The Reluctant Bride (Montana Born Brides) (17 page)

“
What went wrong then?” Lane asked.

“
Her parents died,” Monty said. That was the easiest answer he had. He wasn’t about to admit that he’d shut her out by feeling guilty about Lane’s accident. Or to tell his friend that seeing how quickly a life could be changed had shaken him to the core. He didn’t have the strength Lane had. Maybe it was because the other man had grown up with all those brothers and Monty had only ever had just himself to rely on.

“
That can shake someone’s world. When my mom died I didn’t think anything would ever be the same,” Lane said. “And it wasn’t. You just have to keep moving forward.”

“
Is that what you do?”

“
Hell, brother, what choice do I have? I can’t go back and change things, can I?”

No, he certainly couldn
’t. “I guess that’s why I asked Risa to marry me again. I wanted a do-over to get things right this time. And I think we are on track.”

“
I hope so,” Lane said. His friend stayed until after the game, and then they went online and played a shooting game with some of the other Marines from their squad until it was almost two in the morning.

Lane left, and Monty walked through his big red barn searching the nooks and crannies for something elusive, but it wasn
’t until he was in his big king-sized bed alone that he realized it was Risa that he’d been looking for.

Risa felt out of place a
nd alone at her rehearsal dinner. Not that the Scotts weren’t wonderful. They were, but tonight she really missed her parents.

It took a special kind of man to ask a woman to marry him twice.
And to put his faith in her showing up at the wedding. It was meant to be tomorrow, a beautiful June Saturday when the Montana weather was cooperating. There was absolutely nothing to mar the day, except her.

“
You look like you’re trying to turn that water into wine,” Sienna Scott said, as she sat down next to Risa on one of the bales of hay that had been decoratively placed around the field. There were tables and a dance floor and they even had a cowboy singer performing live. Right now the men were all at the barbecue pit making sure the food was perfect for the day.

Sienna had on a sundress similar to the one that Risa had chosen for the day.
“I’m just…”

She didn
’t want to confess to any fears and give anyone reason to doubt that she’d be there tomorrow, given that most of the people here knew that she’d run from Monty. But that seemed like a lifetime ago. She was not at all like the woman she was today. She was stronger. She had to remember that.

“
Nervous,” Sienna said. “I know how you feel.”

“
You do?”

“
Alec and I weren’t always like we are now. I wonder sometimes if I should have just not married him. My daddy offered to go into the church and tell everyone he just couldn’t let his little girl marry and move so far from home,” Sienna said.

“
Why didn’t you let him?” she asked. Sienna was from a little town in Southern California.

“
As scared as I was to be pledging the rest of my life to Alec, I was more afraid of living it without him.”

“
Is that why you haven’t divorced?” Risa asked.

“
Yeah, I guess. The other part is pure stubbornness on my part. I don’t like admitting I was wrong and my parents might have been right. Plus, there’s DJ.”

Sienna
’s seven-year-old son was going to be one of the ring bearers at the ceremony tomorrow, along with Carson’s son, Evan. By getting engaged to Monty, she’d inherited a family along with the Scotts. She and Monty hadn’t really had a lot of time alone together since the wedding train had pulled out of the station and started going down the track like a bullet train in Japan. It was nuts.

She was unsure and scared and when their eyes met briefly, she broke his stare and looked away.
She didn’t want him to see her nerves and maybe think they meant she doubted him.

Sienna put her hand on Risa
’s shoulder and squeezed. “I wish I could make this right for you. Wave a magic wand and tell you the future will sort itself out like some Hollywood movie, but the truth is marriage is hard. All relationships are.”

Sienna had a point.

“I don’t know if I could live without Monty,” Risa admitted. “It was easier to leave Vegas and disappear because he wasn’t there. I’m scared of how much I need him. And how fragile life is.”

Sienna laughed in a kind way.
“Life is going to keep on trucking along and you’re gonna be just fine. The thing is, with all the ceremony and traditions, weddings sometimes make a girl feel like this decision is going to change the world. I can promise you one thing, Risa: it won’t.”

Risa sort of understood where Sienna was coming from, but the truth was, she knew that tomorrow would change her world and Monty
’s forever. In secret, she’d learned to ride so she could arrive mounted on a horse and, well, show him she wanted to be his rescuer. The same way he was hers.

There were parts of marriage that were already rooted in her soul, but the icy chill of fear was making doubt rear its ugly head.
And that was what she wanted to lose.

She thought of the small satchel she
’d packed and put in the trunk of her convertible, and the arrangements she’d made at her shop to have her friend from Vegas come and work for her for the next two weeks so she could have a honeymoon with Monty. But the temptation was to sneak away tonight after the party and just leave.

What was wrong with her?

She wished her mom and dad were here to talk to. She wanted to tell them what was going on; they’d have listened and not judged, and probably would have told her what a great man she’d found in Monty.

But they weren
’t here, and she really hoped this wasn’t one of those times when she needed her dad to bail her out.

Monty stood off to the side as the Scotts teased, laughed and gave each other a hard time. It was nice of them to treat him like family, but there was a bond there he’d never really share.

“
Hiya, sarge,” Tony said, coming up behind him. “Didn’t think we were going to make it. Traffic outside of Miramar was a nightmare.”

“
Tony, man, I’m so glad you did,” Monty said, giving Tony a one-armed hug and chest bump. “Where’s the Mrs?”

“
She’s gone to find Risa,” Tony said.

Had she disappeared?
Monty glanced around the clearing that had been set up for the engagement party, telling himself he wasn’t worried; yet that was a big old fat lie. No matter how many times he made love to Risa, or saw her during the day, there was always that insidious fear that she’d run again.

He spotted her talking to Tony
’s wife and let out a breath of relief. “Other than the traffic, how was the drive?”

“
Not bad. I’m thinking of moving out this way. Lane swears the air here brings peace,” Tony said.

“
You getting out?”

“
Thinking about it. Della wants to move back east. You know she’s from South Carolina and she misses the Low Country.”

“
I didn’t know where she was from. How’d you both meet?” Monty asked, but his mind wasn’t on Tony and his wife. It was Risa that dominated his thoughts. He saw her laughing and talking with the women and he wondered if it was his imagination that made it seem like she wasn’t really there.

She kept part of herself back from everyone.
Even him. He knew he loved her and marrying her was the one thing he’d been waiting for since they’d met in Vegas, but right now he wasn’t as confident of her.

He doubted she
’d run from him again, but he just didn’t know. And had no real idea of how to reassure both her and himself.

“
You don’t care about me and Della,” Tony said. “And she tells the story better. I wasn’t sure you and Risa were going to make it to saying I do.”

He wasn
’t either. Tony had been deployed with Monty when he’d lost track of Risa. “Yeah, it was a bit of a wild goose chase.”

“
But you caught her,” Tony said.

“
That I did,” Monty said. “I’m glad to have her.”

“
I know you are, buddy. How’s Lane?”

“
He seems normal. I mean most of the time I don’t even notice he’s got prosthetics.”

“
That’s good. I still have nightmares about that day. Glad I’m not going back,” Tony said.

“
Me, too. You know another nice thing about Montana?”

“
What’s that?”

“
No desert.”

“
That sounds ideal, but I think I’m headed back to the Low Country of South Carolina,” Tony said.

More guys from his squad drifted over to talk to him, but the more he was surrounded by his past and his Marine Corps buddies, the more he wanted to find his way to Risa and reassure himself that being a Marine was definitely part of his past.
She rooted him the present and gave him hope for the future.

As the sun set and the band started playing, he found Risa standing alone by the bar adjusting the flowers that decorated it.

“Ready to run?” he asked, partially joking.

“
Not yet,” she said. “But there are a lot of people here. And they all love you.”

“
They love you, too,” he said.

“
Nah, they all have taken the time to seek me out and tell me what a good guy you are, and how you deserve a woman you can count on.”

“
I count on you, Risa, you know that,” he said. He hadn’t anticipated his buddies having his back that way and he should have. “I was a little messed up when I couldn’t find you.”

“
I’m sorry,” she said, wrapping her arms around his chest and hugging him tightly to her. “I wish I could take that back.”

“
So you’re not thinking of bolting again?” he asked. He had to know. He wanted reassurances from her lips and he knew that, no matter what she said, until she was standing next to him in front of the preacher tomorrow, he wasn’t going to believe her.

Oh, damn.
He hadn’t realized it, but he wanted to warn her, too. In that moment it all became so clear to him. He needed something from Risa she couldn’t give him.

“
I have thought of it a million times,” she said. “I’ve even got a bag packed in the trunk of my car.”

“
Why are you still here?” he asked, the fear he’d felt solidifying into anger. Why was she just saying this now? Why had she said yes when he’d asked her to marry him again two months ago, and then started planning this ceremony where his friends and family were attending? Well, not his dad, because the old man was having a bad spell, but everyone else that mattered to him was here.

“
Because I want to be, Monty. I’m here because the thought of being anywhere else scares me more. There’s not another place in the world I want to be.”