The Next Mrs. Blackthorne (Bitter Creek Book 6) (29 page)

“Soon,” her father said. “Now that your mother’s said yes, I’m not going to let her get away.”

“But Mom needs a special dress. She and I have to go shopping,” Kate said. “And you’ll want to be married in church. That’ll take some time to arrange.”

“I’ll go along with whatever your mom wants,” her father said. “But as far as I’m concerned, the sooner the ceremony, the better.”

“It’ll be soon,” Kate promised. “I’m just so happy for both of you.”

Kate saw uncertainty in her mother’s eyes, wariness in her father’s. “You two are sure about this, aren’t you? I mean, I haven’t coerced you into doing something you really don’t want to do, have I?”

Her father took her mother’s hands in his, looked into her eyes, and said, “I want this very much. I love you, Libby.”

Kate turned to her mother, whose tentative smile became broader as she said, “I’ve realized it’s what I want, too.”

“Then why don’t you two kiss?” Kate said. “That’s what usually happens when a proposal is accepted.”

“How would you know?” her father said suspiciously, shooting a glance from Kate to Jack and back again.

“I’ve seen it in the movies,” Kate quipped. “Go ahead, Daddy. Give Mom a kiss.”

“This is a noteworthy moment,” her father said. “So I’d better make this good.”

Kate watched with delight as her father scooped her mother into his arms, pulled her up on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on her that sizzled. She looked away when the moment became too intimate to be shared. She threaded her hands together and pressed them against her heart, grateful that her lifelong wish had finally come true.

And then she met Jack’s glance. He quickly turned away, but he’d been looking, all right. She crossed to him purposefully, unwilling to be ignored any longer. When she reached the group of men, she had to call Jack’s name to get his attention.

“Jack? May I speak with you?”

“I’m kind of busy, Kate.”

Kate’s face flamed. How could he? She’d heard all the times he’d called her “kid” while he’d been rescuing her from Donnie’s car. Then it had sounded like a term of endearment, she’d thought. But apparently not. Kate felt terribly hurt. It would have been easiest just to walk away. But Grayhawks never ran. They stayed and fought.

So Kate called Jack’s name again. “Jack? I just need a moment of your time.”

“Go ahead, Jack,” one of the other policemen said. “See what the girl wants.”

Kate flushed at the diminutive
girl.
Was that how Jack had referred to her in the other men’s hearing? She wasn’t a girl any longer. She hadn’t been for quite some time. She was a woman. Maybe a young woman, but fully grown, for certain.

Once Jack joined her, Kate walked a few paces away, so they wouldn’t be overheard either by the policemen or her parents. “I wanted to thank you again for saving my life.”

“It was all part of the job,” Jack replied.

Kate turned to face him. “I think it was more than that.” That was as far as she was willing to go without some encouragement from him.

She didn’t get any.

“It was nice knowing you, Kate.”

“Is that it?” she said, disbelieving. “You’re writing me off? What about everything that happened between us?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jack said.

Kate was furious at his denial of any feeling between them. And humiliated. “I thought there was some attraction between us,” she said through tight jaws. “But obviously I was wrong.”

“There was some attraction,” Jack conceded.

Maybe he’d noticed her tears. She swiped at them because she didn’t want his pity. “But?” she said, urging him to continue.

“You’re still a kid.”

“I’m nineteen!”

“I’m thirty-two. That’s a lifetime.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Kate accused.

“You want better reasons. I’ll give them to you,” Jack said. “You’re headstrong. And spoiled. And aimless. You’ve spent your whole life feeling sorry for yourself because you didn’t have two parents at home. Wake up and smell the roses, kid. Everyone ends up alone.”

“Even you?” she challenged.

“I like being alone.”

“You like being with me!” Kate retorted. She threw herself at him in what would have been an embarrassing way, except his arms closed around her as their lips met. Kate would have sworn the electricity was life-threatening.

But a moment later Jack pulled her arms from around his neck and said, “No more games, Kate. This was a job. No more, no less. And I’m done with it. And with you.”

Kate was too angry to reply. Too hurt to reply. And too stubborn to give up. “The day will come, Jack McKinley, when I’ll make you eat those words.”

“Kate?” her mother called. “Are you ready to go?”

She felt embarrassed that her mother and father had witnessed the scene with Jack. They were going to want details. They were going to want to know what had happened. They were going to want to know that their little lamb was safe from the big bad wolf.

Kate lifted her chin and said, “Good-bye, Jack. Thanks for the education.”

“Kate, I—”

She feared he was going to apologize. If he did, she wouldn’t be able to keep from bursting into tears. Kate didn’t care what Grayhawks did or did not do. She turned her back on Jack McKinley and ran into her mother’s waiting arms.

The double wedding was Kate’s idea. She’d pointed out to her mother and her uncle, “You both want to get married in a hurry. You’d both want to attend each other’s weddings. And you’d both want nearly the same people to be there. So why not?”

She’d glossed over the fact that her father and her uncle had been mortal enemies most of their lives. That Grayhawks and Blackthornes didn’t break bread together, let alone attend each other’s weddings. It was time for mending fences.

As she looked around the quaint, tiny church that was almost as old as Bitter Creek itself, Kate was pleased by what she saw. Beautiful sprays of white roses and baby’s breath decorated the altar and each of the pews. On one side of the altar stood Uncle North and his bride, and on the other stood her father and mother. Both brides wore white.

Kate’s mother had protested at first about wearing white, but Kate had insisted that if the dream really was to come true, then her mother should be dressed as the bride she should have been twenty years ago.

There had been one scare today, when Kate had thought the double wedding might end up in a shambles. She’d been talking to Grandpa King at the door, complimenting him on how nice he looked in his morning coat, when Grandpa Blackjack had showed up. Kate had seen a barnyard dogfight coming and tried to steer Grandpa King to his seat in the front pew on the left. But he’d also seen Grandpa Blackjack, and he couldn’t be budged.

Unfortunately, Ren wasn’t on hand to keep Grandpa Blackjack in line, because she was helping Jocelyn with her veil.

“I see you made it to your daughter’s wedding. At last,” Grandpa Blackjack said.

“I see your son finally decided to make an honest woman out of her,” Grandpa King retorted. “And it’s my son I’m here to see wed. I haven’t forgiven my daughter for the dirty trick she played on me—consorting with the enemy and giving me a half-Blackthorne grandchild.”

“Grandpa King,” Kate admonished. “Be nice!”

Her grandfather patted her on the cheek and said, “I admit you turned out to be a blessing in disguise, little girl.”

Kate huffed in exasperation. Hadn’t anyone figured out yet she was a
grown-up
? “Can I escort you to your seat, Grandpa King?” she asked, trying again to separate the two men.

But they were too intent on exchanging verbal blows.

“Seems the trick was on my son,” Blackjack said. “He’s the one who got robbed of his child.”

“I’m right here, Grandpa Blackjack,” Kate said. “Nobody stole away with me in the night.”

“At least Bitter Creek is back safe in Blackthorne hands,” Grandpa Blackjack said.

“No thanks to that scapegrace son of mine,” Grandpa King retorted. “I don’t know what possessed the boy to sell all that stock back to you.” Grandpa King snorted. “Did it as a wedding gift to his sister, he said. Seems to me you Blackthornes are the one who got the gift.”

“Mom is going to be a Blackthorne in a few minutes,” Kate reminded her grandfather.

At that moment, Kate saw North and her father step out of doors on separate sides at the front of the church and move toward the altar at the center, to wait for their brides to come down the aisle.

“Oh, Lord,” she muttered. “What if they start talking? It won’t take them long to find something to fight about. With their fists.”

In desperation, Kate grabbed Grandpa King’s left hand, and Grandpa Blackjack’s right hand and tugged them behind her down the aisle. When she glanced over her shoulder, she saw the two men were smiling—at her. She grinned back. When she got to the front of the church, she let go of their hands and turned to face them, lecturing them like a stern schoolteacher.

“I don’t care how much you two hate each other, I love you both very much. I’m trusting both of you to behave yourselves today. If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Kate had a feeling the reception at the Castle was going to be a very quiet affair.

The two men turned their backs on each other and took their seats in their respective pews. Kate blew out a breath of air. One disaster averted.
Just call me Supergirl.

She hurried back to the room where her mother was dressing and stopped dead at the vision she found. “Mom. You’re so beautiful.”

“You don’t think this dress is too much?” her mother said, tugging here and there at the elegant white gown and holding out the five-foot train Kate had insisted upon.

“You’ll be the prettiest bride ever to walk down that aisle.” Kate felt the tears brimming in her eyes and smiled through them as she said, “I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe you and Daddy are finally going to be married.”

“Neither can I,” said her mother. “Don’t make me cry, Kate,” she said with a half-sob, half-laugh. “You’ll ruin my makeup.”

They both laughed then, and Kate hugged her mother and said, “I can hear the organ music that means it’s time for me to march down the aisle.”

“Is King here?” her mother asked.

Kate realized suddenly that her mother hadn’t been at all sure that her father would attend. Which was another reason Kate was glad she’d suggested a double wedding. He wouldn’t have missed North’s nuptials. “Grandpa King’s here. He and Grandpa Blackjack already had a run-in, but I sat them down and told them to be good.”

“I’ll bet you did!”

Kate grabbed up her bouquet, gave her mother one last hug and hurried out the door to the nave, where she was to start her march. She’d watched for Jack, knowing that North had invited him. But he wasn’t there. She felt a pang of loss, but ignored it.

Blackthornes and Grayhawks had ended up aligned on either side of the aisle, which had become a no-man’s-land traversed at last by Kate, as her mother’s maid of honor, and then the two brides, Jocelyn first, and then Kate’s mother.

“Kate?” her mother said.

Kate realized she’d allowed herself to daydream, and stepped up to the altar to take her mother’s bouquet of baby-pink roses. She kissed her mother’s cheek and then stepped to the side where she could see her parents’ faces.

Her mother glowed. Her father looked happy.

She turned her gaze to Uncle North and realized he was actually smiling. Which made her smile. Breed was his best man and he was smiling, too. Kate followed Uncle North’s glance to Jocelyn, who was one of the most beautiful brides Kate had ever seen. Of course, Kate thought loyally, her mother was the most beautiful bride in the room.

Kate felt her throat constrict when her father took her mother’s hand in his to say his vows. She glanced at Uncle North to see if he would do the same, and was surprised to see he was holding both of soon-to-be Aunt Jocelyn’s hands.

Both men spoke in firm voices. Both women answered in soft tones. Kate listened to the words, hearing the promises being made, overwhelmed with so many emotions that she was having a hard time processing them all.

She had a great deal to be joyful about. Her parents had finally acknowledged their love for each other. And Uncle North, whom she’d thought would never love any woman, had found Aunt Jocelyn.

Kate focused her gaze back on her parents as she listened to the minister intone the familiar vows.

“…for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?”

“I will,” her father and Uncle North both said.

“…and do you…”

“I will,” her mother and Aunt Jocelyn both said.

Kate watched as her father put a simple gold band on her mother’s finger. And while her mother did the same to her father. Belatedly, she noticed that Uncle North and Aunt Jocelyn had also exchanged rings, but Jocelyn’s was a small platinum band to match the sapphire and diamond engagement ring Uncle North had given her.

Suddenly the minister was telling the two couples they were married, and that the grooms could kiss their brides.

Kate felt a hot tear slide onto her cheek. When her mother turned to her, Kate handed her back the bouquet of delicate pink rosebuds and said, “May I be the first to wish you well, Mrs. Blackthorne?”

“You may!” her mother said with a joyful laugh.

She hugged her parents fiercely. “I love you both so much!”

She watched the two couples as they turned for the enthusiastic applause of the congregation, and then her parents were gone, majestic organ music sweeping them down the aisle.

Kate watched them go, knowing that she desperately wanted what they’d finally found. True love. Lasting love. Family and a future. They were what life was all about.

She was very much afraid that happily-ever-after might elude her.

Before her aunt and uncle escaped, Kate kissed and hugged them, too. Then they were flying down the aisle, laughing and happy and looking forward to their future together.

Breed had slipped out a side door, and Kate realized she was alone at the front of the church. And that her work was done. Aside from a little refereeing at the reception, of course.

Kate waited until the church was almost empty before she headed down the aisle herself. She finally had the one thing she’d wished for all her life—a family of her own. Yet she’d never felt so bereft.

She laughed at herself for being maudlin. She focused on being happy for her parents. And for Uncle North and Aunt Jocelyn. Even though she was going to miss them all while they were gone on their honeymoons.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around. It was Breed.

“What can I do for you?” she asked.

“I need a ride to the reception.”

“Sure,” Kate said.

As the two of them walked to Kate’s car, Breed said, “Mom got married again. The guy’s not too keen on me.”

“I’m sure North will give you a place to stay,” Kate said.

“Yeah. When he gets back, I’m sure he will.”

Kate realized her problems were pretty small. So what if she’d had an unfortunate romance. Life moved on. She’d find someone else to love. Meanwhile, someone needed her.

“Tell you what, Breed,” Kate said. “I’ve got a pretty comfortable couch. You’re welcome to use it until North gets home.”

“Thanks, Kate,” Breed said. “I think I will.”

Kate put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “It’s good to have family, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Breed said. “It is.”

Kate realized that Breed’s father, her grandfather King, had come to the church—and left—without acknowledging Breed.
Well,
she thought.
Here’s another crusade.
She was good at getting people together. Look how well she’d done with her mother and father.

She glanced at Breed and thought,
One of these days I’m going to help you reconcile with your father.

Meanwhile, Breed’s problems gave her something to focus on instead of Jack McKinley. Whom she absolutely, positively never wanted to see again.

“Tell me, Breed,” she said, giving him her full attention. “What would you like to do to pass the time until North comes home?”