by Holly Jacobs
Speak now…or forever keep your secrets?
Colton McCray’s an “I do” away from the perfect life. He’s got a prosperous farm and he’s lucky enough to have fallen in love with a good woman like Sophie Johnston. What more could a man who loves the simple life want?
Certainly not a wedding-crasher who’s only one of Sophie’s secrets!
Marry a woman he doesn’t really know—or take a chance and trust her? No way! Though the harder Colton tries to cut Sophie out of his life, the more he wants her…complications and all. When he finds out she’s pregnant with their baby, it’s impossible for him to stay away. But first, he must forgive her past in order to rebuild the future they were meant for….
I object.
Those two little words had changed everything.
Colton thought he knew everything there was to know about Sophie, but, as it turned out, she wasn’t an orphan with a past that was too painful to talk about. She had family. In fact, she had a daughter.
A daughter she’d given away.
Colton knew he’d lived an even-keel sort of life. But right now his life was anything but.
He stood in front of the Valley Ridge community and announced, “I’m so sorry for the inconvenience, but the wedding’s canceled. I talked to the caterer and all the food’s being moved to the diner. Please feel free to stop by and help yourself. And please, those who’ve brought gifts, be sure to take them on your way out.”
With that, he marched down the aisle and took off toward the farm. He was a simple man—too simple perhaps to know how to handle something this decidedly unsimple.
Dear Reader,
I know when you think wine, you think the shores of Lake Erie, right? Well, if you don’t, then maybe you should. The hero of this book, Colton, runs a small winery and loves to extol the wonders of our grape-growing region…and he’s right. And while I loved introducing Lake Erie’s very real wineries in this final book of my trilogy, A Valley Ridge Wedding, this is a love story. It’s a different love story.
When we left Colton and Sophie at the end of April Showers, their wedding had been called off because a mysterious young girl objected. Tori’s trying to figure out who she is, where she came from and where she belongs. That’s a journey we all take in one way or another. My particular journey echoed Tori’s. I grew up not knowing part of my family—part of my history. I went looking for answers and found not only closure, but a new part of my family who I love and treasure.
My heroine, Sophie, has her past arrive at her wedding, and it ripples through her present. It threatens her relationship with Colton. But maybe with some time, some tears and some of that Valley Ridge magic, they can come out stronger because of it.
I hope you enjoy this last addition to A Valley Ridge Wedding miniseries! I’ve enjoyed my time in Valley Ridge so much that I’m heading back this holiday season with A Valley Ridge Christmas. I hope you’ll come visit with me!
Happy reading!
Holly Jacobs
A Walk Down the Aisle
HOLLY JACOBS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In 2000, Holly Jacobs sold her first book to Harlequin Books. She’s since sold more than twenty-five novels to the publisher. Her romances have won numerous awards and made the Waldenbooks bestseller list. In 2005, Holly won a prestigious Career Achievement Award from RT Book Reviews. In her nonwriting life, Holly is married to a police captain, and together they have four children. Visit Holly at www.hollyjacobs.com, or you can snail-mail her at P.O. Box 11102, Erie, PA 16514-1102.
Books by Holly Jacobs
HARLEQUIN SUPERROMANCE
1511—SAME TIME NEXT SUMMER
1601—UNEXPECTED GIFTS
1615—A ONE-OF-A-KIND FAMILY
1677—HOMECOMING DAY
1733—A FATHER’S NAME
1846—YOU ARE INVITED…*
1852—APRIL SHOWERS*
HARLEQUIN AMERICAN ROMANCE
1232—ONCE UPON A THANKSGIVING
1238—ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS
1247—ONCE UPON A VALENTINE’S
HARLEQUIN EVERLASTING
THE HOUSE ON BRIAR HILL ROAD
*A Valley Ridge Wedding
Other titles by this author available in ebook format.
To George and Marilyn. I might not have found you until later in my life, but don’t ever doubt that you are loved.
And to Ben, our own “Cletus.” You arrived as I started writing this trilogy, and you’ve already enriched my life more than I ever imagined possible. Always remember, you are loved…and as far as I’m concerned, you are perfect!
A special thank-you to Julie Pfadt of the Lake Erie Wine Country and to all our local wineries. And to Jeff Ore and everyone at Penn Shore Winery for showing me the ropes…or vines, as the case may be!
Contents
Prologue
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
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
Excerpt
PROLOGUE
VICTORIA ALLEN PARKED her father’s black SUV next to the library. She purposefully backed it into the parking space so the plates weren’t visible. She felt a guilty sense of dread knowing what was going to happen when her parents got hold of her, but she pushed the feeling aside. She checked the GPS on her phone and headed across the bridge and into town.
Her parents would eventually have to admit that she’d taken their car for a good reason, and it wasn’t as if she didn’t know how to drive. Besides, she’d followed the speed limits much better than most of the drivers on I-90.
Thinking about her parents made her feel a sense of homesickness, though she’d only been gone a couple of hours. She couldn’t help but admit how much her mother would love this small town. As Tori walked down the quiet street, she thought that Valley Ridge, New York, looked like Mayberry. When Tori was younger, her mom had watched episodes of Andy Griffith every day at five o’clock. It struck her as ironic that her college president mother, Gloria Allen, who wore power suits and used her BlackBerry as if it was another appendage, loved such a sentimental show.
Of course, her academic, power-suited mom was a woman of unexpected contrasts. She had married Freedom Jay Allen. Though her mom called her dad Dom, it didn’t change the fact he had been born on a commune. And though he’d now joined the rest of the world, her dad was still a vegetarian, and wouldn’t know a high-flying job if it bit him. He worked from home as a painter. An honest-to-goodness, brush-on-canvas artist.
When Tori was little, her mom went to work and her dad had been a househusband.
Her mother might be conventional in many ways, but she had an unconventional streak in her nonetheless.
Actually, both her parents would love this town. Now she felt even more guilty for taking their car and driving it without a license. They were going to be so pissed.
Well, her mom would be pissed, but her dad would be disappointed in her.
Disappointed was worse.
Tori glanced in a coffee-shop window and caught the reflection of a girl with blue hair. It took a split second for her to register the girl was her. Every time she noticed it, it shocked her. But she guessed that had been the point of her minirebellion. Her mother had been mad at that, too. But rather than being disappointed, her father had smiled and said, “Way to express yourself, Tori.”
She wondered what her father was saying now.
They were going to be so worried once they realized she was gone.
Tori decided that maybe a coffee would calm her nerves, but the lights were off in the small shop. There was a sign on the door that read At the Wedding.
She went to the diner, which also had a Closed for Family Wedding sign on its door.
She looked up and down the street and saw that every business on it was dark.
The whole town shut down for a wedding?
It was a Saturday at the end of June. You’d think that a small town like this would get a lot of touristy people during a weekend in the summer.
Weird. Forget Mayberry. This place was Twilight Zone-ish. Her mom loved that show, too. And her mother liked really bad disaster films. The kind they showed on cable late at night. Her mom used the DVR for them all. Tori couldn’t count how many times she’d seen the world almost hit by asteroids or the moon, or overrun by a zombie apocalypse or some killer virus. But thankfully, some B actor or actress always saved the day at the last minute.
Guilt ate at her. She knew she could head back right now and there was a chance her parents would never know what she’d done. Her mom had some all-day college thing that she’d dragged her dad to.
But Tori also knew she couldn’t do that. She had to get answers. She’d tried to explain her need to her mom, but her mom hadn’t understood. Tori had always gotten along with her mom and dad, even though most of her friends didn’t understand it. She still loved them, but she was so freakin’ angry. She couldn’t seem to get a handle on her emotions. Not that it was the first time she’d felt confused. Her dad said it was normal to be moody in your teens. If that was the case, Tori couldn’t wait to be in her twenties.
She checked her phone’s GPS again and left the ghost town’s main street, heading into a residential neighborhood. Five blocks later, she arrived in front of a house that would have made Hansel and Gretel go all gingerbread.
It was a tan one-story house. Its shutters and window boxes were bright yellow, as were the zillion flowers planted all around the tiny yard, with its picket fence and wooden arch, which had flowery vines hanging off it.
Maybe Hansel and Gretel was the wrong fairy tale. This was more about contrary Mary and her growing garden.
Looking at the cheery little house that seemed to scream happy made Tori feel pissed. Really pissed.
The anger was a deep burning in the pit of her stomach. It had been there ever since she’d seen the letter on her mother’s desk. It had been addressed to Sophie Johnston in care of the New Day Adoption Agency. Her mom had been lecturing her on her blue hair, about how people’s perceptions are shaped by first impressions, and what was it she hoped to say with blue hair? Tori had rolled her eyes and spotted the envelope. She’d picked it up, seen the name and then held it out to her mom, who stopped midlecture and turned pale.
That’s when Tori had known the truth. Her parents weren’t hers. Somewhere out there, two other people were her real mom and dad.
Fighting about hair dye had seemed like a very minor thing as she had gotten into it with her mom over the fact she’d kept such a big secret. “I planned on telling you when you were eighteen,” her mom had said. Her mom had wanted her to be mature enough to handle the news.
Tori had almost doubled over from the pain of knowing that she wasn’t Victoria Peace Allen, the only daughter of Gloria and Dom Allen. She wasn’t sure who she was, but she needed to know.
Her mother wouldn’t tell her anything. She kept saying, “When you’re eighteen...” As if eighteen were some magic number. Like all of a sudden, Tori would decide no, she didn’t need to know who she was and where she came from. Like in four years she wouldn’t wonder what kind of woman could give away her baby.
Tori opened the stupid gate of the stupid fairy-tale house, and her anger grew. This was where her biological mother lived? In a pretty little house in a freakin’ nice little town. Not a care in the world, and certainly no worries about some baby she gave away fourteen years ago.
No. This woman had just handed over her child and gone on with her life. Her very happy, gingerbread house life.
Tori stormed up to the door and pounded on it.
When there was no answer, she pounded on the door again, and gave it a quick kick. A black mark from her boot marred its cheery yellowness. For some reason, that made her feel better. Here was the tangible evidence that she existed. Something her biological mother couldn’t deny.
Tori was about to kick the door a second time when she heard someone say, “Pardon me.”
Tori turned and saw a cop car, with a young blond guy who didn’t look very coplike despite his uniform. “Sophie’s already gone to the wedding.”
“Oh.” Oh, so Sophie had joined the Twilight Zone masses at this wedding of the century?
“Did you miss the bus to the wedding?” the cop asked.
“Yeah,” she lied. And walked over to the cop car. It had VRPD stenciled on the doors, and a bar of lights on the roof.
“Well, come on and get in.” He leaned over and opened the passenger door. “I’ll give you a lift. I’m heading out there myself.”
Tori had listened to her parents lecture her on stranger-danger since she was old enough to speak. Getting in a car with a person you didn’t know was never a good idea. That’s why she’d stolen her father’s car. It seemed like a better idea than hitchhiking. But this was a cop. There was a box in the backseat that was wrapped in wedding paper, so his story seemed plausible. Tori opted to get in the car. A wedding would give her a perfect opportunity to observe her biological mother without being noticed.
She climbed into the passenger seat and asked, “Don’t you have to protect the town from...whatever criminals do in towns like this?”
The cop didn’t take offense; instead, he smiled. “I think the entire town is at the wedding. I’m predicting things will be fine if I take a wedding break.” He paused, and said, “Buckle up.”
Tori complied, and tried not to think about how much that sounded like her dad, and how scared her dad was going to be when he found out she was gone.
“I’m Dylan, by the way,” the cop said as he pulled away from the gingerbread house.
“Tori,” she said.
“Bride’s side or groom’s?”
“I’m here to see Sophie.”
“Bride’s side it is then,” he said with a grin. “It’s a beautiful day for her wedding, isn’t it? Her and Colton...”
The cop kept on talking, but Tori wasn’t really listening as she tried to digest the fact that Sophie hadn’t simply gone to this wedding that shut down Mayberry—she was the bride, the reason the entire place was closed.
Tori had just found her mother, and here she was getting married.
The anger that had burned in her belly since she’d seen that envelope blazed with new heat.
Fourteen years ago, this Sophie had handed her baby over to strangers then had carried on with her life without a second thought. She’d thrown Tori out like some unread, unwanted newspaper.
And now she was getting married to someone. Getting ready to start a new life and probably have scads of kids with him.
Kids she’d keep.
Tori didn’t know what to do. She wished her mom and dad were here.
She’d found her birth mother and was going to crash her wedding.
CHAPTER ONE
Dear Baby Girl,
I know I usually write your letter on your birthday, but I wanted to share today with you. Today I marry the man of my dreams. My friends keep saying we’re perfect together, and while you and I both know I’m anything but perfect, he is. And I feel as if he makes me a better person. And I’m hoping if we ever meet that’s what you find...a better person.
SOPHIE JOHNSTON ROUNDED the corner of the barn, getting her first glimpse of her fiancé’s surprise for her. It was a large white arbor, practically dripping with white flowers. Colton had wanted to do something special for their wedding, and she was willing to let h
im do whatever made him happy because there was only one thing she needed at this wedding—him.
Her two bridesmaids and best friends, Lily and Mattie, walked up the aisle, their slow step-pause gait making her crazy because, frankly, all she wanted to do was bolt down the aisle to Colton’s side.
As Lily and Mattie continued their slow walk, Colton stepped into view and the sight of him in his tux took her breath away. He was not a tall man, but his five feet eight inches seemed more than ample considering she was five-two on a good-heel day. His dark hair was always cropped short, but he’d let it grow out a bit for the wedding, and had tamed it with gel or something, because it seemed to be staying in place.
As she waited for her friends to finish their laborious walk, moments with Colton flashed before her eyes.
Colton in his cowboy hat, walking by the plate-glass window at the diner. She’d been blatantly staring, and when he had turned and looked inside, their eyes had locked. He’d come in, strode over to her table and asked her out.
Colton taking her to the ridge on his farm. He’d made a picnic and they had sat in the Adirondack chairs he’d bought and placed up there for them. One blue, one yellow. They’d watched the sunset on Lake Erie. He’d told her that he loved her that night. She’d said, “Thank you.”
He’d told her he loved her every day for weeks, and finally one night she’d admitted, “I love you, too.” He’d said, “I know.”
He’d known. He seemed to understand her in so many ways. Sometimes he understood her better than she understood herself. And there he was, waiting for her.
Mattie and Lily finally stood to the left of the altar. The guitarist nodded at Sophie, started to play the bridal march, and she finally began her own walk down the aisle.
Sophie tried to force herself to maintain the same sedate gait as her bridesmaids had, but she wasn’t sure she was managing it. She was able to stop herself from running, but barely.
