by Nancy Warren
“A deal? I’m a deal? Like trading stocks?”
“To those two, everything’s business. You know that.”
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
“What was there to tell?”
She was angry, so angry. With him, with Eric, with the judge for ruining her happy day. With everyone named Carnarvon or Van Hoffendam. “I feel like you set me up, taking me down there today.”
“Honestly, I didn’t mean to.”
“But you knew something was up.” She felt the tension knot her shoulders. It was giving her a headache. “I am not a character in one of your screenplays, where you get to play God and manipulate people into horrible situations to see how they’ll react. This is real life. My life. You had no right to interfere.”
Suddenly, he grabbed her shoulders. “If Eric Van Hoffendam is a bad person, then you should know that before you marry him. I don’t want you to make a mistake.”
She wanted to hit him she was so mad. She pushed right up into his face, “Oh, yeah? And what are you going to do to stop me?”
He glared at her, his eyes fierce with longing and then he pulled her to him, hard. He kissed her, not with finesse and fireworks like he had the day before, but with pure passion, anger and frustration all mixed up. She felt herself respond to the dark emotions and then, realizing what she was doing, yanked herself out of his arms.
“Stop this,” she yelled. “Just stop.”
Then she got back into the car. A moment later, he slid into the driver’s seat and they pulled back into traffic. They didn’t speak at all on the drive back home.
When they pulled into his spot, it was like a replay of the night before. He said, “Ashley, wait.”
She said, “Go to hell.”
***
When she stormed into the cottage, she entered a scene that was cozy, domestic and cheerful. She slammed to a halt as she saw her mother, looking happier than Ashley had seen her in a long time. With her was a guy about her mother’s age who actually didn’t look like a complete loser. A stunning bouquet of flowers sat on top of the coffee table and Eric and Tasmine sat side by side in front of it, both bent over Tasmine’s table computer.
She was so stunned she simply stood and stared.
“Ashley,” her mom said, coming forward, all girlish and happy. “I want you to meet Chuck. He’s going to be my date for your wedding, if that’s okay.”
Chuck seemed like a nice man. He got to his feet and shook her hand. “Congratulations on your marriage. Your mother and I have been, um, spending some time together. I thought you and I should get to know each other.”
“Great. Sure.” She shook his hand. Everyone was looking at her but she wasn’t sure what more they wanted. “Are your intentions honorable, Chuck?”
They all cracked up like she was Tina Fey. “Indeed, they are. I’m a dentist. I’m divorced, no children. I, um, think your mom’s a wonderful person.”
Okay, she needed to get her head out of her ass and be happy for her mother. At least someone’s life was on the upswing. She dragged up a smile. “I think so, too.”
Melody pointed to the bouquet. “That’s a sample of the flowers we chose for the tables. Aren’t they gorgeous?”
“Stunning.”
Then she turned to Tasmine and Eric. “And you two are…?”
“I have to get gifts for the groomsmen. Tasmine’s helping me choose.”
“Perhaps a replica of a garden statue would be nice,” she said through gritted teeth. “Or maybe something from the art world. What do you think, Eric?”
He glanced up, looking busted, but Tasmine either didn’t notice the tension or pretended not to. “We were sort of thinking cufflinks. Traditional, but with a modern twist.”
Ashley simply stood there, her gaze fixed on Eric until he dropped his head and stared at the ground. “Maybe we could finish this later,” he said to Tasmine.
“Sure, absolutely.” She rose and gave Ashley a quick hug. She whispered, “The last couple weeks before the wedding are always the toughest,” and then she was gone.
“Why don’t we take a walk to the beach,” Eric said once Tasmine had left.
The pair of them walked to the beach. He didn’t tease her or try to take her hand, he didn’t even ask where she’d been. He shuffled along, his head down, and when they got there, he turned to her. She didn’t say anything, simply stared at him.
He seemed to be trying to read her expression, probably trying to figure out how much she knew. He said, “What was that about? Back there?”
“What do you think it was about?”
He let out a breath. “You know, don’t you? You were never supposed to know.”
“I know that you defaced a priceless work of art if that’s what you mean. And then got engaged to ‘a respectable girl from a good family,’ to keep your ass out of jail.”
He looked so scared that for a moment she thought he might cry. “I can’t believe I did it. I mean, I seriously can’t believe that was me. I was so drunk—“
“I should throw this engagement ring back in your face,” she snapped.
He seemed to deflate. His blue eyes weren’t twinkling with devilry, they seemed older and a little sad. “Yeah,” he admitted. “You should.”
“You know what will happen if I do that?”
He nodded. Swallowed. “I’ll go to jail.”
She turned and started back toward the cottage. “Are you breaking up with me?” he yelled after her.
“I’m thinking about it,” she yelled back.
That was bad enough. Worse was Grace Van Hoffendam’s tearful visit. “Ashley,” she said, “You’ve been with Eric for ten years. You know he’s a decent person. He gets carried away, but that’s why being married to you will be so good for him. Please don’t send him to jail. I’m begging you.”
She walked the beach and she tried to imagine Eric in jail. She couldn’t.
She might have talked it over with her mother, but Melody was happily dating Chuck and already talking about turning Ashley’s bedroom into her TV room.
She didn’t swim Monday morning. She didn’t want to see Ben through the window. She didn’t want to have coffee with the man who’d teased her with a glimpse of happiness and then snatched it away again.
By Tuesday, she was damned if she was going to give up swimming because of him. She donned her green bikini and stomped up to the pool, determined to tell Ben that she wouldn’t be having coffee with him anymore and she no longer needed driving lessons. But she didn’t need to say any of those things.
When she got to the pool house, Ben’s car was gone. She peered in through the window, but there was no sign of him or his laptop. Could he be working at a coffee shop? She hadn’t wanted to see him or talk to him, except that now he wasn’t here, she really wanted to do both. She had some things she needed to say.
She dug out the hidden key from under the third pot and, after knocking, let herself in. It didn’t take her two minutes to discover there was no one there.
Ben had left, without even saying goodbye.
Chapter Eighteen
IN THE DISTANCE, ASHLEY could hear the twinkling melodies of the orchestra her aunt and uncle had hired to play music suitable for well-heeled guests as they settled themselves and waited for the wedding ceremony to begin. Her mother had gone ahead to the big house, and she really needed to be getting there too, as uncle Duncan would be waiting to walk her down the aisle.
She’d sent her bridesmaids on ahead. She needed a minute. One minute, completely for herself. She glanced around the bedroom that had been hers for most of her life, and that she wouldn’t be returning to after today. In her younger years, she’d decorated her full-length mirror with various stickers. In the top corner was stuck a strip of photos from a photo booth. She and Eric were probably seventeen. She pulled the strip down and studied the black-and-white images. It was vintage Eric, doing a rapper pose in one, making ridiculous faces in another, and f
inally smiling into the camera with his most charming and serious expression on his face, while his hand grabbed her chest. He was still a joker, still that seventeen-year-old boy more comfortable pulling a prank than acting like a man.
Tucked in the other corner of her mirror, hidden beneath a Hang Loose sticker, was another picture. It was the only picture she’d been able to get that summer that Ben came to stay for a few weeks. He was tanned, grinning away, with his arm slung around her fifteen year old self.
She stepped back and gazed at herself in her wedding dress, the dress that had been designed for another bride, cursed before it was ever worn, and now hung on her like a bad perm.
She crossed the room and pushed up the sash window, lifting her face to the sunshine and breathing in the smell of the ocean. Back in her teen years, she’s used this window to get in and out of her room, either to go to parties she wasn’t supposed to go to or to sneak over to Eric’s place. She sat on the windowsill, lifted her legs and swung around. The dress followed her, bunching around so she felt like a fish trapped in a huge net.
Above the sounds of Mendelssohn she heard the purr of a car engine. It was a nice sound, the sound of someone going places. She listened, and the sound grew louder. She turned her head.
The Ferrari was recently washed, she noticed, and it gleamed in the sun. He had the top down, exactly the way she liked it. He wore dark glasses like a spy or superhero. The car drew closer and stopped right outside her window. Ben said, “You planning to jump?”
There was about a foot between where her satin shoes ended and the neatly edged lawn began, but still she shook her head. “What are you doing here?” It was hard to sound casual when her heart was banging so hard she thought she might pass out.
“I came to talk to you about your driving.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Are you offering me a lesson? Now?”
He removed his sunglasses so she could see his eyes, blue, full of fire and amusement and a big dash of tenderness. “No. I don’t think you need any more lessons. I think you’re ready to take the wheel of your own life, don’t you?”
Before she could answer, her name was being called. “Ashley? Are you here?” It was the world’s most perfect bridesmaid, Tasmine, hired to make sure everything ran smoothly, including getting the bride to the altar on time.
“Keep the engine running,” she said to Ben. Then she turned, dragging the dress back inside, and called, “Tasmine? I’m in here.”
When the chirpy bridesmaid entered, saying, “It’s time,” she turned her back.
“Help me get out of this dress.”
For a second Tasmine stared at her in shock. Then she walked to the window and glanced out. When she turned back, they stared at each other for seconds that felt like hours and then she nodded, sharply, and as efficiently as she’d helped Ashley into the dress, she now helped her out of it.
She pulled on a pair of jeans and the first T-shirt she could put her hand on, scrambled into a pair of socks and running shoes, grabbed her purse and gave Tasmine a hug.
“What do you want to do with the dress?” Tasmine asked, her arms full of billowing white fabric.
Ashley was already halfway out the window when she turned back, laughing. “Why don’t you wear it? Isn’t it time to stop being a bridesmaid and become a bride?”
Then she dragged off Grace’s cast-off engagement ring and tossed it. Tasmine grabbed the ring. “Good luck.”
Their gazes connected. “You too.”
Ben had moved over into the passenger seat while she’d been changing, leaving the driver’s side empty and the door open. She jumped in and slammed the door shut. Before she hit the gas she said, “Are you sure about this?”
“When fate offers a happy ending, only a fool doesn’t take it.”
“Am I your happy ending?”
He leaned forward and pulled her to him. “You are my beginning and my happy ending. You are the love of my life,” he said, and then he kissed her. When he pulled back, he said, “And now, I suggest you floor it.”
And so she did.
Other Titles You May Enjoy
The best way to keep up with all of Nancy’s releases, plus enjoy bonus extras and prizes, is to join her newsletter at nancywarren.net
Here are a few of the books you might like to try next:
The Take a Chance Series
The Chance kids, all eleven of them, find love and their place in the world, in this heartwarming, humorous romance series.
Kiss a Girl in the Rain
Iris in Bloom, Take a Chance, Book 2
Blueprint for a Kiss, Book 3
Every Rose, Take a Chance Book 4
Chance Encounter, a Prequel to the Take a Chance series
The Almost Wives Club
Five brides, one possibly cursed wedding gown. Will any of them wear it down the aisle? Follow these five brides in this romantic comedy series as they join The Almost Wives Club
The Almost Wives Club: Kate
Secondhand Bride
Bridesmaid for Hire (coming May 2015)
The Wedding Flight (coming June 2015)
If the Dress Fits (coming July 2015)
Toni Diamond Mysteries:
Toni Diamond, makeup artist to middle America, has an eye for beauty and a nose for trouble in this humorous cozy mystery series.
Frosted Shadow
Ultimate Concealer
Midnight Shimmer, A Toni Diamond Mystery
The Grandma Series:
The Christmas Grandma Ran Away from Home
Grandma Catches a Wave
A Romance in Four Seasons:
A lost puppy brings two people together in this series of short romances.
Border Collie Christmas
A Dog Named Cupid
A Midsummer Night’s Wedding
A Recipe for Thanksgiving
For a complete list of Nancy Warren’s titles, please visit her website
About the Author
Nancy Warren is the USA Today bestselling author of more than sixty novels. She’s known for writing funny, sexy and suspenseful tales. She calls Vancouver, Canada home though she tends to wander. She’s an avid hiker, animal lover, wine drinker and chocolate fiend. Favorite moments in her career include being featured on the front page of the New York Times when she launched Harlequin’s NASCAR series with Speed Dating. She was also the answer to a crossword puzzle clue in Canada’s National Post newspaper. She’s a finalist for the 2015 Rita awards for Blueprint for a Kiss, and has won the Reviewer’s Choice Award from Romantic Times magazine among other awards. She spills secrets in her newsletter and you can sign up at http://www.nancywarren.net or come visit her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/nancy.warren.9655
Copyright Nancy Weatherley Warren 2015
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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