Happily Ever After in the West

by Debra Cowan

  As she stripped off her clothing and washed, the night in Adam’s bed played over in her mind. By making love with Adam, giving herself to a man to whom she wasn’t married, she’d done the one thing she had always hated about her mother. Now she could possibly be pregnant and might subject her own child to just the sort of life she endured herself.

  Molly ran a brush through her hair, pulling out the tangles. Images of her mother flashed in her mind. Now Molly understood her actions. She’d always claimed she loved Molly’s father, despite how things turned out.

  Molly twisted her hair into a loose bun and thought of how desperately she loved Adam. She knew how wrong she’d been for the sometimes harsh feelings she had toward her mother.

  With heavy limbs, Molly dressed. Somehow, she’d have to get through the day—and the next, and the next. Already too much time had passed since Adam’s family arrived in Spindler. She should have paid a call on them sooner and assured them all was well with the wedding. Today, she’d also have to—

  Heavy footsteps sounded in the kitchen. A fist pounded on her door.

  “Molly! Open this door!” Adam shouted.

  Her emotions scattered. She didn’t want to see him, didn’t want to be reminded of what she’d done—and what she was giving up.

  Other voices sounded beyond her door, Aunt Libby and Carrie.

  “Open it!” Adam shouted as he pounded harder. “I swear I’ll break it down!”

  Molly jerked it open. Adam filled the doorway looking taller, wider and angrier than she’d ever seen him. Aunt Libby and Carrie stood nearby holding a skillet and a rolling pin, ready to defend her.

  “It’s all right,” Molly said to them.

  They both looked troubled, but backed away. Adam strode into her room and slammed the door behind him.

  “You owe me an explanation,” he told her.

  Now he looked more hurt than angry. She could see he’d dressed hurriedly and hadn’t taken the time to shave or do more than slick his hair into place with his fingers. It made her want to reach up and smooth it down, but she didn’t dare.

  “Yes, I suppose I do,” Molly said softly.

  Yet she couldn’t bring herself to speak, couldn’t muster the strength to tell Adam her worst secret—even after last night when they’d known each other in the most intimate way imaginable.

  Adam drew in a heavy breath as if straining to calm himself. “Whatever it is, Molly, just tell me.”

  With all her heart Molly wished she didn’t have to say these words to Adam, because after she did, things would never be the same. Still, she owed him the truth.

  “I was born out of wedlock,” Molly said softly.

  Molly couldn’t bring herself to look at Adam, knowing what she’d see.

  “I don’t care,” Adam said.

  Her gaze came up quickly and she saw nothing but sincerity in his face. Still, it brought her little comfort.

  “You will,” she told him. “One day, you will.”

  “No, I won’t,” he insisted. Adam reached out, but she spun away. “Molly, listen to me. You know I left Charleston because I didn’t want those strict social mores to rule my life. That kind of thing doesn’t matter to me.”

  “It matters to your family,” she insisted.

  “You don’t know my family.”

  “But I do,” she said. “I know they have the highest expectations of anyone who marries you, as they should. So do their friends. Eventually, my past will come out. Everyone will find out. You’ll be ashamed of me.”

  “The hell I will,” Adam told her.

  Molly closed her eyes for an instant, wishing it could be true. But she knew differently.

  “I won’t subject you to that sort of life,” Molly said quietly. “Or our children.”

  “I love you, Molly,” Adam said. “I want you to marry me.”

  Tears filled her eyes as she looked up at him. How desperately she wanted to spend her life with him. But nothing had changed. It never would.

  She turned away. “I won’t marry you, Adam.”

  Silence filled the room. Molly kept her back to him and, finally, she heard his heavy footsteps as he left.

  She covered her face with her hands and cried.

  “We’re closing early tonight,” Aunt Libby declared as Molly dried the wet dish her aunt passed her.

  “But why?” Molly asked. She couldn’t remember a single time the hotel dining room had closed ahead of schedule.

  Of course, she’d been distracted these past few days. She’d met Adam’s mother and sister and all their friends who’d traveled to Spindler for the wedding. They were warm, genuinely nice people.

  She hadn’t seen Adam once.

  Carrie dashed in from the dining room with her arms full of dirty dishes. “This is the last of them. Everybody’s gone,” she said.

  “Is everything set for the wedding tomorrow?” Aunt Libby asked Molly.

  Travis and Anna would wed the next day at the church, then come to the Cottonwood for the celebration. Nearly the whole town had been invited.

  “I took Anna and her mother to the church this afternoon,” Molly said. “The candles they brought with them are in place, just as they wanted. I’ll put the flowers out in the morning.”

  “Are you sure?” Carrie asked. “Maybe you should have another look. Tonight, maybe?”

  Aunt Libby shot her a quelling look and said, “Whose wedding is next? The Hamilton sisters?”

  “I thought they’d called everything off,” Carrie said, moving a stack of dry plates to the cupboard.

  Molly shook her head. “Both Sarah and Sally had been fussing about who would wear their grandmother’s wedding gown, but I solved that problem.”

  “How did you ever convince one of those girls to wear a different gown?” Aunt Libby asked.

  “I didn’t,” Molly said, and couldn’t help smiling. “I had Olive divide the dress in half. Sarah is wearing the top, and Sally the bottom.”

  All three of them laughed, even Molly. It felt good. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt lighthearted about anything. The past few days, since Adam had come over and asked her again to marry him, had been the toughest in her life.

  He hadn’t come back. He hadn’t asked a third time. It’s what she’d wanted; still, her heart ached for him and for what she could have had.

  “Molly, what are you wearing to Travis and Anna’s wedding tomorrow?” Aunt Libby asked.

  Carrie spoke before Molly had a chance. “That cream-colored dress of yours. You should wear that one, Molly. It’s your most beautiful one.”

  It was Molly’s favorite and probably the nicest one she owned.

  “Maybe I will,” she said.

  “Let me see you in it,” Carrie said. “Go put it on. “

  “Now?” Molly asked.

  “It wouldn’t hurt,” Aunt Libby agreed. “You don’t want to be trying to decide what to wear tomorrow morning, with so much going on before the wedding.”

  “You have to put it on,” Carrie told her. “You just have to.”

  “Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt,” Molly said.

  In her room, she changed into the dress. The silk fabric shimmered in the pale light.

  “Let’s put some of these combs in your hair,” Carrie insisted, and spent a few minutes fussing over Molly’s hair. “Now, come show your aunt.”

  Molly walked into the kitchen and did a little spin. Aunt Libby smiled with pride. “You look beautiful,” she said softly.

  Molly looked down at herself, pleased with the way the gown looked and felt.

  “I’ll wear this one tomorrow,” she said, and headed back into her room.

  “Wait!” Carrie cried. She glanced at Aunt Libby and said, “I mean, I’d like to look at the dress awhile longer.”

  “For heaven’s sake, Carrie,” Molly said. “You’ve seen me in this—”

  A quick knock sounded on the back door.

  “I’ll get it!” Carrie ex
claimed and rushed over. When she opened the door, Adam walked inside.

  Hundreds of memories assailed Molly at the sight of him. His touch, his laugh, his strength. Their lovemaking. His anger and disappointment at her refusal to marry him.

  “Evening, ladies,” he said, and pulled off his hat.

  Tonight he wore a black suit. Beneath it was a crisp white shirt closed at the collar with a string tie. Molly didn’t think he’d ever looked more handsome.

  “Miss Douglas, I need you to come to the church with me. I have to make sure everything is ready for the wedding tomorrow,” Adam said.

  His tone was crisp, all business. It hurt Molly a bit, but really, she couldn’t blame him.

  “I was there earlier with your sister and mother,” Molly told him. “Everything is fine.”

  “I want to check it myself. Now,” Adam told her. He took a step closer and lowered his voice. “We had a deal, remember?”

  Yes, of course she remembered. How could she forget, after what it had led to?

  “Let me change out of this dress,” Molly said.

  “I don’t have all night,” Adam told her.

  “You’d better run along,” Aunt Libby said.

  “Yes, just go!” Carrie said.

  Everyone certainly seemed on edge tonight, Molly thought, but perhaps she deserved it; she’d hardly been herself for days now.

  Adam opened the door and gestured for her to go ahead of him. Molly gathered her skirt and walked outside. The night was cool. Not a hint of a breeze stirred as they walked to the church in silence.

  Once inside, Molly gasped in irritation at the sight of the dozens of candles burning, casting the sanctuary in golden shadows. Flowers sat in vases all around the room.

  “What’s going on?” Molly asked, shaking her head. She pressed her palm to her forehead. “This is awful, just awful. These candles are for Anna’s wedding tomorrow. They can’t be used tonight. And these flowers. They aren’t supposed to be put out until the morning. Who did this?”

  “Don’t worry about that now,” Adam said.

  “Don’t worry?” she repeated.

  “We’ll talk to Reverend Holcomb,” Adam said. He held out his arm and linked hers through it, then guided her to the main aisle leading to the altar at the front of the church. He stopped, drew in a breath and walked forward.

  Molly didn’t move. “What are you doing?”

  “Practicing,” he said. “I’m walking Anna down the aisle tomorrow, remember?”

  “You don’t really need practice,” Molly told him. “All you have to do is—”

  “I need to practice,” Adam told her in no uncertain terms.

  “Fine, then,” she said. “But I have to find the reverend and get this flower situation handled before—oh, look, there he is now.”

  Reverend Holcomb stepped through the door at the rear of the church and positioned himself in front of the altar. As they approached, he lifted his Bible and opened it. Adam and Molly stopped in front of him.

  “Reverend,” Molly said. “Someone has taken Anna’s flowers and—”

  “Shh,” Adam said. “First things first. Reverend, go ahead.”

  The reverend cleared his voice and lifted his Bible higher.

  “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here this evening in the sight of God to bring together this man and this woman in holy wedlock,” the reverend said. “Adam, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

  “I do,” he said.

  Reverend Holcomb turned to Molly. “And do you, Molly, take this man to be your—”

  “Wait! What—what’s going on?” Molly exclaimed. Her gaze bounced from Adam to the reverend, then back to Adam again.

  Adam dropped to one knee and took her hand. “Molly, would you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”

  Breath went out of her. Her mind spun. She couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

  Adam had brought her to the church to marry her? He’d lit the candles and placed the flowers for her? After everything that had gone on between them, after she’d told him the truth about her past, he still wanted her for his wife?

  “No!” Molly jerked her hand from his and raced up the aisle.

  Adam caught her at the church door and whirled her to face him.

  “I love you, Molly. I want you in my life every day,” he told her, then gestured toward the altar. “This was the only way I could convince you of that.”

  She shook her head frantically. “I can’t marry you. I told you why. You have to respect that, Adam. I’m right. My past will make you hate me one day.”

  “No, it won’t!”

  Adam’s voice echoed off the church walls, quieting Molly’s tirade. She’d never heard him speak so forcefully before.

  “Listen to me,” he said. He placed his hands on her shoulders and leaned down until his face was even with hers. “There’s something you don’t know about me and my family. I don’t tell people because it’s none of their business. But you’re so confounded stubborn I’m going to tell you.”

  Molly stilled at the serious look on his face. She couldn’t imagine what he could tell her that would make a difference in the way she felt.

  Adam drew in a breath and said, “A few years ago, back in Charleston, somebody started gossiping about my sister Rebecca. Something happened, something she couldn’t help, something that wasn’t her fault. But everybody kept repeating the story until the whole city thought ill of her, as if she’d caused the situation. It got so bad that…well, Rebecca couldn’t bear it any longer. She tried to take her own life.”

  “Oh, Adam…” Molly said. She saw the pain etched in the hard lines of his face. She wanted nothing but to comfort him.

  “I found her in time, and…she’s fine now,” Adam said. “She’s living in Europe. She got married a few months ago. She’s happy now.”

  Molly touched her palm to his cheek. “What a horrible thing for you—for your whole family—to go through.”

  His expression hardened again. “All because somebody started gossiping about her. Molly, I don’t care what anybody says about you. I don’t care now and I never will. Neither will my family. Not after what we’ve been through.”

  A small glimmer of hope dawned in Molly. Could he really mean it? Could it be true? Could Adam and his family really accept her now and forever?

  “Marry me, Molly,” Adam said. “I’ve asked you three times now, and some other man might be put off by that, but not me. I love you. You love me, too, don’t you?”

  “Oh, yes!” Molly threw her arms around his neck and held on tight.

  Adam looped his arms around her and pulled her close. After a moment, he leaned back.

  “Was that, yes, you love me? Or, yes, you’ll marry me?” he asked.

  “Both,” Molly declared.

  Adam leaned down and kissed her.

  “Excuse me?” Reverend Holcomb called. “You’re supposed to save that for after the ceremony.”

  Adam and Molly giggled softly. Then Adam took her arm and together they walked down the aisle.

  “Are we all in agreement?” the reverend asked.

  “We are,” Adam said. He glanced down at Molly. “Aren’t we?”

  “We are,” she said.

  “All right, then, let’s get on with this, shall we?” Reverend Holcomb raised his voice. “Everyone?”

  The door at the rear of the church opened and Aunt Libby, Uncle Roy, Carrie, Travis and all of Adam’s family filed in.

  Molly gasped. “You invited everyone? And you kept it a secret from me?”

  Adam smiled with pride. “I’m pretty good at keeping secrets. By the way, I should tell you I bought your uncle’s hotel.”

  “The Cottonwood?” Molly asked.

  Adam leaned down and whispered, “You can run it yourself, or we can fill it up with children.”

  A big smile bloomed on Molly’s face. “Now that’s the kind of town gossip I can live with.”

&nb
sp; ISBN: 978-1-4592-0211-5

  HAPPILY EVER AFTER IN THE WEST

  Copyright © 2011 by Harlequin Books S.A.

  The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders of the individual works as follows:9781459202115.epub

  WHIRLWIND REDEMPTION

  Copyright © 2011 by Debra S. Cowan

  THE MAVERICK AND MISS PRIM

  Copyright © 2011 by The Woolston Family Trust

  TEXAS CINDERELLA

  Copyright © 2011 by Dorothy Howell

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