Just Married!

by Cara Colter

  “We’re getting married the second we can get everything in order,” she agreed, feeling the delicious, familiar heat of being with him.

  “I figured the beach out front would be perfect for a wedding,” Ethan said quietly. “And that this room would be big enough for a reception the way it is right now. Your brothers have been helping me. I didn’t want to start putting it back together until I’d gone over the plan with you. I moved the nursery. And I wasn’t sure how many bedrooms we needed for six kids. Do you put two, or three in each room?”

  He was teasing her.

  “Maybe we should just think about one to begin with.”

  “Maybe, though, this might be a good time to let you know my father was a twin.”

  They were teasing each other. And she had missed it the way a swimmer who went under missed breath.

  “Don’t forget to make room for Waldo,” she said.

  “I can’t imagine it being home without him,” he answered and she thought she would melt at the way he said home and at his sincerity.

  He wanted Waldo. And so, she realized, did she. Waldo, and every other stray that came their way, and six kids. And nieces and nephews, and neighbors and friends and family.

  “Welcome home, Samantha,” he said softly.

  “Welcome home, Ethan,” she said and felt the truth of it as her heart opened completely to him.

  Home was not her apartment above Groom to Grow, and it was not the home she had grown up in and shared with her brothers. It was not this house, either, even though she could sense the future here. She knew this place could be transient. It was just sticks and stones.

  But there was a place that was not transient—it was the place their hearts found refuge and strength. And that place was with each other. Together. That was home. Nothing could put it asunder. Nothing. Not even death. Once it had been, that place existed forever.

  That place was a universal place that all of the human family longed for and recognized when they found it. Sometimes it was called Love, and she called it that now, touching his face with wondrous fingers, and with welcome.

  She chose what she saw as his dark eyes drank her in, as his lips tenderly caressed her fingertips.

  Her heart, like a sailor who had been lost at sea, raced toward him, toward the Light of Home.

  Best Man Says I Do

  By

  Shirley Jump

  Dear Reader

  It was a pleasure working with Cara Colter again on this book! We had such fun when we worked together on the In a Fairy Tale World continuity a few years ago, and when I found out I’d be paired with Cara for this project I just knew it would be a blast!

  Readers often ask me about how the collaboration process works. I’ve been fortunate to work with generous and smart authors who have brought great ideas to the table. With Cara and I, one of us said ‘beach’, the other said ‘Cape Cod’, and before we knew it the town of St John’s Cove was born.

  Throughout the writing process we each would contact the other with questions, or to share details about our characters. We collaborated on the setting, the story behind the Group of Six, and a few of the secondary characters, so that readers would see continuity from one book to the next and feel as if they had dived right into St John’s Cove when they picked up the second story.

  The project wasn’t without its challenges—any time you work with someone a part of the autonomy of writing is given up, and I moved house in the middle of this and had a couple of other life upheavals. But, because Cara and I knew each other so well from the previous continuity, those challenges were barely blips along the way.

  I hope you enjoy the Just Married! duet—this twobook adventure in St John’s Cove. There are some towns I create that I really wish were real, just so I could vacation there—and this is one of them!

  Happy reading

  Shirley

  To my own group of six back home

  Some best friends stay that way forever

  No matter how many miles are between us

  CHAPTER ONE

  VIVIAN REILLY had made a career out of making an entrance.

  Or at least, that’s what some would say in St. John’s Cove. She’d earned that reputation back in high school, and never quite lived it down.

  So when she skidded in late to Samantha and Ethan Ballard’s wedding reception, just as every guest was raising a glass to toast the new couple, there was no shortage of raised eyebrows and judgmental whispers. She could have explained her tardiness, but didn’t.

  She’d already been found guilty and sentenced to a lifetime of wagging tongues years ago.

  So instead she smoothed her dress—dark blue, form-fitting and cut just above the knee—kicked off the heels she hated and sashayed barefoot across the sandy beach at Annie’s Retreat as if she owned the place. She didn’t, but she’d hung out on these beaches often enough as a kid to know every square inch. Amanda Weston, one of Vivian’s oldest friends, waved to her from a small table set up in a cozy grouping down by the water’s edge. Vivian waved back and started toward the friendly face.

  She stopped midstep when she heard a familiar voice.

  “To Samantha and Ethan, may your every dream come true, and may you have a lifetime of happiness.”

  Vivian pivoted back toward the group gathered on the steps of the cottage as everyone raised their glasses in a toast. Samantha, Ethan—

  And Colton St. John.

  Make that Mayor Colton St. John, and also, apparently, Ethan’s best man. Colton managed to look both relaxed and sexy in a white shirt, open at the collar, and a black suit jacket. He tossed the newlyweds a grin, then sent his gaze over the gathered guests.

  Stopping when he reached Vivian.

  The whispers began to gain in volume. A group of people standing to her right said something about the mayor and Vivian and an incident back in high school. Self-consciousness dropped over Vivian like a twenty-pound coat. She swallowed hard.

  They would not get to her. They never had, and they wouldn’t now.

  Colton St. John stepped off the porch and crossed the beach, a friendly, lopsided grin on his face.

  He headed straight for the woman who had brought more trouble into his life than a hornet’s nest in a closet. If she was smart, she would keep right on going toward Amanda, but instead she found herself reaching up to smooth her hair.

  “You’re late,” he said, the grin widening. “Trying to upstage me?”

  “No, just…I got tied up with something. Lost track of time.”

  “Or were you avoiding another wedding like the plague?”

  “Of course not.” Liar.

  On the porch, Samantha and Ethan exchanged a long, tender kiss. The crowd applauded. Vivian joined in, but her hands didn’t seem to clap as loud as everyone else’s.

  “Does this mean you’re thinking of crossing over to the dark side and considering a trip down the aisle yourself?” Colton said.

  “Heck, no. This—” she waved a hand around the outdoor space “—is the closest I like to get to a wedding. I wouldn’t even be here, if Sam hadn’t asked me to stay in town for her wedding, after I made the ultimate sacrifice and put on a bridesmaid dress for Amanda.” She laughed, finally finding her footing in the easy banter. This was where she felt most comfortable with Colton, how she could maintain her distance with him. Laughter could be a very convenient wall. “I’d sooner be hog-tied and dragged through the mud than married.”

  He smirked. “Then consider me your cowboy.”

  A surge of something Vivian refused to call desire roared through her at that image. She’d simply been reading way too many romance novels, that was all.

  Colton leaned forward, and brushed at her hair. Then he paused, his blue eyes meeting hers. “You have…sprinkles in your hair. Like…ice cream sprinkles.”

  Vivian inhaled sharply, and stood still. Very, very still. A pink sprinkle tumbled to the ground before her. Then another. Edible confetti littering the beac
h between her and Colton.

  She’d seen Colton a dozen times over the last few weeks, since she had been back in town. He, Samantha, Bryce, Amanda, Charlie and she had been good friends forever. They’d grown up in the same neighborhood and banded together, eventually dubbing themselves the Group of Six.

  Friends. That was how she had kept things with Colton for a long time. And how she had left them when she’d roared out of this town five years ago. She’d thought she could keep it that way, even as she ran into him again and again. And all these weeks, she’d done a pretty good job of convincing herself she had nothing but friendly feelings toward him.

  Until he’d touched her.

  Now an earthquake had rattled the foundation of everything she thought she’d known.

  She let out a little laugh. The sound shook at the end. “I got hungry before I came here. Made a quick stop for a bite to eat. And while I was there things got…messy.”

  That was sort of the truth. She had stopped at an ice cream parlor. She had gotten messy. But only because she’d been pitching in, not dining in. Still, she wasn’t about to share that particular detail with Colton. Or anyone.

  He shook his head, chuckling. “Only you would do that. Viv, aren’t you a little old for a food fight?”

  She tossed him a grin. “Never too old for some fun, right, Colton?”

  “I bet you have that motto tattooed on your ankle.”

  “Not on my ankle,” she teased, showing him the bare skin of her leg.

  Across the room, Amanda and Charlie Weston started arguing. Neither Vivian nor Colton could hear the words, but the facial gestures and tense postures said plenty about how the fight would end up. Sure enough, a moment later, Charlie stormed out of the reception, and Amanda went in the opposite direction, tears streaming down her face. Samantha followed along with Amanda, providing a comforting hug. The DJ announced dessert inside, as if reading the need for a distraction.

  “You’d never know they just got married a few weeks ago,” Colton said as he and Vivian headed inside Annie’s Retreat along with the other guests. The cottage had been cleared to make room for more tables and a small temporary dance floor.

  “I hope Amanda and Charlie work it out. They deserve a happy ending.” Vivian sighed.

  The melancholy note in her voice surprised Colton because it was so out of character for Vivian. He snuck a glance at her.

  In his mind, he’d stamped Vivian with one label, and one label only: FRIEND. And for good reason, too.

  Except for one crazy summer when he’d been twenty-three, she just over twenty-one, and he’d thought otherwise. Then Vivian had set him straight, and reminded him the two of them were all wrong for each other, and better off staying friends.

  It was a lesson he’d never forgotten.

  But something about the passage of time, about the years Vivian had spent in California, had changed those six letters. Made him reconsider everything he thought he knew about Vivian.

  And turned her from FRIEND to WOW.

  Okay, so that was only three letters, not six, but his brain kind of sputtered to a stop whenever he looked at her. The gangly teenager he’d hung out with had turned into a tall, leggy redhead with a cascade of curls and wide emerald-green eyes that both teased and captivated him. The woman she’d become had a powerful draw, ten times stronger than when she’d been a teenager. Even hotter than when she’d been in her early twenties. Like a fine wine, Vivian Reilly definitely aged well.

  Yet, she still had that air of trouble about her, the same one that spelled all wrong for him.

  Now, though, there was also something more, something he couldn’t name.

  Something almost…

  Heartbroken.

  Yeah, that was the word. That’s what he’d seen in her eyes when she’d watched the bridal couple, when she’d seen Amanda and Charlie fighting. Only, thinking that about Viv was crazy. Of all his friends, Vivian Reilly would be the least likely to leave her heart vulnerable. She had always been the good-time girl, the partier. The one who could get him into trouble faster than he could spell the word.

  Yet another reason to steer clear of her. The last thing the mayor of St. John’s Cove needed in his life was trouble. Especially at this stage of his career, when he stood at a pivotal crossroads.

  Except, he’d seen these flashes of another side of her, and that had his curiosity piqued. Had she changed, or was she the same Vivian he remembered?

  “You seem different, Viv,” Colton said. The July heat barely abated inside the building, despite several fans. Colton lifted the edge of his collar, as a bit of relief against the early July heat, grateful Ethan had opted to have his ushers wear open shirts, with no ties. Colton would rather be in jeans and a T-shirt than a tux—bow tie or no bow tie—any day. “More…subdued.”

  “Me? Subdued?” She let out a throaty laugh. “I don’t think so.”

  “Hey, we all have to grow up sometime. Even—” Colton pretended to let out a shudder “—settle down. But not you, right? You’ve always been the queen of avoiding the noose of conformity.”

  “Yeah, that’s me.” Vivian was quiet for a moment, watching the guests on the temporary dance floor. She nudged him. “You want to get out of here?”

  “I’m the best man. I’m supposed to stay, Viv.”

  “Says who?” She leaned forward and yanked the pin out of the boutonniere on his lapel. He inhaled, catching the deep jasmine scent of her perfume. Heady, strong, like her. “Weddings are the height of boring. You stood on the altar, said your toast. Your job here is done.”

  A second later, she flung the single white rose toward the nearest table. An elderly woman let out a squeal when the floral Frisbee narrowly winged her. “Let’s do something…wild,” Vivian said, walking her fingers up his lapel.

  Sending a wild surge through his veins.

  He shouldn’t.

  He was the mayor. Wild wasn’t in the job description.

  “Viv—”

  “Come on, Colton. For old times’ sake.”

  He remembered those old times. Remembered them very well. They were the whole reason people had whispered when Vivian walked in late. Why people glanced between himself and Vivian from time to time, as if they expected the two to run off and toilet paper someone’s front yard at any second.

  He glanced across the deep green expanse of lawn. His father may have died three years ago, but the shadow of his presence remained, like storm clouds on a summer day.

  Maintain the St. John image, Edward would have said. Behave with decorum. You are a representative of this town. You are, after all, and above all, a St. John. And this is St. John’s Cove. Don’t ever forget that.

  But there was a way to have both, Colton was sure. To insert a little of what he had missed so much. Being around Vivian and the Group of Six so much in the last few weeks had reminded him how much he missed, not just such good friends, but being surrounded by people who understood him. People who knew the real Colton St. John, not Mayor St. John, but the regular person he used to be, back before he’d gone to law school, long before he’d launched his political career. It was…refreshing to be around his friends. To feel like he could be himself.

  “What exactly are you proposing, Vivian?” he asked, a grin curving up his face. “Because if I remember right, our old times got us into plenty of scrapes. Now I’m the mayor, and I’m supposed to be a good boy, you know.”

  Vivian grabbed his arm, her green eyes shining with a dare. A fire roared to life in Colton’s gut, a fire he had learned a long time ago to tamp down, to ignore, especially when it came to Viv and her ideas.

  But damned if he could quite remember why right now.

  “Why don’t you take a vacation from being a good boy, Colton St. John, and remind me what I left behind when I ditched this town five years ago.”

  Her voice was husky, low, and filled with the kind of temptation Colton knew led to only one thing—

  Trouble.

&n
bsp; The very thing he would do well to stay away from. Because if he didn’t, he’d pay a price he knew damned well he couldn’t afford.

  Ah, but how sweet would it be to go back to those days? The days of the Six, the days when he didn’t sweat the consequences?

  The days when he’d considered Vivian Reilly as so much more than a friend? The days when he hadn’t been a St. John, hadn’t been mayor, but instead just a man, and she, just a woman?

  Vivian smiled, crimson lips curving across a heart-shaped face. “You game?”

  He glanced at the sparring husband and wife in the parking area, two good friends of his, but still two friends whose marital problems were a tangled web he didn’t want to go near. He couldn’t help them, even if he wanted to. It wasn’t like he had any advice to offer about marriage. Behind him, the band launched into the “Electric Slide.” Across the room, Samantha’s elderly aunt grinned and waved at him, clearly hoping he’d join her on the parquet floor.

  “Mayor St. John!” A burly man in a too-tight shirt came barreling through the crowd, waving at Colton. “Can I have a word?”

  Bernie Kindle. A good man, but one who could talk the ears off a beagle. As much as Colton loved his job, the last thing he wanted to do right now was listen to Bernie’s latest saga about his neighbors, or his ideas about traffic lights and stop signs.

  Even the mayor liked a day off once in a while.

  “Last chance,” Vivian whispered.

  And Colton took it, choosing for the first time in a long time, escape over duty.

  CHAPTER TWO

  IT DIDN’T take long for Colton to come to his senses. He might entertain the idea of escape, but that was about all he could afford to do—entertain it. He was happy with his career, and the last thing he wanted was to endanger that with a visit to the local jail.