The Best Man's Bride (4 page)

“Thinking of mugging me?” a soft voice asked.

Those tense muscles in his neck prompted a grimace as he whipped his head toward her, to where she stood not more than an arm’s length away. How had he not noticed her approach, when he’d hardly taken his gaze off her all day?

What was it about her that drew and held his attention? Was it the bright red dress that bared her shoulders and the delicate ridge of her collarbone? Was it the glossiness of her sable hair? Or the warmth and vulnerability in her deep brown eyes?

She stepped closer, as if she doubted he’d heard her over the music and raised voices of the other wedding guests. “Are you?”

His pulse leaped in reaction. She was so damn beautiful that all rational thought fled his mind. All his plans, all his convictions evaporated in the heat of his attraction to her. “What?”

She gestured toward the beaded bag, which he hadn’t realized he held. “I didn’t figure you for a purse snatcher,” she teased, her eyes shining.

“You left it here,” he pointed out, “unattended.”

“This is Cloverville,” she said, as if that explained everything.

He lifted a brow. “And there’s no crime in Cloverville?”

“Nothing more serious than my idiot brother and his degenerate friends spiking the punch.” She extended her hand, reaching for her bag.

But he held tight. “I can’t give this to you.”

“What?”

When he fumbled with the rhinestone clasp, she gasped at his audacity. She had no idea how bold he could be, but now he wanted her to know. He wanted her to know
him.

“I have to take your keys,” he insisted. “You can’t drink and drive.” As a surgeon, he’d seen far too many drunk drivers and the people hurt by them.

“I’m not driving.”

“No, you’re not,” he agreed, as he pulled out her key ring.

“Hey, those are my house keys, too,” she protested.

“This is Cloverville. No crime,” he said, tossing her words back at her. “I doubt anyone here locks his door.”

Colleen opened and then closed her mouth, completely at a loss. Her mother had never locked her front door, and since Colleen still lived at home, she could get inside without a key. But still, he had no right to take her property. No right to tease her.

An urge came over her to tease him back, to make him want her as she’d wanted him for so long. The reckless desire coursed through her veins with all the fire of the spiked punch. Maybe she’d stifled her impetuous nature for too long. Or maybe the punch had loosened her inhibitions. Either way, she couldn’t act. She knew the ramifications of impulsive behavior. She always wound up getting hurt or humiliated.

“Give me my keys and my purse,” she demanded as she managed to summon her earlier haughtiness again. But her hand trembled as she held it out.

“I will,” he agreed.
Too easily.
“After I walk you home.”

She ignored the traitorous leap of her heartbeat and lifted her chin, saying firmly, “I’m not leaving.”

“Your blond friend has already left. And there goes the redhead with Josh.” He gestured toward the door.

Colleen followed his gaze. Looking like an old married couple, Brenna walked alongside the groom, each of them carrying a sleeping twin. Their seemingly boundless energy was finally spent.

“Abby Hamilton is ‘the blonde,’” she informed him, annoyed that he knew no one’s name. He’d skipped the rehearsal dinner, of course, so he hadn’t officially met anyone. But he could have at least read a program. “And Brenna Kelly is the maid of honor.”

“The maid of honor put up Josh and the twins last night,” Nick observed.

Yet she could hardly blame Nick for not being invested in the wedding when even the bride hadn’t seemed to care about the plans. Colleen nodded. “Brenna put them up at her folks’ house, so the groom wouldn’t see the bride before the wedding.”

Even so catering to superstition hadn’t saved them from bad luck.

Nick snorted, probably sharing the same thought. “They’ve extended their hospitality even longer,” he said, as if amazed at their generosity. “He’s still staying with the Kellys.” His voice turned bitter as he added, “He’s waiting for
your sister
to return.”

“Molly will come back,” she assured him. If she’d ever really left Cloverville, which Colleen doubted. She had to be at Eric’s, safe and protected.

Nick’s pale green eyes narrowed as he stared at her. “Do you know where she is?”

As Colleen shook her head, her stomach was doing flips from nerves and punch. She really needed to find Rory—the teenager had to learn there were consequences to thoughtless actions. Colleen hadn’t been much older than he was now when she’d learned that painful lesson.

N
ICK HAD LOST HER
again…to that place she retreated when all the color drained from her face and her eyes darkened, haunted with regret.

“Come on,” he said, taking her by the elbow to guide her toward the exit. “Let’s get you some fresh air.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted.

But she followed his lead, as she had on the dance floor, their steps perfectly in sync.

It occurred to Nick that’d he’d never been as attuned to another person, not even his best friend, and especially not his brother.

“I don’t need air, and I don’t need you to walk me home.” Instead of sounding petulant, she sounded proud. Her voice was strong with spirit and independence.

Nick pushed open the outside door, and Colleen passed by him into the cool night. Crickets chirped in accompaniment to the buzz of fluorescent lights as flood lamps illuminated the parking lot. “But you’re leaving.”

“As you pointed out,” she said, her voice soft, lost, “all my friends have left.”

Why did he suddenly suspect it wasn’t the first time Colleen McClintock had been left behind? She was younger than her sister and the other bridesmaids. When they’d gone off to college, she would have still been in high school. She was young. Far too young for him. Even though he was only thirty-two, he felt much older. He swallowed back a sigh. And tired. Damn, he was tired. Too many long hours, too many old regrets.

“When you said earlier that you were staying, you made it sound like more than just tonight. Are you really staying in Cloverville?” she asked as they crossed the parking lot.

“Yes.” He couldn’t leave Josh alone; he’d made that mistake before. “Like Josh, I have the next couple of weeks off.” And he didn’t intend to let his friend out of his sight until he was sure he was really all right.

“But where are
you
staying? With Josh and the twins staying there, the Kellys don’t have any more room. And Cloverville has no hotels,” she said, her lips lifting in a satisfied smile. “No inns. No bed and breakfasts.”

Nick realized she didn’t want him to stay. He shouldn’t care. He knew nothing could come of the attraction he felt for her, and not just because she was too young for him.

“Your brother offered me his spare room,” Nick said.

She lifted her face toward him, her eyes wide with surprise.

“Really? Clayton prefers being alone, or so he claims.”

Nick shrugged, uncertain why McClintock had offered him a guest room. “I think he feels responsible for your sister skipping out on the wedding.”

She let out a derisive laugh. “That sounds like Clayton—responsible.”

“Or guilty.”

“That sounds more like me,” she murmured, her voice weary with regret.

“What?” he asked, dipping his head closer to hers, to where the lilies had wilted in her hair. “Feeling guilty because you’re hiding your sister?”

“
I’m
not hiding Molly.”

“But you know where she is?” And who was hiding her.

“Why do you care?” she asked, defensiveness on her sister’s behalf hiding her own vulnerability.

He cared because he needed to protect his friend. So why did he feel as if he needed to protect Colleen McClintock, too? “If you’re not hiding your sister, what are you feeling guilty about?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know why I said that to you. I guess I did have too much punch.”

“How old are you?” he wondered aloud.

“Twenty-three.”

Too young to be haunted by all the regrets that
he
had.

“What do you know about guilt?”

“Too much,” she murmured, as she stepped onto the sidewalk and into the shadows cast by the canopy of tree branches overhead.

“Are you like your sister?” he asked as he followed her along the path. Moonlight streaked through the trees and glittered in her eyes as she stared up at him.

“Molly? No, Molly and I are nothing alike,” she assured him. She sounded apologetic now, as if she felt she didn’t measure up to her older sister. He understood idolizing an older sibling. Maybe if he hadn’t idolized his own brother so much, he would have realized that Bruce was in trouble.

While he tried for a teasing tone, his voice betrayed him, going hoarse with emotion as he asked, “So you’re not feeling guilty for breaking some poor man’s heart into a thousand pieces?”

“Nobody’s ever loved me that way,” she said, her voice echoing the longing and loneliness he sometimes felt himself…

He shook his head in disbelief, then reached out to take her hand and tug her to a stop. “I knew there was a reason I didn’t like this town.”

“What?” she asked.

“All the men are fools.”

She emitted a laugh, shaky with nerves. “You better hope Clayton didn’t overhear you saying that. You’ll lose your bed for the night.”

He’d rather be in hers. The dangerous thought staggered him. Then
she
staggered him as her hand slid into his hair and pulled his head down to hers. Her lips, soft and sweet, touched his, tentatively at first, and then they moved surely, as passion ignited the air between them.

Nick threw his arm around her, pulling her so close that not a breath separated her body from his. He drew her in, deepening the kiss. His tongue slid between her lips, tasting her, teasing her, full of promise.

Colleen’s lips made promises, too, melding against his in a kiss so hot his skin nearly burned. His heart beat hard and fast, blood rushing in his ears and lower, pulsing through his body. He groaned, wanting her so much he hurt.

Pain nagged at the edge of Colleen’s pleasure, pulling her away from the intensity of his kiss. Her knees shook and her body trembled all over. She’d never before experienced emotions like these, the fierce desire quivering deep inside her. She wanted him so badly, but the pain deepened, drawing her out of his spell. Her keys—he held them in the hand pressing against her back—dug through the thin material of her dress and into her skin.

That was the price of passion, the price of love. Pain. She knew it well, remembering all the nights she’d listened to her mother cry over her father. Colleen pulled her hand away from his silky hair and wedged it between them, pushing against his chest. Muscles rippled beneath her palm, and his heart pounded hard against it, echoing the furious beat of hers.

She tore her mouth from his, gasping for air. Gasping for words. “Nick…”

His lips slid down her cheek, nipping at her ear before kissing her throat. “Colleen, let me share
your
bed,” he murmured.

She steeled her trembling knees and quelled the urges running riot within her body. She’d spun so many fantasies around this man; fantasies she’d considered safe, since she thought they’d never come true. He would never notice her. He would never touch her. Kiss her. Make love to her.

She reached around, pulling her purse and keys from the hand he held against her back. “No. This wasn’t what you think…”

She hadn’t been thinking at all. She’d only been acting impulsively. She’d worked so hard to overcome that impulsive nature—to act only after she’d considered all the consequences of her actions. But she hadn’t considered any consequences when she’d pulled Dr. Nick Jameson down for a kiss. She hadn’t realized how much just a brush of her mouth against his could make her want him. Need him.

“You didn’t kiss me?” he asked, pulling her back into his arms.

“It was nothing.”

Anger flared inside Nick, burning nearly as hot as his desire for her. He’d started this game, wanting to charm her sister’s whereabouts out of her. But then she’d blindsided him.

“That was nothing?” he scoffed. “Let me show you…”

A horn blared and tires squealed as a car careened past them, distracting Nick. She pulled away from his arms, her heels clicking against the sidewalk as she ran.

He would have chased her. The passion humming in his veins, the tension hardening his body, compelled him to go after her and persuade her to finish what she’d started between them with her kiss. But he didn’t have the strength to do more than watch her run away.

She hadn’t had to kiss him to start anything. The moment he’d caught sight of her he’d felt something he’d never felt for any other woman before.

Love.

Love at first sight.
Usually, he’d have scoffed at such a ridiculous notion. But the feeling had held tight, pressing against his chest, stealing his breath, so that he’d had not a moment’s rest all night. Recalling her kiss, her soft skin, her soulful eyes and that damned vulnerability that made him think he needed to protect her.

The coffee he’d downed at Clayton’s that morning had merely added to his tension, making him edgy. He had to get out of Cloverville. He had to get away from her. Before he did something even stupider than losing his heart. Before he lost his head.

He checked the brass address plate on the porch of the colorful Victorian farmhouse. He’d found the Kellys’ house, which was painted yellow with purple and teal trim. Through the screen door drifted the sounds of running footsteps, laughter and then the crash of something breaking. Probably something porcelain or glass. He hoped not valuable. The twins were here.

Josh hadn’t been the only one who’d dodged a bullet when his bride had stood him up at the altar, he realized. Nick had dodged his babysitting duty during the bride and groom’s honeymoon, as a result. He couldn’t believe he’d let Josh coerce him into volunteering for the job. He’d let himself be flattered to think he was the only one Josh would trust with his boys besides his parents.

Josh’s folks were on a cruise for their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary. They’d been planning the trip for so long that Josh hadn’t allowed them to cancel it, not even for his wedding. Maybe he’d suspected the marriage might not happen. But he’d intended to introduce his bride to his parents during his honeymoon—they’d been going to meet up with the ship in Greece.

Molly McClintock had ruined all of Josh’s plans. Like the office in Cloverville. They couldn’t do that now. Since Nick couldn’t make Josh understand how bad an idea it was, Molly McClintock would have to—when she came home. She had to come home. Now.

Before Nick got in any deeper with her sister. Love at first sight. Really, what the hell had he been thinking?

He lifted his hand, which was shaking slightly, curled it into a fist and rapped his knuckles against the wooden frame of the purple screen door. Several seconds passed, but no one came. He knocked again, harder.

Finally, the redheaded maid of honor greeted him at the door. “Good morning, Nick.”

From the flurry of noise inside, he’d have expected that she’d be frazzled. But her hair flowed in freshly brushed waves around her shoulders, which were bare in the cool green sundress she wore. Her eyes, as she met his gaze through the mesh of the screen, were a cool green, too.

“Hi…”

“Brenna,” she reminded him. “My name is Brenna.”

“Brenna Kelly, yeah, I know.” Now. He hadn’t really remembered her first name. He’d met so many people the day before.

She arched a brow, obviously skeptical of his claim. Then she turned away from him. “I’ll get Josh for you.”

“No!”

Her gaze unflinching, she stared him down, through the screen, like his third-grade teacher. If not for Josh, he surely wouldn’t have passed that class. Mrs. Hoolihan hadn’t bought any of his excuses for not finishing his homework or for the spitballs on the chalkboard and in Sally Kruger’s hair.

“I’d like to talk to you.” He swallowed. “Brenna.”

She pushed open the screen door and stepped out to join him on the porch. Then she crossed her arms over her ample bosom and waited for him to say more. Despite walking down the aisle together yesterday, they hadn’t exchanged more than a few words.

Nick wasn’t sure which approach might work with her, but he doubted she’d appreciate his limited charm. Since she seemed straightforward, he opted for being blunt. “You need to tell your friend to come home.”

“What?”

“You know where the runaway bride is.”

“She asked for some time alone,” she said, reminding him of the note that Molly had left. Not for the groom she’d hurt and humiliated, but for one of her bridesmaids, Abby Hamilton. He’d advised Clayton to work on Abby, to make her tell him where Molly had gone.

He appreciated that Brenna hadn’t lied to him and denied knowing where her friend was. He was right—she was straightforward. “Don’t you think that’s pretty damned selfish of her?”

Her voice sharpened. “You obviously don’t know Molly. She is probably the least selfish person I know.”

“I
don’t
know her,” he admitted. “She was supposed to marry my best friend, and I barely know her name.”

“Well, you’re bad with names.”

He laughed to realize she was aware of one of his quirks.

“Josh has been talking to you.”

She nodded.

“That’s good.” That meant he wasn’t shutting himself down; he wasn’t hiding out alone and drinking himself into oblivion. But then Josh was nothing like Nick’s brother. He was stronger than that—he had the boys depending on him. He was their only parent.

If something happened to him, Nick would get custody of the boys. He was their godfather, and because he was younger and more energetic than their grandparents he would become their legal guardian if anything happened to Josh. Nothing could happen to Josh.

The boys deserved better than Nick. They deserved their father—someone who could protect them from all harm.

Her husky voice softened as she acknowledged, “You’re worried about him.”

“Yes, I am,” he admitted. Probably more worried than he had reason to be. “He’s determined to talk to her and work things out.”

Even though Josh hadn’t accepted the fact, Nick was certain they couldn’t work out anything. If the woman loved him, she wouldn’t have deserted him at the altar. “So you need to tell your friend to come home.”

“Molly. Her name is Molly.”

“I know her name.” He wasn’t likely to forget it since she’d hurt his best friend. He remembered Josh’s first wife, too, but he didn’t often say her name or even think it. “I wish Josh would forget. I wish he’d forget all about her.”

Brenna drew in a quick breath, as if startled. “Then I don’t understand why you want her to come home.”

“
He
can’t forget her until he talks to her.”

Brenna’s lips curved into a rueful smile. “You really don’t know Molly. Men don’t forget Molly. Seeing her again isn’t going to get him to change his mind about moving here or about opening the office that I know you were against opening here. Bringing Molly back won’t get you what you want.”

“This isn’t about what I want.” He pushed his hand through his hair. “No, it
is.
I want my friend to be happy. If moving to Cloverville makes him happy, I’ll go along with it. I just I want Josh to be
happy.
”

Brenna’s eyes warmed. “Now I understand.”

“What?”

“Why you’re his best friend. Now I understand.”

Nick nodded. “I am his best friend.”

Brenna’s head bobbed, too. “I’m Molly’s best friend, you know. She wants time alone, and she’s getting time alone. I’m not telling you where she is.”

He’d been crazy to try to manipulate the maid of honor. He should have known better than to doubt her loyalty. Maybe he’d have better luck with the little sister.

He wouldn’t let down Josh as he had Bruce. It didn’t matter what he lost along the way, his head or his heart, as long as he didn’t lose his best friend.

C
OLLEEN WANTED TO BLAME
the punch for what she’d done the night before, but she hadn’t drunk enough of it to excuse her reckless behavior. She stared up at the statue of the Civil War hero who’d come north after the war and founded Cloverville. Colonel Clover stood sentinel in the middle of the town park, leaning forward at an odd angle, his metal body bent and broken. The consequences of her last reckless action. Until last night. Until she’d kissed Dr. Nick Jameson.

She couldn’t blame it on the punch. But she could blame
him.
For finally noticing her. For complimenting her in the moonlight. She pressed her palms against her eyes and shook her head. Hadn’t she changed at all from the shy teenager who’d fallen for the high school jock because he’d paid her the slightest bit of attention? Giving up her virginity to that jerk hadn’t been reckless or even impulsive—it had been stupid. Surely she was smarter than that insecure kid she used to be. Now she knew when a man was after something.

Footsteps trampled the grass behind her, but she didn’t bother to turn, expecting Mr. Meisner and his dog. He was usually the only other person in the park this early in the morning.

“Man, Cloverville is pretty twisted if this ‘statue’ is supposed to be a tribute to the town founder.”

She tensed but didn’t turn toward the intruder as her face heated with embarrassment. “He didn’t always look like that.”

“I’d hate to see the other guy.”

As the “other guy,” Colleen had ended up with some scratches and bruises from the broken windshield and the steering wheel. Unfortunately, Abby’s car had been too old for airbags. While her scratches had healed and her bruises had faded, Colleen still bore scars in her heart and her conscience. Abby had insisted on taking the blame for the damage to the colonel, and Colleen had let her do it. She never should have agreed. She should have told the truth, even though Abby had probably been right that no one would have believed her anyway.

She’d always been perceived as innocent little Colleen, which was why the jerk jock had targeted her. She’d been a challenge. She suspected Nick saw her as a challenge, too, but he wasn’t after her innocence. He was after her sister.

“So is the park the first stop on your tour of all Cloverville’s attractions?” she asked, managing to summon the haughty tone she’d used the first time they’d spoken.

He emitted an amused chuckle. “Attractions? There’s more than one? Now I really regret not signing up for the tour.”

“Did you just stumble on the colonel by accident?” The same way she’d broken the statue.

“No, I’m here because your mother told me where I could find you.”

Even though she knew he had ulterior motives, her pulse quickened with excitement simply because he’d sought her out. Then Colleen closed her eyes, imagining the spark of matchmaking glee that had surely warmed her mother’s heart. Oh, she wouldn’t hear the end of the handsome doctor coming to see her anytime soon. Her mother would increase the pressure for marriage and procreation. Colleen’s shoulders drooped in anticipation.

“So you wanted to talk to me?” she asked, the disdain gone, replaced by a quaver of nerves. Did he want to talk or was he more interested in finishing what she’d started the night before? And if it were the latter, was she strong enough to resist him?

“You are like your sister, you know,” he mused.

She turned then, opening her eyes to study him. Even in his rumpled tuxedo pants and wrinkled pleated shirt, Dr. Nick Jameson was devastatingly handsome. “You don’t know either one of us.”

And yet he was Molly’s fiancé’s best friend. How was it that this man didn’t know her sister, that he didn’t understand that Molly wouldn’t deliberately hurt another human being? She was too sweet and generous.

“I know that both of the McClintock women make promises,” he said, his pale eyes gleaming as he stepped closer to her, “then run off without a word of explanation for breaking them.”

“Promises?” Her head pounded as she furrowed her brows in confusion. “I never made you any promises.”

He touched her lips, sliding his thumb back and forth across her bottom one. Her breath backed up in her lungs. She couldn’t exhale; she couldn’t move. She could only stand there and let him touch her.

“You made me a promise, Colleen,” he said, “when you kissed me.”

She stepped back, and his hand dropped away. Then she shook her head. “I had too much punch.” She wished that was the reason she’d kissed him—that she’d been drunk. But she didn’t have an excuse, even a bad one.

“You kept insisting to me that you were fine,” he reminded her. “And you were, Colleen. Your kiss…”

She pressed her fingers over his mouth now. She didn’t need any reminders of her reckless behavior. She already had the colonel.

But he didn’t stop talking, moving his lips against her fingers, blowing softly against her skin. “Colleen,
you
kissed
me,
and you weren’t drunk. So why?
Why
did you kiss me?”

Her fingers tingling, she pulled away her hand and clenched it at her side. “Blame it on the moonlight.”

Her parents used to dance to a song with that title, by some obscure old singer—she’d only heard it when they’d played the record. She could close her eyes and remember watching from the stairs as her dad had twirled her mother around the living room. They hadn’t seen her, had had no idea she’d snuck out of bed, prompted by the music.

Nick hummed a few bars of the tune, one of his father’s favorites, as well. But when Colleen opened her eyes again and he glimpsed her tears, he wished he hadn’t.

“Colleen, what’s wrong? What did I say?”

“Uncle Nick! Uncle Nick!” shouted one of the twins.

“Buzz is turning green!”

He closed his eyes and winced. Maybe trusting them to push each other on the merry-go-round hadn’t been such a good idea. “I’m coming!” he shouted.

“You have the boys?” she asked, as she followed him across the wood chips that blanketed the playground area of the park.

“Yeah.” Even in a small, safe town like Cloverville, he’d been careful to keep them in sight, but he still hadn’t been paying enough attention. He’d been distracted.
She’d
distracted him.

“All by yourself?” she asked, her head turning to scan the empty park.

“Yes.” He should have been offended, given that she obviously didn’t think he was capable of handling the boys on his own. But even though he’d agreed to babysit—and to become guardian if, God forbid, something happened to Josh—he had his doubts, too.

He reached the merry-go-round and caught TJ, who’d been spinning his brother, around his waist. Then he reached out, catching the metal supports as they flew past, and slowed down the whirling ride.

“Hey, buddy, you okay?” he asked Buzz, who had definitely turned a pea-soup shade of green.