The Runaway Bridesmaid

by Kaitlyn Rice

  Isabel remembered her. The woman had always had her eye on Roger. Finally he’d noticed?

  Isabel’s guilt lifted some, but strangely she didn’t feel jealous.

  “So R.J. mentioned Angie’s comment to you, and then what happened?”

  “I stayed up all night, thinking about it, and then I called Angie just now. She said she saw you in the pool with some counselor. Said you were kissing like TV people, and she wasn’t sure if it was okay but she didn’t want to get you in hot water.”

  “That wasn’t a counselor, Roger. It was Trevor, the camp director and Sam’s good friend.”

  “So it is true.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  Roger sighed. “I’ll book a flight for tomorrow, and call you when I know a time. If you’ll get her to the boarding gate, I’ll have an attendant waiting for her.”

  Now he finds a way to get Angie home.

  But Isabel’s bigger concern was for the little girl. “Roger, she’s six years old. You can’t put her on a plane alone.”

  “She won’t be alone. You’ll be at one gate and I’ll be at the other. In between, a flight attendant will sit with her. When Barbara decided to move to Texas, she explained that we could send the kids back and forth this way.”

  “But R.J. will be with Angie then,” Isabel said. “She’s too young to handle a plane trip alone, even with a flight attendant watching over her.”

  “She’s too young to watch her father’s girlfriend kiss some other guy.”

  “We broke up.”

  “I thought the breakup was for show,” Roger said. “The kids do talk to me, Iz. I knew you wanted to get married. R.J. said he thought you were expecting a proposal after my cousin’s wedding in April.”

  “And I’ve been operating under the assumption that we would continue as we were—just boyfriend and girlfriend—or not at all.”

  “Under the circumstances, I’d say it’s the not-at-all option. Wouldn’t you?” he said.

  Isabel could insist that the opposite was true—that she hadn’t gone to unforgivable lengths with Trevor. That she’d left a thread of lifeline intact.

  But she didn’t bother. “You’re breaking up with me, now?”

  “Guess so.”

  Isabel felt a twinge of something. Not hurt. Guilt? Disappointment? Maybe it simply felt strange to abandon a hope she’d clung to for so long. “Anyway, I’m sorry Angie was confused,” she said. “We hoped she hadn’t seen us.”

  “We? You mean you discussed the possibility with…him?”

  “Sure I did,” Isabel said. “We didn’t know how long she’d been standing there.”

  “So the…it…went on for a while.”

  Isabel tried to ignore the pain in his voice. She reminded herself that Roger hadn’t wanted to commit to her. That he had begun to neglect her. She tried to figure out what her sisters would say.

  And she knew this as truth: what she’d done or hadn’t done with some other guy was not Roger’s business. He’d never taken on the task of making it his business.

  Isabel was tired of letting him control this conversation. Right now she wanted only to make Roger understand that Angie didn’t deserve to be penalized.

  She wanted to be a flower girl at the wedding of a couple who had been kind to her this summer. “I don’t see what it can hurt to let Angie stay until after the ceremony,” Isabel said. “I’ll bring her home by car, and we can talk about things, or not.”

  “I want her home, Isabel. I wouldn’t have let Angie go away on vacation with a woman I didn’t care for. One I didn’t trust.”

  Ouch.

  “I’ll call you with flight details,” Roger said, sounding curt. Tired. And then the line clicked and buzzed.

  He was gone.

  Isabel reached behind her to drop the receiver in its cradle, then stood leaning against the desk as waves of emotion hit her.

  Guilt about Angie’s premature departure.

  Regret about kisses she didn’t want to regret.

  Worry about Darla and her wedding plans.

  And, yes, pain.

  A movement caught her eye, and Isabel looked up as Trevor crossed the lodge porch and poked his head inside the door.

  “Hey, what are you doing in here?” He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. After crossing the space in long strides, he bent down to kiss her, hard and hot.

  “God, I’ve missed you,” Trevor said as he backed away. Then he frowned at her expression. “What’s wrong?”

  “Angie’s dad called,” she said. “Angie saw us in the pool that night. She said something to her brother, who said something to Roger.”

  “That’s too bad,” Trevor said. “But surely it’s okay. I know young kids are uncomfortable when they see kissing, but we weren’t doing anything wrong.”

  Isabel held his gaze. “Roger wants me to send Angie home.”

  “He should want her home. She’ll be there in a week.”

  “He wants her to come now. Tomorrow.”

  “Why?”

  Isabel scowled. “He’s mad at me for kissing you.”

  Trevor returned her scowl. “I thought you told me that you and Roger broke up.”

  Isabel didn’t want to explain to Trevor that Roger had understood the breakup to be a persuasive tactic.

  She didn’t want to risk adding Trevor’s pain or anger to her mix of woes. “We did,” she said.

  Trevor studied her face. “Was Angie upset?”

  “She was worried. She’d like to see me and her father get together.”

  “Is that wishful thinking on her part, or does she have a reason to believe you will?” Trevor’s green eyes glittered with questions.

  Tired of weighing which things would hurt and which wouldn’t, Isabel decided to relax into the whole truth. She hoped she could trust Trevor to handle it well.

  “I wanted to marry Roger,” Isabel said. “We’d dated for a long time, and I felt taken for granted. So yes, I had hopes that he’d miss me and ask. Angie knew that, I think, although I never said so specifically.”

  The dimples lined up. “And what did Angie’s dad want?”

  “He wanted nothing to do with marriage until after I came here.”

  Trevor lifted his brows. “And then?”

  “And then he started talking differently.”

  Trevor nodded, looking away. “Early on, I had the idea you were omitting a few details about Roger. Guess I was right.”

  “Trevor!” She sought his gaze, but he avoided hers.

  “We knew our time was limited, right?” he said. “Nothing was lost. Don’t worry about it.”

  She didn’t answer. Couldn’t have spoken even if she’d known what to say.

  A lot was lost, and Trevor should recognize that.

  Whether they’d talked about a future or not, she’d made a connection with him. At the very least, she’d thought she had another good friend here in Colorado. She’d imagined phone conversations. E-mails.

  She’d imagined irreplaceable memories of a man who thought of her as fondly as she thought of him. She’d even imagined another heart-to heart about a possible future.

  Trevor glanced at her then, his expression distant. “Too bad about Angie,” he said. “Let me know when she’s leaving so I can say goodbye.”

  Isabel watched him stride out the door, then she stood away from the desk and realized her legs were shaking. She dropped into Darla’s chair and shoved her palms across her eyes. She was still sitting there moments later, when Darla walked in.

  “Angie said she has to go home?” Darla asked, her hazel eyes round with concern. “What happened, Izzy?”

  “She saw me and Trevor…” Isabel paused. Had she learned nothing about discretion? “Where is Angie?” she asked. “I don’t want her to hear.”

  “Sam’s taking her to Lyons to get the makings for S’mores and hot dogs. She wants a cookout on her last night.” Darla sat down at the desk Isabel had been using this summer. “N
ow, tell me. Angie saw you and Trevor doing what?”

  “Kissing. In the pool. Maybe doing a little more than kissing. I don’t know how much she saw. But she told her dad and he isn’t too happy with me.”

  Darla snorted. “Serves him right, if you ask me. If he wanted you for keeps, he should have made sure you knew it.”

  “I know.”

  “Then what is it, Izzy?”

  Isabel sighed. “If Angie leaves, you’ll have to change your wedding plans.”

  “Angie was a last-minute addition,” Darla said. “We asked her to participate because everyone else here is in the wedding party. But the only necessities to my wedding are that Sam and I say our vows and trade rings. We’ll be fine.”

  “I’m glad to hear you say that,” Isabel said. “But I also hurt Angie. She wanted to be in the wedding.”

  “I already told her she could take the dress and flower basket home,” Darla said. “If you plan a back-to-school party and invite some first-grade friends, she could wear the dress then. She’ll be fine.”

  “Think so?”

  “I do.” Darla peered into her eyes. “That’s not all, is it? What else has you so upset?”

  “It’s Trevor,” Isabel said. And now that she’d gotten to her deepest concern, she felt her eyes fill. “He’s…disappointed, I guess is the word. In me.”

  “Because he kissed you, and Angie saw it?”

  “Because I didn’t tell him I had hopes of marrying Roger, or that everyone at home knew about my wishes.”

  “Do you still have those hopes?”

  “No.”

  “Then you told Trevor the truth. Maybe before you even knew it was the truth.”

  Darla might be right.

  But Isabel still had a problem. She frowned. “Trevor’s so intense. We got really close. We trusted each other. I think I blew it.”

  “He’s intense when he cares.” Darla pulled a tissue from the box in front of her and handed it across. “You’ve got muddy tear tracks.”

  After Isabel had wiped them away, Darla said. “Anyway, don’t worry. We’ll find a way to make that stubborn cuss listen.”

  TREVOR KNELT IN FRONT of little Angie Corbett in a Denver airport terminal, peering into her eyes. “You’ll send pictures?” he asked. “I could use some for my fridge. My youngest sister is two, and she can only scribble.”

  “What do you want me to draw?” Angie appeared quite serious about filling this request.

  “Pigs or chickens?”

  “I’ll draw you some pigs,” Angie promised. “But you probly don’t have crayons, to draw something for me.”

  “I’ll send you postcards.”

  “What’s a pose-card?”

  “It’s a card with one side blank, so I can write you a note, and one side filled with a photograph—a picture.”

  “A pit-tcher of what?”

  “Of anything. I’ll find you one with mountains on it, or maybe a hummingbird.”

  “I like black bears better.”

  “Then black bears it is.”

  She frowned, as if considering the fairness of their intended trade. Then she gave a satisfied nod. “Okay. Send me a pose-card. Bye, Mr. Trebor.”

  He stuck his hand out to shake hers, but she only frowned at it. By six most children wouldn’t have learned to shake hands, would they?

  “Put this hand in mine,” he coached, touching the palm of her right hand. When she’d done so, he shook her hand and then surprised himself by pulling her forward to hug her. “Goodbye, Miss Angie. It was nice meeting you.”

  He felt her nod against his ear.

  When he backed away and stood up, Isabel was right there. Trevor watched her crouch down to say something to the child. He turned to walk to the nearby chairs and sat down to wait.

  He didn’t want to hear their goodbye. He’d only driven the pair to the airport because Darla had twisted his arm.

  He knew he was cranky. He thought he had a right to be, and he was absolutely certain this way was best. Isabel could go home and face Roger with a clear conscience.

  A flight attendant approached Isabel and Angie, then the first boarding calls came over the loudspeaker. Trevor glanced at the little pink backpack in the chair beside him. He gathered the papers the little girl had strewn around, and one of them caught his attention. The crayoned figure was clearly identifiable. It was green, with an oversize half-circle smile. Angie had drawn a bright red heart, quite large, on the chest.

  With a fat, black zigzag dissecting its middle.

  The figure next to the Grinch, with long brown hair and a heart with a similar zigzag, had to be Isabel.

  The little girl might want Isabel as a stepmother, but she knew something different, didn’t she?

  Trevor stuffed the papers inside the zippered compartment, closed it and carried the bundle to where Isabel was saying a last goodbye.

  Angie shrugged into it, then took the attendant’s hand before peering at Trevor one more time. “You won’t forget I like bear pose-cards?”

  “I won’t.”

  Then she peered at Isabel. “An’ when you get home, we’ll have a pah-ty with cake an’ balloons an’ my purple dress?”

  “That’s right.”

  “’Kay.”

  Isabel’s face was chalk-white as her sidekick disappeared into the corridor with the attendant.

  He’d been biting his tongue for hours, but sharp words came spilling out. “You’ll see her in a week.”

  Isabel gave him a funny look, and he shut up again.

  After the plane had vanished, they started for the Burch Lodge in his Jeep. He turned on the radio, the dial set to classic rock, and cranked up the volume.

  After three or four miles and half a song, Isabel turned down the volume. “Are you going to give me the silent treatment all the way back?” she asked.

  “You have something to talk about?”

  “Trevor, this is very hard for me, you know.”

  “Angie will be there when you get home, Isabel.” He spoke more patiently this time.

  “I know she will. But I feel as if it’s my fault that she’s leaving. If I’d been totally honest with you, we wouldn’t have done what we did, and she wouldn’t have seen us. And she wouldn’t be going home.”

  Trevor wasn’t so sure. He’d known Roger was a recent ex, and that hadn’t mattered. And he’d always known that Isabel wanted the fairy tale. Marriage. Kids. All the things he’d rejected.

  He simply hadn’t known whom she might marry, specifically. Why would knowing a name make him so mad?

  “You really thought you wanted to marry Roger?”

  She shrugged. “He fits my life.”

  “Guess he would.”

  “I didn’t know there should be more between us,” Isabel said. She looked across at Trevor. “You want to know something funny?”

  “I don’t have a very good sense of humor right now.”

  “I noticed.”

  Despite himself, he smiled.

  “I came out here thinking I could make Roger miss me, right? I didn’t ask him if we were headed for marriage. I waited for him to propose.”

  “You’re an old-fashioned girl, that way.”

  “No, I’m not. Think about it. With you I’d have asked. We’re connected. I say what I think, and expect you to do the same.”

  He frowned as he stopped for a light. “Well, I guess that’s right. You’re pretty direct with me.”

  “I’ve never been so at ease with Roger.”

  That had sounded like an honest admission, and it eased Trevor’s mood. No matter how many times he tried to distance himself from Isabel, she kept yanking him close again.

  Except he still needed to know something.

  “Were you in love with Roger?” he asked, watching her face as he waited for the light to change.

  Isabel pointed at the light, and he drove through the intersection. It was a moment before she answered, “I thought he was the kind of man I sh
ould love. Mom insisted that men were fickle. I found a man who was steadfast. She said they were lazy. I found a hard worker.”

  Trevor raised his eyebrows.

  “If Roger dropped to his knee the moment he saw me at home, I’d be upset,” Isabel said. “Not happy.”

  “Thank you for telling me that,” he said.

  It would be foolish to say more. She’d be going home soon to deal with steadfast, hardworking Roger.

  After a moment Isabel turned up the radio again, and they finished the drive in silence.

  When he pulled into the lodge parking lot, Trevor turned off the ignition and sat staring at the front of the building. “I’m headed home,” he said. “My bags are in the back, and I finished tying up loose ends here after the campers and counselors left yesterday.”

  “Of course.” Isabel’s voice was overly polite.

  He’d intended to wave to her and leave. He’d see her at the wedding next weekend, anyway, and he had plenty to do. But sometime during the drive, he’d changed his mind.

  “It might be smart to check the cabins for personal items, though.” He neglected to mention it to Isabel, but the campers and counselors had done that task, twice. “I might swing by this evening, to look around.”

  “Good idea,” she said, her blue eyes serious.

  “If you’re around, you can help me.”

  “Trevor, I could check and call you if I find anything.”

  “It’s a short drive and no trouble at all,” he said. “And…maybe afterward we could go to dinner. Sam and Darla deserve an evening alone, don’t you think?”

  “What a great idea!”

  The warmth in her smile could melt every snowcap in these Rockies. But even if Trevor knew it would do exactly that, he’d try to coax it out of her again.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Hello, Callie? It’s Isabel. Guess you aren’t home. Things are…okay, here. I wanted to talk for a minute. But, well, shoot.” She sighed. “I’ll talk to you soon, ’kay?”

  She started to hang up, then jerked the phone back to her mouth. “Don’t worry. I’m fine.”

  After returning the receiver to its cradle, she sat at the edge of the Ripple River bed and sighed again.

  Cautious Callie had found something lasting with Ethan. She might have been able to help Isabel think through her questions.