Kitabı oku: «Weddings Collection», sayfa 21

Chapter Fourteen

Max gave up fumbling with the bow tie that refused to come together and surrendered himself to Jimmy, who had far more experience with this kind of accessory. The last time he remembered wearing a tie, it had been at his mother’s funeral. His grandmother had done the honors with it then.

There was a war going on in his gut and he found it difficult not to fidget.

Max looked at his brother-in-law. “Is it natural to want to throw up just before you make the woman you love your wife?”

Jimmy’s laugh echoed of kindred feelings held not too long ago when he had been the one taking vows. “Absolutely.”

“Look at this.” Max held his right hand out to show Kevin while the other men in the small church vestibule looked on in sympathy. “It’s shaking.”

Kevin nodded solemnly. “That it is.”

“It never shook before. I never shook before.” The feeling in his gut was getting worse. He looked at the men who were his ushers—Ike, Luc and Jimmy—for solace. Or a way out.

“You’ve never been married before,” Ike pointed out. He slipped his arm over Max’s shoulders in a moment of intense brotherhood. “Whole different set of circumstances than facing down a measly bear or going after bad guys, my friend.” He winked at their heretofore fearless sheriff. “Scarier, too.”

Scared wasn’t the way to be. Max’s fingers hovered over the newly joined bow tie. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”

Jimmy pushed his hand away before he could do any damage to the handiwork.

“It’s a great idea,” Luc told him honestly. “Because as scary as the idea of marriage might be, the rewards aren’t the kind you can begin to put into words.” He smiled his encouragement. “Trust me, my friend, you want to do this.” He looked at Ike and Jimmy reprovingly. “Don’t let any of these idiots play with your mind. None of them would do things any differently, would you?” He paused, waiting. After a beat, Jimmy and Ike added their agreement to his statement.

In an odd way, Kevin didn’t feel left out. Granted, he wasn’t married like they were, or getting married like Max, but he looked upon these men as family and he felt close to all of them. The realization made him start to think that perhaps there really was something to living in a small community like Hades. Everyone did feel they had to look out for everyone else.

“I can’t speak for marriage, Max, just for Lily. I’ve seen her in good times and bad and I’ve never seen her like this. She’s really happy, and Jimmy and I know if Lily’s happy, you’re going to be happy. Very happy,” he emphasized.

Jimmy leaned forward and said in a stage whisper, “You might try remembering that the next time there’s an argument on the table.”

“Gentlemen?”

Kevin glanced toward the door to see Reverend Hollis peering at them over the tops of small rimless glasses. Cherubic, with thinning hair and kind eyes, he had an ageless quality to him that made him seem young and old at the same time. The minister’s warm brown eyes swept from one man to the other before they came to rest on Max. Sympathy immediately flooded his face.

“Oh my, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that shade of white before, outside of a snowstorm.” He took a step into the crowded room that was meant for a maximum of three occupants. “Do you want some water, Sheriff?”

Max squared his shoulders. His moment of weakness was passing. “No, what I want is to get through this ceremony.”

Reverend Hollis smiled knowingly. This was far from his first wedding. “Then follow me.”

Kevin made sure he walked behind Max, in case the latter had any last-minute thoughts about making a break for freedom.

“He looks happy. Doesn’t Max look happy?” June asked, hugging his arm to her as they sat at the table reserved for the wedding party.

Kevin waved away a mosquito that was debating having him for a snack. Because Lily’s restaurant was still in the planning stage and the weather was mild, the wedding reception was being held outdoors directly behind Jimmy and April’s house and within the reach of amenities. Sydney, Marta, Ike’s wife, and Ike were handling the meals, threatening Lily with bodily harm if she tried to prepare even one thing. Ike had offered them the use of the Salty, but the saloon wasn’t able to hold everyone at once. Besides, Max had decided that he liked the bright sunlight blessing his union better.

It was the one input he’d actually made in the wedding plans, other than selecting his ushers. He hadn’t minded being the silent one in this venture, he’d confided to Kevin. He liked seeing Lily happy and she seemed to be in her element, arranging the wedding. Wise man, Kevin thought now, watching Max and his sister as they danced together for the first time as a married couple. They looked stunning together and he couldn’t have been happier for both of them.

Kevin nodded. “Yes, he does.”

June thought she was literally beaming. “I never thought I’d see the day he got married.” She also didn’t think that Max could dance like that. Someone must have taken him aside and given him a few pointers. In her heart, she had a feeling that was something that Kevin would do. Always taking care of details and never taking any of the credit. “Max didn’t seem to need things like that.”

“Like what?”

“Steady companionship. Wife, home, hearth. He was always so self-contained.” She turned to look at him, wondering what this emotion was that flooded through her. Maybe she had an inkling as to its identity. “I guess it just takes the right woman to change a man.”

The way she could have changed him, Kevin thought. If he were selfish enough to try to claim her. But he wasn’t. He had to remember that.

It wasn’t easy.

“Works both ways,” he commented, looking back at the couple. “Lily’s a workaholic. She never let herself have time for relationships.”

June frowned. That didn’t jibe with what she knew. “I thought she came up here because she broke her engagement and wanted to get over it.”

Kevin snorted, thinking of the man who had almost become his brother-in-law. The man was a narcissistic womanizer and he had no idea how someone as sharp as Lily hadn’t seen through him from the very first.

“That engagement was meant to be broken. She only hooked up with that character because the rest of us told her she needed to take some time out to relax and enjoy herself. Lily’s response was that she already was enjoying herself. Then she showed up with that slime on her arm to prove it.” He shook his head, remembering. “Lily doesn’t like people thinking they know better than she does—about anything.”

Kevin glanced at the young woman at his side. She was wearing one of the bridesmaid dresses, a light blue, gauzy affair that made him think of a Grecian high priestess. It was draped so that it accented her tiny waist and made him ache to hold her. When he’d first seen her this morning at the church, he’d almost swallowed his tongue. He realized it was the first time he recalled seeing her in anything other than blue jeans.

She created one hell of an impression in a dress.

He grinned at her. “A lot of that going on these days.”

She knew he was referring to her, but she’d never thought of herself as being stubborn. Only in having the courage of her convictions.

June pretended to sniff. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He saw her eyes light up. “Oh look, they’re letting the rest of the guests on the floor.”

As he turned, he saw that couples were beginning to join Max and Lily. The floor seemed to be holding up pretty well, Kevin noted with satisfaction. It had been quickly constructed just this past week by some of the men in town. He’d put in a couple of hours on it himself, in between working on June’s house.

He rose to his feet, taking June’s hand. “Well, might as well test out my handiwork.”

“You do turn a woman’s head,” June laughed as she got up from the table.

Nodding at the happy couple, June lay her head against Kevin’s shoulder and gave herself up to the music, to the emotions that were slipping through her. It felt like heaven, she thought, dancing with him this way. Pretending, just for a moment, that this was actually their wedding.

She lifted her head to look at him. Maybe someday.

Kevin looked down at her and saw the expression on her face. “What?”

She cocked her head, confused. She hadn’t said anything to him. “What ‘what?’”

He grinned at her. “You’ve got a very strange look in your eye.”

She lifted her chin slightly, but for once it wasn’t pugnaciously. She was stalling for time, looking for a plausible explanation. She couldn’t very well tell him she was thinking about their wedding. Fastest way to send a man running. “Do I?”

A fondness filtered through him. He would have been content to go on dancing like this forever. “Yes.”

She shrugged, trying to make the gesture seem casual. “Just thinking.”

“About?” he prodded.

“Lots of things.” Mischief entered her eyes. “How I’m going to harvest all that wheat, for instance.” She looked at him pointedly. “Know where I can find a farm hand?”

Was she asking him to stay? Or just flirting with him? He couldn’t decide. He only knew what he wanted it to be. But wishing didn’t make it so.

Suddenly he felt her freeze. A startled look entered her eyes. “June?”

“He’s here.” Her voice was deathly quiet as she stared at someone over his shoulder.

Kevin didn’t have to turn to look. He knew she was referring to her father. Max had invited the older Yearling to the wedding after all. The two had made their peace with each other. So had April after a bit. Both had acknowledged that hatred was a terrible thing to harbor and neither one of them had wanted it to continue tainting their lives.

His eyes remained on June’s face. “I know.”

She looked at him, dumbstruck. “You know?” How could he have known and not told her? Feelings of betrayal immediately sprang up inside her.

Kevin nodded. “Max told me he was inviting him.”

All the happiness she’d just been feeling faded into the background. “How could Max not tell me he was doing this?”

“Because I told him not to.” Her eyes shifted to him. He couldn’t begin to fathom the look he saw there. “Max wanted you to be here and I didn’t think he should have to choose between you and his father on his wedding day.”

Who the hell did he think he was, making decisions like that? Manipulating her like that? Who the hell did both of them think they were? Her temper flared, rising to a dangerous level.

“We’re leaving.”

But as she tried to pull away, she found that she was held fast in the same arms that had felt so protective to her only moments ago. He wasn’t letting her walk off the dance floor. “We’re not going to cause a scene at Max and Lily’s wedding.”

This time, when she lifted her chin, he saw the old, defensive June materialize. “All right, you stay. I’m leaving.”

“No,” he told her quietly, still holding her fast, “you’re not.” He could see that she was inches away from telling him where he could go. His passage to warmer climates didn’t matter, but she and what she was feeling, did. “You’re going to make your peace with this man, because if you don’t, when he dies, you’ll never forgive yourself.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, when he dies?”

It wasn’t his place to tell her what Ursula had shared with him. That was between June and her father. It was up to Yearling to tell her that he was failing.

“Everyone dies, June,” he told her quietly. “Usually sooner than we want them to. Don’t leave things the way they are now. The dead might hear us when we ask for forgiveness, but we can’t see them hear us. And it makes a world of difference, believe me. You’re bigger than your anger.” He lowered his lips to her ear as they continued dancing. “I know you are. Max and April have forgiven him. So has Ursula.” He looked at her pointedly.

She didn’t want this responsibility. But he was right. And she knew it.

“Damn you,” June murmured. Disentangling herself, she walked away from him.

Kevin stood and watched her, knowing in his heart that she wasn’t running off the dance floor. Or running at all anymore.

Her slim shoulders braced, she crossed the newly stained, polished wooden floor, her heels clicking in her ears with each step. She walked until she came up to the man who had given her life and taken away her young dreams.

It felt like the longest walk of her life.

Her nerves were vibrating within her as she looked up into his gaunt face. “Would you like to dance?”

For a moment, time seemed to stop. The music continued playing, but it was hardly audible to her as she waited for her father’s response.

And then a smile rose to his lips, erasing more than fifteen years from his face. June saw the man her mother had loved with all her fragile heart.

“Very much.”

He took her hand in his leathery fingers and led her away from the others. Very slowly, he began to dance to the music.

She was hardly aware of moving. Only of the man who held her to him. He glided on the floor like mist. She looked up into his face. “Mother told me you were a very good dancer.”

“It was my partner who was the good dancer. She always made me look good.” Wayne’s eyes filled with tears. “She was a wonderful woman and I didn’t deserve her. We do things when we’re young—foolish, thoughtless things that we would never do if we only knew the consequences.” He looked at her. “June, if I could do it all over again—”

She nodded. He didn’t have to say it, didn’t have to bare his pain. Not anymore. She understood. And forgave. “I know, Daddy, I know.”

She laid her head against his shoulder as they danced, hiding the tears that came to her own eyes.

The applause that came at the end of the number was as much for her and her father as it was for the musicians who had played the song.

She stepped back to look at her father. The years had been as unkind to him as the lack of him had been to her. “Are you staying in Hades?”

He nodded, obviously pleased that she asked. “For as long as God lets me.”

He didn’t say for as long as he could, June noted, which would have meant that he’d allow his wanderlust to take him away when the time came. It looked as if his wanderlust was finally gone.

She smiled and hugged him. “Welcome home, then.”

Max looked on, feeling a sense of pride, a sense of accomplishment at the reunion, although, he judged, June would have probably come around eventually. She was too kind at heart not to.

Still, he had to admit, albeit silently, that it felt good having had a hand in getting her together with her father.

The band began to play again. It was time to reclaim her. Putting his drink down, Kevin started to cross the floor to where June stood.

But Alan Simpson beat him to it. The tall, lanky miner with the ready smile and shock of blond hair that kept falling into his eyes beat out several other men as well, all of whom appeared to have the same goal in mind. Kevin looked around the area immediately surrounding June. All the men looked as if they wanted to dance with her. He couldn’t blame them. Couldn’t blame her for agreeing, either.

The men that were now vying for her attention were all young, all close to her age from what he could see. And all very taken with the way she looked in that bridesmaid dress Lily had selected.

He felt a surge of jealousy even as he picked up his drink again. No point in being jealous. He’d known it was going to be this way all along. If he thought anything else, he’d just been fooling himself.

Kevin took a long sip of his drink, draining the glass. He debated going in search of another.

“What are you doing all the way over here by yourself, big brother?”

He turned around to see that Alison was standing behind him. Her expression told him that she already had the answer to her question, but was intent on getting it out of him nonetheless.

He gave her his standard reply. “Observing.”

She blew out a dismissive breath. “You do entirely too much of that, you know.”

He smiled fondly at her. He’d missed her nagging, he thought. “How do you think I got to be so wise? By observing.”

It was an excuse and they all knew that. It was what he said when he didn’t want to get caught up in things. “It’s also how you got to be so isolated.” She waved a hand in June’s direction. The latter was dancing with Alan Simpson. “Go and rescue her.”

Kevin saw the smile on June’s face and envied Alan more than he wanted to admit. “She doesn’t look like she needs rescuing.”

“You don’t know the woman like I do.” She gave Kevin a small shove, but he remained exactly where he was. She sighed. “I see you haven’t gotten any less stubborn since I moved up here.”

He arched one eyebrow as he looked down at her. “Neither have you.”

“Hey,” she laughed, not bothering to deny his assessment, “I had a great teacher.” She tried another tack. “Okay, dance with me, then.”

“Where’s your husband?” Kevin looked around for Luc to come to his rescue.

She pointed toward the band. “Over there, spelling one of the musicians.”

Luc was picking away at a banjo and looked as if he was having the time of his life. “A man of many talents, your husband.”

She laughed warmly, a lusty look coming into her eyes. “You don’t know the half of it. Now—” she presented her hands to him expectantly “—are you going to dance with me, or are you going to make me stand here like some pathetic wallflower?”

He looked at all the available men milling around. The numbers here were always in favor of the women, but he welcomed the chance to be with his sister. After tomorrow, he didn’t know when he’d be returning to Hades. Though his heart was here, it would be best for all concerned, he decided, if the rest of him was back in Seattle.

Given half a chance, he was sure that more than a dozen men would come scrambling over to fill his young sister’s dance card. “Trust me, Alison, you would never be a wallflower, even if you didn’t live in Hades.”

Her smile, if not her words, told him she appreciated the compliment. “Less talking, more dancing,” she instructed.

The moment Kevin took her into his arms, he could feel her trying to get him to move to the left. And June. He shook his head and laughed. “I know what you’re up to.”

“Up to?” Her look was sheer innocence. “I’m not up to anything. I’m just dancing.”

“In June’s direction.”

She lifted her eyebrows a degree higher, as if to underscore her guilelessness. “Hey, everyone’s got to have a direction. Can I help it if June happens to be in my way?”

Which was another thing. “The woman is not supposed to lead,” he reminded her.

She looked up at her brother. “Sometimes the woman has to lead. Especially when the man is being too dumb to take the lead himself.”

“Alison—”

They were almost beside the other couple now. Alison leaped to take advantage of the opportunity.

“June, do you mind if I cut in?” She didn’t wait for a reply. “Of course you don’t.” Supplanting the younger woman, she took hold of the miner’s hands. “Alan, my husband’s determined to show the world what he’s learned from those banjo tapes he’s been watching. I need a dance partner and my brother’s got two left feet. Will you please rescue me?”

She gave Alan no chance for rebuttal, but took charge and led him away.

“You do not have two left feet,” June protested good-naturedly as she took Alison’s place in Kevin’s arms. “Dance with me before one of these rutting young stags gets it in his head that he wants to show off.”

He obliged, but not before laughing and shaking his head. It was an entirely different breed of women they had up here in Alaska. “Don’t you women ever let a man do the asking around here?”

She looked at him with what he could only term a coy look. “We do if he’s not too slow.”

Kevin made no comment. Instead, he just continued dancing.