Daring Brides (2 page)

“You look beautiful, Mermaid,” Jill told her as she poured orange juice and champagne into pink
Here Comes the Bride
plastic cups.

“You really do,” Aunt April said, to which her daughters all nodded in agreement.

If the tight line of her mouth was any indication, Natalie was more than a little uncomfortable, and Meredith wondered whether she was thinking about her own wedding to Blake. It had been a casual beach wedding in Santa Cruz.

“Everything looks under control in here,” Natalie said, walking over and kissing her cheek. “I’m going to find the boys and make sure we get a good seat. If you need anything, just remember, I have the wedding emergency kit.”

“Jill’s acting like a drama queen,” she told her cousin. “Unless things go horribly wrong, we shouldn’t need anything that’s in there. What’d she stock it with, anyway? Stain-removal wipes, safety pins, and—”

“Static cling spray,” her sister finished with a glower. “You never know what could happen. I saw a wedding episode once where the bride’s veil got so much static cling her hair ended up looking like the bride of Frankenstein’s.”

Everyone chuckled as Natalie gave a wave and headed out. Meredith’s heart went out to her. She knew all too well how much divorce could hurt, and it was even worse for Nat because of how devoted she and Blake had been to each other before Kim died.

“She’s thinking about Blake,” Moira said, echoing her thoughts.

“She’s just not over him,” Caroline murmured. “I wish we could help her.”

Aunt April wrapped her arms around them. “I know you do. We all do. But your sister’s stubborn, and she’s going to have to decide to do something about it on her own. And that’s enough talk about that.”

“Jill, why don’t you pass those mimosas around?” Meredith asked, sensing everyone wanted to focus on happier things. “You’re being remiss in your bartending duties.”

Her sister wiggled her hips. “I’ll show you some action.”

When everyone had a mimosa in hand, Jill raised her glass. “To finding your Nora Roberts hero.”

Everyone gave a heartfelt sigh.

And as she drank her fruity concoction, Meredith took a moment to bask in gratitude and happiness once again for the quest that had brought her to Dare Valley, and subsequently to Tanner McBride.

***

Tanner McBride had never imagined he would get married. When he was covering war zones and hopping across the globe from Burma to
the Democratic Republic of Congo as a war correspondent, the possibility of meeting some girl and settling down had seemed impossibly distant.

Then again, he’d never imagined coming to Dare Valley, and to be fair, he hadn’t come willingly at first. He was man enough to admit there was something bigger than him guiding his steps at times—call it fate or destiny—and he was sure glad it had brought him here, to Meredith.

He and his party were hanging out in a room usually reserved for church meetings and Bible studies. It was presided over by a stained glass window depicting a rose garden and a lone sheep, the meaning of which he couldn’t divine.

“I can’t wait to sneak away and roam through the Hale School of Journalism during the reception,” Asher Harrington, his best man, said in his perfect upper-class British broadcast journalist accent.

Tanner had been delighted his buddy could make it. They’d met years ago in war-torn Beirut at the famous Commodore Hotel over a game of poker, and their paths had crossed several times more in other places riddled with bullets and blood. Women swooned over Asher wherever he went. Fortunately, Tanner’s sister, who had opted to spend the pre-wedding hour with him rather than with Meredith and the other Hale women, was immune to the journalist’s accent and looks. Peggy McBride was the new deputy sheriff in town, and she looked as tough on the outside in her black pantsuit as the perfectly coiffed Asher was on the inside. While Tanner’s debonair friend never had a hair out of place, his looks were deceiving. Tanner had seen him stand down a tank in Afghanistan once.

“I’m sure Arthur Hale will give you a tour if you ask him,” Peggy said from one of the brown-clad chairs in the room.

“Can I come too?” her son, Keith, asked, bouncing on the chair next to hers.

Tanner swept the seven-year-old into his arms for a quick hug. “You bet.” If he hadn’t been so eager to spend every moment of the reception with his bride, he would have offered to give them a tour himself.

Because he was an adjunct professor at the Hale School of Journalism, he’d struck upon the idea of holding their wedding reception there. Didn’t they host banquets for award-winning journalists and other events? Why not a wedding reception?

Meredith, being a journalist herself, had loved the idea, and her cousin, Natalie, had agreed to cater the event. Arthur had been preening like a peacock from the moment they’d announced their engagement, and the news that the event would be held in a school of journalism had only amplified his excitement. He was imagining all of the baby journalists Tanner and Meredith would create together, ensuring his famous newspaper,
The Western Independent
, stayed in the Hale family for generations to come.

His phone rang, and he checked the display. His brother. David hadn’t been able to make it to the wedding due to his wife’s advancing pregnancy, and it was probably for the best. They weren’t on good terms right now, which he hoped would change.

“Hi, David,” he said when he answered.

“I know you’re busy since it’s getting close to the ceremony, but I was thinking about you and wanted to wish you congratulations on your big day.”

“Thanks,” he replied. “I’m just hanging out with Peggy and Keith and my best man.”

“Tell them all hello,” David said. Then, abruptly, “Well, I’ll let you go.”

“It was nice of you to call, David.”

“Bye, Tanner,” he simply said and clicked off.

Peggy didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to. The frown on her face said it all.

“Peggy, weren’t you going to show me your version of the chokehold?” Asher asked. The note of forced cheer in his voice told Tanner he hadn’t missed the tension in the room.

Leave it to his best man and his sister to bond over chokehold techniques.

“I still can’t believe someone as pretty as you even knows what one is,” Peggy said with some sauce in her tone.

“Many have been fooled by this face,” Asher said, holding up a hand to the profile Tanner had seen dozens of women drool over.

“All right,” Peggy said, standing up and planting her feet. “Show me what you’ve got.”

As Peggy and Asher circled each other, Tanner extended his hand to Keith. “How about you and I go find Arthur?”

The boy simply nodded. “I like our new family.” Hearing that was like feeling warm sunshine pour into his heart.

“Me too,” he replied and escorted his nephew out of the room before things got too crazy. Peggy was already wrapping her arm around Asher’s neck.

Arthur was being his endearing, curmudgeonly self when Tanner and Keith found him in the vestibule with the rest of the males in the Hale family and their single female representative, Natalie. Tanner had met Meredith’s Denver cousins already, and they all seemed to be cut from the same cloth as their Dare Valley counterparts.

“Well, well, well,” Arthur drolled. “If it isn’t the groom. Although it’s hard to recognize you as such since you’re not wearing a tuxedo.”

“I hate monkey suits,” Tanner told him with a shrug.

Thank God, Meredith had understood how much he hated formal attire. She’d been okay with his choice of a cream tan suit with an open-collar white shirt. No tie. It was more of a beach look, Jill had told him, but he’d added a splash of panache with the red silk handkerchief in deference to Meredith’s choice of red amaryllis flowers for her bouquet.

“Can I have a red hot?” Keith asked the elderly man, who dutifully dug one out of his pant’s pocket.

“Do you want one?” Arthur asked, turning to him.

“Better not. It might give me a red tongue, and that would be awkward for when I say, ‘I do.’” He stuck his tongue out playfully to Keith, who laughed like he’d just said the silliest thing ever.

“I want a red tongue,” Keith said, sticking out his tongue and pointing to it before he popped a candy into his mouth.

“Me too,” Danny mimicked.

So far, the two boys had bonded like crazy. Tanner threw Andy a look as if to say, “Kids.” The Hale brothers simply laughed and held out their hands as Arthur passed around more red hots. The man was like his own candy machine. Natalie deferred, agreeing with Tanner about the whole red-tongue thing.

“Are you nervous, Tanner?” Alan Hale, his future father-in-law, asked as he accepted a red hot.

Tanner had faced down the Taliban. How could he be nervous about marrying the woman of his dreams in the safe little town of Dare Valley, surrounded by family and friends? “Nope. Not a bit.”

“It’s getting to be about time,” Alan said, tapping his watch face.

“I’ll just go and grab my sister and my best man,” Tanner said. “That is, if they’re both still alive.”

Alan blinked rapidly, but Arthur barked out a laugh.

“Not too many men would come out alive after being penned up with your sister,” the older man said. “That’s why she’ll make a great deputy sheriff for our town. What are they doing in there, anyway?”

The Denver cousins, not to mention Meredith’s father, looked at Arthur like he’d just asked an inappropriate question, but the older man knew Peggy well enough to know there wasn’t any hanky panky going on in the waiting room. “They’re trading chokehold techniques.”

The other men’s eyes widened in shock, but the journalistic legend nodded sagely. “Sounds like a smart swap. You never know when you might need to use a chokehold on someone.”

“Dad!” Alan said aghast.

“You never worked international,” Arthur said. “It’s another world.”

After wrangling Asher and his sister, Tanner returned to the vestibule with the two in tow.

“I know you just got back here, but you’d better head to the waiting room with Asher,” Alan said, making sure his tie was straight. “The guests are starting to arrive.”

Tanner didn’t see the harm in staying where he was, but he clapped Asher on the back and off they went. When it came time for the ceremony to begin, he and Asher strolled out and took their places at the altar. All of the guests smiled at him, but his eyes were glued to the front of the church, waiting for that first glimpse of his bride. Covered in a long white runner, the aisle was flanked by candles and red roses, amaryllis, and red hypericum, the latter of which he would never have identified if Meredith hadn’t asked him to make a follow-up call to the florist one night.

Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” swelled, and so did his heart. He smiled as Danny came down the aisle holding an engraved sign that said
Here Comes the Bride.
They’d had to send the first sign back because it had arrived saying
Here Comes the Bird.
Someone needed to use spell check.

Next came Keith, their ring bearer, who beamed with happiness as he made his way up the aisle and came to a stop near the altar.

Looking lovely in a red satin bridesmaid’s dress, Jill strutted down the aisle with that sassy smile of hers. Asher met her halfway, and she curled her fingers around his arm and gave her grandpa a wink as she passed him. Tanner simply shook his head at his soon-to-be sister-in-law, whom he loved not only for all the energy she had poured into matchmaking for him and Meredith, but also for her wicked sense of humor. She blew him a kiss and took her place on the other side of the altar.

Then the music changed to “Ode to Joy,” which Meredith had chosen for its name, and everyone in the church stood.

His throat backed up when he saw her. Her red hair was swept up into some kind of elegant coif with soft curls framing her face. A short white veil was tucked into her hair and danced along her mid-back as she walked down the aisle, her blue eyes sparkling. When her dad kissed her cheek and stepped back, she locked gazes with Tanner and didn’t glance away. It felt like nothing could pull them apart.

As he took her hand, he knew nothing ever would.

***

Meredith knew everyone oohed and aahed over the bride at weddings, but when she saw Tanner, she decided those people were missing the boat. He was the most handsome groom imaginable. She was so glad he hadn’t worn a tux out of convention because his cream tan suit was so much more him. His rugged face softened when their hands met, and his brown eyes shone like the North Star on a recent December night.

“You take my breath away,” he whispered to her.

“I was just thinking the same thing.”

He flashed her that devilish smile, the same one that had made her heart go pa-rum-pum-pum that first night at Hairy’s Irish Pub. It played the same beat now.

They took their places in front of the minister she’d known all her life, and the ceremony began. Everything else faded away. As she stared into her love’s eyes, she heard the minister talk about how they’d met and then her cousins, Caroline and Matt, read the two passages they’d selected. His was “Every Day” by David Levithan while hers was by “Looking For Your Face” by Rumi.