Finally a Bride Read online

  Okay, so it was a lousy secret to be keeping. He hadn’t told her up front because he’d been afraid she’d turn him down if she knew exactly what she was getting into. He’d almost told her last night, but he’d been all too willing to drop the issue when she’d asked him not to get into anything too heavy on the eve of their wedding.

  Afterward once she’d had time to fall in love with Robby, once she thought of his son as her own, he prayed that she would be every bit as furious and indignant about Tommy’s out-of-the-blue plans as he was.

  Apparently his silence told Tommy all he needed to know. “You haven’t told her, have you? Poor old Katie. You’re still taking her for granted, big brother. One of these days that arrogance of yours is going to cost you big-time.”

  It was the only thing Tommy had said that had the ring of gospel truth. Luke did take Katie for granted. He counted on her compassion, her generosity and the deep and abiding love she’d once given him so freely. One of these days, though, he would likely pay a terrible price for taking all that she had to offer and giving her nothing but lies in return. He was likely to lose the only woman he’d ever really given a damn about.

  “Goodbye, Tommy.”

  “See you in court, bro.”

  * * *

  Tommy’s words were still ringing in his ears as Luke dressed for the wedding an hour later. He’d chosen his most formal suit, a black pin-stripe that had served him well in the business world. Maybe it would bring him luck today as well, more luck than he had any right to expect.

  He thought back over the life he’d managed to put together despite his unfortunate marriage to Betty Sue Wilder. He’d mastered finance while living in Atlanta, turning an understanding of basic accounting into an intuitive grasp of the corporate bottom line.

  Between his careful personal financial management and his genius for investments, he’d parlayed a generous salary into the kind of wealth he’d never even imagined growing up back in Clover. His tight-fisted control of the bankbook had irritated the daylights out of his wife and had, no doubt, contributed to her decision to take off. Betty Sue hadn’t liked being hemmed in by anything as mundane as a budget.

  Luke, however, had held the opinion that having money one day didn’t guarantee he’d have it the next. He spent it as if each dollar might be his last. He would never, ever be left in the sorry financial mess that had faced his mother after his father took off.

  He’d been horrified upon returning to Clover to see the kind of risks Katie had taken with her own financial stability. It was too late for him to do anything for his mother, but Katie’s situation at least was about to change. He’d have her on a sound financial footing in no time...if she would listen to him. She probably wouldn’t, he admitted with a sigh. For the hundredth time he wondered why he had been so hell-bent on making this particular bargain. He knew he could have fought off his brother’s claim to Robby on his own. He could have hired a nanny to look after the boy.

  But from the moment he’d realized that Tommy intended to fight him for Robby’s custody, Luke’s head had been filled with thoughts of Caitlyn. Six years ago he’d chosen duty over his heart. The decision to marry Betty Sue had been forced on him by a deeply ingrained sense of honor. Afterward, he had grimly set out to erase all of his most precious memories of Katie.

  A few months ago, with Betty Sue gone and Tommy raising cain about the son Luke had stolen from him, Luke had just as systematically set out to learn all he could about Katie’s life since he’d left Clover.

  And then he’d formed his plan for getting her to marry him. He’d gone about it with the kind of dogged determination and attention to detail that had made him a success in business. Major corporate mergers had been achieved with less rigorous planning.

  Not once had it occurred to him to simply court her. For one thing, there wasn’t enough time. For another, he’d always figured the sensible, straightforward approach was best. Most people understood dollars and cents in ways they couldn’t comprehend emotions.

  Caitlyn had readily confirmed his beliefs on that score. She’d seen right away that what he was suggesting would work out best all around. Hell, she’d even laid out a damned payment plan for her commitment. Ten thousand a year for five years! He’d been stunned by her audacity. He’d also admired it in a grudging sort of way.

  The one thing he couldn’t figure out for the life of him, though, was why her quick response had left him feeling empty and somehow disappointed.

  “You never said. Is Katie going to be my new mommy? I mean is that what I should call her?” Robby asked, tugging at his tie interrupting his thoughts. His own suit was an exact replica of Luke’s, but he was clearly less comfortable in it.

  He was far more fascinated with the concept of having a new mother. He rarely saw Betty Sue, which was her choice, not Luke’s and certainly not Robby’s. For weeks after she’d gone Robby had stood silently in front of her photograph, tears rolling down his cheeks.

  Now, he asked Luke, “Would Mommy be mad if I called Katie Mommy, too?”

  “I think she’d want you to do whatever made you happy,” Luke said.

  Robby frowned. “But will Katie mind? I mean I’m not really her little boy.”

  “That’s something you and she will have to decide.”

  “Will we live in her house? I like it there. Mrs. Jeffers said I could call her Grandma, and I beat her at checkers. And it won’t be lonely with all those people around all the time.”

  Luke felt as if he’d been sucker punched by Robby’s calmly delivered statement. No five-year-old should be talking about loneliness so matter-of-factly.

  There was no question that Robby had spent far too much time alone in his young life. Betty Sue hadn’t been much interested in mothering. She’d had a list of available baby-sitters that would just about have filled his Rolodex and she hadn’t hesitated to call them morning, noon or night. As a result, Robby was amazingly adaptable and outgoing, almost desperate in his bids for approval. Some of those traits would benefit him, Luke supposed, but that knowledge didn’t assuage his guilt.

  “It will be like getting a big family all at once, won’t it?” Luke said, wondering again at the odd sense of disappointment that had settled into the region of his heart.

  What kind of privacy would a pair of newlyweds have in a crowded boarding house? And how long would it be before everyone in town knew that he and Katie were sleeping in separate bedrooms, as she’d dictated?

  Of course, if every room were rented...

  A slow grin crept across his face. Yes, indeed, that would solve that particular problem in a hurry. Katie couldn’t very well hold him to their deal if there was a paying customer for that extra bedroom. He swore to himself that he’d have that situation resolved by the time they came back from their farce of a honeymoon in Charleston. He’d sensed an ally in Mrs. Jeffers. Perhaps she would be willing to screen new applicants for the room. The whole matter could be handled in no time.

  For some reason the thought of Caitlyn in his bed, in his arms, warmed him in a way that nothing else had in a very long time. He couldn’t think of a single other business merger that had affected him quite the same way, a fact that would have surprised his ex-wife. She’d always thought the only thing that turned him on was business. He hadn’t been able to deny it...until now.

  Now it seemed that his best friend, the woman he was supposedly marrying solely for convenience, had the ability to make his whole damned body throb with anticipation. Something told him this marriage was going to turn out to be a whole lot more than he’d bargained for.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Lucy Maguire Ryder, who was the only person who knew the whole truth about this sham of a wedding, stood back and studied Katie speculatively. The close scrutiny had Katie squirming. She was nervous enough without her best friend looking her over with the intensity of the last quality control inspector on the assembly line at General Motors.

  “You look beautiful,” Lucy d
eclared finally, when she had straightened the hem of Katie’s new knee-length silk dress for the tenth time in the past fifteen minutes.

  “Yes, you do, darling,” Peg agreed. “That pale pink brings out the roses in your cheeks, though why you wouldn’t agree to a fancy gown is beyond me. This is your wedding, hopefully the only one you’ll ever have. You should have all the trimmings.”

  “Wedding gowns are outrageously expensive,” Katie said. She didn’t add that the boarding house debts had eaten up all of her savings. Such an admission might lead the conversation too close to her financial arrangement with Luke.

  “I could have made one for practically nothing,” Peg began.

  Katie quickly cut her off. “There was no time for you to make it and there was no point in spending all that money for a ceremony that will take five minutes,” she countered. “Luke and I agreed this was more sensible.”

  “Sensible,” Peg repeated with a huff. “Weddings aren’t supposed to be sensible. People in love should indulge themselves just this once.”

  Katie exchanged a look with her best friend and tried to avoid her aunt’s penetrating gaze.

  “What?” Peg exclaimed, catching the two of them. Her forced cheerfulness died, replaced at once by suspicion. “What is it that you’re keeping from me? From the very beginning, I’ve suspected that you weren’t telling me the whole truth. Now what’s going on here?”

  “Nothing,” Katie reassured her, giving her a hug. “Thank you for everything.”

  Peg glanced from Katie to Lucy and back again, clearly not satisfied. Finally, apparently guessing that she wouldn’t learn anything from either of them, she shrugged. “Everything? I have a cake and a few canap;aaes at home. I always dreamed of—”

  “Stop it,” Katie said firmly, before Peg had them all in tears with her description of the ideal church wedding she’d envisioned for her niece. “This is what I want—just a quiet ceremony with the people I love most. Isn’t that what really matters?”

  To Katie’s relief, the question, for which there was only one reasonable answer, finally silenced her aunt’s litany of regrets.

  “I’m sorry,” Peg said. “The last thing I want is to spoil this day for you.” She reached into her handbag and pulled out a small package. “This is for you. It was your grandmother’s.”

  Katie’s throat clogged with emotion as she accepted it. She tugged the white ribbon free, then slid the box from its wrappings. Her fingers shook as she fumbled with the tight lid. When she finally had it open, she found a small, white leather-bound prayer book with her grandmother’s name engraved in gold.

  “She carried it at her wedding. It was a gift from your grandfather,” Peg said.

  Clasping the prayer book tightly, Katie threw her arms around her aunt and hugged her. “Thank you.”

  “I’ve been saving it all these years. Your mother and I both carried it at our weddings. Your mother wanted you to have it on your wedding day.” Peg dabbed gently at the tears spilling down Katie’s cheeks. “Don’t cry, sweetheart. You’ll ruin your makeup.”

  “Thank you,” Katie whispered again.

  “Stop that. You don’t need to thank me for doing what your mother asked,” Peg said brusquely, swiping at her own tears.

  “I’m not thanking you for that,” Katie protested. “I just want you to know how grateful I am for everything you’ve done for me. You took me in. You’ve been like a second mother, and no girl could have had a better one. I love you.”

  “Oh, baby.” Peg’s embrace tightened. “I love you, too.”

  With both of them about to dissolve into sentimental tears, Lucy stepped in. “Enough, you two, or Clover will be flooded by nightfall. Besides, we have a wedding to get to.” She gave Katie’s hand an encouraging squeeze. “All set?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  It wasn’t until she walked into Justice of the Peace Abernathy’s dingy, cramped foyer a half hour later and heard the recorded sound of organ music that Katie recognized the exact consequences of the choice she’d made in her kitchen just a few short weeks earlier. Visions of all of the other lovely weddings in which she’d participated as a bridesmaid crowded into her head. This was... She couldn’t find words to describe how depressing it all was, especially since she knew that she and Luke didn’t even share the kind of love that might have conquered this inauspicious beginning.

  Suddenly the enormity of what she was about to do struck her. For one fleeting instant she considered turning right around and running as fast and as far from Clover, South Carolina, and Luke Cassidy as she could get. She knew, though, that distance alone would never bring her peace of mind. For better or worse, this was the choice of her heart, if not her head.

  “Are you okay?” Lucy asked in a hushed voice as Peg went in to take a seat.

  “Peachy,” Katie replied and wondered if the butterflies in her stomach could be squelched by sheer bravado. “Where’s Luke?”

  Lucy peered through the curtain that shielded the justice of the peace’s office. “In with Mr. Abernathy. Robby’s there, too. He looks so sweet. He’s all dressed up just like his daddy. Peg’s talking to them, but Luke keeps looking this way as if he’s afraid you’re about to bolt.” Lucy regarded her intently. “You aren’t, are you?”

  Katie glanced longingly toward the front door, then sighed and shook her head as the organ music swelled and shifted into an enthusiastic rendition of the wedding march. Lucy squeezed her hand reassuringly.

  “Show time, sweetie.”

  Katie drew in a deep breath and peeked through the archway into the room where she was about to be married. The clutter of dark antiques, the frayed upholstery and the heavy drapes were incredibly oppressive, hardly what she’d always imagined as the setting for her wedding. Before she could get too depressed, she brought herself up short. She was beginning to get as caught up as Peg on the frills, rather than focusing on what this day was really all about—a commitment to love, honor and cherish Luke Cassidy all the days of her life.

  That much shouldn’t be too difficult. She’d already had years of practice. If only he were coming to this ceremony with the same deep emotions, she thought wistfully. Well, there was no point in wishing for the impossible. This was the bargain she’d made and she intended to make the best of it.

  Holding in a sigh of regret, she looked into that dreary office one more time. Robby was practically bouncing up and down with excitement. Luke’s gaze was trained on the opening, as steady and confident as ever. Katie locked gazes with those familiar blue eyes and let them lure her into the room.

  She was only dimly aware of what happened next. Mr. Abernathy read an unhurried version of the all-too-familiar ceremony. Katie hadn’t been a bridesmaid more times than she could recall without learning the words by heart. She kept wishing he would get on with it. She wouldn’t believe what she was doing—the emotional risk she was taking—until she and Luke had both said “I do” and the justice of the peace had pronounced them man and wife.

  Man and wife! Her pulse thumped unsteadily at the thought. All the days of our lives! Dear heaven, was she out of her mind?

  Just when she was about to panic, her gaze was inevitably drawn back to Luke’s eyes. Now, with the weight of the vows spelled out, she thought she saw the same doubts and turmoil reflected in his clear blue eyes. Somehow it helped just knowing he was as nervous as she was.

  Then suddenly he smiled, a slow, reassuring curve of his lips that unexpectedly calmed her. His mischievous wink had her smiling back at him.

  And then, just when she was beginning to relax and enjoy it, the ceremony ended and she was wearing a simple gold band on the third finger of her left hand. Luke examined its mate on his own finger with the same amazed expression she was sure was on her own face.

  For the first time Katie actually looked around and registered the pleased expression on Lucy’s face, the tears shimmering in Peg’s eyes and the bouquet that Luke had awkwardly shoved into her hands
right before the ceremony. It was an assortment of blue, yellow and white wildflowers that was so reminiscent of the first flowers he’d ever picked for her that it brought tears to Katie’s eyes. She was probably the only bride in history who was choking back sobs of regret for lost dreams within seconds after saying “I do.”

  “You may kiss the bride,” Mr. Abernathy said jovially, startling Katie and Luke out of their private thoughts.

  Luke hesitated just long enough to force a flood of embarrassed color into Katie’s cheeks. Then he dutifully swept her into his arms with a dramatic flourish meant to satisfy the handful of onlookers.

  Though his enthusiasm for the task seemed obviously feigned to Katie, the touch of Luke’s lips on hers for the traditional post-ceremony kiss made her pulse race with predictable ease. A wildfire of emotions sparked to life deep inside her, even though there wasn’t anything the least bit passionate about the obligatory gesture. She hated her own quick response to what for Luke was merely a show for their small audience.

  Robby’s smacking kiss and tight hug, which promptly followed, were far more natural and enthusiastic. At least one of the Cassidy men seemed happy about the marriage, Katie thought bleakly.

  Too bad it wasn’t her new husband.

  * * *

  On the ride over to Peg’s after the ceremony, Luke wondered at the quick burst of anticipation that had shimmered through him as he’d held Katie in his arms for that all-too-brief farce of a kiss. He glanced over at his bride, who was sitting stiffly beside him, looking more like someone going off to their own execution than a woman who was about to attend her wedding reception. Peg had insisted that Robby ride with her to give them time alone. Luke was beginning to regret accepting the gesture.

  “I didn’t have a chance to tell you earlier,” he said quietly. “You look beautiful.”