Ticket to Bride

by Liz Isaacson

  He set an alarm for midday so he could still go get something done at Navy’s, and collapsed into bed.

  Thank you for helping my grandparents, he thought just before drifting off to sleep.

  He dreamt of a place he didn’t recognize. A lot of tall buildings, and hundreds of cars, and many thousands of people. The city reminded him of Austin, but it wasn’t Austin. Or Dallas. But it was definitely Texas.

  He walked down the street and met Aunt Ally at the end of the block. She spoke, but the words were silent in the dream. She handed Gavin a key, smiled, and turned to leave. She got in the car with Grandmother and Granddad, and Gavin realized that she was taking them home with her.

  He woke to his alarm, the remnants of his dream still wafting around inside his mind. He picked up his phone and silenced it, then called his aunt.

  “Gavin, dear, how is Granddad?”

  “He’s okay,” Gavin said. “Sorry, I forgot to call. They said he has a bit of bronchitis. So they’re treating that with antibiotics. And they said he probably ate something bad, had acid reflux, so his throat was tender, and when he coughed, there was blood.”

  “So nothing serious.”

  “Nothing serious.” Gavin rested his elbows on his knees. “Aunt Ally, have you thought any more about moving home to take care of them?”

  He closed his eyes, a prayer beginning in his heart. He loved his grandparents. He did. But he’d been looking after them for a decade, and he was ready to start his own life.

  “I met with my boss this past Friday,” Aunt Ally said. “I’m putting in my retirement papers, and I’ll be home by Halloween.”

  Home by Halloween sounded like music to Gavin’s ears. “Great,” he said, the word heavy with relief. “Thanks, Aunt Ally.”

  “Have you been looking for a ranch?” she asked.

  Gavin thought of the B&B Navy had linked him to. He hadn’t had the inclination to look at it yet. “Sort of,” he said.

  “You deserve a big ol’ ranch with tons of cows,” Aunt Ally said. “I know you’ll get it.”

  “Maybe,” Gavin said. He made small talk for a few more minutes before hanging up. Before showering and getting properly dressed. Before heading over to Navy’s cottage.

  His stomach rioted like he’d swallowed fire ants as he approached the front door. He knocked, but she didn’t answer. He entered her unlocked house and found it empty. Her purse was gone, and he remembered she was going to lunch with Jana today.

  That suited him just fine, and he pulled out the roll of plastic and began taping it to the floors and covering the furniture. Working felt good, pulled his muscles, made him focus on more than just himself. At the same time, he had a distinct feeling that God wanted him to focus on himself for just a few minutes.

  Where should I be? Gavin prayed as he worked. Here? Somewhere else? Help me find the ranch where I should be.

  He didn’t mention the B&B to the Lord, because Gavin didn’t want to run a hotel that served pancakes and coffee. He couldn’t even make pancakes, for crying out loud. But he could repair walls and tape baseboards and slather a new color inside a house, so he lost himself to the rhythmic tasks of painting.

  13

  Navy sat across the diner table from Jana, a fellow blonde. “Thanks for meeting me,” she said as the waitress handed her a menu. Navy flashed the woman a grin before realizing the plastic was a bit sticky. She made a face but hid it quickly.

  “What can I get y’all to drink?” Lola-the-waitress asked.

  “Sweet tea,” Navy said, and Jana ordered the same.

  Lola had barely walked away when Jana leaned into the table and said, “So what’s going on with you and Gavin Redd?”

  Navy hadn’t even opened her mouth to answer before Jana continued. “All the girls at the salon are in a twitter. I guess a couple of them have been circling Gavin for a while, and he’s so aloof. Does he act like that with you? I bet he doesn’t. You’re so pretty, and I bet he just talks your ear off.” She giggled while Navy blinked, trying to process everything Jana had said.

  “Anyway, Amy was saying she went out with him once a few years ago, and he was just so sad, you know?” Jana flipped her hair over her shoulder like she knew the inner workings of Gavin’s soul. “I guess his girlfriend had just broken up with him. And before that, one of his girlfriends left town with another man. Darrel or Derek or somebody with a D-name.”

  Lola returned with their drinks, and Navy practically lunged for hers. Perhaps this lunch with Jana had been a bad idea. She’d gone into the salon last week to see if they carried any purple shampoo, as she enhanced her blonde hair with a brightening toner. Jana had helped her, and talked to her, and though Navy had friends back in Amarillo, she didn’t have any here.

  So when Jana said they should go to lunch sometime, and Gavin couldn’t go today, Navy had texted Jana. As the stylist talked, and talked, and talked, Navy regretted her decision. Thankfully, Jana moved past Gavin at the same rate she spoke, which only had one speed: fast.

  Navy heard about the owner of Two Cups. The florist who’d been engaged twice and couldn’t seem to get anyone all the way to the altar. Who had what dogs, and who let them run wild, and who’d switched to cats.

  She’d never eaten so fast. A twinge of guilt pulled through her when her phone chimed and she seized onto an excuse that wasn’t entirely true. “I’m sorry. It’s my mother.” It wasn’t, and Navy kept the phone tilted away from Jana, who was looking. The woman didn’t miss much, Navy would give her that much credit. “Thanks for meeting me for lunch.” Navy smiled as widely as she could and slid out of the booth.

  She paid while examining her phone as if she’d just received Very Bad News and left without glancing at Jana. She sighed as she ducked around the side of the diner and pressed her back into the gray brick.

  The text wasn’t from her mother. Or Gavin. But Lynn back in Amarillo. How are things in Bride? We miss you here! She’d sent a picture of the pediatric nurses pulling faces, and Navy’s chest hitched.

  She thumbed out a generic message about how everything was great and how much she missed her friends.

  At least she didn’t have to lie about that. She hadn’t even been in Bride for two weeks yet, and the sudden urge to return to her hometown and get back to work felt strange. Maybe she’d made a mistake by planning to stay for so long.

  Then an image of Gavin’s handsome face filled her mind, and she thought, You’ll probably need longer than six months to crack him.

  He was a bit aloof, but Navy had read up on Aquarius’s, and they often were, especially at the beginning of relationships. So she’d determined that she simply had to be persistent. Not let him walk away from her with statements like, “I’m not interested.”

  She wandered around the bark park before heading over to the fountain and statue. Several tourists lingered in the same space, reading the historical markers and taking pictures. Navy did too, as if she didn’t know the story.

  Her heart squeezed when she thought of the women who’d hurt Gavin. She understood why he didn’t like the statue, but she couldn’t simply rid herself of her fantasies either. For so long, she’d listened to the romantic stories Aunt Izzie told, saw how much she and Uncle Marvin loved each other.

  She trailed her fingers along the bottom of Ellora’s bronze boot, the desire to have that kind of love with someone as strong as ever. So what if she’d believed in a silly tradition? She’d tried everything else, and Nancy had only helped her hone her focus from one type of man to another.

  A more mature man, which admittedly Navy hadn’t naturally looked for. Someone willing to listen to her, which most Aquarius men were really good at. That was when Nancy had said, “You should be looking for an Aquarius,” and continued with why such a man would fit with Navy’s personality.

  As if a light from heaven had beamed straight onto her, a realization hit Navy. Nancy’s words were advice, not law. She’d told Navy about herself, and what kind of man would mesh
with her the best.

  The matchmaking reading wasn’t about who Navy’s match was. It was a resource for knowing herself and then using that information to find a more compatible date—one that could turn into a husband.

  She started laughing, and she snorted the way she did when she really got going. She was usually embarrassed by that; didn’t let herself laugh full-out for fear the men she dated would find her snorting unattractive. The tourists looked at her, but she just kept laughing.

  “I’ve got to go talk to Gavin,” she said to Ellora, who just kept gazing out at the prairie, waiting for a man that would never come. Navy would not be Ellora—she would go to Gavin and see if he would listen to her.

  But first, she fished a quarter from her purse and tossed it into the fountain with the thought, I wish to sort through things with Gavin Redd.

  By the time she returned home, she was equally frustrated and relieved. She entered the cottage to find Gavin wearing a mask and wielding a long roller as he swept gray paint onto her walls.

  “You are a hard man to find,” she said. She went to set her purse on the table, only to see that he’d covered everything. The fridge, the stove, all the furniture. It was all taped under a layer of plastic.

  He paused and turned toward her. He didn’t wear his cowboy hat, and she could only see his eyes, but still her heartbeat pulsed through her body. She wanted to talk to him, hold his hand, walk with him, maybe even kiss him. Today.

  “And you have paint on your face,” she said with a smile. She glanced around. “This looks like a war zone.”

  “I’m painting,” he said through the mask.

  “When can you take a break?”

  He tilted his head slightly, a confused look in those gorgeous eyes. “A break?”

  Foolishness raced through Navy. Of course the Man of Iron, Gavin Redd, didn’t take breaks. “I’ll be reading out back,” she said. She stepped back out of the cottage, half-hoping he’d call for her to stay with him the way she had last week. He didn’t, and she didn’t want to throw herself at him. Besides, there was nowhere for her to sit and talk to him anyway.

  Only ten minutes later, Gavin came around the back of the house, maskless and without the drips of paint on his forehead. He’d pushed his hat back into place, and he sat in the other chair at the table in the shade.

  “You took a break?” Navy didn’t look fully at him.

  “You seemed like you wanted me to.”

  Navy put her e-reader down. “Let’s go for a walk.” She stood up, but he didn’t.

  “It’s the middle of the afternoon,” he said. “It’s hot.”

  “You sound tired.”

  “I am tired.”

  “How’s your granddad?”

  “He’s okay.” He told her about a mild case of bronchitis and some acid reflux, and he didn’t seem too concerned.

  Navy reached across the table and covered his hands with hers anyway. Mostly because she wanted to touch him, see if that flame still roared between them. “I’m sorry.”

  He looked up and their gazes locked. The fire and desire between them was definitely still there, and very very hot. Navy smiled. “I like you, Gavin Redd.”

  He got to his feet, tugging on her hand to come with him. “Let’s go for a walk.”

  Heat dove through Navy, and it wasn’t all from the Texas sun when they stepped out of the shade. “I just want to say a few things,” she said.

  “All right.”

  She launched into what had brought her to Bride, why she felt the magic of this place, why she’d thought a dance around a statue would help her. “I’ve just dated so much,” she said. “I don’t even think you know how much.”

  “How much?” he asked.

  She let their hands swing between them for a couple of steps. “I quit dating two weeks before I came here. But the week before that, I went out with five different guys on five different nights. It was getting to the point of one-and-done. I couldn’t find anyone.”

  Navy exhaled, her memories of those winter months in Amarillo, meeting a man for coffee, or rushing home from the hospital so she could shower before a man picked her up for dinner. She even went straight from work to a breakfast date several times when she worked the night shift.

  “And Aunt Izzie had told me all about Bride, how much she loved this town, all about your grandmother. And it felt right.” Navy shrugged one shoulder. “It felt right to come here.”

  He squeezed her hand. “Thanks for telling me all that.” Gavin took a deep breath. “Are you planning on goin’ out with a new man every night while you’re here?”

  Navy slowed her steps and stopped. She turned and looked right at him. “I wasn’t planning on going out with anyone while I was here.”

  “Seems smart,” he murmured, his eyes dropping to her mouth.

  She giggled and swept up onto her toes to she could place a kiss on his cheek. “Yeah, I don’t always do the smart thing. You should probably know that before things go too far.” She settled back onto her feet and started walking again. Tingles raced through her body, and the message from her lips was that they wanted to touch his. Sure, his cheek was exciting, but only because it was so close to that mouth.

  She ducked her head as if Gavin would be able to read her thoughts. They walked in silence for a block, and then Navy said, “And I don’t know if you’ve ever sat in on a matchmaking reading with your grandmother, but it isn’t about the man at all. You should know that. It’s about the woman. My reading was about me. Helping me to know how to make smarter dating decisions.”

  “Mm,” he said.

  “It was,” she insisted.

  He chuckled and released her hand so he could put his arm around her shoulders. He pulled her flush against him. “I believe you, Navy.”

  He sounded sincere, and Navy wanted him to say her name in his bass voice again. And again. Preferably just before he kissed her.

  She glanced up and realized they’d walked from her cottage to his house. “Hey, that’s the Old Main Hill Bed and Breakfast.” She glanced at Gavin, who wore a distasteful expression. “Oh, come on,” she said, pulling him across the street. “Be a little spontaneous.”

  “I’m spontaneous,” he said.

  “Prove it. Just walk around here with me. Let’s look at it.”

  “You do realize I don’t cook, right?”

  “Did you even look at the link I sent you?”

  “Of course I did. It doesn’t look anything like this.”

  Navy took in the land before her. It was wild and unkept; the grass needed mowing and watering as it was already starting to yellow; the buildings seemed without spirit. “It just needs a little love,” she said.

  “And a chef,” he muttered.

  “I can cook,” she said, moving toward a cabin that boasted a Texas star on the exterior.

  Gavin stopped her by slipping his hand from her shoulder to hers and pulling. “Navy.”

  She turned back to him. “What?”

  “Do you realize what you just said?”

  She peered up at him, noting the seriousness, the concern. “I said I know how to cook.”

  “So…what? You’re going to teach me? Or you’re going to stay here in Bride and be my cook?” He exhaled, his frustration evident. “You’re a pediatric nurse from Amarillo. You have a job and a family and a life there.” He shook his head and released her hand. “I’m not—”

  “If you say you’re not interested, Gavin Redd, I’ll…I’ll…I don’t know what I’ll do, but it will be really bad.”

  He met her eye with passion and panic in his. “I am interested,” he said in a low, husky voice. “That’s the whole problem.”

  Navy edged a little closer to him and took both of his hands in hers. “Why is that a problem?”

  “You’re a pediatric nurse from Amarillo. You have a job and a family and a life there. I don’t date women who don’t live in Bride. I don’t date women who’ve gone to see my grandmother. I don�
��t date women who believe a dance around a statue and a coin in a wishing well will bring them the man of their dreams. I don’t date, period.”

  Though some of his words jabbed into the fleshy parts of her heart, she smiled. Laughed—complete with the snort. “You’ve gotten crotchety in your old age.”

  “Old age?” His eyebrows went as high as his voice.

  Navy sobered, a chilling thought occurring to her. “Do you really want to be alone for the rest of your life?”

  His jaw worked and his eyes stormed. “No,” he finally clipped out.

  “Good,” Navy said, stretching up again. “Me either.” She put her hands on his shoulders to balance herself, a million watts of excitement and energy popping from her to him and back again. “I’ve kissed cowboys before,” she whispered. “The hat is always in the way.”

  He removed it with one hand and steadied her with the other around her waist. But he didn’t lean down the four inches he needed to in order to touch her lips with his.

  “Are you going to kiss me or what?” she asked.

  It seemed that those words finally broke down whatever barrier he’d put between them. Because he dropped his beloved cowboy hat, wrapped both arms around her, and kissed her like she’d never been kissed before.

  His mouth was cool and he tasted like chocolate and mint. Navy couldn’t get enough of him, and thankfully he seemed to feel the same about her as he prolonged the kiss.

  14

  Gavin knew the moment his lips touched Navy’s that he’d never kissed a woman like her. So full of spunk, and intelligence, and spirit. He held her tightly against him, never wanting her more than a few inches from him again.

  He stroked his mouth over hers, glad when she responded eagerly. He moved his lips to her throat, which caused her to arch into him. His pulse raced and his breath came so quick, so quick.