Lone Star Wedding (22 page)

A
faint sound stirred Hannah in her sleep. She sighed, for she was dreaming, and she didn't want to wake up.

The sound came again, more insistent. She opened her eyes. Laying in the drowsy warmth of her bed, she tried to figure out what had awakened her. A rattle, like pebbles on glass, brought her wide awake.

Slipping out of bed, she hurried to the window just as another pebble brushed the glass. She peered at the blonde looking up from the alley below. Opening the window, Hannah leaned out. “Adrienne, what are you doing?”

“I need you to get dressed and come down here.”

It had been raining when Hannah went to bed. Now, a mist seemed to rise from the ground. “All right. Why?”

“We're eloping.”

Just then Parker stepped out of the shadows. His hair was uncombed, his face unshaven. “Who?” Hannah asked. “You and Parker?”

A third party stepped from the shadows. Even in the middle of the night, J.D. looked debonair. He happened to be the only one of the bunch who was properly dressed, from his silk tie to his shined shoes. “Adrienne has decided to do me the honor of becoming my wife.”

“You're really going to elope?” Hannah quipped. She'd spoken a little too loudly. One by one, every dog in the neighborhood started to bark.

“Come on Hannah,” Adrienne said, her voice decidedly
warmer since J.D. had placed his arm around her waist. “Would you be my maid of honor?”

Hannah's heart swelled with feeling. “I'll be right down.”

She pulled on the first skirt and silk tank she came to in her closet. Sliding her feet into sandals, she grabbed a jacket and hurried down the back stairs.

They all climbed into J.D.'s Mercedes. When they were cruising down the rain-soaked street, Hannah said, “Where are you going?”

Adrienne turned around. Was she wearing a fuschia-colored peignoir complete with fake fur trim underneath her raincoat? “I happened upon the most romantic little justice of the peace when I went for supplies yesterday. He's at a place called the Lone Star Chapel. It has a pink flamingo in the yard. It's a sign, I just know it is.”

J.D.'s voice rumbled from the driver's seat. “I've been trying to talk Adrienne into marrying me for weeks. I offered her a fairy tale church wedding, and a reception complete with a six-course meal and champagne served in fluted stemware and a seven-piece orchestra.”

Adrienne wrinkled up her nose. “I want something special, something money can't buy.”

Parker squeezed Hannah's hand. “Who would have thought J.D. would find a woman who refused to marry him for his money?” And then in a deeper voice meant for her ears alone, he whispered, “I wish it was us.”

Hannah closed her eyes and fit her shoulder even closer to Parker's side. “I wish is was us, too.” They both sighed, because they knew they had to wait until after this horrible mess concerning Sophia Fortune's murder was resolved. Hannah didn't want to think about that. The windshield wipers swished, and music played softly on the ra
dio. The man she loved was at her side. For now, it was enough.

After making a series of sudden turns, per Adrienne's instructions, J.D. pulled to a stop in front of an adobe-style structure boasting a garish neon star over its door and a pink flamingo in its front yard.

The four of them stood in the drizzle, J.D. and Parker taking turns banging on the door. Finally, a light went on inside. Moments later a man wearing a nightshirt opened the door. “Mother,” he said, “I believe we have a bride and groom. From the looks of things, the bride's father came along to give her away.”

Adrienne sashayed closer. “He's not my father, your honor. This handsome devil is my groom.”

A plump woman with pink curlers in her gray hair bustled into the room. Five minutes later, Adrienne, wearing a borrowed veil, stood before J.D., hands joined, repeating after the stoop-shouldered justice of the peace. The place was garish enough to rival any Las Vegas wedding chapel. And yet, as Parker's gaze held Hannah's, it felt warm and right and true.

She was beautiful, this woman he'd once mistaken for a lady of the night. She was warm and witty and smart. And she was his. God yes, she'd made that fact perfectly clear.

When the justice of the peace said, “You may kiss the bride,” Parker kissed Hannah. And Hannah kissed him.

While the woman in the pink curlers, introduced only as “Mother,” snapped a photo of the happy bride and groom, Parker reached for Hannah's hand. “When your mother's name is cleared, we'll have the big wedding you've always dreamed of, Hannah. Until then, I, Parker Malone, promise to love, honor and cherish you, Hannah Cassidy, today, tomorrow, and always.”

A tear brimmed in Hannah's eyes, then slowly trailed down her face. Holding Parker's gaze, she whispered, “I, Hannah Cassidy, promise to love, honor and cherish you, Parker Malone, today, tomorrow and always.”

A camera flashed. And the unofficial Lone Star Wedding was captured on film.