No wonder brides still insisted on long gowns. The skirts hid knocking knees. Her father’s hand over hers in the crook of his elbow masked how Kristen’s fingers shook. No one could see the migration of butterflies swarming through her middle, but she knew they were there—butterflies that managed to feel like half horses, wings fluttering and hooves galloping around and around as though they were butterfly ponies on a carousel.
Butterponies? Horseflies? No, horseflies were already a large, biting insect. Maybe flutterhorses.
Kristen giggled at her own nonsense thoughts. Her father smiled down at her and squeezed her hand. In the back row of the church, eight of Nick’s male cousins, ages between fifteen and twenty, glanced her way and grinned.
Kristen winked at the youngest and cutest one. He blushed and ducked his head, his hair falling over his forehead.
Nick must have looked that way in his teens—unruly hair, gangly body and a grin that would have ladies following him around.
If she and Nick were blessed enough to have a son, he would look like that—she hoped. She wanted all their sons to resemble their father, and their daughters to favor Kristen or the women in Nick’s family. At least two sons and two daughters. A big family like Nick’s.
Thoughts of bearing Nick’s children made Kristen’s ears and cheeks turn so hot they must resemble the red roses in her bouquet. Red for warmth. Red for joy. Red for love. On this frosty November afternoon, the attendants wore red velvet dresses and carried white roses.
The last of those attendants, the matron of honor, Nick’s sister Gina, approached the front of the church. The music changed, began to modulate, to swell into the bride’s processional, and Kristen’s flutterhorses returned, beating double time to the throb of the organ. Gina reached the line of bridesmaids, six to accommodate the women her mother insisted she must ask, six more than Kristen and Nick wanted.
My daughter just gets married once, Mother had insisted. You’ll do it right.
“Right” seemed to involve inviting everyone in both extended families as well as everyone who worked in the courthouse, or so it seemed. As Nick moved to the head of the aisle and the sanctuary suddenly appeared a mile long, her beloved, the man who could banish her flutterhorses and melt her heart with the mere touch of his hand on hers, waited for her too far away. He would change his mind before she got there. She would trip over the scalloped lace hem of her dress and fall, thus never reaching him. A siren would scream past on the highway and wake her up to realize the past six months had been the best dream of her life.
Tears filled her eyes. She raised her lids, conscious she must not blink and send the drops running through her carefully applied makeup.
Yes, she wore makeup—mascara heavy on her lashes, foundation, powder, blush, bronzer and who knew what else on her nose and cheeks. It was so stiff she feared she would crack the mask if she smiled too much.
It was so stiff she knew everything was not a dream—makeup, gown, a church full of people. This was her day. Hers and Nick’s. Who cared if she smiled and flawed the layers of cosmetics? She was smiling at Nick waiting for her at the altar.
Kristen took a step forward.
“Wait for your father to go first.” The wedding planner slipped behind Kristen and fluffed out her train. “Remember how I showed you to walk.”
She didn’t remember. She didn’t care if she remembered. She wasn’t there to impress anyone with the gracefulness she knew she didn’t possess. Her only purpose in that room at that moment was to get to Nick as fast as she could and become his wife.
Only the wedding planner’s grip on her elbow stopped Kristen from releasing her father’s arm and racing down the aisle and into Nick’s arms.
The music reached its crescendo. Everyone in the audience rose and turned toward the aisle, turned to stare at Kristen.
She was going to be sick. She was going to crumple into a heap on the white vinyl crash lining the walkway and begin to blubber like a baby.
The crash. A good name for what was going to happen to her.
A sharp movement at the front of the sanctuary caught Kristen’s attention. Nick had raised one hand as though beckoning her forward. Beckoning her to his side.
Kristen took a deep breath and stepped forward. The guests faded into a blur no more significant than houses on an unfamiliar street. With her gaze on the man awaiting her at the altar, Kristen found her footsteps steady, even, purposeful. The endless-seeming aisle slipped away, and she was suddenly at Nick’s side, his hand gripping hers, so warm, so firm.
“Dearly beloved,” the pastor said.
And the most important part of the ceremony began. Words of wisdom from the pastor, Nick’s voice full of conviction speaking his vows, her own far clearer than she thought she could manage in front of five hundred people. Then Nick kissed her, his “I love you,” nearly drowned out in the round of applause.
Nick and Kristen led the way back down the aisle to receive congratulations and hugs from dozens of relatives. Most important of those were Kristen’s own parents, who were heading off on a monthlong cruise for a second honeymoon, their marriage renewed. Nick’s parents and siblings welcomed her like another daughter and sister, more love than she ever thought she would have. Kristen knew life wouldn’t always be smooth, but with Nick at her side and the two of them surrounded by family, certainty ran to her core that she would never have to face the bumps and mountains along life’s journey alone.
If you enjoyed Lethal Ransom, look for this other Love Inspired Suspense title by Laurie Alice Eakes.
Perilous Christmas Reunion
Find more great reads at www.LoveInspired.com
Keep reading for an excerpt from Undercover Jeopardy by Kathleen Tailer.
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