What took the most control was not turning in her seat to find Burke across the church populace. It was downright painful how good he looked in his black suit, her favorite arrowhead bolo tie at his neck, standing at the front of a church while she waited in the aisle. For a full minute, she had all kinds of fantasies about walking down to meet him, getting married in front of the entire town. He didn’t look terrified while he was up there, either. He looked at ease once he saw her.
And…something else.
Before she could think of what was different about him, the organist started playing the Bridal March. The sound of more than half a town rising to its feet drowned out the music for a moment before Sally began the long walk down the aisle.
Cass watched the petite woman move slowly forward with a sense of foreboding. First, Sally was barely moving. In fact, her massive yardage of white taffeta rendered her feet completely invisible, something she had a feeling the blonde was using to her best advantage. About halfway down the aisle the organist had to start the tune over and people were getting tired of standing. Sally was scouring the crowd, looking for something. No, some
one
. Desperately looking.
Cass peeled away her sunglasses, trying to catch Sally’s eye, succeeding finally when she leaned outward toward the procession way. For a moment, Sally brightened, color filling her cheeks as she looked around Cass for someone else.
Hayne.
Disappointment was a sad thing to see on a bride’s face. Cass put her sunglasses back on and shook her head. Sally put her eyes on the floor and finally started moving forward at regular pace. Too soon, she was at the altar next to Luke, looking small, forlorn and lost.
Cass sat with the others, most everyone grateful to be back in their seats. Guilt ate at her. Sally wasn’t her friend, but a huge responsibility weighed on her all the same. She knew Sally didn’t want to marry Luke. No woman in her right mind would, and though Sally was questionable in that department, even
she
was looking for a way out. The only thing stopping Cass from giving her one was a bet. A stupid bet. Sure, her reputation and her car were at stake, but at least a lifetime with Luke didn’t hang in the balance.
She also had to consider her brother. For some reason, his happiness hinged on what the tiny little woman up there finally decided. Picturing Sally’s lonely, lost, sullen face made Cass cringe. No, she couldn’t let this wedding take place. Mentally coughing up her car keys, she put her hand on the back of the pew in front of herself and pulled herself to her feet.
The crowd gasped, whispers abounding. The pastor stopped talking and one by one, the wedding party turned around. All five of Luke’s frighteningly pretty groomsmen and the flower girl at Sally’s left. Cass barely recognized her as Luke’s little sister, Joan. Most of them had confusion on their faces. Luke was lost for a minute but when she took off her sunglasses he flushed with triumph.
Oh, let him. It was just a car. Burke would build her another one. Sally’s expression told her she’d done the right thing—she was already crying with gratefulness.
But…uh…what do I do now?
Cass turned around, finding Burke already getting to his feet to head her way. He might not be sure what she was doing but he’d stand next to her while she did it. Oh, she loved him. She opened her mouth to say so, but before she could-
“Stop this wedding!” The rifle blast to the ceiling of the church alone would have sufficed if the jackass near the doors had thought to do it before yelling and setting off double screams of shock.
Cass rolled her eyes. Only Hayne would try to pull off a kidnapping with a rifle that couldn’t hit diddly if you were aiming for a hole in the ground. Even the somewhat frazzled but well-dressed older man with him was looking at him like he’d lost his mind.
“Hayne!” Sally cried. He wasn’t exactly a knight in shining armor, but Cass supposed he’d do. “Daddy? Is that you?”
“Don’t marry him, Sally,” Cass’s brother said from the back of the church, striding forward with all the heroics a rumpled guy with a day old beard and worn jeans could produce. “He’s not going to keep his promise.”
“What promise?” Cass asked out of sheer curiosity before realizing she was probably ruining his big romantic interruption.
Hayne spared her a glance. “Sally wants to move to a small town, live like regular people, like us. It’s her dream. Her father is a movie producer. She’s lived her whole life like a doll, practically living one of her dad’s movies. Luke promised to bring her here to live after they got married, but he’s not going to, sweetheart,” Hayne said softly, turning his eyes back to Sally.
Sally eyes filled with tears while she trembled near the altar and the church rippled with gasps of juicy gossip.
“How’d you find out?” Cass asked, knowing she’d missed something.
“That’s where I went last night. I was going to go up to the cabin and pretend this wedding wasn’t happening. Instead, I drove up to Hollywood and beat down the gates to Sally’s father’s house. She told me how hurt she was that he wouldn’t break his meetings to give her away.” Hayne slid the older man a dirty look.
“I would have been there for the scheduled wedding. There wasn’t time to clear another whole day on such short notice,” Sally’s father replied, no doubt taking in the accusing glares from everyone around him. The disapproving grumbles would be hard to miss.
“You’re marrying the wrong guy, Sally,” Hayne interjected, taking another step toward her. “We started talking on the drive back here. Your father can tell you, Luke doesn’t plan to come home. He’s got contracts already to star in two movies overseas. Tell her!”
“It’s true, dear. I thought you knew. It’s been in the works for a few months now.” Sally’s father ignored the crowd, speaking directly to his daughter with a gentle compassion that made Cass a touch more willing to forgive him. Whether Sally would remained to be seen. “When your young man here told me you were getting married today thinking you’d have a home here, I understood why you were so hurt. Luke said you’d agreed to put off settling down. I thought you were getting married here for his parents’ sake and the real wedding would take place in Brentwood as planned. I would never miss your wedding day.”
Sally turned to Luke, her blushed cheeks turning dark for another reason all together. “You
what?”
Luke swallowed, his apologetic mask already in place. “Now, now, sweetie, don’t be upset. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I had to take it! It was my big break!”
“Your big break? Break to
what
? I thought you were tired of begging for work, of never knowing where your next gig would be. You said you wanted to come home!”
“We are home. For now…”
“And what was I supposed to do while you were having your big break? Follow you around like some kind of…of…”
“Pomeranian,” Cass supplied.
“Pomeranian!” Sally snapped up the word and shoved her perfect bouquet into Luke’s chest. “You lied to me! You said we were going to have it all!”
“We will have it all. Fame, fortune, a future.”
“A
lie!”
Sally huffed. Cass covered her mouth with her fingertips, surprised. The Pomeranian had bite. “That’s not the future I want, Luke Hanson. Not now, not ever. This wedding is off!”
People probably shouldn’t have cheered, but they did. Sally stomped down the few steps to the bridal pathway where Hayne waited.
“
You
did this!” Luke accused, pointing at Cass and bringing everything to a halt.
Her eyebrows rose. “Me? What did I do?”
“What
didn’t
you do? First you and Halifax tell the entire town I’m gay when you know I’m not. You break my nose and then you get me wrapped up in this bet so your brother can steal my bride! As if that wasn’t enough, your friend peed on my shoes!”
If she didn’t know better, she’d think Luke was about to cry. Cass looked up at Burke. “Peed?”
“More of a leak,” he amended with a blasé nod of his head. “I’ll tell you later.”
“Do me a favor and don’t.”
“Damn it, CB, this isn’t a joke!” Luke’s golden coloring mottled into an unbecoming purple.
Cass couldn’t bring herself to care. “No, it’s not, Luke. You’ve now blown two weddings in the same church because you’re a self-centered jerk who never once thinks about his actions or how they’ll affect the people he claims he loves. I’m sure it will make you a great movie star but it’s not going to do anything for you here. I hope you’re happy overseas, Luke, I really do. I just hope you don’t come home again until you grow up. ”
“CB,” Luke growled it like a swear word.
“Excuse me!” Hayne yelled, interrupting the oncoming tantrum. “I’m in the middle of something here, if you don’t mind! Still the madman with a gun, people!”
“Sorry,” Cass mumbled.
“It’s okay.” He shrugged, facing the front again, where Sally waited at the first pew, smiling the way a bride should. “Sally, I know it’s been a fast relationship. I know you’ll think I’m crazy, but when I thought about how easily I might be losing you because I didn’t take the initiative, I knew there was no way I’d ask you to leave this wedding if I couldn’t ask you to come to ours.” He kneeled right there in the aisle next to Cass’s pew. “Marry me, Sally. We’ll settle down right here in RDC and have all those kids you kept talking about. We’ll find our dreams together.”
The whole church turned to Sally in her mile-of-white dress, wiping tears off her face.
“Please, Sally?” Hayne reached out his hand.
She came running.
“Hey! What about me?” Luke yelled.
“Marry one of the groomsmen,” she called over her shoulder.
Just before catching his soon-to-be bride, Hayne tossed the hunting rifle to Cass. “Go use it on Burke. Looks like the damn thing’s lucky.”
To her utter shock—
oh, God, Sally is going to be a member of my family!
—her brother ran off with the bride, yelling behind him to have the pastor bill him for the damages. Sally blew a kiss to her father and they were gone. Cass watched them go, her eyes stinging with what suspiciously felt like tears.
“Oh, this is the most romantic thing I think I’ve ever seen!” the woman next to her exclaimed, setting off assenting murmurs throughout the church.
Great. Hayne Bishop,
Romantic God
. She’d never hear the end of it.
“I don’t think you’ll be needing this,” Burke’s deep voice rumbled in her ear, sending shivers run down her spine as he plucked the useless rifle from her hands. “It doesn’t quite match your dress.”
“I don’t know, worked for Hayne.” He was so close that if she pursed her lips she’d taste him. It sounded like a good idea.
“Trust me, sweetheart, you’re dangerous enough.” Then in front of God, pastor and town, he kissed her, tongue and everything.
Cass could have stood there forever, lost in the bliss of Burke’s kiss, but there was a thud and the bliss turned to a bang. Jumping back, she realized the rifle had fallen, firing on contact. Looking to the altar, she quickly counted five groomsmen but no groom.
“Ah, hell!” Burke rushed to the front, pulling Cass along with him until they got to where Luke lay on the altar steps, unconscious.
“Oh my God! Did we shoot him?” She checked him for blood, holes, anything, but found nothing more than a crisp tuxedo shirt.
“Christ!” The pastor’s voice rang out in holy terror, distracting them and sending the guests into paroxysms of shock. “You shot the statue of Christ!”
Sure enough, the poor statue’s toe was missing, along with a nice chunk of the wood stand it was on. Cass looked from the statue to the man she was kneeling next to. “It missed him?”
“Looks like,” Burke said, his voice a little tight. “I think maybe he fainted.”
Cass realized after a few seconds he was trying not to laugh. “The rifle
was
pointed at him, Burke.”
He shrugged, his smile growing.
“It’s not polite to laugh at the weak.”
Those dimples he hated showed as he ducked his head to stifle his chuckles.
“Could be worse,” she couldn’t resist teasing. “He might have wet himself.”
His loud bark of laughter was enough to make her happy for a week. People were starting to mill around again, some leaving, their whispers making a low roar in the building. She stood up and reached a hand down to him. “Come on, let’s blow this pop stand before he comes to and figures out he won the bet.”
“But Cass—”
As he was taking her hand, the church doors burst open and paramedics arrived in a fluster, shocking some of the guests yet again. Most likely, the pastor would be removing those things before the next wedding.
“Did we hear gunshots?” The first one in asked, looking around.
“That was fast,” Cass muttered. “Over here. He probably gave himself a concussion on the steps.”
“Back there,” Burke redirected, pointing to the door at the back of the church. “Woman in labor.”
“What about this guy?” The two men paused momentarily to take a look at Luke.
“He’s all right, head’s harder than a rock. He only fainted, anyway.” Burke got up so one of the EMTs could inspect Luke while the other went back to the office. Cass wondered how much control it took for Burke not to kick Luke where he lay.