How to Be a Blissful Bride

by Stacy Connelly

  “That’s the thing about living in Clearville. Everybody knows everybody.” Rory rolled her eyes, but her wide smile embraced the town. “When you have an event like this, it’s really hard to pick and choose who to invite...”

  “So you end up inviting everybody,” Lindsay chimed in. “We had thought of having the party at my in-laws’. They have a great backyard for get-togethers, but then we worried about the weather and thought we’d be better off playing it safe and partying here at Hillcrest.

  “And just think,” Lindsay added, “it won’t be too long before we’re holding one of these showers for you, Alexa.”

  “I, um, yes,” Alexa stuttered, taken aback by the other woman’s assumption that she would still be in Clearville come spring.

  But as other guests began to arrive, Alexa was surprised to realize how many of the women she had already met and how many of them she was already starting to think of as friends. Along with Rory, Lindsay and Sophia, Debbie Pirelli, Sophia’s sister-in-law and the owner of the Sugar & Spice café, was also in attendance. Alexa had been back for lunch at the café several times. Having met Debbie, Alexa couldn’t imagine a better name for the bubbly blonde’s business. Debbie was sweet, but with a sharp sense of humor that had had Alexa laughing over her chicken salad sandwich.

  These women had welcomed Alexa into their circle of friendship, making her feel at home in a way she had never felt in LA even though she’d been born and raised there. Was Chance’s idea of staying in Clearville really such a crazy one?

  If only he hadn’t made it sound like she would be the only one living there. But hadn’t he already told her it didn’t matter where he lived? After all, Chance wasn’t looking for somewhere to call home. Anywhere he chose would be little more than a way station, a brief layover between flights.

  And while she did appreciate how everyone had welcomed her, she couldn’t help thinking he wanted to surround her with people who would be there so he wouldn’t feel so guilty about being gone. She didn’t want to add to his guilt, but she also didn’t want to be a responsibility he handed off to another relative.

  Been there, grown up like that.

  She’d seen the disappointment in his expression when she’d turned him down, but it wasn’t Clearville that didn’t have enough to offer. It was Chance.

  “How are you getting Nina here without giving away the surprise?”

  “That was Rory’s idea,” Lindsay said. “She’s asked Nina to come by to give her some ideas for floral arrangements and decorations for the hotel for Christmas.”

  “What can I say?” Rory asked. “I’m more devious than I look.”

  “She’d have to be to con me into being here.”

  The three women turned in unison at the sound of the deep voice behind them. Alexa’s heart gave a little leap at the very sight of him, and then sucked in a quick breath as she swore she felt a second flutter of movement...this time in her belly. She didn’t know if it was possible, but she didn’t question how her body—how her baby—responded in recognition of this man.

  He was dressed in black jeans and a matching long-sleeved T-shirt, but if he thought the muted color would help him move unobtrusively among the female guests at the shower, he’d failed miserably. The soft cotton molded to broad shoulders, and the things the worn denim did for his muscular thighs and firm backside should be illegal. He looked so masculine in the purely feminine setting of the baby shower that the sheer contrast was enough to set Alexa’s head spinning.

  “Ha!” Rory exclaimed. “The only guy in a room full of women? Most men would consider themselves lucky.”

  At the word lucky, Chance met Alexa’s gaze with a wink. “You have no idea how lucky I feel,” he said before excusing himself to set up his camera.

  A few minutes later, Alexa smiled as she saw another familiar face. “Summer! I almost didn’t recognize you without the cowboy boots and Wranglers.”

  The blonde beauty held out the skirt of the geometric-print dress she wore. “A baby shower might not be an haute couture event, but I’ll take what I can get.”

  “Is Theresa coming to the party?”

  “I’m sorry to say she’s not. She’s been fighting the flu and didn’t want to risk getting Nina or anyone else sick.”

  “Oh, that’s too bad.”

  “My brother’s taking good care of her. Theresa won’t be able to sneeze without Jarrett there to ‘God bless you.’” Summer shifted the nylon strap on her shoulder, and Alexa realized the other woman wasn’t carrying a purse. Instead, a camera bag rested against her hip.

  “You brought your camera.”

  “Oh, yeah. I take it with me everywhere. I’d feel naked without it.”

  Other than working at Hillcrest events, Alexa hadn’t seen Chance with his camera. Was he still trying to separate his career from their life together? Or did he fear she would one day make him choose? A sick feeling settled in her stomach even as she watched from across the room as one of the women laughed at something he said.

  What was it Theresa had told her?

  Jarrett loved me enough to let me go.

  Alexa didn’t know if she had that kind of strength, but she had to find a way to love Chance McClaren—the photojournalist—as much as she loved Chance McClaren the man.

  An idea of how she might start to do that sprang to mind, and she linked her arm through Summer’s. “Well, I’m glad you came. After all, there’s someone here you’ve been dying to meet.”

  * * *

  “Looks like you just might survive.”

  Chance grinned at Alexa’s whispered teasing, barely audible over the constant chatter and laughter filling the parlor. “Barely. I need to talk to Rory about hazard pay.”

  He’d overheard more about pregnancy pains, birthing woes and breastfeeding than he ever wanted to know. And yet as Alexa’s now obvious baby bump reminded him, he needed to learn. As the only man in the group, he’d also been an easy target.

  “Yes, I can see a war wound. Right about here...” She reached up with a pale blue napkin, wiped at his cheek and held up the burnt-orange lipstick smudge for him to see.

  Pointing at the evidence, he said, “Okay, now that was thanks to Nina’s great-aunt who’s a heck of a lot faster than she looks.” He leaned closer to murmur, “And if we weren’t trapped in this room full of women, I would be kissing you right now.”

  “Hitting on a pregnant lady at a baby shower, are you?”

  “Only my pregnant lady.”

  A blush lit her cheeks at his possessive claim, and Chance stopped his teasing to take her hands in his and lace her slender fingers through his own. “Thank you, Alexa, for suggesting that Summer take over as Hillcrest’s photographer. She showed me some of the work she’s done on the website for her brother’s ranch. She might not have much professional experience, but she definitely has talent.”

  Watching Summer greet almost every guest like a long-lost friend, he gave a quick laugh. “Hell, she’ll probably be better at it than I was anyway.”

  “That is not true. Your pictures were amazing. Any couple would be lucky to have you photograph their wedding.”

  “Maybe but...” His words trailed off as he realized he’d spoken them before.

  Alexa’s mind obviously went back to that same place and time, standing outside the cottage that first day. “This isn’t your job.”

  “Alexa...” He searched her expression, trying to determine if he was seeing only what he wanted to see. Had Alexa somehow made peace with his career? Could she accept him for the man he was and understand the ambition and passion that drove him?

  He didn’t have a chance to ask as the guest of honor called for everyone’s attention. “I can’t thank you all enough for this.” Tears filled Nina’s eyes as she gazed around the room at her friends and family. “It was such a wonderful surprise, and I—I�
�”

  “Nina?” Concern filled Lindsay’s voice as her sister-in-law stopped on a sharp gasp. “Are you okay?”

  “Oh!” She sucked in a breath as she braced a hand low against her belly. “Oh, my goodness... I think—I think I’m in labor.”

  * * *

  “Okay, Dad, are you ready for this?”

  Oh, thank God! Chance glanced around the waiting room, looking for a man who might be Nina’s husband. He still wasn’t sure how he’d ended up at the maternity ward with a woman he barely knew, but from the moment Nina made her stunning announcement in the middle of the shower, he’d been acting on instinct.

  Labor equaled the delivery room at a hospital in his world, and he’d done everything he could to get Nina there as quickly as possible. He ignored her suggestion that Lindsay drive her home first to grab the overnight bag she had packed and waiting for her scheduled delivery. He overrode Lindsay’s suggestion that they try to get ahold of Bryce to pick Nina up at the hotel. He shook off Rory’s quiet suggestion that they call 9-1-1 and wait for an ambulance.

  His plan was clear. Labor=hospital. Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars.

  Lindsay and Nina’s younger sister had ridden along, Jessie sitting in the back of the SUV with Nina while Lindsay rode shotgun. At first he’d been glad to have the two other women along to keep Nina calm... Until Lindsay kept warning him to slow down and not drive like a bat out of hell when he was only doing fifty miles an hour, and Jessie and Nina were bickering over whether emailed thank-you notes for the baby gifts were appropriate or far too impersonal.

  He spent the forty-five-minute drive to the hospital in Redfield with his hands clenched on the wheel, fighting the urge to remind the three of them that a baby was on its way!

  And then Nina had wanted to walk into the hospital when she clearly needed a wheelchair to get her inside as soon as possible. When she slowed to breathe through a contraction, Chance had put an end to her waddling pace and scooped her into his arms.

  He wanted to hand off responsibility the moment the doors swept open, but even after telling the nurse at the admittance desk repeatedly that a woman was in labor, said nurse repeatedly told him to have the patient fill out a stack of forms at least an inch thick.

  Chance had been in enough hospitals over the years to know they were nothing like depicted on television, but he would have given just about anything for a white-coated physician to sweep Nina up onto a gurney and rush her down a hallway yelling “Stat!” and “Code Blue!” at the top of their lungs.

  But the only doctor in sight was the one looking directly at him...

  Oh, crap.

  Chance glanced down at Nina, but she was breathing through another contraction and gripping his hand like a vise. And while he was glad to see she was finally taking this whole thing seriously, he needed her to throw him a lifeline here. “No! I’m not the dad. At least not her dad. I mean, her baby’s dad.”

  Lindsay had been trying to get ahold of Bryce, but Nina’s husband had been in on the surprise baby shower and had taken their two boys off on a father-son adventure to free their mom up for the afternoon. Chance’s panicked gaze shot across the waiting room to where Lindsay was pacing back and forth. Judging by the cell still raised to her ear, she hadn’t yet reached Nina’s husband.

  “That’s okay. We have all kinds of relatives and friends of the family acting as a birthing coach.”

  Birthing coach? If not for the killer grip Nina had on his hand, Chance had the feeling he would have bolted from the waiting room, in his haste bowling over the slightly wild-eyed man coming through the automatic doors. Only what kind of man would he be if he left a pregnant woman in need? What kind of father would he be if he left the woman pregnant with his child?

  “Nina, babe!”

  The dark-haired man who’d rushed into the waiting room dropped to his knees in front of Nina’s chair. “Hey, sweetheart. You doing okay?”

  Opening her eyes, Nina smiled at her husband as if he’d been at her side the whole time. “Oh, Bryce! Lindsay threw me the most amazing baby shower. You should see all of the cute presents...” A troubled frown tightened her forehead. “Lindsay, what did you do with the presents?”

  “They’re still at the hotel, sweetie.” Her mission accomplished, Lindsay had stuck her phone back in her purse.

  “Well, we can’t just leave them there. Bryce, you should go—”

  “No!” Chance and Bryce shouted out in unison.

  Carefully extracting his hand from Nina’s, Chance transferred her bone-crushing grip to her husband. “I’ll go back to the hotel and make sure the gifts are all taken care of. You stay here and...focus on having that baby.”

  Catching Lindsay’s eye, he asked, “You’ll be okay here?”

  She nodded. “We have a ton of family on the way. We’ll be fine. Thank you, Chance. I think this goes pretty far beyond the realm of baby shower photographer.”

  “Now Rory really owes me that hazard pay.”

  The pretty blonde laughed and patted his shoulder “You should be thanking her.”

  “Thanking her?” He was hoping he didn’t throttle his sister the next time he saw her.

  Tipping her head toward Bryce and Nina huddled together in a world of their own, she said, “You can consider it practice. For when you are the baby’s dad.”

  * * *

  After the exciting finish to the baby shower, Alexa stayed and helped Rory move all of the presents into a small storage room and clean up the parlor for the next event. “You do know how to throw one heck of a baby shower,” Alexa told Rory once they sank into a pair of chairs to finish off the last of the cake.

  “Here at Hillcrest, we aim to please.”

  Lindsay had called earlier to reassure them that Chance had gotten Nina to the hospital and that Bryce had shown up not long after. It would still be a while before the baby made his appearance into the world, but the doctors were confident everything would go well.

  “Note to self,” Alexa said as she dug into the strawberry and cream cake. “Have baby shower well before the due date.”

  “Hmm, good idea. Any chance that there will be a bridal shower before that baby shower?”

  Nearly choking on the bite of cake, Alexa reached for her cup of punch. Buying some time, she sipped at the sweet, berry-flavored drink. “Did Chance tell you he asked me to marry him?”

  Rory nodded. “And that you turned him down.”

  “I know Chance wants to be a good father to our baby, but we won’t have to get married for that to happen.”

  “Did you ever wonder if maybe what he really wants is to be a good husband?” Rory reached over and squeezed her hand. “And he does have to get married for that.”

  Alexa took another drink, but all the punch in the world wouldn’t ease the sudden ache in her throat. She knew Chance cared about her, but could she believe that he loved her? Enough to want to marry her even if she wasn’t carrying his baby?

  What had Chance said about his reasons for not wanting to show his work at Roslynn St. Clare’s gallery, about not trusting that the woman was interested in him for his own sake?

  I’ll never know for sure, will I?

  Chapter Fifteen

  A drizzling rain accompanied Chance and Alexa to Rory and Jamison’s house on Thanksgiving Day. The couple was renting a house outside of town until their own custom home was completed, but Rory had insisted on having the meal at their place. With the windshield wipers a steady, quiet swoosh against the glass and the heater blowing at her feet, Alexa should have felt happy, content.

  The baby fluttered in her belly, and Chance reached over to smooth his hand over her royal blue cashmere sweater. She didn’t know how he seemed to know whenever the baby moved, but he did. A trained observer, Chance made his living watching people, and she probably had some slight tell t
hat gave it away, but it seemed like more than that. Like the baby bonds tying them together were so strong that he just knew.

  Despite that connection, Alexa couldn’t help feeling like he was pulling away from her. He’d been quiet ever since the baby shower a few days earlier. Lindsay had called to let everyone know that mother and son were doing fine. She’d told Alexa that Chance had been rock solid on the way to the hospital, then sitting at Nina’s side until Bryce arrived and staying until the baby was born.

  But Chance had hardly said more than a few words since.

  Rory welcomed them inside with a hug, accepting the fall floral arrangement of peach roses, burgundy carnations and butterscotch daisies that Chance carried before showing them where to hang their damp coats. The house was cozy and warm, with the sound of a football game playing in the background and the scents of roasting turkey along with a mix of sage and cinnamon and cloves filling the air.

  Chance introduced Alexa to Hannah, the adorable daughter of Rory’s fiancé, to Evie’s parents and to Evie’s namesake, Evelyn.

  “She’s recently gone through chemo,” Chance told Alexa quietly in explanation of the colorful scarf wrapped around the slender woman’s head. “Her tests have come back negative, and she’s cancer-free.”

  “Definitely something to be thankful for,” she whispered back.

  “So where’s that other niece of mine?” Evelyn asked Rory, who rolled her eyes.

  “‘Hillcrest House does not take holidays,’” she said in perfect imitation of her somewhat uptight cousin. In a normal tone, she added, “You know Evie, Aunt E. She’s so like you.”

  Evelyn fingered the end of her scarf. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”

  “If it isn’t the man of the hour,” Rory’s fiancé, Jamison, announced as he walked into the room, a bottle lifted in a toast. “Everyone’s talking about Nina’s baby shower and your wild rush to the hospital.”

  Though he accepted a beer from the other man, Chance shook his head. “I didn’t do much, believe me, and thank God for it!”