“There you go,” he said lamely.
She tucked her hair—blue streaked today—behind her ears. Took a deep breath. And then her lip started trembling again. “What am I going to do now?”
“That’s why I asked you to meet me here tonight. Thanks for coming, by the way.”
A shrug. “Got nothing better to do. We only paid the motel up through tonight. I was kind of hoping I could maybe go home with you afterwards?”
“Of course. It’s your house, too.” Ward held up a hand as she shook her head. “Okay, legally, it isn’t. But that just means you don’t have to worry about paying the mortgage, either. You’re my sister. Anywhere I live will always be your home, too. Period.”
“Thanks. I mean it.” She dug the toe of her cracked boot into a divot in the gravel. “And, um, I’m sorry. You know, for asking for that money from the wind farm. It was all Rich’s idea.”
“I figured as much.” Nice to hear it from Lori directly. To know that she wasn’t the greedy, conniving mastermind behind the stupid demand.
“I’m glad he made me ask, though. It gave me the courage to finally come and talk to you.”
“I’m glad you did. Now we can have a fresh start.” He held up his index finger. “Just one rule. How about we agree to disagree about Mom and Dad? It was their shit that didn’t work out. We just got tangled up in it.”
“Okay.”
“I should tell you that I didn’t take the wind farm deal.” It was wrong on a bunch of different levels. He’d decided that even before the email came yesterday from Zane’s producer friends wanting to invest in the distillery.
“Probably a good idea.” Hand flying to her mouth, Lori tried unsuccessfully to smother a giggle. “All those people in town would’ve shit a brick if you put windmills on the edge of the lake.”
Wasn’t that the truth? Ward sighed. “Yeah. They really would have.”
“So why am I here?”
“I called an emergency town meeting.”
“That sounds like a big hairy deal. Why’d you do that?”
“You’ll see. The point is, I wanted you to be a part of it. See if you can handle being around everyone. Then I thought you could move in with me for a couple of months. Get your feet back under you.”
She looked hopeful for about two seconds before frowning and tugging at her hair. “Tourist season is almost over. Then this place empties out. How will I find a job?”
“Things have changed in the last fifteen years. We stay a lot busier in the winter now. And I’ve got some ideas on a job for you. Two good possibilities—working in a tasting room at Morrissey Vineyards, or behind the counter at Cosgrove’s. Maybe both, part-time. What do you think?”
“I could work with Piper?”
No matter how Piper felt about him, Ward didn’t think she’d hold anything against Lori. Remembered that she had a soft spot for her, in fact. He had no doubt she’d want to help her out. “There’s a good chance. If you ask her nicely. Maybe at the end of the meeting?”
“I will.” Then she threw herself at him for another bear hug.
Ward could get used to this. Having a sister again would be nice. Oh, she’d probably be a pain in the ass some of the time, and they’d have to work out how to live together as adults. But it’d mostly be nice. Step two of his big plan had gone as well as step one—aka, ousting Rich the spineless dick. Step three? The one that mattered the most? Well, he’d know in about an hour.
“You’d better get in there. It’ll start soon.”
“‘Kay.” She hurried inside, with considerably more bounce in her step. Ward felt the opposite. Nauseous. Two orders of onion rings and a bacon cheeseburger nauseous. How come none of his famous quotes mentioned that love made you want to hurl?
Gray poked his head out the door before it closed all the way. “Ready?”
“Hell, no.” This could be his stupidest idea ever. And what mattered most to him in the world was riding on it. How was he supposed to be ready?
“Zane picked up your visual aid. It’s on the podium. Casey’s going to introduce you.”
Ward scrubbed a hand over his chin. “Don’t drag her into this. For God’s sake, I don’t need to be introduced.”
“Makes it more official, with Dawn not here to kick off the meeting. Let her do this for you. After that, if you sink or swim, it’s all on you.”
“That’s one hell of a pep talk,” Ward said, tongue in cheek.
“Aw, you know I’m rooting for you two crazy kids.” Gray clapped him on the shoulder as they walked past the plywood and canvas sets for whatever show the opera house had up next. “When I thought I lost Ella, you told me to stop feeling sorry for myself and fight for her. I’d toss your words of wisdom back at you, but it seems like you’re one step ahead. So good luck.”
“Thanks. I’m gonna need it.”
Gray slipped out the door that led to the house. Loud chatter filled the auditorium. Ward peeked around the red velvet curtain. God. His stomach lurched again. Had to be two hundred people out there. Ward didn’t mind being in front of people. He used to love playing in front of crowds, the bigger the better. But that was when he was certain of what would happen. Had faith in his ability to handle a ball. There was no such certainty about what would happen tonight.
The lights dimmed. Casey, still in her ranger uniform, ran up the steps to the podium in the middle of the stage.
“I’m glad so many of you could make it on such short notice. I’m calling to order this emergency town meeting. Mayor Cosgrove isn’t able to be with us tonight, as she’s currently on her honeymoon with Joel McMurray.” Casey paused to let the shocked gasps and murmurs ripple through the room.
Ward couldn’t believe she’d spilled the secret. Then he realized it was her gift to him. A way to soften up the crowd with the biggest gossip of the year. It’d put them in a much better mood to listen to him. Nicely done.
“In her stead, tonight’s meeting will be led by Ward Cantrell. Please give him your attention.”
A smattering of applause filled the endless moments it took him to walk onstage. He squeezed Casey’s hand in thanks as she went back to her seat in the front row. Watching her blond braids bob, it was easy to pick her out in the dim light and identify Piper right next to her. Piper looked...well, she looked gorgeous, as always. She also looked stunned at his appearance at the podium, and leaned over to whisper furiously to Ella on her other side. Give it a few seconds. She thought she was surprised now? Wait until he started talking.
“Hi. Just to settle everyone down, don’t worry. Nobody stole the town’s money again.” Yeah, it was a lame opening joke. It did net him a low rumble of laughter. “I’ve been told that I suck at asking for help. Well, nobody’s going to say that after tonight.” He spread his arms wide to indicate the entire room. “I called this meeting because I need your help. All of you.”
More murmurs. A little more laughter. “You may not realize it, but some of you helped me already.” Ward picked up the leather-bound mailbox journal from the podium and held it overhead. “In here. I’m the one who asked for suggestions about a month ago. What date to take a girl on to make her fall for me again. That girl was Piper Morrissey.”
Yet another swell of chatter, this time louder. One hiss from the back of the room. “Look, I know we’ve been through some ups and downs. Some of you like me, some of you don’t. That’s fine. But here on the shores of Seneca Lake, we’ve got a tradition of helping each other. Right here in the pages of this journal. It’s usually anonymous. You don’t know if you’re helping the idiot who cut you off that morning or your best friend from kindergarten. Makes it easier to share secrets that way.”
He very deliberately put the journal down on the podium. Moved several feet away. “The thing is, I don’t want to be anonymous. That’s why I cal
led you together, instead of writing in the journal. Certain things shouldn’t be kept secret. Trust me, I learned that lesson the hard way, just this week.”
Ward walked to the lip of the stage. “Piper, will you come up here?”
“You’ve got to be kidding.” She enunciated extra clearly. Loudly.
He hadn’t expected her to leap into his arms. But give a guy a damn chance. “Piper, I’ve got three days left. You promised. Please, just come up here and listen to me for five minutes. That’s the last I’ll ask of you.”
It took a few seconds. But then the angry staccato of her heels echoed through the auditorium. At the top of the stairs, she crossed into the light. Tight white jeans ended at hot pink booties. Man, how many other redheads had the guts to wear pink like she did? Her black sweater was cut in half by a wide diagonal white-and-pink stripe. She looked hot. Huh. Dressed right for a Friday night date, not to mope around her apartment missing him. Ward wasn’t sure what that meant. All he knew was that he could stare into her beautiful blue eyes up close one more time.
She leaned close to whisper in his ear, giving him a whiff of her perfume. “Ward, are you sure we can’t discuss things in private?”
“No. I need to say things to you.”
“I need to say things to you, too. But you don’t have to do this. It is, in fact, a very bad idea.”
Ward shook his head. Took her by the hand and led her to the center of the stage. “Piper thinks I’m making a mistake. That I shouldn’t open up this whole can of worms in front of the entire town. But you all were there for my public victories before. Along with my public defeats. So here goes: I’m asking you, all of you, for your opinion.”
“Loving this already!” sassed a woman on the right side of the auditorium.
“I’ve been an idiot.”
“Loving this even more!” someone else hollered.
“I made mistakes. Big ones. I’m not going to explain or excuse them. Except to say as wrong as I was, everything I did came from loving this woman.” He shook his head. Sounded like a soap opera character. And those people usually ended up with six divorces or killed in a fiery boat crash. “Forget that. Still too much of an excuse. I fucked up. No candy-coating it. And I’m sorry, Piper. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry I kept things from you. I’m sorry I wasn’t the man you hoped I’d be.”
“Ward, no. It’s okay.” She tugged on his sleeve, looked up at him with beseeching eyes. “Please stop.”
Guess all those years of friendship still counted for something. She didn’t want him to make a fool of himself publicly. But he had to do this in front of everyone. It was the only way to show her just how sincere he really was. “Don’t try to save me embarrassment. I’ll take my licks. I’ll keep apologizing and keep groveling straight through until the leaves come back on the trees.”
“You don’t need to do either.”
Why was she fighting him on this? What woman didn’t appreciate a heartfelt apology? “I was miserable when we broke up the first time. Ten years of living, of dating other people, never diminished how much I love you. There wasn’t a day I didn’t want you back. I wanted us back.”
“You don’t understand, Ward—”
God, she was stubborn. Ward cut her off by putting a hand over her mouth. “Let me finish.”
She blinked. Nodded.
He dropped his hand. “I’m laying it all on the line. In the open. No more secrets. Piper Morrissey, I love you. I admit I screwed things up. Twice. Well, as you pointed out, I screwed things up for the town, too. And a good portion of them either forgave me or decided to move past it. I’m hoping you’ll follow their example.” He took both of her hands in his and made the final push. “I want another chance. I can’t promise I won’t screw up again. We all know that’s not realistic. What I can promise is that I won’t ever make the same mistakes. I can promise to love you every single day. To work day and night to make you feel as special and treasured as you deserve.”
Turning to face the auditorium, Ward asked, “Do you think Piper should give me one last chance? Answer from your gut, the same way you would if I wrote it in the journal anonymously. No personal history clouding the issue, no judgment. Just a guy saying he loves a girl to pieces and will work for the rest of her life to make her happy. Should she come back to me?”
It was a risk. For a guy who’d spent his life taking the long shot, it was the biggest one of all. But Ward thought she deserved the big gesture. Sure, love conquered all, but with both their businesses so tied up with everyone else on Seneca Lake, he needed the buy-in of the town to make this work. The jabs they’d endured the past twenty-seven days proved that.
He’d given Gray and Zane strict instructions not to do anything. The answer had to come from the town as a whole, not his friends. He could see them holding Ella and Casey’s hands, not letting them do anything either. It only took one breath, one heartbeat, before the first applause rang out. More followed. Fast. Faster than he’d hoped. A chunk of people in the back stood up, hands overhead clapping. Within seconds, the entire room was on their feet, whooping and applauding and stamping their feet.
It was a start. Only missing one thing. Slowly, Ward turned to look at Piper. Her front teeth bit down on her hot pink-slicked lips. She motioned for everyone to quiet down.
“This is all wrong,” she stated in a firm voice.
Shit.
“Ward did screw up. What he doesn’t realize is that I screwed up just as badly. Ward, I kept something from you, too. I love you. The thing is, I never stopped loving you.”
What the hell? Piper Morrissey was a slam dunk and he hadn’t even known it? Ward felt his jaw drop.
“In all the years we were fighting and snarking at each other, I loved you every single day, Ward. I didn’t need you to spend a month convincing me to date you again. You’re my best friend. You always have been. I’ve wanted to be with you again since that day ten years ago I broke up with you. Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe it was a gap we needed to grow up, I don’t know. I do know that I shouldn’t have let you think I wasn’t in love with you. Nothing could be further from the truth. All I’ve ever wanted was to spend my life with you.”
More applause rang out, a seemingly endless wave. Ward swore it was the damn spotlight glinting off the crystal chandelier that made his eyes water at that moment. “You love me? And I didn’t even need to sing ‘Do-Re-Mi’ next to a biker dressed as a nun to make it happen?”
She bit her lip again. Raised her eyebrows into the fakest expression of innocence he’d ever seen. “Of course I want you back. The catch is that I won’t let you take this all on yourself. It’s up to us to make this work. I know we can. Third time’s the charm.”
Ward dug in his pocket. “You deserve a diamond for sticking with me. A big one. Casey showed me the web page with all your dream wedding stuff pinned to it. Emerald cut, right?”
Tears brightening her eyes, Piper nodded.
“Seeing as how you broke up with me six days ago, I felt like I’d jinx the whole thing if I brought you a diamond tonight.” That elicited laughter, both from Piper and the crowd. “Hope you’ll take this, though, as a promise and a placeholder. You took it once before. Because we’re coming full circle with our love.” He held out his high school class ring. The big blue center stone sparkled in the stage lights. “Last time I gave it to you, I asked you to be my girl. To go steady.”
“That still works. As long as it lasts forever, this time.”
“It’s a deal,” he said as he slid it onto her thumb. And then, finally, Ward moved in to kiss her, one hand around her waist like he’d done a thousand times before. Piper tightened her arms around his neck, blue eyes blazing with passion and promise.
Simon rushed at them from the edge of the stairs. “Hand over the journal.”
Seri
ously? “This is my meeting, Simon. If you’ve got an issue, you can damn well wait to write in it tomorrow.”
“I want to sign my name. Like on the Declaration of Independence. I want to write in the journal that I think you and Piper belong together, and sign my name to it.”
Three more people lined up behind him. “Me, too.”
Slow and steady, people streamed across the stage, each signing their name and handing off the pen. Unbelievable. Guess he’d been right when Gray asked him why he stayed on Seneca Lake. Because this place was home. And this woman was his heart.
Ward dipped Piper backward over his arm, lips on hers for their third-ever first kiss. This one, though, was different. It was the first kiss of the rest of their lives.
* * * * *
Available Now from Carina Press and Christi Barth
PLANNING FOR LOVE
The first book in the Aisle Bound series
Hopeless romantic Ivy Rhodes
and
anti-Cupid Bennett Westcott
request the pleasure of your company for
their disaster of a courtship.
Read chapter one of PLANNING FOR LOVE:
Chapter One
All weddings are similar, but every marriage is different.
~ John Berger
Ivy Rhodes lay sprawled at the bottom of the stone steps, feet tangled in the straps of a large black duffel bag. Everything hurt and, to top it off, she thought she’d heard her dress rip. At the very least, the pale pink satin had to be smudged from her ungraceful slide down the sweep of old stones dominating the foyer of the Great Hall at Café Brauer. Worst of all, the round lens of a video camera bobbled less than an inch from her nose.
“Are you kidding me? You’re filming this?” Ivy’s voice rose to a high squeak on the last word. Her famous, unflappable composure threatened to crack. Because who wouldn’t be flustered when their humiliating clumsiness got recorded for posterity on a wedding video? She dropped her cheek back to the cool stones and waited for a wave of dizziness to subside. Hopefully, if any of the caterers needed to walk by her to finish setting up the ballroom, they’d avoid stepping on anything important, like her dress or her head.
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