Going to the Chapel (2 page)

Caroline swallowed
something that felt entirely too much like self-pity. This was to
have been her wedding day. She closed her eyes to block the beauty
of the fairytale chapel. There would be no wedding bells tolling
for her today. Not here as she had once dreamed, not anywhere. A
small, sad smile tugged at her lips as she considered the local
legend she had grown up hearing. All who took their vows within
those chapel walls were destined to live happily ever
after.

“
Yeah, right.” She kicked
off her shoes, reached down and rubbed her right foot. Her feet
hurt. She rolled her head. Her neck ached, too. But neither
annoyance kept her thoughts from straying to the past. Much longer
ago than Caroline cared to admit, she had taken vows sitting on the
front steps of that very chapel. She winced at the memory. She had
been so young...and so much in love. Fat lot of good the legend had
done her. Maybe it only worked if you were inside, she mused. What
a joke.

The sun peeked above the
horizon and Caroline released a fatigued sigh. The breathtaking
beauty of nature in all its glory lay before her. Something that
could be counted on regardless of the twists and turns life took.
Something endless...eternal.

As an afterthought, she
reached to the passenger-side floorboard and snatched up the warm
bottle of champagne. No use letting it go to waste. When she
unwrapped the cork, it burst from the bottle unassisted. Caroline
squealed as the expensive wine overflowed onto the leather
upholstery, and dripped down her arm from wrist to elbow. She
snagged one stemmed glass and poured herself a generous serving.
The sweet, warm liquid bubbled its way down her throat.

“
Hmmm.” She lifted her
glass to the pink and gold streaks cutting through the clouds and
racing across the meadow, then toasted the rising sun. “To ever
after,” she said aloud before downing the remaining
liquid.

Leaning against her door,
she propped her stocking-clad feet in the open window of the
passenger side. She wiggled her toes. So much for slinky black
stockings and lacy garters. Anger swirled in her belly. Men were
scum. Perhaps her happily ever after wasn’t going to include a
man.

Whatever. The breeze
shifted her hair around her shoulders. She’d left the convertible
top down all night. The cool night air had helped to keep her
senses sharp. Right now every single one of those senses wanted
more champagne. After pouring another glass, she relaxed fully, let
the bubbly tickle her throat and the fresh air cleanse her
soul.

Today was the first day of
the rest of her life—just not the life she had expected.

Now was as good a time as
any to do what had to be done. The longer she put it off the harder
it would be. She set the bottle in the seat beside her and reached
for her cell phone. The blasted thing had rung a dozen times in the
last four or five hours, but she had ignored it. She hadn’t really
intended to make
the
call until she arrived in Memphis and had a chance to properly
lick her wounds. But, what the hell? She was feeling a little
righteous now, and just a tad tipsy, she realized as she finished
off her second glass.

He answered after only one
ring. “Hello.”

Caroline heard the
desperation in that one word. She smiled.

“
Good morning, Tristan,”
she said in her most chipper voice.

“
Caroline! Thank God.” He
paused, obviously to compose himself. “I’ve been so worried. They
said you’d left work early and no one’s seen you since. My word, I
thought you had been kidnapped or worse!” He made a strange keening
sound. “And...and someone’s stolen the Porsche,” he stammered,
almost choking on the words.

Before Caroline could
respond, he went on. “We’ll have to delay our flight this morning,
I can’t possibly leave until the police have all the information
they might need on the Porsche. I mean, I just can’t believe it. We
pay extra for security here. How could this happen?”

Caroline poured herself
another glass while he talked. She took a fortifying sip. “Tristan,
I have your car.”

“
You do? Oh, thank God.
Thank God!”

Caroline arched an eyebrow.
The car rated two “thank Gods,” she noted, when she had rated only
one. “Cancel our flight and our hotel reservations, Tristan,” she
told him when he had stopped praising the Almighty for the safety
of his car.

“
Cancel? But why? We might
not have another weekend off together for months,” he protested.
“Everything has been arranged.”

“
Tristan, I left work early
last night so I could surprise you, but instead, you surprised me.”
Caroline washed down the lump of emotion that crowded into her
throat with a hefty swallow of the warm champagne.

“
Oh, my God.”

Caroline rolled her eyes.
“Sorry, Tristan, but He can’t help you with this one. We’re
finished. I’ll be in Memphis with Dianne until I make up my mind
about the future.”

“
But...but...but,
Caroline—”

“
No buts, Tristan. It’s
over. I’m just glad I found out the truth before I made the mistake
of my life.” Caroline drained the rest of the liquid courage in her
glass.

“
But, what about my
car?”

Caroline smiled. The
bastard. The bottom line was his damned car. “Don’t worry, Tristan,
I’ll take good care of it until I get it back to you. Meanwhile you
can use the Buick.” Caroline flipped the phone closed and stared at
the small black communicator. She shook her head slowly as she
considered that with an instrument not much larger than the palm of
her hand she had just undone eighteen months of hard work at a
committed relationship.

As if on cue, the phone
chirped and vibrated insistently. Knowing who it would be, she drew
back her right arm and threw the damned plastic link to the recent
past as far as she could down the grassy hillside.

Satisfied that she had done
the right thing, she refilled her glass and relaxed fully into the
soft leather upholstery. A moment’s regret washed over her. Though
she hadn’t actually loved Tristan as she’d somehow felt she should,
Caroline had convinced herself that she would be happy with him.
But how could he have loved her and done what she had caught him
doing? She shuddered at the thought.

No amount of analyzing
would give her the answer she wanted. Tristan obviously hadn’t
loved her at all. And if he would do this before they were married,
what would he have done afterwards? Whenever the urge struck him?
Another quake shook her. She sighed again. Well, at least, she
still had her career.

Somewhere between St. Louis
and the Tennessee state line, she had called Dianne. Memphis
General always needed ER doctors with her qualifications and
experience. And Dianne insisted that she would love a roommate. But
Caroline simply wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. Dianne would be
leaving this morning for a medical conference in Nashville. She had
told Caroline where to find her key. Had even offered to cancel her
plans and wait for her. But Caroline needed some time alone. Time
to think.

After that, she had called
the chief of Mercy’s ER back in St. Louis, gotten him out of bed
and explained that she was taking her long overdue vacation
effective immediately. He hadn’t been happy, but he had understood.
Three weeks should be sufficient time for her to make a proper
decision at this unexpected fork in her life’s road.

Thank God for her savings.
Unlike Tristan, she was a bit more frugal in her spending—case in
point, the old Buick she drove. If she decided not to go back to
St. Louis, that savings would keep her afloat for the next few
months.

Determined to put the past
behind her and start fresh, Caroline raised her glass and toasted
an entirely different new beginning, then she took a long sip of
champagne and closed her eyes. She inhaled deeply of the sweet
country air and contemplated the future. Dianne was thrilled at her
decision to visit. Her friend had never liked Tristan anyway. If
only Caroline had been as insightful.

Still angry with herself
for not seeing through his charm and good looks and after further
consideration, she made a solemn promise to herself: No more
handsome men. Why bother with good looking men? Men like that would
only break her heart. Maybe she would just swear off men
altogether. She had her career. What did she need with a man? Well,
she amended, men could be useful at times. One man in particular
leaped onto the screen in the private theater of her
mind.

Refusing to replay that old
memory, Caroline turned her attention to the glorious show of
nature as the sun climbed higher above the distant treetops. The
car suddenly dipped sharply to the right. Surprised confusion
momentarily clouded her brain.
Moving
. The car was moving. She must
have knocked the gearshift into neutral.

She could fix that. Another
dip and the car started to roll down the hill. Dropping her glass,
she scrambled to rearrange her legs back into the proper position
beneath the steering wheel. But the confines of the little sports
car and the suddenly magnified-by-fear effects of the alcohol made
quick maneuvering impossible.

The car pitched forward as
it gained momentum on a smoother downhill grade beyond the tall
grass.

The brake! She needed to
hit the brake. Panic gushed through Caroline’s veins, instantly
sobering her. She grasped the steering wheel to navigate away from
the chapel looming in her path. The steering column was locked. She
grabbed for the keys in the ignition.

There wasn’t even time to
scream. Before she could find and depress the brake the whole world
exploded around her. The air bag inflated, hurling her back against
the seat and obscuring her vision.

Then everything stilled.
Caroline gasped for air. Her chest felt numb from the sudden,
forceful pressure of the now-deflating air bag. She blinked and
took stock of her surroundings. Lavender and rose colored balloons
floated heavenward around her. She frowned. What the...? Streamers
fluttered overhead from the rafters of the cathedral
ceiling.

The
chapel
.

She had crashed into the
chapel, which was obviously decorated for a wedding that was likely
scheduled for this very day. And Caroline had ruined everything. As
if to punctuate her thought, a cluster of decorative silver wedding
bells collapsed onto the floor.

~*~

Chase Garrett didn’t often
see strange things in these parts. The occasional drunken brawl or
teenage joy rider was about as exciting as things got around Lucy’s
Branch. But this, he had to admit, was damned strange. A brand new
cherry red Porsche with out of state license plates had all but
demolished one wall of the county’s historic wedding
chapel.

He shook his head at the
unbelievable damage one compact car could wreak. Of course, the
building was vulnerable with age. Julie McGill sure as hell
wouldn’t be getting married today. Not here anyway. He wondered
briefly if he should call her mamma himself before word got out
about the accident.

And to make matters worse,
Chase added, his mouth forming a grim line, the driver turned out
to be the one woman on the planet he never expected to see
again.

Caroline
.

Chase shifted and ran the
fingers of one hand through his hair. Eight years was a long time.
Yet, in some ways, not long enough. His jaw hardened at the
memories surfacing like the images of a video on forward search.
The Caroline Gregory standing in front of him now in no way
resembled the girl he had known, known well, all those years ago.
Chase’s gaze swung from the tow truck hooking to the Porsche to the
trembling woman being examined by a paramedic. Caroline had
insisted that she was fine, but she had looked a little shocky and
a lot shaky to Chase.

The short black dress and
spiked heels made Chase’s mouth go as dry as a plowed field in
August. When she had reached into her car to retrieve her purse,
Chase hadn’t missed the glimpse of black lacy garters holding up
those wicked stockings. The Caroline Gregory he remembered would
never have dressed like that. Not in a million years.

But that mane of thick
black hair that hung around her small shoulders like a curtain of
silk, and those eyes, like translucent silver, he remembered all
too well. And then there was that mouth. He closed his eyes to
savor the memory of how it felt to kiss those lips. The natural
red, pouty kind that never needed enhancing with cosmetics, and
lush enough to make a preacher look at least twice.

Chase’s body stirred in
response to the memories he had tried for the better part of a
decade to forget. He forced his eyes open and frowned, irritated
that Caroline could still evoke such a swift reaction in him. His
gaze darted back to the Porsche. That was a mighty fancy car for a
little girl who hailed from Lucy’s Branch. He supposed that she had
done well for herself. Not that he’d expected any less. She’d
graduated at the top of her pre-med class over in Memphis. Somehow
her attire didn’t quite fit the image he had of a medical
doctor—especially Dr. Caroline Gregory. Chase almost groaned at
just how much of this older, more womanly Caroline was showcased
for his blatant admiration.