Snowbound Bride

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Nora nodded her understanding as she drank in the tantalizing fragrance of his skin. She and Sam had only known each other since the blizzard began, yet during that brief time she had felt more challenged, cherished and loved than she ever had. She hated to think what the return to normal weather and normal life might mean for their romance. With effort, she pushed her disturbing worries away; the end of the storm did not mean the end of their love affair. “Have you eaten breakfast?” she asked cheerfully. If not, Sam had to be ravenous, after all this physical activity.

  Sam shook his head. He stroked his thumb across her cheek and looked into her eyes. “Made coffee, though.”

  “I’ll make you something, then.” Something special. Nora ran a possessive hand down his arm, savoring this time they had left. “When would you like to eat?”

  “In an hour or so.” Sam smiled, his happiness as potent and life-enriching as hers. “As soon as I’m finished here.”

  Nora went back inside, showered and dressed, wondering all the while whether anyone would know the changes she’d gone through in the past twenty-four hours. She knew that, with the exception of the flush of happiness in her cheeks and the new glimmer of excitement in her eyes, she looked the same. The problem was, she didn’t feel the same. Being with Sam had opened her up to the kind of passion she’d never dreamed existed. And it had shown her that the stronger a man was, the more tender and understanding he was, too. To the point that, after loving Sam, Nora knew she would never be the same again. And that, too, was all for the good, she thought contentedly, because she wanted to feel this way forever.

  Finished, she made the bed where they’d slept, tidied the bathroom and went down to the kitchen. Glancing out the window, she saw that Sam was nearing the end of the driveway. Instead of clearing the whole thing, he had shoveled two long parallel paths that lined up with the tires.

  Smiling at the way he wasted neither time nor energy, she got bacon strips ready to microwave and prepared hotcake batter for the griddle. It was almost ready when Sam came in. He shucked off his coat, hat, gloves and boots. Watching him wash up at the kitchen sink, Nora was filled with an odd kind of contentment. There was a pleasure in just being near him—a pleasure that she sensed was not going to go away, no matter how long she knew him.

  They talked and laughed contentedly through the breakfast Nora had prepared.

  Unfortunately, no sooner had they finished than the phone rang.

  Sam got up to answer it. “Yeah. Hi, Gran. I’m glad to hear it. Yes, Nora and I are both fine. We’re coming back to town as soon as the snowplow clears the farm-to-market road between here and town, which should be any minute now.” As he listened intently, his eyes lit up. He covered the phone and spoke to her. “Gus just called. He’s coming in and expects to be in Clover Creek around noon. He’s still bringing a surprise with him. My grandparents are convinced it’s a bride.”

  “Maybe it will be,” Nora said, eyes spark ling.

  Sam grinned, looking as if nothing would make him happier. “Maybe.”

  “I HATE TO SAY IT, but in this case, seeing is believing,” Nora murmured as the parade of privately owned bright orange snowplows with Indiana license plates motored down the middle of Main Street and stopped in front of the Whittakers’ store.

  Sam shook his head, as always in awe of his older brother’s penchant for flamboyance. “You can say that again,” he drawled, watching as Gus and a beautiful young woman with an armful of flowers climbed down out of the first orange vehicle. An entire wedding party—and what Sam could only presume were some of the guests—followed, bringing with them champagne and even, incredibly, a four-tiered wedding cake. A photographer was madly snapping photos.

  “Hey, every body, I want you to meet Evelyn, my bride-to-be,” Gus said, greeting his family and beaming from ear to ear.

  “Nora! My goodness.” Gus obviously had a million questions, but chose to ignore them. “You already know Evelyn, don’t you?” Gus asked.

  Nora nodded. She recognized Evelyn, from an L and B ad campaign for orange juice featuring the USC women’s volley ball team. “Hi,” Nora said, greeting Evelyn and Gus both. “Congratulations.”

  “Thanks. What brings you to Clover Creek?” Gus asked Nora.

  “Fate, and the blizzard, what else?” Nora quipped.

  “Like it so far?” Gus asked.

  “A lot,” Nora said. And she meant that with all her heart.

  “Congratulations, bro.” Sam grinned and shook his brother’s hand.

  “We were so worried you wouldn’t make it,” Clara said as she enveloped Gus and Evelyn in warm hugs.

  “Now, Gran,” Gus drawled happily, “you knew I’d get here, even if I had to detour through several midwestern states to arrange it. After all, I couldn’t get married without my family. I only hope the church is free.”

  “I’ll call the reverend right now and find out!” Kimberlee said.

  “I had a hankering for a candlelight ceremony this evening, at seven,” Gus said.

  “Then a candlelight ceremony it will be,” Harold said.

  “Meantime,” Clara put in, taking charge, “we have a lot of work to do. So we all better get busy.”

  “I’VE SHARED YOU with everyone else long enough,” Sam murmured, hours later, as he led Nora onto the dance floor and took her into his arms. “This dance is mine.” As Nora, looking flushed and radiant, fluidly matched her steps to his, Sam exhaled contentedly. “It seems ages since I’ve held you in my arms.”

  “I know,” Nora said teasingly. “And yet it’s only been a matter of hours.”

  “Even so,” Sam said, aware that he’d never seen her looking more beautiful than she did in the calf-length off-the-shoulder green velvet dress that clung to her soft breasts and slender hips, “that’s way too long.”

  “For me, too.” Nora looked at his brother, then back at him. “Gus and Evelyn really look happy.”

  Sam studied the beckoning depths of Nora’s dark green eyes. “I think they are.”

  “Kimberlee, too,” Nora added softly.

  Sam lifted their clasped hands to his lips and gently kissed the fragrant softness of the back of her hand. “That’s because she talked to her boyfriend, Kenny, again before the wedding. Apparently, he’s coming home for a visit in another week or two,” Sam said.

  Nora tilted her face up to Sam’s. Her eyes were inches from his, her lips even closer than that. All he could think about was making slow, sweet love to her again.

  “I know Kimberlee’s only seventeen, but I really think she loves Kenny and believes she can’t live without him.”

  Sam nodded. Thanks to Nora, for the first time in his life he was beginning to know exactly how his younger sister felt. And while it did nothing to lessen his responsibility to see that Kimberlee’s education was completed, her future assured, the surprising depth of the feelings he had for Nora gave Sam a lot more empathy for Kimberlee’s situation. For the first time in his life, he knew what it was to want to be with someone as much as you needed to breathe, because that was how he felt about Nora.

  “You seem deep in thought,” Nora teased.

  Sam sighed. “I was just thinking about the snowstorm of the century. I never believed a single blizzard could change my life irrevocably, but—” he bent and kissed her chastely, tenderly “—it has.”

  “For the better, I hope,” Nora murmured, absently tracing the line of his jaw with the tip of her finger.

  “You’re damn right about that,” Sam whispered back, pulling her closer. “I know it’s just been a couple days, but my knowing you has made me richer in so many, many ways.”

  “Me too,” Nora whispered back. “In fact, I was just thinking—” She stopped abruptly, her silky brow furrowing as the sound of the music playing on the rec hall’s PA system was drowned out by the unmistakable sound of a helicopter close by. “Is…that—?”

  Sam frowned, knowing there had not been a police or medical emergency in the vicinity
. If there had been, he, his two deputies and Doc Ellen—who was currently enjoying some punch and cake with her husband, Joe, and five-year-old daughter, Katie—would’ve all known about it, long before any life-flight helicopter arrived. “That sounds like a chopper is setting down outside,” Sam said.

  For Gus’s honeymoon, maybe? Sam wondered.

  Before Sam could make his way to the exit to find out, the sound of the chopper ceased, the doors to the reception hall burst open and two men clad in elegant business attire strode in. Sam took in the familial re semblance of the distinguished, dark-haired fifty-something man to Nora, saw the much younger man with him, then glanced at the stricken look on Nora’s face. It didn’t take much detective work to put two and two together. “You weren’t expecting to see your father this evening, I take it?” And was that the infamously jilted Geoff with him? Sam wondered.

  “No. I wasn’t.” Nora’s soft lips pursed mutinously, and she folded her slender arms in front of her.

  Sam frowned. This was turning into a surprise for both of them. “I thought you were going to talk to your dad while I was at work today,” Sam began. In fact, Nora had promised him as much during their drive back into town.

  “I was.” Nora picked up the nearly empty punch bowl and ducked into the adjacent rec hall kitchen as her father and his preppy-looking sidekick visually searched the crowded hall for her. “But then I got busy helping your grandmother and Kimberlee pull this wedding together for Gus and Evelyn and didn’t have time.” Nora’s hands shook as she added more frozen lemonade, ice and lemon-lime soda to the bowl.

  Sam knew Nora was only delaying the inevitable in not speaking to her father; nevertheless, his gut instinct was to protect Nora from hurt or distress of any kind. “You want me to head him off for you?” Nora’s and Charles’s first meeting could always be held later, after Sam had smoothed the way.

  Nora stirred the punch vigorously. “If you wouldn’t mind, yes, I’d appreciate it very much. The last thing I want is an emotional scene this evening.”

  Sam wasn’t sure Nora was going to get her wish about that, but he headed for Charles Kingsley anyway.

  “NORA?”

  Nora turned around with a gasp. “Geoff!”

  Geoff struck a distinguished pose in the small rec hall kitchen. “You’re ticked off at me, aren’t you?”

  Nora flashed back to the sight of him discussing the prenup with her father, in the back of the church. She drew herself up indignantly, wondering how she had ever let herself be deceived that way. “What do you think?” she shot back coolly.

  Geoff tugged at his necktie, as if it were strangling him. “Look, I don’t know how you found out what your dad did to sort of speed our engagement along, but I had nothing to do with it!”

  Nora glared at him. “I don’t know how you can say that!”

  “Because it’s true,” Geoff said sincerely, laying both hands across his chest. “And if you think about it, you’ll know it’s so, because I’m not the one with pull in the New York advertising world. Your dad is.”

  Nora blinked. “What are you talking about?” she asked incredulously.

  “You—getting downsized out of a job in New York, so you’d have to come back to Pittsburgh and build a life there.” Geoff paused. “We figured someone from L and B who’d come to the wedding had found out about it from the brass at L and B and told you before the wedding.”

  “No, they didn’t.” If she’d known that, she never would have gone back, no matter what Sam or anyone else said!

  Geoff continued to regard her uneasily. He swallowed hard, and then asked finally, “Then what were you talking about just now?”

  “The prenuptial agreement between you and my father!”

  Geoff swore and paled even more. “You knew about that, too?” he asked incredulously.

  “I saw you sign it, Geoff. I heard the two of you go over the terms in great detail, before the wedding.”

  Beads of perspiration broke out on Geoff’s upper lip as he muttered a silent prayer. “Look, I can explain how and why that came about, Nora.”

  “I’ll just bet you can,” Nora said sarcastically, “but I don’t want to hear it.” She whirled and stomped off blindly, only to run headlong into Sam and her father. To Nora’s increasing dismay, the two of them were not just talking. Her father was trying to push a check into Sam’s hand.

  “I insist,” Charles Kingsley told Sam firmly, in a discreet voice that was nevertheless loud enough for both Nora and Geoff to hear. “You’ve earned it. I couldn’t have found my daughter anywhere near this quickly without you.”

  FOR NORA, seeing the exchange of money behind her back was her worst night mare all over again. Once again, she had been betrayed by the man she thought—hoped—she loved.

  Oblivious to the music and laughter in the background, she stared at Sam incredulously. She wasn’t sure whether to punch his lights out or burst into tears. She only knew she felt like doing both simultaneously. “Not you, too?” she whispered to Sam hoarsely as hot, angry tears filled her eyes. She couldn’t believe he would manipulate, deceive and betray her this way. She’d thought he was different!

  Looking more darkly handsome than ever in his tux, Sam spun around and regarded Nora grimly. “It’s not what it looks like,” he told her flatly.

  A likely story. “Isn’t it?” Nora presumed cooly.

  “No,” Sam replied firmly, shoving Impatient fingers through his hair. “It isn’t.”

  “Well, you could’ve fooled me,” Nora muttered. “Or does the betrayal only count when you pay off in stock options and a piece of the family company?”

  “For heaven’s sake, Nora,” Charles Kingsley said, interrupting sternly. “Sam did us a favor, in letting me know where you were.”

  “Maybe he did do one for you,” Nora snapped back. “He did not do one for me.” She whirled on Sam in raging disbelief. “I can’t believe you contacted my father, after all I confided in you!” she stormed.

  “It was precisely because of what you told me that I called him,” Sam said.

  Nora glared at Sam, her face alternately going white and red. She was so embarrassed and humiliated she wanted to die. “I see.” She regarded Sam icily, then, unable to prevent herself, taunted him sarcastically, “Still part social worker, part sheriff, right, Sam?”

  Sam frowned. “Your father was half out of his mind with worry,” Sam explained curtly, his expression stony with resolve. “It was cruel to let him continue to agonize.”

  “But it was all right to hurt me, is that it?” Nora cried, incensed.

  Abruptly Sam looked as though he felt as miserable as Nora did. “Look, I asked your father not to come here until you were ready to talk to him. I hoped that would be soon, but in any case, I implored him to give you as much time to sort things out as you needed.”

  “I couldn’t do that, either,” Charles Kingsley interjected. “What if she had run away again before we had a chance to speak?”

  “I do not believe this,” Nora muttered, raking both her hands through her hair.

  “What’s going on?” Gus asked, sauntering up to join the group.

  “I’ll tell you what’s going on. Once a dupe, always a dupe,” Nora muttered. She stormed toward the exit, bypassing the coat check and sweeping out onto the street. Her head held high, she stalked, shivering, past the helicopter that had set down in the empty Whittakers parking lot.

  Right behind her, Sam and her father both followed, hard on her heels.

  Seeing that she was shivering, Sam tore off his tuxedo jacket and threw it around her shoulders. Nora shrugged it off and tossed it right back in his face. “You’ve helped me enough, Sam.”

  Sam put both hands on her shoulders and spun her around. Once again, his tuxedo jacket, still warm with the heat of his body and scented with his cologne, was slid over her shoulders. Keeping a firm grip on her all the while, Sam stared down at her. “Dammit, Nora, your father’s come all this way. Hear him out!
”

  Nora noticed that Sam hadn’t mentioned anything about Geoff. And where was Geoff, by the way? Why hadn’t he come out here, too? “You hear him out,” Nora told Sam. She bent her knees, and ducked away from his grip.

  “Where are you going?” Sam demanded, thoroughly exasperated.

  Nora tossed her head and, deciding she was much warmer with Sam’s jacket than without it, closed it more tightly around her body. Both men could freeze, as far as she was concerned. “I don’t much care, as long as it is as far away from you and my father as possible!”

  “Nora,” Sam warned, “do not cross that street.”

  “Watch me,” Nora countered, swiftly noting the absence of traffic. Ignoring the red traffic light and the Do Not Walk sign, she bypassed the cross walk and headed across the street at an angle.

  “All right, you’ve given me no choice.” Sam overtook her easily and clamped a hand on her wrist. “You’re under arrest.”

  Nora’s jaw dropped. She whirled to face Sam. “What!”

  “For jaywalking,” Sam continued.

  Nora rolled her eyes. “This is ridiculous.”

  “I agree,” Sam said sagely. “You’re old enough to know better, Nora—about a lot of things.”

  The double entendre was not lost on her. He was talking about their romance and her father, too.

  She was not about to let him lay a guilt trip on her, after what he’d done. “You are making a fool of yourself, Sam Whittaker,” she told him sternly.

  His eyes glittering dangerously, he stared down at her. “So are you,” he said, very, very softly.