“No. Zak’s cousin. But I somehow feel responsible.”
“Don’t.” He scowled at Dale who pulled a paper from inside his tux jacket and raised his brow at Caffey.
“I mean, he wants to practice our toasts again.” She shook her head.
“Later then. I intend to claim another dance.”
At that second, the DJ started up a song by her favorite duo, Brooks and Dunn. Tell her the lights are on for her. A rather heart-rending song for a wedding and probably not the best one for someone like her with desperate memories of home. Her left hand reached for her neck, bare this day as per Nikki’s dictum, but where she always wore the cross Daddy had given her for high school graduation. But once again, she couldn’t resist Rhee. “Claim it now,” she insisted boldly. “I love this song.”
“You like cowboy music?” His forehead rose up into a half-dozen manly wrinkles. Wrinkles her female Big Apple chums would have surgically removed tomorrow. Some of the guys as well.
“Me? I love anything cowboy.” I forgot how much, she finished to herself, aching at the pain she’d caused her parents. I forgot how much they’d done for me. Thank you, God, for Zak’s alias that lets me touch base with them now and again. Most of all…her breath caught. Thank you for letting them forgive me.
She wanted to love every single minute, but the song only reminded her of what else she’d lost. She might have found it again but couldn’t shout her joy out in the open. Her renewed faith had reminded her that in Proverbs God is a shield to those who put their trust in Him and she tried, honestly she did. But sometimes she couldn’t help it. There were bad people out there, and she truly didn’t know what they believed she had done. Her shoulder muscles tensed beneath Rhee’s fingers.
****
He had to admit it. She felt just right in his arms. And that remark about loving anything cowboy hit him in the gut. He did, too, and still looked the part although he hadn’t been back to the Bar R in years. Suddenly the ranch in Colorado where his pa had brought him up crashed through his mind with a vengeance. As a kid, he had a head for horses and wanted nothing more than to raise them. But things changed. He’d turned to high-priced security and surveillance, to inventing high-tech gizmos to make his job easier.
His fingers tightened around hers. This woman who felt so right in his arms might be Everett Bradford’s fancy widow, but she did love anything cowboy. A quick vision of her on a horse at his side flashed in his head. As her luscious scent filled his senses, her warmth wrapped around him. The song ended far too soon for him, but he caught a glitter of tears again even when her lips spread in a dazzling smile.
“Thanks. That was nice,” she said. “But I seriously need to go help Dale practice.” She squeezed his hand and returned to her table, waving one more time as she sat next to the sullen best man. A kid, Rhee realized. Dale was barely out of his teens. No competition at all. He stood in the shadows.
Her hand touched Dale’s for a few minute while the kid mouthed words from his paper, and then he rose to the DJ’s microphone to give a sappy speech. People raised glasses, but Rhee didn’t take his eyes off Caffey. Liked what he saw, of course, but mostly wanted to read her every move.
Ah, Caffey. Kathy. Neophytes did it all the time, picking a sound-alike for their real name so they didn’t forget. After all, if you spoke the truth, you never had to remember anything you didn’t already know, and for the greenhorns, this was close enough.
“Hello, everyone. Friends and family.” Behind the mike, she sounded and acted suddenly shy as all eyes turned to her. Quite a switch from the in-your-face lifestyle she’d led with Everett. She’d done red carpets like she’d been born on one. Once more he was reminded of how good an actress she was. “This is Nikki and Zak’s night. But like Pastor Glade said when he led grace before dinner, there’s something else going on here. Somebody. God. I’d like to share one of my favorite passages with y’all before we toast the happy couple. First Corinthians Thirteen, verses six to eight.”
Rhee practically dozed off standing up. God. God. Give me a break. This isn’t the ceremony now. Keep religion out of it. It all still rankled whenever he let it, and right now memories surged again. Bad ones. Memories of his Bible-toting, choir-singing ma heading back for the life she’d left in the city the year Rhee turned sixteen. Old enough to tend and drive himself, she said. Couldn’t take the remoteness, the cold, she said. Neighbors too far away to be neighborly.
Sixteen whole years ago. Pa turned to drink, the place fell to wrack and ruin, and Rhee’s childhood faith flushed right down the toilet. Nope. No God, no marriage for him.
“…but the greatest of these is love.” Caffey smiled at the rapt throng who listened like they’d never heard the words before. Yeah right. He’d heard them himself at the last three weddings he’d attended and gagged each time. No more weddings or Bible thumping for a while.
She raised a glass of iced tea and at that second, their gazes met. For some reason, his heart pittered like he was back in junior high and that little red-haired Karen had given him a Valentine.
The beating pounded against his ribs even worse when Caffey came over to his side. “Bet you’re glad that’s over,” he managed, then egged her on a bit. News cameras and flashing paparazzi had never seemed to bother Kathy Bradford. “You don’t seem comfy in front of a crowd.” She didn’t. Right now, he snapped some close-up head shots from the remote camera in his top button.
One again, she smiled that smile, not giving his blood pressure a single break at all. “Well, I don’t like it. I work in a coffee shop and one-on-one is a whole lot better.”
The phrase one-on-one started doing crazy things inside his head. “How about that drink now?”
Head shaking, Caffey glanced at the inexpensive Timex on her wrist. “Coffee later maybe. Dandy and Darlin’ need their dinner.” She winked at him. “And Nikki is a stickler about feeding time at seven p.m.”
“Darlin’?” The epithet touched a nerve.
“Her puppies. She’s so ridiculous now. I can’t imagine how it’ll be when she and Zak have kids.” She grabbed a glittery little purse from her table. “I’ll be back.”
“Where from?”
“Nikki’s house. It’s just a couple blocks from here. I’m house-sitting while they’re on their honeymoon. Starting tonight. Dog sitting, too, I guess.”
“Let me come.” Rhee knew his words sounded like an order, and that’s what he meant. Besides, if she was house-sitting somewhere, that meant her place would be vacant. He’d have plenty of opportunity to snoop tonight.
Ah, he’d done his homework. He knew where she lived. Rented a room above the garage of an old biddie who ran a knitting shop and served tea with Bible study on Tuesdays.
For a moment, her eyebrows almost met. He forced back his tension, knowing full well she had to distrust a stranger, forced back his relief when she nodded. “All right. I’ve got normal shoes upstairs.” She held up a foot stuck in an absurd spotted thing and scrunched her pretty face. No enhancement surgery yet. Rare for her crowd when someone pushed thirty. “It’s time to get out of these things.”
Walking through the warm dusk with her almost made them a real couple. Her sneakers squeaked on the asphalt then hit the rubble of a gravel driveway along with his cowboy boots.
“I like those earrings you got on,” he said as an old-fashioned streetlamp glittered across the giant things. Once again, he thought with longing about his plan for the pearl earring.
“Well, I must confess. They’re not my style at all. Nikki knew just what she wanted me to wear today. From top to bottom. I’m more a pearl girl myself.”
Pearl! His instinct had been right at least. While he cussed inside his head, Caffey grabbed for her bare neck, as if she realized she’d lost something.
Or missed something.
“You lose something?” He asked casually.
She shook her head. “No. I…I always wear a necklace, mmm, a gold cross my dad gave me once. A diamond chip in the center. I feel kinda naked without it today.”
Hmmmmmm. A gold cross. Should be easy to find when he snooped in her room. Sounded like he’d get his switcheroo after all.