The Wedding Crasher and the Cowboy

by Robin Bielman

  “It’s hard to put into words,” she said, chickening out of saying anything incriminating.

  “Let me do it for you, then.” Damn her best friend and his knowing her better than she knew herself. “Maverick is your equal, whether you want to admit it or not, and he always has been. You hated him because you were afraid of him.”

  “No, I wasn’t.”

  “You were afraid he could break your heart.”

  “That’s not true. I hated him because he pushed all my buttons. On purpose. And besides, he had plenty of attention from girls, and it never bothered me.”

  Andrew narrowed his eyes at her. She tried to recall if they’d ever talked about Maverick in a romantic way. They hadn’t, because she didn’t think of him that way.

  “For someone so smart, you can be so clueless when it comes to your own life.”

  “I’m not—”

  He waved his hand to stop her. “You’re also stubborn and have to figure everything out on your own, so I suggest you just let it go while we’re here and you try to talk to Reed.”

  “Speaking of…” She glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “We need to get to the golf course. I’ll jump in the shower first.”

  “Do we really have to crash this?”

  “Yes.” She got to her feet and glanced at the wedding itinerary. “It’s for the guys only, so it’s the perfect chance for me to talk to Reed without Elle around.”

  Andrew looked dubious. “And you won’t look out of place or anything.”

  She pushed the mattress up and down to jostle him. “Don’t be hating on the plan now! We’ve got this.”

  An hour later, with Andrew behind the wheel of their golf cart, they arrived on the golf course pretending they hadn’t broken every courtesy rule to get to the third hole behind Reed and two other men.

  She and Andrew exited their vehicle and each pulled a golf club from the bag they’d rented. Andrew looked golf-ready in plaid pants and a white golf shirt he’d bought in the pro shop. She looked decidedly less prepared in her shorts, T-shirt, and white sneakers. They weren’t anywhere near the right spot on the course to be in, but they were in close proximity to her target.

  Reed settled into position to putt. He’d golfed from a young age, so she had no doubt he’d make the shot. While he did so, Kennedy took a few practice swings with her club. Not that she knew anything about swinging a golf club. Besides miniature golf as a teen, she’d never played the game.

  On the first swing, the golf club accidentally flew out of her hands. It spun through the air and almost hit Reed in the head before landing on the green.

  “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” She covered her mouth and nose with her hand.

  “Kennedy?” Reed said, responding to her not-so-subtle entrance. He looked at the men with him. “Give me a minute.” He picked up her ill-behaved club and walked it back to her. “Hey.”

  “Hi. Sorry to interrupt.”

  “No, you’re not.” Reed smiled at her. “Hey, Andrew.”

  “Hi, Reed. I’ll just be over…” He trailed off, stepping away to give them some privacy.

  “Sorry I haven’t texted,” Reed said. “I haven’t had a chance.”

  “No worries. Crashing your golf game to have a minute to talk is like a normal Tuesday for me.”

  He winced. “I wish you didn’t have to crash anything.”

  “Me too. But, since I’m here, I need to make sure you want to get married. Because if you don’t, I can help.”

  Reed let out a slow breath. “I know what I said the other night, but I was hoping I’d slurred it or something and you’d misunderstood.”

  “There was a little extra emphasis on the vowels, but I heard it clearly.” She glanced back and forth between his eyes, trying to get a good read on him. “It’s a problem if you even thought it, Reed.”

  “I know. I guess that night, I felt like she didn’t trust me, and the truth is…” He swallowed. “I’m not sure I want to go through with it.”

  Her stomach knotted. “What do you need in order to be sure?”

  He stared off somewhere behind her. While he contemplated his answer, she recalled his short attention span with women over the past several years. His revolving door of dates and the trail of half-broken hearts he left behind. Reed was smart and focused and dedicated to his profession. Before he’d gotten engaged, she would have bet money on him staying married to his career. Elle had changed that.

  “I don’t know.” He ran the back of his hand along his jawline. “A conversation with Elle for sure. We’ve just been so busy, and she’s so excited. Our friends and family are here, and I don’t want to be the bad guy. I don’t want to hurt her.”

  “An honest conversation is always a good idea,” she said.

  “I do love her, but trust is essential, and sometimes she’s…” His eyes searched the grass like the answer to his doubt hid in the blades.

  “How many times over the years have we said that medicine isn’t an exact science?”

  “I don’t know. A hundred?”

  “Love isn’t an exact science, either. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith.” Trusting their instincts was something they’d talked about often over late-night study sessions and long residency hours. She noticed the scar on his arm from the knife wound he’d received when he’d come to her rescue in the ER. Now it was her turn to save him if he needed it.

  He nodded. “I’ll talk to Elle and then touch base with you.”

  “Reed! You ready?” one of his golf mates said.

  “Yeah,” he called back, then squeezed her arm in thanks. “Stand by?”

  “You know I will.”

  “Thanks.” He handed over her golf club. “Maybe wait until we’ve cleared the area before swinging again.”

  “What? Like I’d do that again? I needed your attention and I got it.”

  “Riiight.” He walked away, she hoped feeling more confident than he had before she arrived.

  Andrew moseyed back over to her, his attention on Reed. “That man has one fine—”

  “Hey, eyes over here,” she motioned to herself. “We should hurry out of here. Come on.” She climbed into the golf cart, glad to have had a minute with Reed and cautiously optimistic that clarity would come to him soon. She knew from her experience with Trevor how important and fragile trust was.

  “Sucks having doubt,” Andrew said on the drive back to the clubhouse.

  “You heard all that?”

  “Of course. Someone’s got to have your back.”

  She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”

  They returned the golf cart and clubs and drove back to the inn. They were barely out of the car when Bethany approached.

  “I’m so glad you’re here,” she said. She wore cute black capri pants and a white polo shirt with Owens House Inn printed on the breast pocket. “Doc called, and he was hoping you could help him out at his office.”

  Kennedy’s heart started beating a little bit faster. “Did something happen?”

  “His nurse is home sick with a fever and he’s got his hands full, I guess, including a head injury.”

  Kennedy didn’t need to know anything further. “Of course I’ll help. Let me just change clothes really quick.”

  “Great. I’ll drive you when you’re ready. His office is just in town.”

  Ten minutes later, she walked through Doc Choi’s office door. A thirty-something woman wearing funky eyeglasses that matched the color of her red hair greeted her.

  “Dr. Martin, right? I’m Georgie, Doc’s office manager. Thank you for coming so quickly. We haven’t been in a predicament like this in a long time and appreciate the assist.”

  “My pleasure. What can I do?”

  “Follow me.” She led Kennedy through a main door and down a hallwa
y to an exam room, lifting a chart out of a file holder on the wall. “Leah arrived fifteen minutes ago. She—”

  A child screamed from inside the room across the hall.

  Georgie winced and handed Kennedy Leah’s medical chart. “That’s Billy. He’s six and hates needles. He’s here for his immunization shots. I should…”

  “Go ahead. No worries here,” Kennedy said. “I’ve got this.” (Kennedy loved that Doc still used handwritten charts, given most everything had moved to electronic software.) Eyes on the medical chart and the notes written there, she stepped inside Leah’s room, clicking the door shut behind her before raising her head. “Hi, Leah. I’m Doctor…” To her surprise, Leah wasn’t alone. Maverick sat in the visitor chair beside the exam table. “Martin. It’s nice to meet you.” She didn’t have time to address the cowboy in the room because Leah held a blood-soaked towel to the top of her head. Hello, head injury.

  Kennedy quickly dropped the chart on the small work counter and donned gloves. “What happened?”

  “Hi, Dr. Martin,” Leah said. “I was delivering flowers to the inn and was in a hurry. The trunk of my car closed on my head.”

  “Ouch.” She stood in front of Leah and nodded at the towel. “May I?”

  “Of course.”

  The head bled a lot, so it could be anything from a small cut to a larger gash. Kennedy lifted the towel to take a look. Leah’s blond hair, matted with blood, made it more difficult to see clearly, but thankfully the bleeding had stopped.

  “I feel so foolish,” Leah said.

  “I’ve seen and heard a lot worse,” Kennedy told her, separating the strands of hair so she could view her scalp. “This may hurt. I’ll do my best to be gentle.”

  Leah flinched when Kennedy found the laceration just above her hairline but said, “It’s okay.”

  “The cut is deep enough that I think we should suture it. Did you at any time pass out or feel nauseous?”

  “No.”

  “Feel dizzy or experience blurred vision?”

  “No.”

  “I was there when it happened,” Maverick said, reminding her he was in the room. “The back of the SUV closed right on her head and then she took an unsteady step back.”

  “I also cried like a baby. Thanks for leaving that part out, Mav.”

  Mav? Kennedy darted a quick glance at him before focusing back on her patient. Just how well did these two know each other?

  “She started bleeding right away,” he said, his tone neutral. “But otherwise seemed fine. I put her in my truck and drove straight here.”

  “It hurt worse than anything I’d ever felt before, and it’s throbbing now.”

  “That’s normal.” She looked Leah right in the eyes as she spoke, conveying warmth and self-assurance. “Give me a minute to find what I need, and we’ll have you fixed up in no time.”

  She removed her gloves and searched the cupboards above the sink. Finding everything for the minor procedure, she placed each item on a stainless steel surgical tray and then put on a new pair of gloves.

  “Let’s lie you down,” she said, pressing the button to lower the back of the exam table. Once Leah was comfortable, Kennedy got to work. “You’re going to feel a sting as I numb the area.” As gently as she could, she injected local anesthetic around the injury. Leah fisted her hands in response.

  “Take a slow breath in and then slowly let it out,” Kennedy instructed. “Good. One more time. Great. The hard part is over. We’ll wait a minute or two for the lidocaine to take full effect and then get started.”

  She replaced the safety on the needle in case she needed to add more local.

  “So you were delivering flowers. Are you a florist?” Kennedy asked.

  “I am. My sister and I own a shop just down the street.”

  “How long have you been in business?”

  “Going on five years now. We inherited the store from our grandmother.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry.”

  “She’s still with us, just retired. Although she likes to show up on a daily basis to make our lives more interesting.”

  Kennedy smiled. “I’m guessing that’s a nice way of putting it.”

  “Uh-huh. It doesn’t matter that I’ve worked at the shop since I was sixteen; she still likes to tell me how to do things.” Leah’s eyes wandered over to Maverick. “Remember when she told me I’d made my own corsage wrong?”

  He nodded.

  Did they go to a dance together? Date in high school? A twinge of jealousy pricked her stomach.

  Kennedy got back to work, touching around the wound with the needle holder to check for numbness. “Do you feel anything?”

  “No.”

  “How about here?”

  “No.”

  “Great. Let’s stitch you up.”

  “How many do I need?” Leah blinked up at her.

  “I’m guessing three or four. Do you arrange flowers for the inn often?” Kennedy asked, purely to keep Leah’s mind off the suturing, not because she was fishing for more info on how often Leah saw Maverick.

  “We do all the big events at the inn. Weddings and other large parties. Nova keeps the property looking gorgeous on all the other days. There’s a wedding this weekend and I was meeting with the bride. I’d brought a couple of samples with me to be sure we were on the same page. Elle, the bride, loved our designs online, but it’s often different when you see them in person.”

  The wedding. The entire reason for Kennedy’s visit to Windsong.

  “Did she like them?”

  “She did. And I’ve never met a nicer bride.”

  “That’s good to hear.” She hadn’t doubted Elle was a kind person. She’d captured Reed’s attention, after all. But a good marriage required more than that. Kennedy tied off another stitch. Two more to go. “Have you always lived in Windsong?”

  “Yes. Maverick and I both.” She glanced at him again, affection clear in her regard. “In fact, I think the only other time I’ve been hurt, you were there, too.”

  “When Red Star threw you,” he said.

  “Red Star?” Kennedy said.

  “My horse,” Leah clarified. “He got spooked and caught me off guard. Mav saved me then, too. Luckily, I only sprained my wrist and scraped up my legs and arms.”

  “When you landed in poison oak.”

  “Oh my God. That’s right.” Leah grinned at Maverick, and Kennedy had to peek at him to see if he was grinning back.

  He was smiling that killer smile of his. Kennedy quickly returned to her last suture, not liking the sting of jealousy that stabbed her in the chest this time.

  Leah looked back at Kennedy. “He refused to help me up, the big jerk.”

  At that, Kennedy grinned, grateful to be back in Maverick territory she understood. “Sounds like him.”

  “You two know each other?” Leah asked, confused.

  Oops. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “We went to college together.”

  Maverick stood. “Looks like you’re almost done.”

  “She is,” Kennedy said.

  “I’ll grab you an iced coffee, Lee, and meet you out front. She can go after this, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Thanks, Kennedy.” He put his hand on her shoulder, then left the room.

  Left her body humming from the brief touch and the sincerity in his gratitude.

  Leah sighed. Kennedy knew exactly what kind of sigh it was, too. Her sister made the same one when she crushed on a classmate. (And off the record, Kennedy almost sighed, too.) “That man is so frustrating.”

  Tell me about it.

  “I wish… Never mind.”

  “I’m in town for only a few more days,” Kennedy said. “You could tell me your wish and no one would be the wiser.”

  “I wish
he saw me as more than a friend, but he never will.”

  “It sounded like you guys dated in high school.”

  “No. He was a year ahead of me, and my senior year when my boyfriend dumped me the day before prom, Mav happened to be home that weekend, and he stepped in and took me.”

  Kennedy removed the draping from around Leah’s head, a funny tickle in the back of her throat over hearing about Maverick’s good deed. “Let’s have you sit up slowly.” She brought the table back to a chair position. “How do you feel?”

  “Good.”

  “Sit still a minute and then I’ll have you stand. Right now the area is numb, but as soon as the anesthetic wears off, it’s going to be sore and tender to the touch. You can take some over-the-counter pain relief if you need to. No shower until the morning, unfortunately, and no shampoo. Just rinse your scalp with warm water until Doc removes your sutures. Take it easy for the rest of today, too, and if anything starts to concern you, give me—I mean give Doc a call.”

  “Thanks, Dr. Martin.”

  “You’re welcome. Any questions?”

  “Knock, knock.” Dr. Choi poked his head inside the room before entering fully. “How we doing?”

  “Hi, Doc,” Leah said. “We’re done.”

  “Fantastic. Thank you for taking care of my patient, Dr. Martin.”

  “It was my pleasure. Leah, you ready to stand up?”

  Leah stood without trouble, gave Doc and Kennedy each a hug, and left with instructions to return on Monday.

  “You want to stick around a little longer?” Doc asked her. “I have a patient in Room Two who decided to lodge a fishing sinker up her nose.”

  “Oh no.” Kennedy said.

  “It’s been one of those days. There must be a full moon coming tonight.”

  “I’m happy to stay as long as you need me to.” She walked down the hallway with an extra bounce in her step. Every day that she got to practice medicine and help someone was a great day.

  “Appreciate it.”

  They stopped at Doc’s office. The room held a sleek glass desk with two armed leather guest chairs for sitting, and a bookshelf lined with medical books, cards, and knickknacks. Doc opened the top drawer of a filing cabinet and pulled out a stethoscope.