It's In His Smile (A Red River Valley Novel Book 3)

by Shelly Alexander

  Mrs. Wilkinson pursed her lips.

  Miranda dug deep and tried to be the leader Bea would’ve wanted. “During the parade I plan to announce Red River’s gratitude for all you do in the community.” Miranda motioned to a roped-off area to the side of the announcer’s stand. “I’d be honored if you’d sit in the spectators’ box for our special guests.”

  She waited for Mrs. Wilkinson’s answer. It took a lot of courage to forgive someone who had hurt you, but an invisible load seemed to lift from Miranda’s shoulders. Then she thought of Talmadge, and it shook her. Because she loved him, and unconditional love meant forgiving people when they made a mistake. He’d done so much to help her, and yes, it was crummy that he had lied. But he had tried to make it right. Except for the leaving and breaking promises part.

  “Well,” Mrs. Wilkinson sniffed. “If you insist.”

  Joe gave Miranda a respectful nod and escorted Mrs. Wilkinson over to the box.

  Miranda sagged against the announcer’s stand. Now if she could just get through this day without crying into the microphone, she just might make it.

  Because the one person she wanted to be here the most was absent. She drew in a deep, cleansing breath and stared up at the blue sky and the mountains, still tinged with snow at the top, but with the lush greenness of early summer foliage washing down the slopes. So perfect. So gorgeous. Like a painting, not like something you’d see in real life.

  She loved this town. And she loved Talmadge. If she could forgive Mrs. Wilkinson, then why couldn’t she have found it in her heart to listen to Talmadge before he left?

  The cars, trucks, motorcycles, and floats lined up and waiting as far as Miranda could see down Main Street started to honk.

  “You ready to get started?” Joe said.

  She nodded, climbed the stand, and put on the microphone headset.

  “Um.” Her voice rang out over the crowd. Oh. Okay. That was really loud. “Welcome to this year’s Hot Rides and Cool Nights Festival.”

  The crowd cheered.

  When she thanked Mrs. Wilkinson a few jeers rang out, so she quickly moved on and announced the first parade entry. The quicker the parade was over, the sooner the festival could get underway, and Miranda could make a much overdue call to Seattle.

  So what if Talmadge got two speeding tickets trying to get to Red River in time for the festival? When he flew into the commuter airport in Taos with Lloyd and the rental car agency didn’t have any cars left, he thought he might have to hitch a ride all the way to Red River. He finally flagged down a gangbanger with a bandana tied around his head and a tattoo down his arm that said, “Be my bitch for twenty-five to life,” and exchanged his credit card cash advance limit for the kid’s low-riding, tricked out car that bounced to the rap tune “One Minute Man.”

  Whatever worked. He was back in New Mexico and on his way to the woman he couldn’t live without. Now if he could just get there before the festival started so he wouldn’t break his promise, maybe she’d listen and give him another chance.

  And Rome was built in a day.

  He shook off the odds of all those things happening.

  He sniffed under one arm. Of course he was kind of rank now, seeing as how the car only had a two/eighty air conditioner—so he rolled down two windows and did eighty. Which the county sheriffs hadn’t seemed to appreciate.

  A 1960-ish step-side truck with an open bed full of cow manure passed, blowing a layer of it into his window. Talmadge gagged. Lloyd hid his nose under both paws. He swiped specks of cow dung from his face.

  “Come on, Lloyd. We can do this.” He reached over and gave the dog a scratch. Lloyd barked.

  He couldn’t lose someone else he loved. He’d lost his parents and his grandparents while hiding behind shame and regret, which had driven him to go out and try to save the world. He couldn’t lose Miranda too. Because she was his world.

  He just hoped he wasn’t too late.

  Miranda’s face hurt from the fake smile she kept on her lips as she announced the tenth entry in the parade lineup. Standing on the podium, she had what she’d wanted for so long. Respectability in the community. At least that’s what she’d thought she wanted.

  Turned out she’d been wrong. She wanted Talmadge, and this whole ordeal had taught her not to care too much about what people thought. They could take her the way she was or not at all.

  Ten more to go and she could call him. She’d listened to his recorded apologies—all of them—but she had a lot of apologizing to do herself. All he’d done was try to help her. Try to love her. And she’d been so selfish that she couldn’t even accept his apology. Or the fact that he’d made a human mistake. She still didn’t like the broken promises part, but he had problems too. Problems just as big as hers back in Washington. And she hadn’t been too sympathetic to that.

  What if he didn’t come back, because she hadn’t given him a reason to?

  As the senior center’s van rolled forward, filled with a load of silver-haired women dressed in red hats and purple boas, Miranda smiled. Before the next float was up, she said to the crowd, “When the parade is over, folks, don’t miss out on the vendors set up here in the park.” She flipped a page on her clipboard. “Cotton Eyed Joe’s has arranged live music in the gazebo, which we’ll unveil and dedicate while you all enjoy food and spirits from our local restaurants.” She waved a hand across the rows of booths behind her.

  The band of bikers dressed in leather jackets and bandanas roared down Main Street, her mother and Ted in the lead. Her mom waved. So did Miranda, and a flash of wetness sprang to her eyes. Her mom had finally come through.

  And check. Another person Miranda could forgive. Just like that. So much easier than she’d thought.

  A few more entries rolled by, and finally Miranda could see the end of the line down Main Street. She lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. She didn’t recognize the last car in line, the mystery entry. She squinted to see. And . . . every few minutes it . . . bounced.

  Entries eighteen and nineteen rolled by, and then the last entry was up.

  “Next we have . . .” She looked at her clipboard. “Bob.”

  The low-riding car at the end of the line bounced again, lime green no less, and it rolled forward. A message was scrawled across the front windshield in shoe polish that said, “I love you.”

  A head dipped, and she caught a glimpse of a chiseled jawline and sandy blond hair, and then the driver leaned into the passenger seat to look up at her through the window with silvery-blue eyes. And her mind blanked.

  “Tal . . . Talmadge?” she whispered into the microphone.

  He nodded up at her and waited.

  Her brain and her heart stuttered just like her words. “Talmadge, what are you doing?”

  His lips moved, but she couldn’t hear what he said. Lloyd’s head popped up, and he barked at Miranda. The thing Miranda wasn’t sure could really be called a car stopped rolling, and Talmadge got out. He was at the base of the podium in a few long strides. “I came back, because I didn’t want to break my promise. I damn near had to jump out of a plane to get here, but I’m here.”

  The breath Miranda sucked in echoed through the amplifier. She blinked back tears.

  He came around the back of the podium and climbed the stairs. She tried to calm her racing heart, but it only galloped harder with each step that brought him closer.

  “It wasn’t just about the money.” He kept climbing. “It started that way, but then we built something together. And not just the inn or this gazebo.” He motioned behind him to the canopies and tarps. “We built us.” He reached the top and stood there staring at her. Looking uneasy and uncertain. And so damn sexy that she wanted to run to him.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t listen when you tried to talk to me.” And she was. “I was afraid of it being over between us.” She closed her eyes for a second, then looked up at him. “And I was afraid of it not being over, because of how much I depended on you.”

>   “I don’t have much to offer you anymore, Miranda.” He closed the small distance between them. Didn’t touch her, but his closeness wrapped and coiled around her, and something started to unfurl low in her belly. And also in her heart.

  “I sold my share in Trinity Falls for a fraction of what it’s worth so I could come back here and start over, and Bea’s money is going to build a rec center.” His hair was windblown, face dirty, sleeves rolled up, and his shirt was unbuttoned a little too low in the front because he was sweaty. Her head tilted as her eyes took a trip over the gleaming beads of perspiration on his chest.

  “I don’t care about your money. I never have.” Her voice rolled over the hushed crowd.

  “I know.” He reached up and brushed a lock of hair off of her face. “That’s one of the things Bea loved about you. She obviously saw the woman you were growing into, and she wanted me to finish what she’d started. I think that’s why she set her will up the way she did.” His gaze raked over Miranda’s face. “I resented it when I found out about the terms, but then I realized she wanted me to come home to my roots.” He dipped his head to brush her nose with his. “Come home to you.” His thumb grazed across her cheek.

  A wave of awws zipped down Main Street.

  “Tell me the rest about Bea’s will.” She had to know. Everything this time. And she wanted to know that he could tell her the truth.

  He looked at the sky for a second. “The terms and the money were to be kept a secret.” He ran his hand down Miranda’s arm, and a zing of desire threaded through her. “At first I couldn’t figure out why. But now I realize she didn’t want me to miss out on the best thing that could ever happen to me—a future with you.” He caressed up her arm again, and the rest of her body took notice. “If she’d lived longer than it took you to finish the inn, she probably would’ve kept changing her will with new ways to throw us together.” He chuckled. His lips were just a breath away from hers. “I love you.”

  Her eyes stung. “I’ve loved you for seven years.”

  “Then give me the chance to love you for a lifetime.” He smoothed a finger across her cheek. “Marry me.”

  Her eyes closed against his touch.

  This time the awws were like a tidal wave rippling through the crowd. His words also rippled through Miranda’s heart, and she stepped into his arms.

  Clydelle had somehow appeared at the bottom of the podium next to Joe, and she tapped it with her cane. “Say yes, dear, or I’ll take him up on that offer.”

  A smile spread across her face so big her cheeks hurt, and she nodded. “Yes.”

  “Um.” He gently tugged the headset off of her head. “I’d like to kiss you without the sound echoing across the state.”

  He did kiss her, long and deep and so, so sweet. And all Miranda could think about was spending the rest of her life drowning in Talmadge’s beautiful eyes and his lovely smile.

  When they came up for air, she sniffed the air. What was that smell?

  “Uh, sorry. Lloyd and I had an unfortunate run-in with some cow manure.”

  Miranda laughed. “I’m glad you didn’t let that stop you.”

  Lloyd barked again from the passenger seat.

  Talmadge’s embrace tightened around her. “Uncle Joe, did you get that surprise taken care of for me?”

  “Sure did.” Joe took off his cowboy hat and waved toward the gazebo.

  Someone pulled a cord, collapsing the tarps that had been blocking the gazebo. The band took their places and struck up a tune.

  Miranda’s hand flew to her mouth as they started to play “Old Time Rock and Roll.”

  “I still have to fly back to Trinity Falls once in a while as a consultant.” He looked down at her. “It was the only way I could get the investors to buy me out and the tribal councils to sign off.”

  She threaded her arms around his neck. “I don’t care, as long as you always come back to me.”

  He kissed her then. Soft and gentle. And then he said, “Always.” He nipped at her lip. “I promise.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “What can I do to help?” Miranda asked the mommy mafia. She straightened the framed certificate of business hanging on the wall in the inn’s newly remodeled kitchen and smoothed the skirt of Bea’s antique wedding dress, which had been altered to perfection. When Talmadge found it in Bea’s attic nicely boxed and preserved, Miranda hadn’t thought twice about wearing it.

  “It’s your wedding day,” Lorenda said, refilling the punch bowl. “Enjoy it.”

  “You’ll be working plenty next week, when you open for business.” Ella hurried past into the dining room where she placed elegant paper napkins on the table around Joe’s catered spread of food—his wedding gift to her and Talmadge.

  “Yep,” Angelique agreed and arranged cups around the punch bowl. “I looked at the website Jamie designed. You’re already booked solid through the summer, so my obnoxious Italian relatives are coming into town for Thanksgiving instead and have rented the entire place out.”

  Yes, the home show episode Talmadge arranged had the reservations flooding in.

  “My obnoxious Texan family has dibs on Christmas.” Ella laughed.

  Miranda sniffed the flowery scent of her bouquet of yellow roses as she searched the reception crowd for Talmadge. He stood at the stone fireplace, chatting with Jamie, who’d been his best man when they exchanged vows under the gazebo an hour ago. They both looked so handsome in their tuxedos, and Miranda’s eyes grew a little wet.

  The key to the city hung just over Talmadge’s head on the mantle, Beatrice Oaks’s name engraved on it. With a hand in one pocket and his tux jacket hanging open, he leaned an elbow on the mantle. He looked just as handsome, just as sexy, just as enticing as he had seven years ago at a different wedding wearing a tux. She’d picked him that night, and today he was finally hers. A good thing, since she’d been his from that night on and always would be.

  As if he sensed her staring at him, his gaze found her, and he smiled. Big. Bright. Beautiful. And her heart expanded.

  She loved that full-on smile. It touched her soul like nothing else she’d ever experienced.

  She made her way through the crowd, with a lot of congratulations along the way, and a big hug from her mom and Ted. Finally Miranda reached Talmadge. He pulled her into the crook of his arm and smiled down at her with those beautiful blue eyes.

  “Hi,” he whispered.

  “Hi,” she whispered back.

  Jamie rolled his eyes. “Get a room, you two.”

  Oh, she planned for them to get a room as soon as the reception was over. The honeymoon suite, in fact. The very reason she’d chosen to delay the grand opening of the inn, fondly named the Bea in the Bonnet Inn, another week. She wanted her and Talmadge to have the place to themselves, because . . . well, they were going to make good use of every room before they both had to start back to work.

  “Do I know you?” She gave her little brother a curious look.

  “Yeah.” He unknotted his tie and let it hang loose. “I’m the one who sucks all the money out of your bank account for tuition.” He looked into the dining room. “Speaking of, I’m only here for the free food.” He walked off.

  Talmadge laced both arms around her waist and pulled her into an embrace. “You are so beautiful today. I wish Bea could see you in her dress.”

  Miranda wished Bea could too.

  “You ready for the rest of our lives?” he asked.

  Bea had told Miranda to reach for the stars, and she’d managed to catch a few. Her dream of being her own boss, her dream of being a respected leader in the community, her dream of Talmadge loving her as much as she loved him. Tears welled in her eyes. “It’s all so new, so different.” So unexpected, and so very, very wonderful. “I feel like I’m jumping off a cliff. In a good way, but still plunging over this unknown mountain and you’ve agreed to follow me over.” Talmadge had stayed in Red River, starting a small green architectural firm in one of the office sp
aces in Red River’s historic business district, where he planned to focus on smaller jobs and stay close to home. He already had the Red River Independent School District and the owners of the historic buildings on Main Street lined up as clients. But he’d moved back for her too, so she wouldn’t have to leave her dream.

  He laughed and nuzzled her neck. “Well, someone has to bring the parachutes.”

  She laughed. “Where’s Lloyd?”

  He yipped when Miranda said his name, and Talmadge moved a step. Lloyd sat on the hearth in a small bed with rails that boxed him in. Talmadge shrugged. “I built this contraption because I don’t want him to get stepped on, and I can’t carry him around all the time. He’s getting kind of spoiled.”

  She slid a hand inside Talmadge’s jacket and smoothed her fingers over his chest. Purple flared in his eyes.

  Clydelle and Francine walked over, interrupting Miranda and Talmadge’s silent, sensual communication.

  “What are you two going to do for entertainment now that the Red River Rag has disappeared?” Talmadge teased. Miranda had filled him in on who was responsible for the blog.

  “I’m starting a strip pinochle night at the senior center. Co-ed, of course.” Francine waggled her brows, and come to think of it, her purse looked substantially lighter. When Talmadge frowned, she said, “Don’t judge me.” They lumbered off to cause trouble with Langston and a few young members of the Red River Fire Department.

  “So can we sneak upstairs soon?” She batted her eyes at him. “I have something I want to show you.”

  That purple in his eyes was back, and her heart skipped.

  “Give me a hint?”

  She toyed with a button on his shirt. “Since you seemed to like seeing my panties so much that day out on the porch, I got a special pair for today.” She smiled up at him, loving the lust that blazed in his eyes just for her. She looked around to make sure no one was close enough to hear. “I’m wearing a white, lacy thong.” His eyes dilated. “And a matching bustier.”