Finally a Bride Read online

  She regarded him skeptically. “I...”

  “No protest,” he said interrupting. “You do. You’re the epitome of the radiant bride.”

  She still looked as if she wanted to argue the point, but this time she managed to say a polite thanks.

  “Katie, if you don’t start smiling, people are going to wonder if there was a shotgun at our backs today.”

  That drew a startled look. “What?”

  “You know,” he prodded. “A shotgun. A baby.”

  If he’d hoped to make her laugh at the absurdity of that, the attempt failed miserably. She frowned at him.

  “Well, fortunately most people in Clover are very adept at counting to nine,” she said. “When next March rolls around and there’s no little Cassidy, they’ll figure out they were wrong.”

  He sighed at her curt tone. “I wouldn’t mind having another little Cassidy someday, yours and mine,” he said quietly. “What about you?”

  “Given the fact that I have no intention of sharing a bed with you that’s going to be difficult to accomplish,” she retorted without even a hint of hesitation.

  He grinned at her certainty that she had that situation well in hand. “Oh, there are plenty of places to do the deed other than a bed. All it requires are two people with imagination and dexterity.”

  Suddenly the too-serious expression on her face faltered. A grin tugged at her resisting lips. Luke wanted a full-fledged smile.

  “We could pull over and I could show you,” he offered generously. “The back seat of a car is a very traditional place to start.”

  A smile broke at last. “In your dreams, Cassidy. We have a deal.”

  “I would be willing to sacrifice my credibility as an honest businessman by breaking this one clause in our bargain,” he said.

  Finally her eyes glinted with wicked amusement. “I could never ask such a thing of you.”

  “You’re not asking,” he protested, enjoying the tint of pink the teasing was putting back into her too-pale cheeks. “I’m offering.”

  “Save it for someone else.”

  “I don’t expect to have another wife.”

  She nodded thoughtfully. “Then that is a problem, isn’t it? It’s a good thing the hot water heater at the boarding house rarely works. The cold showers will do you good.”

  Luke vowed to replace the hot water heater the minute they got back from their honeymoon. Meantime, he pulled into Peg’s driveway and cut the engine. When Katie started to open her door, he reached across her, his arm brushing against her breasts, and closed it. She turned a startled look on him.

  “What?”

  “Before things get too crazy inside, I just want you to know...” He hesitated, uncertain what he could say that would express the strange mix of gratitude and unexpected anticipation he was feeling. “I know that most women look forward to their wedding day their whole lives. And I imagine this isn’t anything like what you dreamed about.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said, though a slight trembling of her lower lip said otherwise.

  “It does,” he contradicted. “Despite the way this whole thing came about, Katie, from here on out I intend to live up to those vows.”

  The tears that suddenly welled up in her eyes were almost his undoing. He reached across and pulled her into his arms. “Don’t cry, darlin’, please.”

  “I...can’t...help...it,” she said haltingly between sniffs. “Oh, Luke, what if this was a terrible mistake? I don’t think I could stand it if you ever regretted marrying me.”

  “No regrets. I guarantee it. And I’m going to do my damnedest to see that you don’t have any, either,” he said determinedly.

  Katie unexpectedly giggled at that. “You sound so grim.”

  A rush of tenderness washed over him as he looked into her tear-streaked face. “I was going for reassuring,” he said indignantly. “Now let’s get inside before they send out a search party.”

  “I’m sure everyone inside is perfectly satisfied that they know exactly why we’ve been delayed,” Katie said dryly.

  She started once again to open the door.

  “Stop that,” Luke said. “Just this once will you stay still and wait for me to open the door for you, instead of bolting like you can’t wait to get away from me?”

  “Maybe I’m just anxious to get to the cake before you do.”

  “We have to cut that together,” he reminded her. “It’s a tradition.”

  He glanced into her eyes and saw at once that she recognized as well as he did the irony of worrying about a wedding cake tradition when they’d already turned the entire concept of marrying for love on its head.

  * * *

  The minute they walked through the door of Peg’s familiar house, Luke felt as if he’d finally come home. As a boy he had spent more hours in this small, comfortable house with its sagging front porch and cheerful, haphazardly decorated rooms than he had at home.

  And in more recent years, when the interior of his own house in Atlanta had been designed by some outrageously expensive decorator who was all the rage according to Betty Sue, he still hadn’t felt as at ease as he did right here amid the hodgepodge of antiques and junk that Peg had lovingly assembled from past generations of her own family and her husband’s.

  Katie’s own ancestors, he thought now, smiling at a memory. She had once taken him through the house and pointed out exactly which pieces had come from which relative. The furniture seemed to provide necessary and more tangible ties to her past than even the old photo album that Peg kept in a drawer of an antique, hand-carved, oak buffet.

  But as familiar as everything was, today there was a distinct difference. Despite all the pleas he and Katie had made to keep things simple, the living room had been decorated with crepe paper streamers and glitter-encrusted wedding bells. A buffet table groaned under the weight of all the food Peg and the others had contributed for the occasion. In the middle sat a three-tiered wedding cake, lovingly iced and decorated with pink roses by Peg herself, he suspected. The miniature bride and groom on top were tilted slightly, as if they were as out of kilter as he felt.

  The room had been filled with roses, which probably meant that every garden in Clover had been plundered for the occasion. Luke drew in a deep breath, inhaling that sweet scent, and wondered if he’d ever look at Katie and not imagine the tantalizing aroma of roses.

  He glanced at her, and for the second time that day he caught the shimmer of unshed tears in her eyes. Guilt sliced through him. How could he have robbed her of the wedding—no, the marriage—that she deserved? He had to believe that given time he could make it up to her, that he could prove that she hadn’t made a terrible bargain the day she’d agreed to marry him.

  Don’t forget the ten thousand dollars, a cynical little voice reminded him. It wasn’t as if Katie was getting nothing from their deal. She had snapped up his offer of a financial bailout for the boarding house with only a token protest. Protest? Hell, she’d bargained with him for more. On balance, maybe they really did deserve each other and whatever misery today brought to each of them.

  Still, he couldn’t help responding to her threatened tears. He took her hand in his and squeezed it. Katie immediately turned a grateful smile on him.

  “Ready?” She mouthed the single word silently.

  He leaned down and whispered, “Whenever you are.”

  To hear the two of them bracing themselves to enter that living room and join the small celebration Peg had prepared, Luke swore anyone would have thought they were going into a battle they had no chance of winning.

  Katie nodded, plastered a smile on her face that would have fooled ninety-nine percent of the population of Clover and drew him into the living room. Immediately, congratulatory cheers were called out by the gathering. Champagne toasts followed, led by Peg and echoed by all the women for whom Katie had served as bridesmaid. With each toast, Luke found himself wondering exactly what Katie had told her aunt about their relationship. Wh
atever she knew or suspected, Peg had clearly decided to put on a front for Katie’s sake.

  That front lasted until everyone was absorbed with piled-high plates of country ham, potato salad, homemade biscuits and coleslaw. Then Peg clamped a hand around Luke’s elbow and steered him from the room. She had a grip that had been strengthened by years of carrying trays of food and heavy coffeepots. He doubted he could have pried her loose with a crowbar. She didn’t say a word until they were alone in the backyard. She settled onto one end of an old metal glider and waved him into the spot next to her.

  “I’ll be good to her,” he vowed before Peg could say anything. He figured this was one of those situations that called for a preemptive strike. For an instant Peg indeed did look nonplussed, perhaps even a little relieved by his adamant declaration. Then her expression turned serious.

  “Do you love her?” she asked.

  “Peg, you know how I feel about Katie,” he said evasively.

  The vague statement had her expression clouding over. “There was a time when that was true, a time when I thought the two of you were destined to be married,” she agreed slowly. “Then you ran off.”

  “There were circumstances...”

  “Robby,” she said bluntly.

  He saw no point in lying. “Robby was a big part of it. I had a responsibility to him and to his mother.”

  “What about your responsibility to Katie?”

  Luke sighed. He had never, never thought of Katie as a responsibility. She had been a gift, a treasure, the one constant in his life.

  But because he had believed in honor and duty, he had walked away from her and done the only thing he could do. He had married his brother’s lover, had accepted their child as his own. And because he loved Robby with all his heart, had loved him from the first instant he had set eyes on him, he had always thought of the blessings of that choice and not the sacrifices.

  “The past is over and done with, Peg. I can’t change it,” he told her. “I can only do everything in my power to see that Katie is happy now.”

  Peg didn’t seem totally placated by that, but she nodded. “See that you do,” she said forcefully. “Or I swear, Luke Cassidy, I will see that you regret the day you ever hurt my girl a second time.”

  Luke had no idea how to respond to that, but it didn’t matter because Katie opened the back door just then. Spotting them in the shade, she crossed the yard.

  Looking from one to the other of them, she asked worriedly, “Is everything okay out here?”

  Peg managed an astonishing transformation. She bestowed one of her warmest, sunniest smiles on her niece. “Everything is wonderful. Luke and I were just catching up a bit,” she said, standing up and slipping her arm through Katie’s. “Let’s go back inside where it’s cooler. It wouldn’t do to have the bride looking all wilted when she’s about to take off on her honeymoon.”

  Katie didn’t seem reassured by Peg’s cheerful demeanor. If anything, she looked even more concerned. Her gaze shot to Luke. He managed a smile every bit as broad and every bit as phony as Peg’s.

  “Let’s cut the cake, darlin’,” he said, looping his arm around her waist. “I doubt this day will get into the record books until somebody’s snapped a picture of you shoving a slice into my mouth.”

  “Or into your face,” Katie corrected thoughtfully. She gave him a dangerous look. “I do hope you’ve got some fancy hankies in that designer suit of yours.”

  Luke figured a faceful of cake would be a small price to pay for everything he’d ever done to Katie. Once she heard all of the reasons behind his decision to marry her, she was much more likely to come after him with a shotgun. As he recalled with some dismay, she was a damned good shot.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The honeymoon promised to be a disaster. Katie saw the direction it was heading the minute Luke announced that they were going to Atlanta.

  “Atlanta?” she’d repeated incredulously as they drove away from her aunt’s house, tin cans clanging along behind the car. No wonder he’d been so blasted secretive about his plans. He had probably guessed exactly what sort of message he would be sending and how it would be received.

  It made no difference to her that she’d been the first one to declare her bed off-limits. Until the moment he’d made his announcement, Katie realized she had been holding on to a false hope. She’d dreamed that once they were alone in some romantic setting for a few days the sparks that had once flown between them might be rekindled. She’d hoped the ensuing flames would send this coldly calculated marriage-of-convenience plan up in flames.

  It hadn’t been entirely wishful thinking on her part. Luke had made arrangements for Robby to stay with Aunt Peg, after all. She had taken that as a good sign. He could very well have insisted they bring his son along. Since this was hardly a traditional marriage, there didn’t seem much reason to expect a traditional honeymoon, so why not include his son? And yet, he hadn’t, which she had interpreted to mean something. Obviously, it did not.

  Now Katie was forced to concede that even with Robby out of the picture, Luke had taken her at her stand-offish word. He apparently wasn’t any more inclined than she had claimed to be to stir up any of those old sparks. He was taking her on what sounded to all intents and purposes like the perfect destination for a business trip. Worse, they were heading to the exact same city where he’d been living with his wife. In fact, for all she knew, they might be staying in the same house. The honeymoon wasn’t exactly turning out to be the stuff of which dreams were made.

  After a quick, disappointed scowl in Luke’s direction, she fell silent. Apparently he got her message just as clearly as she’d received his. A dull red flush stole up his neck. He regarded her guiltily.

  “Katie?” When she remained silent, he said, “This trip is just for show, right? We both understood that or at least, I thought we did. I figured I might as well take care of some loose ends, so I won’t have to do it later.”

  “How efficient.”

  Despite her sarcasm, he smiled. “It won’t be all business, I promise.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” she retorted, promptly making plans of her own to demonstrate how little it all mattered to her. “I have some friends in Atlanta I haven’t seen in ages. I’m sure we can spend the next few days shopping and catching up.”

  His gaze narrowed suspiciously. “You hate shopping.”

  Katie shrugged, determined not to let him see how furious and hurt she was. “Maybe I’ll like it better once I get the hang of it. Cee-Cee and Pris are grand masters. We’re going to be here what? Three full days? Four? I figure we should be able to hit at least a mall a day.”

  “Cee-Cee and Pris? They sound like an act from some strip joint.”

  Despite her sour mood, Katie laughed at his assessment. “I’ll have you know those names are short for Celeste Margaret Louise Pennington of the Birmingham Penningtons and Priscilla Elizabeth Warrenton of the Virginia Warrentons. Where they come from, they can call themselves anything they like and people will still be respectful, especially with all those gold credit cards in their purses.”

  “How on earth do you know old Cee-Cee and Pris?”

  “They stayed at the boarding house summer before last and again last July. I think they were slumming it at first, but by the end of the first day, they fit right in. Cee-Cee has quite a knack in the kitchen. We ate Cordon Bleu-qualified meals for the entire week she was there both times. Mr. O’Reilly was taking notes like crazy. Mrs. Jeffers kept moaning about all the cholesterol, but she ate every bite, rich, creamy sauces and all. They could hardly wait for the girls to come back.”

  “Did Pris adapt to small-town life as well?”

  “Pris spent her days attaining what she described as the very best tan of her entire life, then devoted her evenings to worrying about what her dermatologist would have to say about it. I think she might best be described as a conflicted personality. She could make split-second decisions about almost anything. Then she
spent the rest of the time questioning herself. It was fascinating.”

  “I’ll bet,” Luke said, clearly bemused by her descriptions. “And you’ve stayed in touch with the two of them?”

  “Absolutely. They’re dying to come back later this summer.” She glanced at him pointedly. “Of course, now there’s no place to put them.”

  “That’s easily solved. I’ll just move in...”

  Katie saw exactly where he was heading. Given the lack of seductive intent evidenced in his honeymoon arrangements, she thought he had one hell of a nerve suggesting they sleep together when they returned home.

  “Don’t even think about it,” she warned. “And speaking of sleeping arrangements, I hope you’ve booked us into a suite with a very large sofa. Or will we be staying at the house you shared with your last wife?”

  Luke flinched at the direct hit. “I sold that house before I left Atlanta,” he said tersely. “I never liked it.”

  “I trust you got a good price.”

  He ignored the sarcasm once more. “Naturally since it’s our honeymoon, I have booked us into the honeymoon suite. It has a very large bed.” There was a wicked, challenging glint in his eyes as he said it.

  “I’m sure I’ll be very comfortable then,” Katie said with satisfaction. “But you’d better check on that sofa.”

  “Katie...”

  “I think I’ll take a little nap,” she said cheerfully. “Wake me when we get to Atlanta. I want to call Cee-Cee and Pris right away. Oh, and you might want to do something about those tin cans. They’re giving me a headache.”

  She decided it was to Luke’s credit that he didn’t declare that he wouldn’t mind if her whole stubborn head fell off. If he was irritated with her, though, it was too damned bad. She figured it made them just about even. She was flat-out furious with him.

  * * *

  Atlanta had been a very bad idea, Luke decided as he glanced over at his sound-asleep bride. Her light brown hair, which had been curled more than usual for the wedding ceremony, brushed her cheeks in wayward wisps. The light dusting of makeup she had endured for the occasion hadn’t covered the faint smattering of freckles across her nose. Her mouth, still pink with a shade of lipstick more delectable than any he could ever recall her wearing, invited kissing. The scent of roses, either from a perfume or from the flowers that had filled Peg’s house, clung to her. She looked fresh and innocent...and furious, he admitted ruefully.