IT WAS A summer morning too perfect for anything but the quiet celebration of nature, picking wild blackberries on the banks of a lazy mountain river ... or marrying the man you adore alongside it. Annie chose the latter, and she had never looked more lovely. Her wedding gown was a simple white organdy, its sweetheart neckline revealing soft, rounded shoulders and porcelain skin, glowing with excitement. A garland of wild daisies adorned her copper-colored hair.
Chase wore a chamois jacket with western fringe swinging from the sleeves; a brand-new black Stetson shaded his dark eyes in honor of the occasion. Several of the women in the small assemblage of guests regarded him with frankly admiring glances as he stood before the preacher, waiting for his bride. And Muriel Jensen, who sang the Lord’s Prayer, was overheard referring to the groom as “outlandishly handsome.”
The crowd hushed as Annie came forward to join Chase. Even the finches’ throaty chirping in the willows overhead went quiet as the bride took her place next to the groom. Anticipation peaked as the couple’s eyes met for one sweet, brief moment before they turned to face the priest. And then someone released a sigh.
Johnny Starhawk was Chase’s best man, his dark hair tied back, his expression solemn as the nuptials began. Next to Johnny sat Chase’s Border collie, his tail thumping noisily. The melodious rush of the river provided background music for the short ceremony, but as the priest pronounced the couple husband and wife, and they sealed their union with a lingering kiss, an odd rumbling noise could be heard in the distance.
As Annie and Chase finally turned to the crowd, the ominous sound built, roaring like a fleet of approaching helicopters. The earth seemed to vibrate, and the racket soared to a crescendo as a single streak of black and chrome burst into view. To everyone’s surprise, a huge motorcycle swooped around the bend in the road that led to the river.
“Who is he?” Voices in the crowd rose anxiously as a lone figure on a massive black Harley shot straight for the ceremony. The rider’s mirrored aviator glasses flashed in the sunlight, and the ties of the black bandanna he wore around his head streamed in the wind.
The rider looked as menacing as the demon machine he rode as he gunned the bike up onto the grass and wheeled it around, coming to a stop not six feet from the startled crowd. Sunlight glinted off his glasses as he scanned their faces, searching for someone. Unshorn and unshaven, his rich blond hair sun-whitened against the black bandanna, he was a blunt weapon to the senses. A golden mountain lion of a man.
Both Chase and Johnny seemed to recognize the rider as he dropped the bike’s kickstand and swung off. But it was Annie who said the man’s name. In his marine fatigues, olive-drab T-shirt, and flak vest, Geoff Dias looked exactly as Annie remembered him from five years before. He was a stark and beautiful specter from the past, reminding her of every tragic detail, every shining moment, of the commandos’ last mission.
She glanced at Chase beside her and realized that he was remembering it, too, every moment, as though time had turned in on itself and rushed backward. Even Johnny Starhawk looked oddly transfixed.
“Chase Beaudine?” said Geoff, approaching the gathering. “I was told I could find him here.” The crowd inched back as if the stranger really were a mountain lion.
Chase made a path through the throng, drawing Annie behind him. “Dias! It’s me, Chase.”
Geoff Dias stared at Chase’s wedding apparel in total confusion. “What’s going on, Beaudine? I got an urgent message. It said your life was in danger.”
“Sorry, buddy,” Chase informed him, a slow smile breaking. “You’re too late to save me now. I just got married.”
“Married?” Geoff’s rugged features registered shock as he stared at his old friend. “I don’t believe it. Chase Beaudine married?” Husky laughter erupted, and he shook his head in disbelief. “God, man, I’m really sorry to hear that. Maybe if I’d been here an hour earlier, I could have saved you.”
“If you’d been here an hour earlier, you could have given away the bride.” The sardonic remark came from Johnny Starhawk as he moved through the crowd to greet the late arrival.
“Starhawk? What are you doing here?”
Johnny grinned, his dark eyes glinting as he clasped hands with his former partner. “Part of the conspiracy to get Chase Beaudine out of action.”
Geoff Dias glanced again at Chase, now wholly sympathetic to the man’s plight. “When you said you were in danger, Beaudine, you meant it!”
“Maybe you’d like to meet the danger in person.” Chase ushered Annie forward, draping an arm around her shoulder. “This is my beautiful wife. You may remember her as Annie Wells.”
Recognition slowly crept into Geoff’s emerald green eyes as he searched Annie’s luminous face. “She’s the girl you rescued,” he said finally. “The one they told us was dead.” He turned to Chase with new understanding. “She’s more than beautiful, Beaudine. She’s eerie. No wonder you lost your head.”
Annie reached out her hand and caught hold of Geoff’s. “Thank you,” she said, her eyes going misty, and very, very blue. A moment later Geoff pulled her into his arms.
It was a friendly enough welcome, but Chase broke them up anyway, drawing his tiny wife away from Geoff Dias’s bear hug of an embrace. “Find your own woman, Dias,” he said possessively, enfolding Annie in his arms. “This one’s mine.”
The other two men stepped back, laughing at their old friend’s uncharacteristic behavior.
“Don’t be so smug, compadres,” Chase warned them both. “It could happen to you.”
Both Chase and Annie laughed at the men’s vehement denials. But as Annie studied her husband’s former partners, a stirring of intuition warned her that these two men were inveterate loners, and probably as averse to emotional involvement as Chase had been. She didn’t envy the woman who tangled with either of them. As for Geoff Dias, she would not want to be the woman who tried to tame that lion. It would surely take a whip and a chair. Or one very smart lioness.
And as for Johnny Starhawk, he was as quietly dangerous as any jungle cat she’d ever come across, a black panther lying in wait. But for whom? If she could have looked into the future and seen the unsuspecting one who would cross his path, Annie would have warned her to run for her life.
She gave an involuntary shudder, grateful to be exactly where she was, warm in Chase’s arms. Laughing voices rose and champagne corks began to pop in the background, bringing her back to the celebration at hand—her own wedding! Glancing up at the love in her husband’s dark eyes, at her most secret dream realized, she joined in the joyous laughter. Miracle Number Two, she thought. May there be many more.