At Home in Stone Creek & Rancher's Wild Secret by Linda Lael Miller

Author:Linda Lael Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-01-12T14:34:09+00:00

Two weeks later

Stone Creek Presbyterian Church

“It’s tacky,” Olivia protested to Melissa, zipping herself into her bridesmaid’s dress with some difficulty, since she was still a little on the pudgy side from having the twins. “Coming to a wedding with a U-Haul hitched to the back of your car!”

Melissa rolled her eyes. “I have to be in Phoenix bright and early Monday morning to start my new job,” she said, yet again. The three sisters had been over the topic many times. Most of Melissa’s belongings had already been moved to the fancy condo in Scottsdale; the rented trailer contained the last of them.

Initially, flushed with the success of helping Ashley steer the bed-and-breakfast through the Valentine’s Day rush, Melissa had seemed to be wavering a little on the subject of moving away. After all, she liked her job at the small, local firm where she’d worked since graduating from law school, but then Dan Guthrie had suddenly eloped with Holly the Waitress. Now nothing would move Melissa to stay.

She was determined to shake the dust of Stone Creek off her feet and start a whole new life—elsewhere.

Ashley turned her back to her sisters and her mind to her wedding, smoothing the beaded skirt of her ivory-silk gown in front of the grainy full-length mirror affixed to the back of the pastor’s office door. She and Melissa had scoured every bridal shop within a two-hundred-mile radius to find it, while Olivia searched the Internet, and the dress was perfect.

Not so the bridesmaids’ outfits, Ashley reflected, happily rueful. They were bright yellow taffeta, with square necklines, puffy sleeves, big bows at the back, and way too many ruffles.

What was I thinking? Ashley asked herself, stifling a giggle.

The answer, of course, was that she hadn’t been thinking. She’d fallen wholly, completely and irrevocably in love with Jack McKenzie, dazed in the daytime, crazed at night, when they made love until they were both sweaty and breathless and gasping for air.

The yellow dresses must have seemed like a good idea at the time, she supposed. Olivia and Melissa had surely argued against that particular choice—but Ashley honestly had no memory of it.

“We’re going to look like giant parakeets in the pictures,” Olivia complained now, but her eyes were warm and moist as she came to stand behind Ashley in front of the mirror. “You look so beautiful.”

Ashley turned, and she and Olivia embraced. “I’ll make it up to you,” Ashley said. “Having to wear those awful dresses, I mean.”

Melissa looked down at her billowing skirts and shuddered. “I don’t see how,” she said doubtfully.

A little silence fell.

Olivia straightened Ashley’s veil.

“I wish Mom and Dad and Big John could be here,” Ashley admitted softly.

“I know,” Olivia replied, kissing her cheek.

The church organist launched into a prelude to “Here Comes the Bride.”

“Showtime,” Melissa said, giving Ashley a quick squeeze. “Be happy.”

Ashley nodded, blinking. She couldn’t cry now. It would make her mascara run.

A rap sounded at the office door, and Brad entered at Olivia’s “Come in,” looking beyond handsome in his tuxedo.

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