The Bridal Arrangement by Cindy Gerard

Author:Cindy Gerard
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Silhouette Desire
Published: 2001-01-03T05:00:00+00:00

Six

“He watches you.” Peg Lathrop lifted a forkful of wedding cake and grinned at Ellie.

Ellie blinked, then looked at the young woman who had sought her out where she’d sat in the corner of the living room surrounded by wrapping paper and the wedding gifts she and Lee had recently opened.

When Peg laughed at Ellie’s look of disbelief, Ellie searched for Lee. She found him standing in the arched doorway that separated the living room from the dining room. He was watching her, but he quickly looked away and returned his attention to Dorothy Ferguson, who had arrived with a slow-moving Don in tow.

“Can’t keep his eyes off you,” Peg added knowingly when Ellie met her gaze again.

“Um,” was all Ellie could manage as she looked from Peg to Lee again.

He looked so tall and lean, so confident and strong as he laughed at something Dorothy said, his white teeth flashing, the creases around his eyes and mouth deepening.

She thought about that mouth, about the way it had felt on hers the day of their wedding, the morning after in her bed and later in the tub. She thought about it when she washed dishes or when she was gathering eggs. She thought about it each night, as she lay alone in her bed.

Peg touched her arm, smiling softly. “So I take it the feeling’s mutual?”

The pair of embroidered pillowcases Martha Good had given them as a wedding gift suddenly became the focus of her attention. She wanted desperately to confide in Peg. She had always been one of Ellie’s most special alliances. Peg was twenty-six and a single mom. In Sundown, Montana, population 473, that alone was a pretty big cross to bear. Ellie hadn’t cared about any of that. She liked Peg, who had always made it a point to talk to Ellie when they’d run into each other at church, or at Lathrop Feed Store where Peg kept books for her dad.

Unlike most people close to her age, the epilepsy didn’t bother Peg. For the most part those same people ignored her or stared with either a warped sort of fascination or a guilt-ridden pity. Peg was different. Peg accepted her for who she was. And for that alone, Peg, with her flashing brown eyes and long slim body, would always be special to Ellie.

“Well,” Peg prompted with a gentle elbow in Ellie’s ribs, “How’s it goin’?”

Ellie felt the blush all the way to her toes.

Peg laughed. “That good, huh?” But her smile faded as she took a second look at Ellie’s face and didn’t like what she saw. “Uh-oh. What’s wrong?”

Even though Ellie was a private person, with Peg she didn’t feel so guarded. The words were out before she knew it. “I wish I knew.”

Wisely Peg didn’t say anything. She simply waited.

“I’m not so sure he’s all that happy about…about being saddled with me,” Ellie finally admitted.

She ran a thumbnail along the intricately embroidered stitches that made a purple iris and a yellow crocus on the pillowslip and dodged Peg’s probing gaze.

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