Ticket to Bride

by Liz Isaacson

  Now, if Navy’s cornflower blue eyes would stop haunting him, he might be able to see well enough to get back to his house.

  The next day, Gavin woke with a purpose. Today, he had a contracted job out at Sterling Ranch. He’d gone out earlier in the week to look at an arch that had been blown over in the last windstorm, and today, he was going to fix it.

  He wasn’t quite sure what was the difference between a wedding arch and a birdhouse, except for the fact that he could construct one of them. In fact, he’d built all the arches at Sterling Ranch, no problem.

  He could fix walls, and floors, and roofs. But apparently, he couldn’t make a birdhouse that would gain anyone’s trust.

  Didn’t matter. No one was calling him to make birdhouses. He was simply dabbling in his shop during the slower winter months. But now that the weather was flipping to summer—in Texas there was hot and then hotter—he’d had more work, especially at the destination wedding venue of Sterling Ranch.

  The sun beat down on him though he’d gotten an early start. He’d have this job done by the end of the day, collect his money from Bren Sterling, the owner of the ranch, and relax with the dogs that evening.

  An inaudible sigh passed through his body. This was a good life. A good life worth living. He didn’t need a wife or a sprawling homestead to achieve happiness. The pastor’s latest sermon crossed his mind.

  Do not linger on the storms of life. Do not spend time wishing and waiting for what might be. Choose to be happy now.

  Gavin was choosing. Choosing to be happy as he drove nails into wood and remade the arch into something substantial and beautiful. Choosing to be happy though he hadn’t achieved his dreams of owning his own ranch. Choosing to be happy right where God had put him and kept him all these years.

  His phone rang, and for two terrible heartbeats he thought it was Navy. But surely she didn’t have his number. At the same time he thought that, he realized that any number of people could’ve given it to her.

  But it wasn’t Navy.

  “Hey, Alex.” The director of the auction circuit out of Amarillo called every year. A trained and entertaining auctioneer, Gavin traveled to the Texas Panhandle every year for their major auctions.

  “Gavin, how are things in Hill Country?”

  Gavin gazed into the sky. “About perfect,” he said. Even if he only meant the weather, at least he was speaking the truth.

  “The auction at the end of May? We’re still on?”

  “I’ll be there.” He swept off his hat and wiped his sweat from his forehead. “Tuesday and Saturday auctions?”

  “As always. We’ll pay for the travel.”

  “As always,” Gavin said good-naturedly. He hung up and immediately made another phone call, this one to some of Grandmother’s oldest friends. He stayed with them in Amarillo every year, and he expected this year to be no different.

  “Hey, Aunt Izzie, it’s Gavin.”

  “Gavin, hello.”

  He held the phone away from his ear. Aunt Izzie was nearly deaf and refused to wear a hearing aid. She therefore yelled everything she said.

  “The auction is coming up,” he said loudly. “Am I still okay to stay with you and Marvin?”

  “The auction? Oh, yes, yes. Last week of May.”

  “Right,” Gavin boomed. “I’m okay to crash in your spare bedroom?”

  “Yes, of course, Gavin.” She let two beats of silence go by before adding, “Have you met anyone, dear?”

  Gavin rolled his eyes though hundreds of miles separated them. “No, ma’am.”

  “I have a niece—”

  “Aunt Izzie.” Gavin yelled to cut her off.

  “Fine, don’t listen to me.” She sounded hurt, but Gavin had endured this conversation enough times to know she wasn’t. “But you should go talk to your grandmother. She—”

  “I know, I know,” Gavin said, his patience a bit on the short side today. “She did a matchmaking reading for you, and you found Uncle Marvin the next day.”

  “Married forty-nine years,” Aunt Izzie screamed through the line.

  “Congratulations,” he said, knowing full well that Uncle Marvin had lost his hearing years ago as well. Gavin had long suspected that he’d refused the hearing aids so he wouldn’t be able to hear what Aunt Izzie said. One of the biggest gossips in Amarillo, Aunt Izzie had told Gavin more about people he’d never met than he cared to know.

  “I’ll be there the last week of May, okay, Aunt Izzie?”

  “Okay, dear. See you then.”

  Gavin hung up, a grin on his face. He couldn’t wait to get old. Refuse to wear glasses and a hearing aid. Drive really slow in a big car. His heart swelled with love for Aunt Izzie and Uncle Marvin, who weren’t really family but who had always treated him like their grandson.

  He didn’t have any siblings, and only one aunt related by blood. His parents lived in West Virginia, where his father worked in the medical field. His real Aunt Ally, his father’s only sister, lived a few hours away in Dallas, and Gavin had already started putting a bug in her ear about moving home to help with her parents.

  His phone rang again, and he glanced at the unfamiliar number. He went ahead and answered it with a “Hullo?”

  “Did you know there’s not a single person in this town that will recommend anyone but you to fix up my cottage?”

  “Navy?”

  “I’ve asked six different people. Six. The answer’s always the same. Gavin Redd. Gavin Redd. Gavin—Redd.” She didn’t sound happy about that.

  He didn’t know how to respond, so he just let her keep talking.

  “So I finally asked for your number, and now I’m asking you to come over and do a little walk-through…or whatever it is you do to tell me what you’d do and how much it will cost.”

  Gavin warred with himself. He wanted to head over right now. He knew where the cottage was; no address needed. At the same time, he didn’t want to get involved with women who mocked his birdhouses, visited his grandmother for dating advice, and came to Bride for an undetermined amount of time.

  You’ll be here for an undetermined amount of time, he reminded himself. A brick fell out of his defensive wall. “How do you know I’m even available?”

  “Oh, I don’t. In fact, I’m sure you’re booked for months, but I thought I’d ask. I’ll even pick up some of those sliders from The Stable.”

  Gavin wasn’t booked for months, but Navy didn’t need to know that. “I like the regular French fries,” he said. “None of those sweet potato things.”

  “They’re actually very good.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  “Regular fries,” she confirmed. “So you’ll come tonight?”

  “Is six okay?”

  “Six is great.” She wore a smile in her words, and ended the call with an upbeat, not awkward at all, “See you tonight, Gavin.”

  The call ended just like that, and he stared at his phone, the sound of his name in Navy’s voice like music to his ears. He swallowed, sure he was starting to feel soft things for another blonde woman. He couldn’t allow that. Wouldn’t.

  So he’d call and cancel in a couple of hours, claiming his job at the ranch had run long and he couldn’t possibly make it to her cottage that evening.

  Surely the Lord would forgive the little lie if it protected Gavin’s heart. Wouldn’t He?

  Gavin’s stomach didn’t play nice for the rest of the day. When he drank, the water sloshed around. When he ate his sandwich and apple for lunch, the food sat like a brick in his gut. By the time he sat down with Bren, the thought of eating a buffalo slider and an avalanche of fries sounded amazing.

  He was less sure of the company. Though he found Navy beautiful, and witty, and intriguing, he simply wasn’t in a place to share more than a working relationship with her.

  Bren groaned as he eased into the chair.

  “Everything okay?” Gavin asked.

  “Oh, yeah. Yeah. I just…fell a few days ago, and my le
g is still healing.” He put a smile on his face, but it held the hint of pain. “How’d the arch go?”

  “Good as new.” Gavin turned his phone toward Bren. “It’s three hundred and twelve dollars.”

  Bren pulled out the ranch checkbook and started making the payment. “So I heard a rumor this morning.”

  “Let me guess.” Gavin leaned back and folded his arms. “Something about me and a blonde.” He knew he shouldn’t have sat with Navy at The Stable last night. He’d known, and he’d done it anyway.

  Why had he done it anyway?

  Bren ripped out the check and handed it to Gavin. “It’s about time you got back out there, Gavin.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not out there, Bren.”

  “You ate dinner with her on a Friday night. And word around the ranch is that she’s beautiful.”

  “She’s blonde.” Gavin gave Bren a pointed look.

  Bren smiled back. “And you like blondes, Gav. Thanks for comin’ out.”

  Bren’s code for conversation over. Gavin took his money and left Sterling Ranch. He went home and fed the dogs, let them out of the house for a few minutes. They didn’t last long in the sunshine and slurped their way through a couple bowls of water before he crossed the yard and driveway to his grandparents’ house.

  The smell of baking bread greeted him, followed by a hug and a cheek-kiss from Grandmother. “Smells amazing,” he said, glancing around for the proof of her baking.

  “Staying for dinner?” she asked as she sliced him a piece of the honey wheat bread resting on the cutting board.

  “I—” He hadn’t called Navy yet, and a quick glance at the clock on the microwave showed he didn’t have time to cancel now. With less than an hour until he was supposed to meet her, it would be rude. And his Texas manners didn’t allow him to be rude.

  “I can’t,” he finished. “I have to go look at this lady’s house.”

  “Oh, the pretty girl who came yesterday morning?”

  “That’s the one,” Gavin said, his voice half an octave higher than normal. If Grandmother noticed, she didn’t let on. Simply pulled a casserole out of the oven and set it on the stovetop.

  “Chicken cordon bleu?” he asked, torn now.

  Grandmother gave him a loving smile. “Staying or going?”

  He could eat now and in forty-five minutes. It wasn’t a crime to eat a lot. “Staying,” he said. “But I only have a half an hour.”

  5

  Navy startled when a knock sounded on the door at the exact moment the clock flipped to six. She shook her head, unsurprised of Gavin’s prompt arrival. She’d been unable to find much to dislike about him—and she’d tried. But no one in this town had anything bad to say about him.

  He went to church. Helped his grandparents. Even served as a volunteer firefighter and served pancakes during their annual Flag Day breakfast.

  If anyone had wondered why Navy, a newcomer to Bride, was asking all over about Gavin Redd, they hadn’t said anything.

  He knocked again, and Navy bolted toward the door. She practically ripped it off it’s hinges in her haste to open it, and the stunning sight of Gavin’s handsome face on the other side should be criminal.

  “Hey,” she said, leaning into the frame. It squeaked loudly, and she cringed as she straightened. He wore a blue T-shirt with the outline of Texas on it and jeans, which wouldn’t have sent her heart into palpitations if it wasn’t for the sexy tool belt slung around his waist.

  “Hey.” He seemed distracted as he glanced at the roof, the doorway, and past her into the cottage. “How many nights have you been livin’ here?”

  “Just two.” She eased back so he could enter. As he passed, the spicy, masculine scent of his cologne entered her nose. She took a deep breath and committed the smell to her memory. “There’re a lot of problems.”

  He glanced at her, a twinkle in his eyes for only a moment before he scanned the room again. “I don’t think this is fit for human habitation.”

  “I didn’t pay hardly anything for it.” She gathered her hair into a ponytail and secured it with the band around her wrist.

  “How long are you going to be here?” He pulled a tape measure out of the tool belt he wore and fitted the end of it against the floor.

  “Six months.” She folded her arms and leaned her hip against the kitchen counter. “I took a leave of absence from my job in Amarillo.”

  His gaze met hers again and something huge surged between them. She had no idea what it was; had never felt anything like it. Waves of desire pulsed through her. Desire to get closer to him. Desire to touch his hand. Desire to spend more time with him.

  Please let him take this job, she thought. The Shepherd’s had authorized her to hire someone to make the improvements. Gerry had said he could spare five thousand dollars. Not that Navy was going to be staying long-term, but she’d overheard Gerry and Olivia talking about making the cottage a permanent rental, and that was when she’d entered their kitchen and asked about the remodel. With her timing perfect, she’d gotten the money and approval she needed.

  Gavin cleared his throat, which broke the spell between them. “So, uh, I’d fix up these walls. Repaint.” He scuffed his cowboy boot against the kitchen linoleum where it stuck up. “Redo this floor and make it go all the way through the living room.”

  He stepped toward her as the dollar signs in her head exploded. “What did you do in Amarillo?” He extended that tape measure again, jumping from one conversation topic to another in a single breath.

  “I’m a pediatric nurse.”

  His eyebrows went up. “Wow. Impressive.”

  “I love it,” she said. “I do. It’s just….” She trailed off, not quite sure how to express how she felt about her job. She did love it. But she also knew she didn’t want to have her entire life be about a job she liked.

  Her ache to be a mother hit her in the chest, made her gasp. Gavin turned back to her, his dark eyes full of concern now. “You okay?”

  She nodded, because she wasn’t sure she could speak past the pinch in her throat.

  “I’d replace the roof,” he said, going back to the home improvements. “And you said something about a water heater?”

  “It doesn’t really work.” Navy had opted not to shower that morning, because she wasn’t sure she could stand the nearly cold spray on her back.

  “Do you know where it is?”

  She stepped between the dining table and the couch toward one of only two doors in the cottage. “There’s an equipment room off the bathroom.” She crowded into the small space, Gavin right behind her. Once inside, she sealed them in the bathroom together, her nerves firing things like He’s so close.

  You could touch him now.

  Breathe deeper!

  With a slight tremor in her hand, she twisted the knob of the door behind the bathroom door. “In here.” With the door open, she stepped back, her calf hitting the toilet bowl, so he could see.

  He somehow maneuvered his broad shoulders into the tiny space and peered inside. Only a moment passed before he said, “Oh, this definitely has to be replaced.” He twisted and drank in the bathroom too. “This isn’t too bad.”

  “I think the toilet leaks,” Navy said.

  He couldn’t get to it with her in the way, but she couldn’t get out with him blocking the door. A smile bloomed on her face. “Sorry, if you’ll just—” She silenced as he put both his hands on her waist. She gazed up at him, completely mesmerized by this man. She really needed to know his astrological sign, stat. After all, if he wasn’t an Aquarius, what would be the point of starting something with him?

  What’s the point anyway? she wondered, the moments between them lengthening. He lives here. You don’t.

  But she did for six months. Her smile turned somewhat wicked, and Gavin even returned it. “Ah-ha,” she said. “You do smile.”

  He twisted her past his body so she stood by the door and he stood near the toilet. “Of course I smile. You think
my face is broken?”

  “I was starting to wonder.” She leaned into the closed door. “Besides, Chip said you’re real serious when on the job.”

  “Chip Goldbloom?” Gavin rolled his eyes now. “You shouldn’t believe anything Chip tells you.”

  “No?” Navy’s smile widened. “I liked him.”

  “When would you have even talked to him anyway? I didn’t know the karaoke bar was open during the day.”

  “I ran into him at the grocery store. Apparently there’s a big karaoke event tonight. Huge. We should go. I mean, after you tell me how much this is going to cost.”

  “We are not going to karaoke night.” Gavin got down on his knees and fiddled with the toilet handle before flushing it. Sure enough, the hint of water formed around the bottom of the toilet. “What else did you need me to look at?”

  There was only one other room in the cottage: her bedroom. A stream of self-consciousness stole through her before she remembered nothing in the bedroom was hers. Nothing besides the clothes, that was.

  She pressed back into him in order to open the door, but he didn’t put his hands on her again. Slightly disappointed in that and his reaction to her suggestion that they go to karaoke night together, she moved quickly back into the main living area of the cottage and over to the second door.

  “Walls and stuff in here,” she said. “And I swear that curtain rod is going to fall in the night and impale me.”

  Gavin chuckled, which sent warmth through Navy. He’d seemed so stoic in the few times they’d been together. Almost angry with her. Probably because of the birdhouse comments.

  “I can fix that,” he said, moving back into the living room.

  “Okay,” Navy said. “Honesty up front. I have a limited budget. The water heater has to be done. Does the roof?”

  “If you want to stay dry.” He pointed to a discoloration on the linoleum. “That’s from leakage when it rains.”

  “But we’re headed into summer, so in the next six months, is the roof necessary?”

  “Well, I think a roof is necessary.”