He drew in a deep breath, ran a hand through his hair, exhaled, then glanced at his watch—11:27 a.m. Three minutes to spare.
Jennifer was pacing and jiggling Carter in her arms when Rich pushed open the bedroom door. Funny, he hadn’t noticed what she looked like when she first came in, probably because of the crisis with Caitlyn, but he sure noticed now.
She had chosen something more sophisticated than he had seen her in before. Instead of the long, sacky dresses, she wore a pale blue suit. The skirt was knee-length, revealing the legs of a chorus girl, and the form-fitting jacket showed off her curves in a way Rich really appreciated. Her long, dark brown hair was done up in one of those funny braids that looked both sophisticated and girlish at the same time.
He liked what he saw.
Jennifer’s back was to him as she walked the floor. Rich cleared his throat. “Will I pass inspection?”
Jennifer turned quickly. She seemed to take a short breath or, maybe, she gasped. Her eyes grew wide, but she didn’t speak.
Rich looked down, brushed at a speck of dust, then asked, “What’s wrong?”
Jennifer swallowed and shook her head. “Nothing,” she said, sounding positively strangled.
Caitlyn tugged at his jacket hem. “You look like a handsome pwince from a fairy tale, Uncle Witch.”
“I couldn’t have said it better, myself,” Jennifer agreed. “You look…” She paused for a moment. “You look fantastic.”
Fantastic was an understatement, Jennifer thought as she took in the man in his resplendent, military glory. Rich had looked great in his camouflage fatigues, civilian clothes, and Lord knows, he’d looked like the hero on the cover of a romance novel with his shirt off, but this…This was by far the best.
“I’m not used to getting this dressed up,” Rich said.
“You look fine,” Jennifer said. “Like you do it every day.” And, she couldn’t help thinking, he looked good every day. When he had been hesitantly asking her for help finding his sister, when he’d been confused and vulnerable after he’d found her, even when he’d been at his most “take charge,” he’d looked great.
“Oh, yeah,” Jennifer repeated, her voice breathy and low. “You look just fine.”
THIRTY MINUTES and three false tries at getting all the kids’ paraphernalia arranged in Jennifer’s car later, they were finally on the way. Rich hoped that Jennifer had been right about them not being able to start without the flower girl, because they were going to be late unless a miracle happened.
And he hadn’t witnessed any miracles lately.
Unless he counted finding Sherry so quickly. He glanced at Jennifer, concentrating on the Labor Day weekend traffic on the road ahead. Maybe, Jennifer was a miracle, too. She’d certainly come to his rescue this time. Twice, if he counted helping him figure out what had happened to Sherry.
Jennifer had, at first, seemed like the most unlikely of investigators when he’d marched into her office and made what he thought was an impossible request. But she hadn’t batted an eyelash, just calmly took down the information and called back with the results in less than a day.
How could a guy like him get so lucky?
“Uncle Witch?”
He glanced at Caitlyn, strapped into her car booster seat in the back. “What, short stuff?”
She grimaced. “I am not short. I’m almost old enough to go to school,” she informed him haughtily. “What happens at a weddy?”
Rich drew in a deep breath. “The two people who are getting married stand up in front of a minister. The minister asks them some questions, and they make some promises, then they kiss, and they’re married.”
“They have to kiss?”
Jennifer saved him. “They don’t have to,” she said matter-of-factly. “But they usually do. It’s sort of the way they seal their promise.”
“Why don’t they just shake hands?”
Rich swallowed a chuckle, and he noted that Jennifer’s lips twitched, too. “They like to kiss each other. They want to.”
“Yuk,” said Caitlyn. “When I get married I’m gonna just shake hands.”
Jennifer trembled with suppressed laughter, but she didn’t comment.
“You’ll want to by the time you’re old enough to get married,” Rich finally said, glancing over his shoulder at Caitlyn.
She made a skeptical face, but she didn’t comment. And Rich was fine with that.
JENNIFER PULLED into the church parking lot with seven minutes to spare. Too close for comfort in her book, but at least they weren’t late. The parking lot was jammed, but they found a spot not too far from the door.
Mrs. Benton, the next-door neighbor they had met that first night, was on the steps scanning the incoming traffic. “We’d better put Mrs. Benton out of her misery,” Jennifer said as she turned off the engine.
“Who?” Apparently, Rich hadn’t seen her.
“Mrs. Benton, Sherry’s neighbor. We met her that first night when we were looking for Sherry. She’s out front, probably waiting for us.”
“They can’t start wifout the flower girl,” Caitlyn chimed, saving Jennifer from explaining. Sometimes, men were so clueless.
“Oh, yeah. I guess you’re right,” he said as he opened his door. He climbed out of the car, unfolding himself and arching.
Jennifer felt a twinge of pity, but he would have been in worse shape if he’d tried to drive her compact car. “Wave to Mrs. Benton so she knows we’ve arrived.” She reached for her purse, and checked her makeup. Her lipstick needed a touch-up, but the rest was fine. “I’m sure Mrs. Benton and Rebecca need Caitlyn right away. I’ll get Carter as soon as I’m done.”
“It’s okay, Jen’fer. I’m alweady unhooked,” Caitlyn said, pushing the strap up over her head.
Rich bent over and lifted her out. “Don’t want to wrinkle that pretty dress climbing down.” He set her carefully on her feet on the oyster shell parking lot, executed a shallow bow, then straightened and crooked his arm. “Shall we go, Miss Connolly?”
Caitlyn giggled, and reached up to take his arm.
An unfamiliar rush of emotion made it difficult for Jennifer to swallow for a moment, and she blinked away tears. Rich was so patient with the child. Even last night when he’d been so obviously overwhelmed with everything, he hadn’t lost his temper.
She wondered how long that would last.
She knew all too well what short fuses those macho men had. She’d seen it firsthand. Her ex would be patient up to a point, then he’d explode worse than Mount Saint Helens. Take it from her, it wasn’t fun to be on the wrong side of those explosions.
No. Jennifer shook her head. That was in the past. It was over and done with. This was supposed to be a happy day.
Still, she wondered as she touched up her lipstick. How long would this calm before the storm hold?
RICH HERDED Caitlyn to the top of the steps and handed her off to Mrs. Benton.
“So glad you finally got here,” Mrs. Benton said more to Caitlyn than to Rich. “Miss Rebecca is as nervous as a butterfly in a hurricane. Can’t seem to light anywhere.”
“I’m here now,” Caitlyn said. “We can start the weddy now.”
Mrs. Benton, nodded absently, then looked confused.
“Caitlyn has an overinflated view of her importance in the ceremony,” Rich explained. “We were worried that we’d be late and they’d have to wait for the flower girl.”
“Oh. I see.” Mrs. Benton smiled, but she seemed distracted at the same time.
“Is something else wrong?”
“Ye—” Mrs. Benton cut herself off and shook her head. “No, I’ll let Rebecca explain it.” Then she took Caitlyn’s hand. “The wedding’s soon to start. You’d best get your friend and the baby inside and find your seats.”
Rich turned to see Jennifer unfastening Carter from the car seat. She straightened, balanced the baby on her hip and turned. She’d said she didn’t know anything about kids, but to him, she seemed a natural. It’s a s
hame they didn’t have a house full of their own kids.
He smiled as Jennifer produced a white lace handkerchief from a pocket and wiped Carter’s face. Then Rich swallowed quickly and almost choked. What had he just been thinking?
No, he told himself. That was just a…a Freudian slip or something. He didn’t want kids or a wife. He was too busy. Gone all the time. He wasn’t ready to be married or settled down. Besides, he wasn’t about to follow in his father’s footsteps.
Jennifer joined him on the steps, and he dragged himself away from that disastrous line of thought. Maybe it was just that he was at a wedding, even if it hadn’t started yet. Hadn’t he heard somewhere that weddings triggered all kinds of mushy thoughts in people?
“Are you ready?” Jennifer asked as she handed Carter to him and brushed at her suit.
“Yeah,” he said, his voice husky, his thoughts confused. He tried to shake the unfamiliar emotions away. “You look great, by the way. If I haven’t told you already.”
Jennifer gifted him with a brilliant smile. “Thanks.”
Mrs. Benton pushed open the church door and beckoned frantically to them. “Come on,” she said. “We’re waiting for you.”
Rich drew in a deep breath. “I guess this is it,” he said, adjusting his grip on Carter and offering Jennifer his arm as he had to Caitlyn earlier. “We’d best find our seats.”
Jennifer nodded. “Will your sister like me?” she asked unexpectedly as they stepped into the cool interior of the small church.
“Well, yeah,” he answered for lack of anything else. “Why shouldn’t she?”
Before Jennifer could answer, Rebecca Tucker peeked out of the bride’s room. “Rich,” she said, looking more nervous than a blushing bride should. “Be sure to stay for the reception. I have to talk to you.”
Rich supposed Rebecca needed to set up the handoff arrangements for the kids, but he didn’t have a chance to think about it for long.
A teenage usher came up to them. “They’re saving you seats up front,” he said. “Follow me.”
Rather than delay the ceremony any further, Rich followed the young man as he led them to the front of the church.
Rich spotted Sherry in a wheelchair parked at the end of the front pew. The torturous-looking halo was gone, though angry, red marks showed where it had been attached, and she still wore a cumbersome neck brace. Her chair was set at an angle, so that she wouldn’t have to turn her head too far to see the flower girl, the bride or the ceremony.
Her face lit up with a brilliant smile when she saw them. Carter must have seen her at the same time, for he lurched in Rich’s arms and leaned, arms outstretched like an animated divining rod, toward his mother.
Carter started to cry as Rich lowered him into his mother’s lap.
“Oh, I have missed you so much, you sweet thing,” Sherry murmured, her voice sounding thick and husky as she pulled her son close and kissed the top of his fuzzy head, soothing him. Then she looked up, her eyes misty and bright with tears.
“I missed you, too,” she said to Rich. She smiled though her eyes were still shining and watery and reached out to squeeze his hand. “Now sit down so we can get this show on the road.”
RICH ROSE and stood, hip to hip, with Jennifer by his side in the front row of the bride’s side of the church. Though he should have paid more attention to the way Caitlyn marched down the aisle performing her flower girl duties, all he could think about was the woman by his side. The beaming flower girl reached the end of the aisle, dumped the remaining flower petals on the floor in a heap, and flounced onto the seat between Rich and Sherry. She gave her mother a loud kiss on the cheek.
“Mommy,” she announced in a stage whisper. “Didn’t I do a great job?”
There was a quiet titter of amusement from the congregation, then a collective sigh as everyone turned to look at Rebecca as she and her father marched slowly down the aisle.
Sherry smiled indulgently, squeezed her daughter in a quiet hug, making a sandwich with Carter in the middle. “Shh,” she said. “We have to be quiet now.” She raised a finger to her lips. “You can tell me about being a flower girl later.”
“Okay,” Caitlyn said in another stage whisper, then settled onto the hard surface of the pew, taking up more space on the seat than was her fair share.
Caitlyn’s position on the pew pushed Rich closer to Jennifer as they took their seats. The place where he brushed against her, though separated by layers of clothing, tingled with awareness.
Rich shot a quick glance sideways and wondered if Jennifer felt the same. She seemed so calm, so serene as she sat quietly beside him, her eyes on the couple at the altar.
Yet, when his gaze settled on her, Rich sensed a flicker of interest in Jennifer’s dark brown eyes. Her hands were folded primly on her lap, clutching her small, summer purse, and Rich couldn’t resist the urge. He covered her slender fingers with his and squeezed. Then he held his breath until he was certain Jennifer wouldn’t jerk her hand away.
Jennifer flexed her hand beneath his, and Rich dared another quick glance in her direction. A slight turning up of her lips told Rich it was all right.
That nearly imperceptible gesture of pleasure told him more than a thousand words. He drew in a sigh of satisfaction and settled back against the seat and tried to pay attention to what was supposed to be the main event. He enjoyed sitting there with Jennifer beside him like she belonged there. He enjoyed the possessive feeling of his hand on hers. As far as Rich was concerned, the rest of the ceremony was over much too soon.
“May I introduce Mr. and Mrs. Tom Williams,” the minister announced, as Rebecca and her new husband turned to face the gathered well-wishers.
Rich felt a surge of envy for the man who’d just claimed Rebecca as his forever in a church filled with witnesses. How he could be jealous of a man he’d never met, Rich didn’t know. But Tom seemed so happy, so proud. And Rich’s life suddenly seemed so…so…empty.
Would he ever know what it was like to have one woman care enough to pledge herself to him forever?
He hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about marriage and family in his twenty-eight years. At least, not in the context of his own life. He’d wondered what had become of his long lost sister and what her life was like, but prior to today, marriage had been a distant, if not abstract, thought.
Now, sitting with Jennifer so near, he wondered if that faraway notion might be closer than he’d imagined.
JENNIFER SAT next to Sherry during the reception and smiled as she watched Rich dance with Caitlyn. The little girl waltzed with her patent leather shoes braced securely on top of her Uncle Rich’s own spit-and-polished ones and held confidently on as if it were a given that he wouldn’t let her down.
Sherry leaned across the sleeping form of Carter in her lap and whispered conspiratorially, “He’s a natural, don’t you think?”
Jennifer’s breath caught in her throat. Had Sherry read her mind? “I hadn’t really thought about it,” she lied. Then her better judgment got to her. “Yes, he plays the favorite uncle very well,” she said as she raised a cup of punch to her lips.
“How long have you and Rich been dating?”
That caught her so much by surprise that she almost choked. Using the resultant cough as cover, Jennifer took a moment to formulate an answer. They hadn’t really been dating, but she felt she’d known him forever. “We’re just friends,” she said, too embarrassed to meet Sherry’s eyes.
“Oh.” Sherry blushed. “I’m sorry. I just assumed you…I don’t know what I assumed.”
“It’s all right,” Jennifer said, feeling heat rise to her own cheeks. “I don’t really know how to describe our relationship. I met Rich the day he came into my office wanting to find you.” She paused a moment to watch the man gliding across the floor with the little girl perched on his feet. “I didn’t really expect to see him again once I gave him the information.”
“Oh.” The tone was knowing, challenging.
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br /> “Oh?” Jennifer slanted a glance at Sherry. “What do you mean by that?”
“Nothing. Except that for someone who’s just in a business relationship, my big brother certainly has drawn you in deep.”
Jennifer couldn’t dispute that. Unlike her other clients, she hadn’t forgotten him once the job was done.
And she surely wouldn’t have come running to help with the children—or agreed to come to this wedding—if he’d been just a business acquaintance. And she’d never kissed a client before, much less experienced the overwhelming sexual attraction she’d felt in his arms.
“I probably won’t see him again after today,” she said too quickly. Then she crossed her fingers and hoped it wasn’t true.
Sherry just smiled.
What did she know that Jennifer didn’t?
Rich danced his niece back over to her mother and gestured to Jennifer. If he had to wear this monkey suit, he might as well get something out of it.
Jennifer colored prettily, then with a flustered look, excused herself and walked into his arms.
“Having a good time?” he asked as they began to sway to the music. Whoever invented dancing sure had got it right. It was the best excuse a guy could have to hold a woman in public.
“Yes,” Jennifer answered, her voice husky. “I’m glad I got to meet your sister.”
“Me, too,” Rich replied.
As he wondered what to say next, someone tapped his shoulder. He turned and discovered Rebecca and her groom standing at his elbow.
“Mind if we cut in?” they asked in unison.
Rich did mind, but it was their wedding so he didn’t say so. He simply relinquished his claim on Jennifer and watched as another man swept her away.
Slowly, he stepped back into the sway of the music with Rebecca in his arms. He supposed this was one of those duty dances, something he was supposed to do at a family wedding, but he’d much rather dance with the woman he’d come with.
“I want to thank you for helping with the kids,” Rebecca said.
Rich nodded, still watching Jennifer glide away.
“And…” she said slowly. “I have an even bigger favor to ask.”
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