Contents
Title Page
About This Book
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Contact Leeanna
Excerpt and Booklist
LOVING YOU
The Bridesmaids Club, Book 2
by Leeanna Morgan
Copyright © 2015 Leeanna Morgan
Amazon Edition
ISBN 9780994119018
Published by Rogan Press
For more information visit http://www.leeannamorgan.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is co-incidental.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the US Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior permission of the author.
About this Book
If making a bride’s dream come true is easy…why is falling in love so hard?
Annie O’Leary’s life ended the day her baby died. But then she moved to Montana and found a purpose, a reason for waking up each morning. There’s something about Bozeman, something about the friends she’s made that keeps her feet firmly anchored to the ground and her heart in one piece.
Dylan Bayliss is an Army veteran and security specialist. He’s lived his life on the edge and paid a higher price than most. He’s about to face his biggest fear and Annie is the only woman he trusts enough to help him.
Annie will do just about anything for anyone, but she doesn’t know if she has the courage to do the one thing that could change their lives forever.
If you would like to know when the next book in the series is published, please go to my website www.leeannamorgan.com and sign up to my newsletter. Thank you for your incredible support!
Other Contemporary Romances by Leeanna Morgan:
The Bridesmaids Club (Linked to Montana Brides):
Book 1: All of Me (Tess and Logan)
Book 2: Loving You (Annie and Dylan)
Book 3: Head Over Heels (Sally and Todd)
Book 4: Sweet on You (Molly and Jacob)
Montana Brides:
Book 1: Forever Dreams (Gracie and Trent)
Book 2: Forever in Love (Amy and Nathan)
Book 3: Forever After (Nicky and Sam)
Book 4: Forever Wishes (Erin and Jake)
Book 4.5 Forever Santa (A Montana Brides Christmas Novella)
Book 5: Forever Cowboy (Emily and Alex)
Book 6: Forever Together (Kate and Dan)
Book 7: Forever and a Day (Sarah and Jordan)
Emerald Lake Billionaires
(Linked to The Bridesmaids Club & Montana Brides):
Book 1: Sealed with a Kiss (Rachel and John)
Book 2: Playing for Keeps (Sophie and Ryan)
Book 3: Crazy Love (Holly and Daniel)
“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.”
- Maya Angelou -
Chapter One
If you asked Annie O’Leary to choose between a red hot male and a quiet night with her friends, she’d take her friends every time. Life had a funny way of working out and sometimes it wasn’t all that funny.
Four years ago, she’d arrived in Bozeman with a heavy heart and no hope of ever being happy again. Now here she was, part-time baker, part-time receptionist and part-time fairy godmother to brides in distress.
She stared out the window of Angel Wings Café, only half listening to the conversation going on around her. Six weeks ago, Annie and three of her friends had started The Bridesmaids Club. They’d read a newspaper article about a bride who’d had all of her bridesmaids’ dresses stolen from her home. Within a couple of days, they’d gathered all of their old bridesmaids’ dresses together and offered four of them to the bride. With more twists and turns than should have been possible, their first bride and groom had enjoyed a beautiful wedding.
After the publicity their story generated, they’d ended up with over fifty donated bridesmaids’ dresses, a dozen bridal gowns and a box full of letters from other women asking for help.
“Are you listening, Annie?” Tess Williams, the owner of Angel Wings Café, and one of her best friends, nudged her leg under the table.
Molly and Sally, her other two best friends, looked out the window of the café to see what she’d been staring at.
“It’s Dylan.” Sally sighed. “Does he even know how drop dead gorgeous he is?”
The first time Annie had met Dylan Bayliss she hadn’t known what to make of him. He rarely smiled, almost never touched another person, and had a way of filling up a room without knowing it. She had to admit that six and a half feet of pure male testosterone would have an impact on any room. Add in wide shoulders, a chiseled jaw, and sapphire blue eyes, and you had the makings of a man who would turn a woman’s head every time.
“Can we get back to what we need to sort out? Annie and I have to get the next tray of meals ready for the Lighthouse Café.” Tess stuck her head around the edge of the window and smiled at Dylan. “Okay. We’ve all had our hormone fix for the day. Back to work.”
“It’s all right for you,” Sally moaned. “Your fiancé has been keeping your toes warm at night. We’re not all fortunate enough to have a man like Logan Allen in our lives.”
“And some of us don’t want one,” Molly stated. Her Irish accent softened the words, gave them a lyrical quality that covered the hurt behind them. Molly’s marriage had lasted a grand total of six months. The charming, romantic man she’d married had shared his charm with someone else, and Molly was still recovering.
Sally gave Molly a quick hug. “Where are we up to?” she asked.
Tess looked at her notes. “Julie is arriving with her two bridesmaids tomorrow. She’s looked in the catalog and I’ve put the dresses she liked to one side.”
When they’d first started The Bridesmaids Club, the biggest challenge they could see was having some way of showing the bridesmaids what the dresses looked like. So Molly, a professional photographer, had put together a catalog of the dresses they’d been given. So far it was working better than they’d planned.
“I talked to my bride,” Sally said. “Holly is coming to see us next Saturday with her sisters.”
Annie stopped sipping her milkshake. “All six of them?”
“Yep. I just hope they don’t bring any extra people.” Sally leaned her elbows on the table and glanced out of the window again. “What do you think Dylan’s perfect woman would be like?”
Annie had been wondering the same thing, which scared the living daylights out of her. Unless you counted a disastrous ten pin bowling incident, she hadn’t dated anyone in over six years. She hadn’t been interested in seeing anyone or getting to know another man. Until she’d met Dylan. He intrigued her, left her wondering what was behind the super-cool exterior he showed the world.
Dylan didn’t seem to date much either, but that could have been because of his touching issue. He’d told Tess he was working on it, whatever that meant.
Annie grinned at the serious expression on Sally’s face. “I’d say Dylan’s perfect woman would be a five-foo
t-eight brunette. She’d have sparkling green eyes and a fondness for animals.”
Sally blushed. “I’m the worst person for Dylan. He’s too...”
“Perfect?” Molly said.
“Complicated,” Annie added.
All four heads around the table nodded.
Dylan must have sensed the female interest on the other side of the window. He turned and looked at each of them in turn. Annie scrunched down in her seat, too embarrassed to smile back like everyone else.
He held his wrist out and tapped his watch. Annie knew they were running late, but some things were worth a few extra minutes. Especially if they involved girly talk about the man in front of them.
“Is there anything else we’ve forgotten?” Tess asked.
Everyone shook their heads.
“Okay, so I guess that’s the end of our meeting.” Tess flipped her notebook closed. “We only went off topic four times. It’s got to be a record for us.”
Molly laughed as they stood up. “We’ll have to come more prepared next time.”
Dylan must have realized their meeting was over. He walked into the café and met Tess at the front counter. “Are you ready for me to load the meals into my truck?”
His Texan drawl sent goose bumps down Annie’s spine. Not that she’d let Dylan know that. Since the first time she’d met him, he’d carefully avoided her. They’d barely spoken, never touched, except when he’d tripped over her feet in the middle of a chapel.
“I’ve got half of the meals ready to go,” Tess said as she disappeared behind the kitchen door.
Annie walked toward the counter. They’d already put twenty meals in aluminum trays and packed them in boxes. The people that ate at the Lighthouse Café appreciated the food they made. For some of them, it was the only meal they could count on each day.
Dylan cleared his throat as Annie opened the kitchen door. “Do you want to ride with me?”
Annie frowned, then looked over her shoulder. No one was there. “You’re talking to me?”
Dylan shrugged. “I was just wondering?”
“I can’t…leave, I mean. I’m looking after Angel Wings Café. And then I’ve got bowling practice.”
Dylan nodded. “Maybe next time, then.”
Annie hurried into the kitchen and called herself every fool under the sun. She’d gotten tongue-tied around Dylan. He was a man. A perfectly normal, over-the-top gorgeous male, but a man nonetheless. And she was a confident, single woman, whose excuse for not going with him had been bowling practice.
And that told her, beyond any reasonable doubt, that there was something seriously wrong with her priorities.
***
Dylan parked outside Pastor Steven’s church and tried to figure out what he’d done wrong. Annie had looked as though she’d rather throw up than come with him to deliver the meals. He’d gone out on a limb, pushed his comfort zone and come up with zilch.
“You going to sit there all day or help unload the boxes?” Logan stood on the sidewalk, hands on hips and looking too annoyed for a Saturday afternoon.
Ever since Dylan moved to Bozeman, he’d been friends with Logan. They’d met eight months ago at a group session Pastor Steven organized for people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. His first meeting had been a strange combination of sound advice and good natured ribbing. The guys he’d met kept coming back and so did he.
Dylan pushed open his door. “What are you? The food police?”
“You wouldn’t say that if you knew what I’d been through today. The Bozeman Police Department have two officers in the World Police and Fire Games. I’ve spent the last four hours following them around to get a story about their training routine.”
Apart from being the closest friend Dylan had, Logan was a reporter for the Bozeman Chronicle. Before that he’d been a war correspondent, syndicated to more newspapers than Dylan had heard about.
He opened the back door of his truck and passed Logan a box. “Take these inside. Tess said Pastor Steven called. They’re going to have a full house tonight.”
“What else did my fiancée say?”
“You’d better ask her that. She seemed a bit put out that you were working today.”
“It’s better than unpacking more bridesmaids’ dresses.” Logan used his elbow to close the passenger door. “It’s like a disease. They get rid of half a dozen dresses and another ten arrive.”
Dylan didn’t bother locking his truck. They’d be back soon enough. If anyone was desperate enough to help themselves to the rest of the meals, they must need the food.
Logan followed a red brick path around the side of the church. “What have you been doing today?”
“I picked up a rare collection of Faberge eggs and delivered them to an auction house in Denver.”
“Riveting stuff.”
Dylan choked back a laugh. “It is when they’re worth millions. They were pretty enough, but you’ve got to wonder about people’s sanity. You wouldn’t get me paying what the auction catalog said they’re worth.”
Logan used his hip to push open the back door. “That’s why you weren’t invited to the auction.”
Pastor Steven looked up from the kitchen counter, his wide smile welcoming them into the room. “I could smell Tess and Annie’s cooking a mile away. Roast beef?”
Dylan left his box beside Pastor Steven. “You guessed right. Annie packed some dessert in a separate box. She said to tell you that the cheesecakes should go straight in the fridge.”
Logan started emptying the foil wrapped plates out of his box. “How many are you expecting tonight?” he asked Pastor Steven.
“We’ve already got twenty people in the dining room. I wouldn’t be surprised if another twenty arrive in the next half hour.”
A young boy with bright red hair and neon freckles walked through the kitchen door.
He stopped and frowned when he saw Dylan. “You haven’t been here for ages. Dad thought you must have gone somewhere else to work.”
Dylan held his hand out and the boy raced across the room. They did the same secret handshake they’d done for the last six months. “I’m not going anywhere, squirt. Do you want to help me set the tables?”
“Dad’s already got me on knife and fork duty,” the little boy said.
“You’ll need spoons, too. Annie and Tess made cheesecake.” Dylan watched a smile shoot across Frankie’s face.
“You should come back for dinner more often.”
Before Dylan said another word, Frankie grabbed a handful of utensils and went back into the dining room.
“How’s Frankie’s dad doing?” Dylan asked.
“He got a job pumping gas at the station on Gallatin Road. It’s helping with a few of their bills, but they’ve got a way to go.”
“Did Frankie get the Little League uniform?”
Pastor Steven smiled. “I gave it to him last week. He didn’t know what to do with himself he was so excited. It was very thoughtful of you to do that for him.”
Dylan shrugged his shoulders. “It’s hard enough for him. He shouldn’t have to pull out of baseball season because his dad can’t afford a new uniform.”
Logan put another box on the counter and glanced at Dylan. “There’s a disturbing pattern emerging here. You’re talking and I’m doing all of the work.”
“It’s called working smarter not harder,” Dylan said. “Besides, following sweaty police officers around while you look for a story isn’t exactly body breaking work.”
Logan emptied the box and put some of the dinners in the large commercial oven. “Beats hauling eggs to Denver.”
Pastor Steven looked around the kitchen. “Why don’t you both go and get the rest of the boxes out of Dylan’s truck? We should be good to go in another ten minutes.”
Logan held the door open. “After you.”
“You trying to impress me with your manners?” Dylan asked.
“I’m making sure you go to your truck and don’t disappear into t
he dining room. Frankie won’t let you out of his sight when you get in there.” Logan shut the door and walked down the path with Dylan. “You want to tell me why you were staring into space when you arrived?”
“Not particularly.”
Logan grinned. “The strong silent type doesn’t impress me. You’ll have to leave that for the ladies.”
Dylan felt a blush work its way up his neck. He kept walking, hoping Logan didn’t notice.
“Wait a minute. Are you telling me a woman had you contemplating the meaning of life?”
Dylan opened the canopy on the back of his truck. “We probably should have taken the cheesecakes out first. If they’ve melted everywhere, I’ll tell Tess it was your fault.” Logan didn’t seem worried about the cheesecake issue. He seemed more worried about Dylan, and that was something Dylan didn’t need.
“Who is she?”
Dylan put the biggest box in Logan’s arms. “No one you know.”
“You wanna bet? I know most people in Bozeman, or someone who knows someone else. Tell me a name and I’ll let you know if their dossier has passed across my desk at the Chronicle.”
“You sound like James Bond,” Dylan grumbled.
“Not going to work. I won’t be distracted by frivolous complements. Who is she?”
Dylan was saved from answering by the toot of a car horn.
Logan gave him an evil glare. “You’ve bought yourself time.”
Dylan would take whatever was on offer.
“Have you taken the cheesecakes inside?” Tess looked at the box in Logan’s hands. “I hope that’s not what I think it is?”
Dylan watched Logan plaster a besotted smile on his face. It usually worked its magic on Tess, but it wasn’t working today.
Tess looked inside the canopy and tutted. “The only thing in here are the cheesecakes. What were you thinking?”
“About how good they’re going to taste,” Dylan said as he took another box out of his truck.
Tess lifted the last box into her arms and followed Logan along the path. “Lock your truck, Dylan. There are lots of people waiting for their dinner.”
Loving You (The Bridesmaids Club Book 2) Page 1
