Canyon Weddings

by Julie Jarnagin

  Thomas sat up and leaned back on his arms. “I guess you were right.”

  Connor stuck his fingertips in the dirt. “I was right? About what?”

  “When you told me to break up with Laura.”

  The accusation knocked Connor off balance. “Hang on. I never told you to break it off with her.” He pushed himself up to standing.

  “Sure you did.” Thomas rose to his feet. “You said if I wasn’t 100 percent sure, I shouldn’t marry her. You said, ‘Don’t settle.’ ”

  The words came crashing back to Connor. He and Thomas had seen each other at a classmate’s wedding. It was just after his sister had tried to push him into another blind date. Connor resented constantly being pressured into settling down and getting married. When Thomas said he had cold feet about committing to his girlfriend and getting tied down in Wyatt Bend, Connor had unleashed his own frustration on him and given him some unsolicited advice. He should have kept his big mouth shut. “That was before you proposed. I hadn’t even met her then.”

  Thomas raised an eyebrow at Connor. “So what’s changed?”

  Heat crawled up Connor’s neck. His friend would be crazy not to do everything he could to keep a girl like Laura. During the past two weeks, Connor couldn’t stop himself from recognizing how sweet and smart Laura was. “Uh …” Connor searched for the right words.

  “Well?”

  “She seemed devastated.” That had to count for something. Connor didn’t mention he couldn’t imagine any reason not to marry someone like Laura. He had tried to ignore the energy that buzzed through him when Laura was near him. Grown men didn’t develop crushes, much less on a woman engaged to a friend. “You can’t throw it all away because of one dumb thing I said.”

  Thomas picked up a baseball from the grass and spun it around in his hand. “It wasn’t just that,” Thomas said. “Do you remember a few days ago when we were in your office talking about the house plans? You told me you weren’t in any hurry to settle down and get married.”

  Connor longed to find the right person to spend his life with, but he refused to lower his standards. “I remember.”

  “You told me that you can’t get married just because everybody else thinks you should.”

  “What does this have to do with Laura? She seems great.” At least when she wasn’t being stubborn. He hated her staying in that old house by herself tonight.

  Thomas scraped red dirt off the rubber pitcher’s plate with his foot. “She’s fine, but do I really want a marriage, a house, and kids?”

  “Kids?”

  Thomas lobbed the ball at Connor. “Not right away, but everyone around here has a couple of kids right after they get married.”

  Connor tossed the baseball back to him. “I think you’re getting ahead of yourself. Have you even talked to her about this stuff? She’d probably understand.”

  Thomas’s body slumped like a toddler getting ready to throw a tantrum. “Don’t you get it? That’s the problem. We would talk. We’d both compromise, and I’d be trapped doing something I don’t want to do. If I didn’t walk away today, I’d wake up down the road and wonder why I didn’t get out when I had the chance.”

  “Didn’t you think about any of this before you proposed? Before she bought a house and moved halfway across the country?”

  Thomas rubbed the baseball between his hands. “I didn’t realize what I was giving up until I got here.”

  “You have a wonderful fiancée, a house, and a job at your dad’s firm. Most people would kill for your life. Don’t they say a case of cold feet is normal?”

  Thomas threw the baseball, and the chain-link backstop across the field rattled. “Do you really think my father and I working together is a good idea?”

  Connor shrugged. “I work with my family.”

  “They’re not half as bad as my dad.”

  Connor couldn’t argue.

  “Don’t you feel trapped working for your family and doing everything the way your father wants it done?”

  After college Connor had agreed to move back temporarily to help his father establish the construction branch of his real estate business. Nine years later, not much had changed. The business grew fast, and within the first year, projects were scheduled for months. By the time those wrapped up, bigger, more profitable projects were slated. Connor wanted to expand the family business to include more of his passion, the restoration of older homes, but with their packed schedules, that was unlikely. With his mom’s recent cancer diagnosis, Connor’s focus was on keeping everything running while his father was out of the office to be by her side. “What about the house?” Connor asked. “What about all the plans you had for it?”

  Thomas didn’t answer, and simply grunted in response.

  Connor had worked on a lot of renovations throughout his career, and the house at Canyon Crossing would have been one of his biggest challenges. The street address of the home was actually Rural Route Two, but everyone in Wyatt Bend knew it as Canyon Crossing. At one time the road served as the main thoroughfare between town and the canyons that ran through the area. These days, everyone took a newer paved road to the canyons, but the nickname for the old road stuck.

  Connor had been looking forward to helping Thomas fix up the house, even though it was a huge job and Connor wouldn’t make any money on it. “I’m serious, Thomas. Are you just going to leave her with that money pit?”

  Thomas wouldn’t look at Connor’s face. “We both know I was in way over my head.”

  Connor’s brother-in-law had served as Laura and Thomas’s real estate agent. He hadn’t even shown Thomas the house at Canyon Crossing when they began searching because of the extent of the work it needed. When Thomas heard it was available, he had argued to see it. Thomas had told Connor that if he was going to be forced to move back to Wyatt Bend, he wanted a big house he could make his own.

  As much as Connor wanted to help renovate the house, he had warned Thomas about the work it would involve. But Thomas had insisted and talked Laura into buying it anyway. Conner should’ve tried harder to talk him out of it. “So you’re just going to leave Laura to deal with it?”

  Thomas jogged to pick up the baseball. “She can sell it or something,” he shouted from across the field.

  Connor’s head swam as he blamed himself for Laura’s situation. “Come on, Thomas. You don’t have to work in real estate to know it will take awhile to sell a house in that condition in this market.”

  Thomas returned to the pitcher’s mound. “She’s a smart girl. She’ll figure something out. Besides, you’re the one who told me I shouldn’t settle for her.”

  “I did not,” Connor shot back.

  Thomas stuck a finger on Connor’s chest. “Yes you did. You said we shouldn’t settle for marriages to just anybody to make people in Wyatt Bend happy.”

  Connor’s jaw tensed. “But I wasn’t talking about Laura. I didn’t even know her.”

  “I’m telling you, you were right. I was only marrying her because I thought it was what I was supposed to do next. It would make my parents happy, but I’m not going to settle.” Thomas turned around and started walking.

  Connor followed him to the dugout. Sunflower-seed shells and leaves crunched as they walked across the concrete floor. “That’s it then?”

  Thomas kicked an empty water bottle. “Yep. I’m heading back to Florida tomorrow as soon as I break the news to my old man.”

  The words hit Connor like a heavy weight dropped on his chest. He needed more time to talk Thomas out of something he could regret forever. “Maybe you should wait a few days. Just to be sure.”

  “I’m sure.” Thomas plopped down on the uneven bench of the dugout. “I’m glad you opened my eyes before I made a huge mistake.”

  Connor’s stomach clenched. How would he tell Laura he was the one responsible for the end of her engagement? He had to find a way to talk his friend out of it. He’d swayed him once. Maybe he could do it again—for Laura’s sake. “Let’s me
et for breakfast tomorrow.” He hoped the desperation he felt didn’t come through in his voice.

  Thomas shook his head. “No thanks. I’m going to tell my folks in the morning and get out of town.”

  Chapter 3

  The house looked different at night—nothing like being outside her condominium in Jacksonville, Florida, where the street lamps lit up the street like the sun. The heavy door to the 1975 Ford pickup truck squeaked as Laura used her hip to slam it closed. The truck had been parked in the barn when they purchased the house. Rust had eaten away portions of the robin’s-egg-blue paint. The hood of the vehicle had been replaced with a red counterpart. A little patriotic, a lot ugly.

  Thomas had told her he had gotten it to run again, and it would serve as their second vehicle until they could replace the car Laura had sold in Florida.

  When Laura had picked up her things at Thomas’s parents’ house, she hadn’t been surprised that Thomas wasn’t there. The tension between Thomas and his father had grown during the past weeks.

  Thomas’s parents had been kind to Laura and even apologized for the situation their son had created. Thomas’s mom attempted to convince Laura to stay in their home another night, but Thomas would eventually make his way back there, and Laura wasn’t prepared to face him.

  Laura had planned to work for Thomas’s dad until she established her freelance graphic design business. He agreed to allow her to finish the work she’d started for him from her laptop since she didn’t know if she’d be in town long enough to complete it in the office.

  The light through the dusty windows from the few rooms with working bulbs guided Laura’s path to the porch as she carried her suitcase and a trash bag of bedding Thomas’s mom had given her.

  The white garment bag draped across her arm contained her wedding gown, a dress she loved. Rachel, a friend from art school, had spent hours with Laura as they worked on the design. The prospect of never wearing the beautiful gown made her heart ache. Laura clutched the bag more tightly to her chest.

  An owl hooted from the roof of the barn and Laura jumped, stumbling on the path. “Get ahold of yourself,” she said aloud.

  Laura didn’t recognize any of the creaking and rustling noises around her. The silence haunted her, but every sound scared her out of her skin.

  Maybe she shouldn’t have run Connor off so quickly. The embarrassment from Connor watching her fall apart lingered. She usually controlled her emotions well, but today she had lost it.

  Laura struggled to grip the doorknob with her armload, and the door finally screeched open. Maybe staying here was a terrible idea. The house held so many of her dreams for the future, dreams that would never be fulfilled. Her shoulders bore the weight of disappointment.

  She trudged past the wooden staircase, ignoring the green shag carpet in the living room, and ran one hand along the beautiful staircase railing she and Thomas had planned to restore. A lump formed in her throat, and she struggled to swallow it.

  Laura made her way down a narrow hallway, the garment bag scraping against the peeling wallpaper and the tap of her footsteps echoing through the house.

  A bare lightbulb hung from the ceiling of the bedroom. This room hadn’t been touched during the awful ’70s remodel of the home. A bed with a tarnished brass headboard faced the door, and a small wooden dresser with a milky mirror sat across from it. Laura heaved her suitcase onto the bed. A cloud of dust drifted up from the quilt. She coughed and waved the air in front of her, thankful for the fresh sheets Thomas’s mother had loaned her.

  A wooden chair sat empty in the corner beside the yellowing lace curtains that hung from the window.

  The realization that she would never share this charming little room with a husband made it impossible for her to blink back the tears. The garment bag fell from her limp arm. She stepped back, letting her body drop into the chair. A sob forced its way out of her lips, with almost a life of its own. She pressed a hand to her mouth in an effort to control her wayward emotions.

  She couldn’t keep doing this. She had to get herself together. Every moment of the last year had revolved around planning all the details of her wedding and her life. Now her world spun out of control.

  Laura blew out a tired breath. She couldn’t go back to Florida with a suitcase full of failures, but she didn’t have a job or much money left in her bank account. She needed to develop a plan to get her life back on track.

  The white garment bag lay in a rumpled heap on the wood floor. Horrified, she snatched it up and smoothed the wrinkles from the fabric. She turned the glass knob of the closet door and pulled it open to find a few wire hangers dangling from the wooden rod. With a quick thrust, she hung the bag and unzipped it to make sure the dress was still in place. The delicate lace of the bodice and cap sleeves still took her breath away. She caressed the silk organza skirt, which slipped through her hand like melted butter. It was even more amazing than the dress she had pretended Barbie wore to marry Ken when she was a little girl.

  A distinctive rustling came from the bottom of the closet, and Laura jumped. She lurched backward, and her heart fell to her stomach.

  Something moved in the shadows. A sharp breath passed through her lips as she leaped onto the bed and crouched into a ball.

  Mice or any kind of rodent made Laura’s skin crawl. She wouldn’t get any sleep imagining rats scurrying around her bed. She stared at the open door of the closet.

  A shadowy figure sat in the corner. She squinted but couldn’t make it out. She grabbed the pillow and held it in front of her. Without removing her eyes from the shadow, she grabbed her hairbrush from her suitcase and chunked it at the dark shape, hoping it would run whatever creature hid in her closet out of her room.

  It didn’t move. She tiptoed off the bed and bent down in front of the figure. She gripped the pillow. When a closer look revealed a plastic shopping bag, she placed her hand on her pounding heart. Her imagination had gotten the best of her.

  Laura sat on the edge of the bed to regain her composure.

  It had been a long day. She picked up the cotton pajamas from her bag and slipped into them. Sleep was what she needed. Maybe tomorrow Connor would have the answers she desperately wanted.

  She went back to the closet to make sure she had zipped the garment bag closed.

  Something moved in the darkness. This time it was not her imagination.

  Laura scooted her bare feet across the room, sure something was there. “God,” Laura prayed, “if You’re up there, I’m in serious need of some help right now.”

  Leaning closer to the closet, her eyes strained to see more.

  Nothing moved. The room remained silent except for her own shaky breaths.

  She stepped closer and then froze.

  A figure slithered along the baseboard.

  Laura screamed and sprang onto the bed. Not a snake!

  Her breath turned into a whimper as she watched the head of the snake make its way out of the closet, still keeping its body, as big around as a broomstick, against the baseboards.

  She crouched on the bed, wishing it had been a mouse. She fumbled with her phone but stopped when she didn’t know who to call. She couldn’t talk to Thomas right now. The pain was too raw. Plus, he wouldn’t know what to do with a snake. He’d called an exterminator when he found a single spider in the closet of his apartment in Florida. Thomas’s parents could probably help, but Thomas could be there by now. She’d be humiliated asking his parents for help.

  She could call Connor, but she’d made such a big deal about being able to stay the night in the house by herself. He’d think she couldn’t even make it a few hours.

  The snake curled farther around the edge of the closet.

  Laura froze. She didn’t care anymore about proving a point to Connor. He had already watched her fiancé dump her. His truck had been full of tools. He would figure out what to do with the snake.

  She searched frantically on the bed for the glossy business card he had handed her an
d then peeked over the other side of the bed to see if the disgusting creature had moved. Its brown scales mashed up against the wall sent shivers up her arms. Her shaking fingers misdialed the number twice before she typed the correct digits.

  The phone responded with a series of fast beeps.

  Laura’s heart stopped cold. Connor had told her about the lack of phone service in the house. She threw the useless phone and card into her bag at the foot of the bed.

  She needed to calm her racing mind. As a kid, the boy from the neighborhood who took care of their lawn had found a nonvenomous snake in the flower bed. He caught it in a bucket and charged the other kids a dollar to see it. This was probably a harmless snake, but she certainly couldn’t sleep with it inside the house.

  Laura put her hands over her face, debating whether she had the courage to trap the snake and release it outside. She had seen an empty trash can in the bathroom, but if she left the room, the snake might slither away. Then she would never know where it had gone.

  What else could she use to catch the snake? She grabbed the pillow, pulled the pillowcase from it, and looked around for the longest thing in the room. She steadied herself on the bed and reached for the lace curtains. She tugged on the curtains enough to detach the rod from its holder then remove the curtains.

  She held out her hand in front of her and tried to force it to stop shaking. Closing her eyes, Laura envisioned scooping up the snake with the end of the rod and dropping it into the pillowcase.

  As much as she wanted to reach the snake from the bed, she couldn’t figure out how she would be able to get it in the bag without potentially dropping it in the bed with her. Laura quivered at the thought. With a gulp of courage, she gently stepped out of bed.

  The snake made its way behind the headboard, its tail still in the closet. Thankfully she couldn’t see the head of the creature. She didn’t know if she’d be able to go through with her plan if she saw it looking at her.

  She leaned down and nudged the rod under the snake. Chills ran up her arm when the rod touched its soft fleshy belly. Before she knew it, the creature had moved fast.