Finally a Bride Read online

  Don’t miss this heartfelt conclusion to the beloved Always a Bridesmaid series from New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods.

  When Luke Cassidy proposed to his best friend, Katie Jones was relieved that she was finally going to trade bridesmaid taffeta for bridal silk. Unfortunately, Luke had business—not love—on his mind. He only wanted a mother for his five-year-old son, and Katie’s dreams of bridal bliss were turning into her worst nightmare. She had loved Luke for as long as she could remember, so she’d just have to convince him that she was more than a temporary business partner—she was a marital partner for life!

  Sherryl Woods Booklist

  The Sweet Magnolias

  Stealing Home

  A Slice of Heaven

  Feels Like Family

  Welcome to Serenity

  Home in Carolina

  Sweet Tea at Sunrise

  Honeysuckle Summer

  Midnight Promises

  Catching Fireflies

  Where Azaleas Bloom

  Swan Point

  Chesapeake Shores

  The Inn at Eagle Point

  Flowers on Main

  Harbor Lights

  A Chesapeake Shores Christmas

  Driftwood Cottage

  Moonlight Cove

  Beach Lane

  An O’Brien Family Christmas

  The Summer Garden

  A Seaside Christmas

  The Christmas Bouquet

  Dogwood Hill

  Willow Brook Road

  The Devaney Brothers

  The Devaney Brothers: Ryan & Sean

  The Devaney Brothers: Michael & Patrick

  The Devaney Brothers: Daniel

  The Calamity Janes

  The Calamity Janes: Cassie & Karen

  The Calamity Janes: Gina & Emma

  The Calamity Janes: Lauren

  The Adams Dynasty

  A Christmas Blessing

  Natural Born Daddy

  The Cowboy and His Baby

  The Rancher and His Unexpected Daughter

  The Littlest Angel

  Natural Born Trouble

  Unexpected Mommy

  The Cowgirl and the Unexpected Wedding

  Natural Born Lawman

  The Unclaimed Baby

  The Cowboy and His Wayward Bride

  Suddenly, Annie’s Father

  The Cowboy and the New Year’s Baby

  Dylan and the Baby Doctor

  The Pint-Sized Secret

  Marrying a Delacourt

  The Delacourt Scandal

  Finally A Bride

  Sherryl Woods

  CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Epilogue

  PROLOGUE

  “You’re going to need a new roof,” Ron Matthews informed Caitlyn Jones, gesturing toward the upper levels of the Clover Street Boarding House. “If you don’t replace the whole thing, you’ll just have me up there patching after every single thunderstorm rolls through here all summer long, and you’ll still need a new roof when all’s said and done.”

  Katie heard the news with a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach. First the wiring, then the plumbing, now the roof. Was there any part of this beautiful old Victorian house that wasn’t about to collapse around her?

  The repairs were sopping up the last of her savings at a rate that made her banker very nervous. Charlie Hastings at the First National Bank of Clover, South Carolina, had already started asking pointed questions about where she was going to find the funds to make the balloon payment on her mortgage on the first of September. He was all too aware of the state of her bank balance and her pitiful cash flow.

  He also knew in intimate detail what she’d already spent to make the once decrepit boarding house habitable after years of neglect. And he was just itching to remind her he’d warned her about all the pitfalls of taking an old relic and trying to remodel it on a shoestring budget. In essence, Charlie Hastings was a royal pain. Just the thought of admitting to him that he’d been right had her sighing heavily.

  “Trouble?”

  Katie’s heart thumped unsteadily at the sound of that one single word. She recognized Luke Cassidy’s voice as if she’d last heard it only yesterday. Instead it had been six years ago, on a night filled with the kind of seductive whispers that had made her heart melt. Trouble? Luke Cassidy’s return to Clover made the problems with the boarding house pale in comparison.

  She’d been dreading a face-to-face meeting with Luke ever since he’d hit town. She’d hoped it would come when she was dressed fit to kill, rather than wearing ragged cutoffs and a cast-off man’s shirt that had belonged to one of her elderly boarders.

  “Nothing I can’t handle,” she insisted, turning slowly toward the man who had broken her heart by abandoning her without a word of goodbye.

  Aware that news of this meeting would spread through town like lightning, she faced him squarely. She raised her chin a notch just to show that his disappearance had meant nothing to her, that he meant nothing to her, despite all the years of friendship that had preceded that one stolen night of perfect bliss.

  To prove just how independent she’d become and how unflustered she was by Luke’s presence, she shifted her gaze to Ron. “How soon can you start working on the roof?”

  “What will it cost?” Luke asked, avoiding her entirely and concentrating on the roofer who’d been one class behind Katie in school.

  Ron’s gaze darted from Katie to Luke and back again. Apparently he caught something in her expression that made him ignore Luke and respond directly to her.

  “Week after next is the soonest, Katie,” he said apologetically. “I’ll put a tarp over it meantime. That should keep the worst of any rain from leaking into that front bedroom until I can get to it.”

  “Thanks, Ron.”

  “How much?” Luke repeated as if he had a perfect right to ask the question.

  Ron regarded him doubtfully, then looked at Katie. She sighed. “How much?” she repeated.

  “Four thousand. Could be closer to five with all those turrets. It’s not like slapping up a nice straight roof on some little single-story bungalow. I’ll get you a firm estimate by tomorrow.”

  Katie gulped. Four or five thousand dollars! Where was she supposed to come up with that kind of money? Right now, though, it hardly mattered. She wouldn’t back down from the commitment with Luke looking on if her life depended on it.

  “Fine,” she said, though there was the faintest tremor in her voice she couldn’t control.

  “Is that a problem?” Ron asked, picking up on that tremor. “If it is, all you have to do is say the word and we can work out the payments. You know I’d do anything in the world to help you make a go of this place, Katie.”

  “I’ll manage,” Katie snapped, then winced at her misdirected anger. If anyone deserved sharp words it was Luke, not Ron, and it was way too late to be delivering them. “Just schedule the job, Ron. I had to move Mrs. Jeffers into another room until the repairs are done. I can’t afford to keep a room empty for long.”

  “Sure thing. If I can free up someone to start sooner, I’ll let you know.” He glanced at Luke. “Good to see you again, Luke. I’d heard you were back. Planning to stay?”

  Luke nodded. “If things work out,” he said enigmatically.

  As soon as the roofer had left, Kate whirled on Luke.
“How dare you interfere in this? The cost of repairing my roof is none of your business.”

  “Never said it was,” he said complacently, shoving his hands into the pockets of his worn jeans. “But you weren’t asking and the question needed answering. Spelling out the details is one of the cardinal rules in business. Getting it in writing is another.”

  The suggestion that she had been about to make a lousy business decision and didn’t know enough to get a contract aggravated Katie almost as much as Luke’s interference.

  “Ron and I have done a lot of business together,” she said.

  His knowing glance took in the old Victorian from porch to roof. “I can imagine.”

  His sarcasm had her gnashing her teeth. “We would have discussed the cost.”

  “When?”

  “Later.” She scowled at him, hoping her frosty reception would drive him away before she betrayed the fact that his presence had her heart hammering a hundred beats a minute. “Did you want something in particular?”

  “You and Ron seem...close,” he said, watching her intently. “How close?”

  “Oh, I’m sure if you hadn’t been here, he would have thrown me to the lawn and made mad, passionate love to me,” she said sweetly.

  Luke’s jaw clenched. “That’s not something to joke about.”

  “It’s also none of your business.”

  “So you’ve said. Well, let’s just pretend for a moment that it is my business. How close are you?”

  “Oh, for pity’s sake, Luke, Ron is happily married and has three kids.”

  “Then how come he’s so eager to give you a break on the roof job?”

  If Luke hadn’t looked so genuinely bemused by Ron’s generosity, Katie might have blown a gasket at the suggestion that the younger man might expect something in return. As it was, she figured it was about time Luke learned that not every relationship was about sex. Maybe, after all those years of well-reported wheeling and dealing in Atlanta, he needed to remember that in Clover people helped each other out without ulterior motives.

  “Ron’s kid sister was one of my first boarders,” she said. “She was having a rough time at home. When she moved in here, I looked out for her. He credits me with keeping her out of trouble, though the truth is Janie was smarter than anyone in her family recognized. She had her whole life mapped out, and it didn’t include getting smashed up with a bunch of teenage drunks out on the highway or an unplanned pregnancy. More kids today should have the kinds of goals and limits she’d set for herself.”

  If she hadn’t had her gaze pinned to Luke’s face, Katie might have missed the fleeting change in his expression when she mentioned the unplanned pregnancy. It made her wonder all over again how much the son he’d turned up with on his return had to do with his abrupt departure all those years ago. Just guessing that the timing roughly coincided with the same period in which he’d made love to her filled her with regrets. If Luke had been trapped into marriage, why couldn’t she have been the one...? She let the thought trail off uncompleted. She would never have done that to him. Never.

  Whatever Luke was thinking, though, he managed to banish it. He resumed that bland, inscrutable expression that tempted Katie to do something, anything to draw a reaction.

  Regarding her evenly, he asked, “How are you going to pay for a new roof?”

  The question was so far afield from the direction of her thoughts that Katie took a minute to form a response. “That’s what you dropped by after six years to ask?”

  Luke’s mouth tightened into a grim line. “How are you going to pay for it?”

  “I’ll find a way,” she said, injecting a misplaced note of confidence into her voice. “Well, it was great seeing you again. We’ll have to catch up some other time. I’ve got things to do.”

  She tried to subtly edge toward the front door, but Luke kept pace with her. She sighed at her failed attempt to escape. He’d always had a single-track mind and an inability to take a hint.

  “How? By working more hours at Peg’s Diner?” he asked irritably. “You can’t earn enough there in the next week to pay for the tarp Ron is going to use, much less a new roof.”

  She stared at him, filled with indignation at the certainty she heard in his voice. “How would you know a thing like that? And what difference does it make to you, even if it is true?”

  “It’s not all that difficult to get information in Clover,” he said. “Nothing thrives in this town quite like gossip.”

  “You used to hate that,” Katie reminded him.

  “Yes, I did,” he agreed. “I’ve discovered, though, that it has its uses. The rumor mill provided all the information I needed on you, including the fact that you are knee-deep in debt. Half the people I talked to are worried sick about you. They say you’re wearing yourself out trying to make a go of this business. What in all that’s holy ever possessed you to buy this ramshackle old place and try to turn it into a boarding house? It should have been torn down thirty years ago when the McAllisters abandoned it.”

  I bought it because we used to sit on that secluded porch night after night and share our innermost secrets, she thought to herself. Those were memories he’d obviously forgotten. She wouldn’t have divulged them to him now for a stack of free shingles and sufficient tar paper to cover the entire roof. She decided it was best to ignore that question altogether.

  “I had no idea folks in Clover were so fascinated with my well-being.” She regarded him pointedly. “But they, at least, are friends. I’m not sure I’d describe you the same way. I do know that my financial status is none of your concern. I can’t imagine why you would have wanted information about me, but if you did, you could have asked me directly.”

  “Would you have given me honest answers?”

  Their gazes clashed. “I was always honest with you,” she said heatedly. “You...” She let the accusation trail off. There was no point to arguing. History couldn’t be changed. She had loved him once to distraction. He had left her without a word, apparently to marry a woman who was pregnant with his child. What more was there to say?

  Even though Katie fell silent, Luke clearly got the message and, just as clearly, accepted the blame for whatever lack of honesty had come between them six years earlier. Guilt was written all over his handsome, chiseled face, along with something that might have been regret.

  “Look, can we go inside and talk?” he asked, his tone suddenly placating.

  “Why?”

  He seemed amused by her reluctance. “Maybe just because it’s way past time for two old friends to catch up.”

  Catching up—risking involvement—struck Katie as a remarkably bad idea. She didn’t want to be alone with Luke. The man still had the power to wreak havoc with her senses. She’d known that the instant she’d spotted him in the back of the church at Lucy Maguire Ryder’s disrupted wedding. That meant he also had the power to cause her even more anguish than he had in the past. She had wounds from the first time that, to her deep regret, felt as fresh today as they had on the day he’d walked out of her life.

  “Please,” he coaxed, his gaze unrelenting.

  “We can sit on the porch,” she said as a compromise when she saw that he wasn’t about to leave until he’d gotten whatever he’d come for. She didn’t for one single minute believe it had anything to do with the cost of her roof repairs. “I’ll get us some lemonade.”

  “Afraid to be alone with me?” he inquired with a smile that never quite reached his eyes.

  “Never,” she denied.

  “Then wouldn’t it be better to have this conversation where half the town won’t be witness to it?”

  She couldn’t imagine what he had to say that needed such privacy, but it was clear he was going to badger her until he got his way. “Oh, for heaven’s sakes,” she snapped impatiently. “Come on into the kitchen.”

  The kitchen, normally Katie’s favorite room in the house because of its huge windows facing the backyard and a table large enough t
o seat a half-dozen friends for a good long chat, suddenly seemed the size of a closet. Luke’s presence was overpowering. The effect was worsened by his pacing, which brought him brushing past her time and again as she squeezed the lemons into a big glass pitcher, added water, plenty of sugar and a tray of ice cubes. At least the process and his silence gave her time to gather her composure.

  When she finally turned, handing him a glass, she was almost able to convince herself that Luke was just another old friend stopping by to catch up on the news. People—a few of them attractive, available men—gathered in her kitchen all the time, though none of them made her pulse race. Still, there was no reason to think of Luke any differently than she did all those others. She could handle his presence. She could, dammit!

  Then his fingers grazed hers as he took the lemonade. Her pulse bucked. She glanced into his eyes and saw a torment that made her breath catch in her throat. Her natural compassion welled up, even as she forced herself to look away. It took every ounce of restraint she possessed to keep from wrapping her arms around him and consoling him.

  Though what Luke Cassidy had to be tormented about she couldn’t imagine. Everyone in town had heard by now that he’d made a fortune while living in Atlanta. He had a precious son, Robby, the merest sight of whom brought a lump to Katie’s throat. And if he was divorced, well, so were a lot of people. However tragic the circumstances, people got over it. It was nothing for her to get all teary-eyed over.

  “Katie?” Luke asked suddenly.

  She reluctantly lifted her gaze to his. Something in his voice, a soft, cajoling note, made her pulse skip yet another beat. How many times had she heard just that note before he’d asked her to do something outrageous? She could tell by the gleam in his eyes that he intended to do just that all over again.

  “What?” she asked warily.

  “Marry me.”

  The two simple, totally unexpected words hit her with the force of a tornado. If he’d asked her to join him on a shuttle to the moon, she wouldn’t have been any more stunned. Katie was suddenly very glad they weren’t in plain sight. At least there was no one to see her mouth drop open, no one to witness in case she followed through on her urge to whap him upside his hard head with a frying pan. If Luke Cassidy had asked her to marry him six years ago, she would have wept with joy. Today that same request—that out-of-the-blue mockery of a real proposal—filled her with fury.