Love Reclaimed: (Clean Small-Town Romance) (Kings Grove Book 4)

by Delancey Stewart

  I spent most of the next weeks with Maddie, running last minute errands for her and trying to assure her that everything would work out. The deck and plumbing were finished at the outpost, and while the retractable walls were still not functional, the forecast was good and we didn’t expect to need them for the reception. The ceremony itself was going to take place in the grove, so there wasn’t a lot of prep required there.

  The night before the wedding, I’d planned to go down and pick up Dad, bring him back to walk Maddie down the aisle, but Maddie and Connor stopped by just before I was going to head down.

  “I called him,” Maddie said, tears running down her cheeks. “He can’t come, Cam. They connected me to his room only after I begged. They warned me. He didn’t even know who I was. There’s no way it would be fair to bring him up here and force him into an unfamiliar situation like this just because it’s what I want. He wouldn’t understand. He’d be scared.” She turned and buried her face in Connor’s shoulder, and he held her.

  My heart squeezed in my chest, and a lump rose in my throat. When I touched Maddie’s arm and said, “I know,” she turned and wrapped her arms around me, dropping her head to my shoulder.

  “I miss him,” she said, crying softly. Matilda whined softly at my side and I dropped a hand to her head.

  I held my little sister tight as my dog leaned her head into us. “I miss him too,” I said, hating the irony of both of us missing someone who was technically still here, but who we’d never really be with again. “I miss him too.”

  Connor backed up a bit and wandered over to where the puppies were leaping and playing in the pen where they spent more time now, and as I held my sister, I saw Harper and Tuck come out to talk to him, but I stayed with my sister.

  “It’s so unfair,” Maddie whispered.

  “I’ll walk you down the aisle, Mads,” I said, knowing it wasn’t the same thing—I was a sorry compromise.

  “That’s not what I mean.” She looked up at me then, wiping at her eyes. “For Dad. It’s just so unfair to have to live like that. To be like he is…so—“ she broke down again and I pulled her back against me.

  Dad had been sick a long time, and things had been deteriorating. But we had never really talked about it beyond eventualities and monthly bills. Maybe we’d both been in denial a little bit, because the truth wasn’t easy or pretty. The truth was unjust and horrible. And now the truth was making my little sister cry, and I hated it.

  “I’m so sorry, Mads.” I rubbed her back and wished I could fix things for her.

  “Me too,” she said, sniffing. Then she stepped back and looked up at me. “I’m so glad I have you.”

  “We have each other,” I said.

  She nodded and dried her eyes. Tuck and Harper had disappeared back into the big house, and I felt disappointment weave between my skin and my bones, settling deep. After a bit, Maddie and Connor sat with me as the fire pit glowed to life and the light faded from the August sky.

  “You guys ready for all this?” I asked. The wedding was the next day, and while lots of couples spent that night apart, or ran around having bachelor parties, Maddie and Connor didn’t want any of that. Though they’d arrive separately to the grove where the actual ceremony was to take place, they wanted to spend their last night unmarried together.

  They looked at each other in answer to my question, a smile passing between them that made my own heart feel empty and cold. I’d been married once, but I didn’t think I’d had what Connor and Maddie clearly shared—and I wanted it.

  For years now, I’d been satisfied to live alone, to accept that I’d gotten from life what it was going to offer me, to accept that maybe I was intended to be alone now. But then Harper had arrived, had woken me up to the possibility of something else. And then Matilda had shown me that there was still an abundance of love and affection inside me. And realizing how alone I still was just made the space inside me feel even more hollow and vast.

  When Maddie and Connor got up to leave, I hugged my sister tight and shook Connor’s hand, and then watched them walk away together, holding hands as they disappeared into the darkness to walk home around the meadow.

  I sat back down, Matilda pressed into my legs, and thought hard about the way I’d constructed my life, the aching hollow in my chest telling me I couldn’t go on this way. I missed my sister, though she’d just been here. I missed having life around me—I missed Harper. I found I missed even the shrieking howl of the mountain lion.

  Chapter 18

  HARPER

  That last week, I was a mess.

  I poured myself into work and into actively avoiding Cameron and saying my goodbyes to everyone else. There wasn’t a person I told of my plans to leave early who didn’t understand, but that didn’t make it easier.

  Annie and Maddie both cried when I told them. I’d told Annie over a cup of coffee when we’d finally managed to find time to get together.

  “But this was supposed to be our catch up coffee,” she’d said. “I just got you back! You can’t leave again, Harper.”

  I had tried to stay upbeat. “It’s been the plan all along. It’s just happening a little sooner than I meant for it to. But maybe it’s a good thing. It’s hard enough leaving now. I can’t imagine what it’d be like if I’d stayed another three months.” It was hard enough avoiding Cam for the past few weeks.

  “That’s because you’re not supposed to leave,” she said. “But I’ll be happy for you, okay? Just as soon as I’m finished feeling sorry for myself about losing you again.”

  Maddie had been similarly supportive but sad, except with her, there’d been something else—Maddie didn’t hide that she had hoped Cam and I would find our way together.

  “I can’t believe he’s letting you go,” she’s said through gritted teeth.

  “It’s fine,” I had told her.

  “Liar.” Maddie had gotten to know me well. “You care about him.”

  “It’s pointless,” I said. “He won’t take the chance.”

  “I think he would. Eventually. You sure you can’t stay a while longer? He’s being an idiot--he’s scared, and he’s a man… those two things don’t always combine well, you know. He’ll come around.”

  I sighed, leaning on my elbows across the bar top at the diner as Maddie watched me hopefully from the other side. “There’s also a chance he won’t. I can’t put my life on hold, hoping for something that might not happen. I’ve told him how I feel. I’ve asked him if there’s a possibility. He can’t answer, and I can’t just wait.”

  “Of course not.”

  “It was fun while it lasted. Maybe meeting me has helped push him a step further toward getting over everything. Maybe the next girl he meets…” I trailed off. I couldn’t even finish the sentence. The idea of Cam with another woman wasn’t something I liked thinking about.

  Maddie had come around the counter then and pulled me into a big hug. “I’ll miss you,” she whispered.

  Even Adele had squeezed my hand as I’d left the diner that day, clearly having pried enough gossip from those who frequented the place to know exactly what was going on. “We’ll miss you, darlin.”

  “Thanks, Adele.”

  The morning of the wedding, my bags were packed into my car and I was ready to go. I’d stay long enough to make sure everything went off without a hitch, and then I needed to get going. I had a crate all ready in the back seat for the puppy I was going to take with me—I’d tried to tell myself I shouldn’t take one, but I had fallen in love with them all. I wanted a little piece of the time I’d spent here. A little piece of what could have been. The puppy I’d chosen was a tri-color pup with blue eyes who looked a lot like her mother.

  “Ready for this?” Tuck asked me as he pulled together all the camera equipment. He wore a suit, and my breath caught in my throat at the sight of him.

  “Holy… you clean up nice, Tuck.” I’d seen him in his usual scruffy surfer attire, but shaven and coiffed, the big Aussie wa
s impressive. For a second, I saw the man he was in place of the friend I’d grown to love over these past weeks.

  “Not so bad yourself, squirt,” he said, winking as I twirled for him, my pink bias-cut hem flaring slightly as I did.

  “Let’s go,” I said. “You’re driving. My car is stuffed to the gills.”

  I gathered my notes and clipboard, sweater and purse, and we got into Tuck’s car and headed out to the highway. I’d stopped by the reception venue earlier, meeting Mike there. Everything was set, and I had no doubt it would be perfect. The morning had dawned clear and bright, and the temperature was forecast to be in the high seventies. It was wedding weather, and my heart swelled with happiness for Maddie.

  The actual ceremony was taking place in the middle of an ancient grove of Sequoias that stood just across the highway from town. There was a trail there but no road, so we’d gotten permission from the park to lay a planked walkway from the parking lot and to ferry older and less capable guests on the big four-wheel golf carts owned by the Inn. Tuck and I walked down the short trail, arriving to the clearing where chairs were set in rows and the forest floor was decorated in fresh green pine needles and scattered with flower petals. It looked like some kind of woodland princess wedding, and I sighed at the perfection.

  The end of each row of chairs was decorated with a simple bouquet of roses, the dark red set off perfectly by the forest’s natural landscape, and the white satin bows on each one standing out against the petals and greenery.

  As guests arrived, the sun blazed through the trunks of massive trees to one side, casting the entire scene in a golden light that seemed to sprinkle and sift from the treetops.

  I stood at the back and watched as Cam, Chance, and Sam seated guests, and Connor arrived, looking surprisingly nervous as he pulled at his tie.

  “You doing okay?” I asked him when he approached.

  He slid a finger around the tight collar at his throat. “It’s been a long time since I’ve worn a suit,” he said, the sunlight glinting in the red of his hair. He gazed around at the crowd and then looked down at me, his eyes twinkling. “Yeah, Harper. I’m good. Maddie’s gonna love this. You’ve done a fantastic job. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said, feeling myself glow under the praise.

  Connor stationed himself at the front, and Mike joined me at the back of the crowd, watching as everyone was seated and arranged. Tuck circled with the camera in his hand after stationing another camera up front on a tripod and a third to one side.

  A string quartet had begun to play, set off to one side at the front, and the strains of Pachelbel and Hayden drifted through the forest like butterflies being unleashed one by one.

  “It’s magical,” Mike said. “This is amazing, Harper.”

  “A lot of this was Maddie’s idea,” I reminded her.

  “But the setting…you were right about it.”

  “A Kings Grove wedding should happen in the grove,” I said. I knew it would be perfect.

  Mike put an arm around me then, squeezing my shoulders and leaning her head for a moment on the top of mine. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

  I raised a hand up, making sure my updo was still in place and smiled at her. “I’ll miss you too. Thank you for giving me a chance.”

  She shook her head, and her eyes shone. “I’d keep you on forever if you’d let me,” she said. “You sure a raise won’t change your mind?”

  I swiped at my own eyes. “We already said goodbye,” I laughed. “I don’t want to ruin my makeup again.”

  She sighed. “Fine. But I hope they know what they’re getting down there in Austin.”

  “I’ll make sure they do.”

  She turned back to the crowd just as Cam escorted Adele and Frank to their seats. “And I hope he knows what he’s letting go.”

  “I don’t want to cry, Mike.” I whispered, not willing to think anymore about Cam, about what I once thought might be possible between us.

  Mike took my hand and squeezed. “I’m sorry.”

  “Hey,” came a whispered call from behind us. We turned to find Miranda standing holding two bouquets of red roses, looking worried.

  “You look amazing,” I told her. She and Mike wore similar dresses, both a steely grey that matched the ties worn by Chance, Sam, Cam, and Connor.

  “Thank you,” she said. “Mike, we’d better get into place.” I followed them through the trees and behind the cover of some tall brush where Maddie waited, shifting her weight nervously in her long white sheath.

  “You look perfect,” I told her. Her hair was piled on top of her head, a few tendrils hanging around her neck and face, and while I’d heard that brides glowed before, in this case it was absolutely true.

  We all squealed for a minute, hugging one another and making last minute adjustments, and then the music changed, signaling that it was time to start.

  “I’ll cue you,” I promised, stepping back around the bushes so I could signal each bridesmaid when it was time for her to walk. Cam had taken his place at the back of the crowd, ready to walk Maddie down the aisle, and when I saw him, my heart juddered in my chest. I swallowed hard noticing the way his dark hair was offset by the charcoal suit, the way the jacket followed the broad line of his shoulders down to the narrow waist.

  He turned to look behind him then, and our eyes met. For a moment, I thought I felt something there besides the sadness I’d felt the last few times I’d seen him, the finality of whatever we might have shared drifting away from us. A spark flew between us, and every inch of my skin caught fire under his hot gaze. I swore I could read something in those bright eyes, some kind of question I might answer, some kind of promise I might make. But I was pretty sure it was too late for any of that.

  I turned away, actually having to gasp to catch my breath. And then the wedding began.

  Tuck gave me a thumbs up from the front of the space, where he was ready with the camera in hand, and I nodded at him.

  I signaled, and Miranda met Sam at the back of the crowd, the two of them walking arm in arm down the center aisle, parting with a kiss at the end as Sam went to stand with Connor.

  Chance and Mike were next, and the elegant couple glided down the aisle to take their places in front.

  Finally, the first strains of the bridal march rose from the quartet, and the crowd rose. I signaled Maddie and gave her a smile, and she straightened and walked to where her brother waited for her, his eyes shining. He smiled as she neared, and I saw one of the things I knew I loved about him then—his adoration for his little sister. I admired how he cared about her, how devoted he was to her. A momentary sigh filled me—why couldn’t he let himself love me the same way? Cam smiled and gave his sister his arm and they walked slowly up the aisle. It was perfect, and I stood at the back on a gentle slope, watching the crowd take their seats again as the officiant raised her voice to begin the ceremony.

  Sunlight gleamed from between the sturdy wide trunks all around us, and the grove felt more like a sanctuary than many churches I’d been inside in my life. The forest was almost quiet in its stillness, the occasional birdcall or chitter of a squirrel filtering through the trees to where the crowd sat, rapt and quiet as the officiant’s strong sweet voice rang through the space talking about love and honor and trust. The atmosphere was ethereal, the natural setting so colorful in its deep greens and ruddy browns that the roses felt almost unnecessary.

  I wiped at a tear as the ceremony concluded and Connor pulled Maddie into his arms, cementing their union with a kiss that stole my breath, even from twenty feet away. When they separated, Maddie and Connor raised their joined hands and smiled at the audience, and the crowd broke into applause.

  Tuck worked with the photographer Maddie had brought in to coordinate some footage and stills as Maddie and Connor left, climbing into a decorated four-wheeler for the ride back to the Inn, where they’d take some more photos before the reception. At the same time, the rest of the wedding party and
I helped guests back up the slope and handed them direction cards to navigate to the Inn. The golf carts were running in trips to the parking lot, too, for those who didn’t want to walk.

  We’d marked the short drive to the outpost with signs, so those driving from the main lot in town should have no issues, and before long, the sanctuary under the trees was empty except for me and the high school kids I’d hired to put away the chairs and clean up. I gave them a few directions, and then made my way up toward the reception.

  “The ceremony went perfectly,” Maddie gushed when I checked in with her at the Inn where she was finishing up photos. “Thank you for everything.”

  I gave her a hug, promised her the reception would be every bit as perfect and then went to find Tuck, who was dutifully setting up the stationary cameras and filming as guests mingled on the big sweeping outpost deck under the enormous trees.

  “Thank you for all your help,” I told him.

  “Course, Harper,” he smiled down at me. “Why do I get the sense you’re saying goodbye?”

  I glanced across the open space to where Cam stood at the bar, smiling as he spoke to some of the guests who had come up from out of town, and felt my heart squeeze painfully. “Because I am,” I told him. “I’ve got the car ready to go, and there’s no point in staying. You and Cam can handle the editing, and Mike already knows I’m leaving.”

  “Tonight though?” Tuck asked, frowning.

  I nodded. I couldn’t stay any longer. It was too hard. There was too much I wanted here that I couldn’t have. “Right now,” I confirmed.

  Tuck pulled me into a hug tight enough to force tears from my eyes—or maybe they would have come anyway. “Gonna miss you, roomie,” he whispered. “So will Cam.”

  “Take care of him, okay?” I managed, though my voice cracked.

  “He’s a fool,” Tuck told me, letting me go.

  “Or maybe I am,” I said. “Bye Tuck.”