The open trunk of Annette’s car, parked in Max’s driveway, showed suitcases and a hanging bag. She closed the trunk lid, and through the rear window, Steve saw a large box and two shopping bags.
He was out of the SUV practically before the engine stopped.
“Annette.”
She turned, her eyes widening.
“You’re not leaving like this. If you go, I’ll follow you and I’ll keep following you. You thought it was bad when you first came back? You have no idea—”
“Steve—”
“No. Not this time. No Even Steven. No Corbett code. No Trevetti running away from Tobias. And no damned being apart. This town isn’t worth losing you again. This time we’re going to talk it out. Right now. I love you. You love me. And we both love Nell. There’s a way to make a family out of that, and we’re going to figure it out if it kills me.”
“All right.”
“All right?”
“Well, I don’t like the if it kills you part, but the rest of it, yeah. All right.”
He stared at her. Wanting to touch her but afraid to. If he touched her, he knew what would happen, and the words would go unspoken. Sometimes words really did need to be spoken. And spoken in the moment. He’d learned that.
“I told my mother I know I’m not Ambrose’s biological son.” He saw her searching his face for signs, and to his surprise he gave a half grin. He would never have thought he could come close to a grin in connection with that confrontation, and certainly not so soon. “It’s okay, Annette. She didn’t leave any wounds—visible or invisible.”
He wasn’t sure he could say the same about leaving his mother unwounded. But the only way to do that would have been to live life according to Lana Corbett’s twisted rules, and he’d decided a long time ago not to do that. He just hadn’t taken the final step by bringing her secrets and lies into the daylight between them. Until today. Until Annette came back into his life.
A soft breath slipped from between her lips. “I’m glad.”
He jerked his gaze from her lips. Had to finish this now. Say the words now. If he let himself get sidetracked…
“I also told her I’m going to tell Nell the truth about Lily and about Zach. She’s going to have all the facts to go on.”
“Oh, Steve—”
“Gradually, and as gently as I can, I’m going to give her the whole truth. Then it will be up to her if she wants anyone else to know the truth.”
“I know you’ll do it the best way possible.”
“I’ll do it even better if you’re there to help me.”
“Steve—”
“I know—I know it’s no bargain to have this town thinking you’ve signed up to raise a daughter I had with another woman, but unless Nell—”
“I don’t give a damn if anyone in this town or anywhere else thinks that, but I don’t think you’re giving most of Tobias enough credit.”
He grinned. “No?”
“No. Look how many came through in such a short time for Miss Trudi. I realized something when your mother went on the warpath and Nell came to me. It wouldn’t have been that hard to track you down in Madison, but I didn’t even think about trying to get hold of you or Max. I didn’t slip back into poor little Annette mode. I stayed who I’ve become.”
He didn’t see the big surprise in that, but if she was happy, he was happy.
“And then I had this interesting conversation with Miss Trudi while we were waiting for your mother to show up.” She extended her closed fist, turned it over, then slowly opened her fingers.
Resting in her open palm was a familiar big old-fashioned key. Miss Trudi’s back door.
“I figured we needed some time to…sort things out. But I couldn’t very well stay in Max’s office anymore with Juney coming back.”
“Stay.” He cleared his throat. His hopes of a future with her had been soaring, but he’d figured it would be elsewhere. “You’ve decided to stay? But you said no to the job.”
“I’m not staying for the job. I wasn’t absolutely sure until you made that idiotic announcement that you would be leaving, and that was so clearly wrong I couldn’t let that happen. I was going to wait to move my stuff to Miss Trudi’s on Sunday, but then I thought why not do it now, since Miss Trudi was offering me a room, which happens to have a private door outside and to be in the opposite wing from the rest of the livable rooms. Lots of privacy.” Her dark eyes caught fire. “Starting tonight.”
“I have a house with a nice, big bed.”
“A very nice bed.” But she shook her head even as her eyes heated. “And an impressionable seven-year-old down the hall. This is better. I can help Miss Trudi out and plan her new home.”
He pressed his palm over hers, holding the key between them, then curled his hand around hers and tugged her to him.
“That sorting out you mentioned, I think we’ve done most of it, don’t you?” With his free hand he brushed wind-whipped strands of dark hair from her face.
“Yes.” Her voice had gone whispery, and he liked that.
“So, this time you think we need…we could use it for something else.”
“I suppose. If we had something else we needed to use that time for.”
“We do.”
“Do we?”
“Yeah. To arrange a wedding where we can say we do.”
She tipped her head. “Aren’t you supposed to ask, not tell?”
“I asked once, and we never got to the we do part. I thought I’d try something different this time. One thing I should warn you about in the interests of full disclosure. It’s not just me and Nell you’re signing on for. Looks like we’re getting a puppy come spring.”
As desperate as he’d been to go after Annette, he’d taken a few minutes to tell Nell he hoped Annette would marry him. Somehow he’d heard himself promising she could have a puppy, and then she threw her arms around his neck and said she loved him and loved Annette.
“I know.”
“You know? But how? I just told her—”
“Shut up and kiss me.”
So he did. And that led to another thought, when he could think again.
“How soon can we arrange a wedding?”
“A simple wedding?”
He nodded, rubbing his cheek against her hair. “Simple, and fast—that’s my idea of the perfect wedding.”
Epilogue
“If anyone knows just cause why these two people—”
Annette heard the side door of the Chapel of the Woods outside Tobias, Wisconsin, emit a squawk at being opened, but she didn’t turn.
It was the day of her wedding to Steve Corbett, the man she loved. The man who had pledged to love and stand beside her.
The man who’d planned every detail of this simple ceremony with her—a new wedding for a new century.
She also heard the ripple of uneasiness from some people in the church behind her and the faint questioning in the minister’s voice as she repeated, “Why these two people—”
Next to Annette, her seven-year-old maid of honor craned her neck to see what was going on. Beyond Steve, she was aware of Max, from his position as best man, turning toward the side door.
But all that was peripheral. Because what was at the center of her attention was the man standing beside her.
Steve’s eyes met hers, and the glint was already there.
That’s all it took. She pressed her lips together, but the laughter burbled out anyhow, and his chuckles were right there with her as he grasped her hand.
The quiet of the church behind them and the startled expression of the minister in front of them said no one knew what to make of this bride and groom.
Then Nell giggled, and soon the sound spread across the church.
Only then did Annette look over her shoulder and see that the latecomer was Suz, sinking into a pew as if she wished it would open up and swallow her. Annette sent her friend a reassuring smile even as she wiped a trickle of moisture from the corner of
one eye.
Steve leaned over and dabbed at her other eye, his smiling mouth providing a sore temptation so close.
“I know,” he murmured, and she saw the same heat and impatience in his eyes. “Go ahead, Jean,” he told the minister. “Hurry up and get to the we do.”
The minister continued the ceremony, they each said I do, strong and clear and unmistakable, and at the end the minister declared what Annette and Steve had known for some time—that they were joined as husband and wife.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-3685-1
WEDDING OF THE CENTURY
Copyright © 2003 by Patricia McLaughlin
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* Wedding Series
†† Something Old, Something New…
† A Place Called Home
** Wyoming Wildflowers
Wedding of the Century Page 22
