On the Way to a Wedding (28 page)
Read On the Way to a Wedding Online
Authors: Suzanne Stengl
· · · · ·
The sun had set half an hour ago. The days were growing longer. He’d caught a glimpse of the moon as he’d left the highway. The first quarter, clearly visible on the cloudless night.
Two weeks into June and most of the details of his life had fallen into place.
He parked next to Isabelle’s Firebird in the graveled area at the head of the path to the cabin. The crooked old sign,
Road’s Inn
, had fallen on the ground. Probably during last week’s storm. He’d fix it, later.
The night was almost still. A slight breeze stirred in the trees, making its own music. For the hundredth time, doubt clouded his mind. Taking a deep conscious breath, he realized how much he needed to talk to her—needed to convince her to take a chance on him.
High in the western sky, the waxing moon lit the way as he walked down the curving path to Pro’s cabin. He smelled the wood fire. She’d already lit the stove.
Pausing in front of the porch, uncertainty beat at him. In the next few moments, he had to say the right thing. But what was the right thing?
As he opened the door and stepped inside the cabin, a flash of panic grabbed him. The cold stove stood empty. No one was here. But the lantern burned on the table. She had to be nearby.
At the fire pit?
He rushed out the door and, a moment later, he saw her. The tension left his body and he realized he’d been bracing.
She stood in front of the blazing fire wearing the same jeans and jean jacket she’d worn earlier today at the high school. And she held something, bunched in her arms. Something big and white.
And fluffy.
Her wedding dress?
What was she doing?
In the next instant, she fanned out the dress and settled it over the flames. A puff of smoke billowed up—the dress almost smothered the fire—and then a fierce bright burning escaped out of the smoke.
Calmness hit him like a bolt and he felt his shoulders drop, felt himself grinning like an idiot. She’d definitely cancelled her wedding.
He moved closer, coming behind her, resisting the urge to reach out and touch her. “Kind of drastic, don’t you think?”
She spun around. “You’re here.”
He wanted to pull her into his arms, but he clamped down on the impulse and forced himself to wait. “Most people just return it to the store.”
“The store is in Paris. And why did you kiss me?”
No dancing around the issue. Fine with him. “That wasn’t a kiss.”
“Yes, it―”
He touched his finger to her chin, lifting it. Then he leaned down and touched his lips to hers. A light touch, a feather touch, an asking.
She stood still, like she was holding her breath.
He kissed her again, longer this time, deeper, feeling her arms come around him, feeling her body sway into his, feeling his arms gathering her up. Finally, he raised his head, still holding her, like she might disappear if he let her go.
“
That
was a kiss,” he said.
The fire crackled behind her. “But―”
“I’m not getting married.”
“You’re not?”
“And you’re not either.” At least, he thought, not to Lorimer.
A tiny smile hinted at the edges of her lips. “How did you know?”
He looked over her shoulder, at the fire, sparking and crackling. “You’re burning your wedding dress?”
She smiled then. That beautiful smile he loved to see. “No one wanted to believe I’d cancelled,” she said. “And . . . I needed to get rid of it anyway.”
“Because?”
“Because of what it represented,” she said. “It was their dream. My parents. Not mine.”
Borrowed dreams, he thought. Someone else telling you what your life should be. He’d been caught in the same trap.
Joy cascaded over him. Joy so strong he didn’t think he’d ever felt joy before. His arms looped around her as he stood there, holding her. “I’m glad you burned it.”
“Yeah?” She looked up at him, a question in her eyes.
“We’ll get a new one,” he said.
“We’ll—uh―”
“We’ll take our time. When you’re ready, we’ll talk about it.”
A shudder went through him as the realization hit him and he hugged her tighter. She could have married someone else. He could have lost her.
And then he knew it couldn’t have happened. “You haven’t been marrying him, not since the night I found you out here.”
“Not since then,” she confirmed. “You were right.” She brushed her hands over his chest. “I was running away.”
Lucky for him. “Are you running away now?”
“No,” she said. “I’m regrouping.”
He kissed her again. A light quick kiss. “I like kissing you. I could get used to it.”
She kissed him back, pulling his head down, claiming his lips, holding onto him. After several long moments, she released him. “How did you know I was here?”
He smiled, and he felt like laughing. “Do you need to ask?” He touched his forehead to hers.
“Isabelle?”
“Aunt Tizzy,” he said.
“Aunt Tizzy? I need to meet her.”
“You already have.”
She frowned. “I have?”
“Aunt Tizzy,” he paused, “is Pro’s Aunt . . . Izzy.”
She looked confused.
“Aunt Isabelle. Aunt Tizzy,” he said. “They’re one and the same.”
“You mean . . .”
“Yeah. She set up this whole thing, with some help from Pro. Except you weren’t supposed to end up in the ditch that night. You were just supposed to find the cabin.”
Toria’s face lit up.
“She knew you wouldn’t be happy marrying Lorimer. And Pro had figured out I wasn’t in love with Catherine.” He tightened his arm around her . . . touched her chin. “I’m in love with you.” He kissed her again.
“And I’m in love with you,” she answered.
The moon shone, the stars winked and the music in the pines sang over the cabin and the surrounding hills. The fire burned, erasing every last shred of satin and borrowed dreams. And sitting next to the fire, with her in his lap, Ryder held on to Toria and she held on to him, for a long, long time.
Also by Suzanne Stengl
Angel Wings
A rejected lover and an ambivalent angel-in-training teach each other that love is possible when you find the right person.
Jessibelle Shay receives an invitation to the wedding of her old boyfriend and her used-to-be best friend. When she was dumped, Jessibelle’s pride forced her to pretend she didn’t care.
And now this. Now she is expected to carry on with the pretense, to wish them well, to smile for the cameras, and to pretend her life has moved on. She’s thinking it will take a miracle to get her through it, when she hears the crash of glass in her living room.
Her angel has arrived.
His mission is to accompany her to the wedding. And to prepare for it, she must complete three tasks . . .
A 26,000 word novella, available at
Amazon
.
About the Author
When I was a child, I shared a bedroom with three of my younger sisters. I used to tell them stories to help them fall asleep. Apparently the stories weren’t particularly interesting, because they fell asleep before the stories ended. Unaware that they were sleeping, I would keep telling the story, until my mother called up the stairs. “Sue? They’ve gone to sleep.” And then I would quietly finish the story in my head.
I didn’t start writing down my stories until much later. In my last year of university, I collected all the reports from my Marketing Group and wrote up our study like a novel. My classmates liked it, and better, so did the prof.
Finally, after getting a degree in Commerce, I found a little two-line invitation to a romance writers organization in the back of the Writers Guild magazine. And I showed up. I had found my people.
“Suzanne Stengl has a lovely voice with a subtle hint of humor.”
—A.M. Westerling, author of The Countess’ Lucky Charm
“Suzanne Stengl’s descriptions and characters are really memorable.”
—Amy Jo Fleming, author of Death at Bandit Creek
Find more books by Suzanne Stengl at
www.suzannestengl.com
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
