Montana Welcome

by Melinda Curtis

  She chewed on that for a moment. “I’ll pass.”

  But she would have worn his boxers?

  He swallowed. Hard.

  Lily Harrison was so far out of his league, he couldn’t remember what his league looked like. She was an elegant bride. Her dark blond hair was done up with strings of tiny pearls. The simple wedding dress hugged her tall frame from the waist up. She was a beautiful woman, blotchy cheeks and reddened blue eyes excepted, and as sharp as Big E.

  The light changed. Conner saw the freeway ahead. He eased down on the gas pedal this time. The old RV rocked into motion.

  “Did you guys drive this all the way from Montana?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “You could have flown.”

  “The plan was to pick up Big E’s stepgranddaughter and her friend in Las Vegas and drive them to Montana with a couple of stops along the way.” Conner clenched the steering wheel tightly. All those stops. Lily could bail on him at any time. And then there was Big E’s stepgranddaughter Pepper, who had more energy than a child on Christmas morning. He knew nothing about the friend she wanted to bring along. What if Lily didn’t like them?

  Apprehension filled the space between his ears.

  Three city gals. One long road trip in an unwieldy vehicle. He tried to tell himself it would be easy.

  Tried, and failed.

  I should have asked for a triple bonus.

  “And then Big E heard about me,” Lily said. “And had a change in plans?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” The important thing was not to panic. He had this under control. Big E trusted him to do this alone.

  A car cut him off. Conner hit the brakes. Lily’s skirts whooshed and flipped up against the back of her head once more.

  “Can you remove those hoops?” One more hard stop and that dress was flipping inside out, exposing...

  Do not think about what would be exposed!

  Lily sighed. “When it comes to this dress, I’m afraid it’s all or nothing.”

  Commando Cowboy gulped.

  “Do you think I’m a bad person?” Lily’s question lacked her previous spunk.

  “No, ma’am.” Conner eased the motor home onto the freeway ramp, pleased at his smooth acceleration, until he noticed the traffic was at a standstill ahead.

  “But I left my groom at the altar.”

  Inwardly, Conner cursed Big E, wishing their roles had been reversed. It might be easier to tell Lily’s family she’d fled the scene than to weather Lily’s uncertainty. “I...uh...heard what your fiancé said about marrying you.” Or not wanting to. Conner spared Lily a glance. “You know. In the hallway. To your dad.” He’d seen Lily sag and lean against the wall. But she hadn’t cried, and Conner respected her for that.

  “You’re probably the only person who’d defend me running away.” A statement made in the smallest voice yet.

  “Me and Big E.”

  “I’m going to be explaining this for the rest of my life.” She heaved a sigh. “Who’ll want to marry me now? I mean...” She raised her hands in the air, curling her fingers into loose fists and then dropping them to her lap. “Who could trust a woman who left her last fiancé on their wedding day?”

  Lily was right, but it was best not to answer that question and fuel her regrets.

  Still, the way she was talking, Conner supposed he’d be dodging quick quips and rhetorical questions all the way to Montana.

  “On the bright side, I did get to wear a wedding dress once in my life.” She made a sound suspiciously like a choked-off sob. “Check that off my bucket list.”

  He was stuck in a motor home with a runaway Blackwell bride and traffic on the freeway was at a dead stop. The only thing that could make this worse was if she started to cry.

  Lily sucked in air sharply.

  Oh, no. Here it comes.

  “Can you...?” Her head bowed. Her nose reddened. She wouldn’t look at him. “I should...”

  No tears. Please.

  He’d driven Lily away from her family, which was akin to rounding up a wild horse and removing it from its herd. Of course Lily was upset. But he was here. Ready to offer what comfort he could. If she just doesn’t cry. He willed Lily to glance his way, to acknowledge his presence, to join the “herd”—his herd. Just until they reached Falcon Creek. Was that too much to ask?

  “There’s so much my family does for me,” she said softly. “I should go back.”

  Big E wouldn’t be happy to hear that. Heck, Conner’s bank balance wasn’t happy to hear that. But at least she wasn’t crying.

  “You want to go through with the wedding?” If that was what she really wanted, he’d for sure be a kidnapper if he didn’t return her to the church.

  “I don’t want to marry Danny. But I should at least have told my family...” Her hands twisted loosely in her lap. “I don’t have my cell phone. Can I borrow yours?”

  Conner hesitated, feeling the press of a rock against him and a hard place. “Sure.” He tugged his phone out of his back pocket and handed it to her.

  “What’s this?” She flipped it open. “I had one of these flip phones in middle school.”

  “What a coincidence.” Conner smirked. “Me, too.”

  She stared at his outdated device. “I don’t know anyone’s phone number. Not by heart. They’re all in my phone’s contacts folder.”

  That’s too bad.

  She pressed his buttons with slow, exaggerated movements and read off a number. “Whose is that?”

  “My mother’s cell phone.”

  “There are no other numbers in your recent file.” Lily frowned. “Didn’t Big E call you?”

  “No. Why would he? We’ve been on the road together for days.”

  She pressed more buttons, again with those overexaggerated movements. “You don’t text anyone, either.” She glanced up at him and then tried to look past her hoops to the rear of Big E’s beloved, dated motor home. “Are you sure you didn’t step out of a time warp?”

  He chuckled and tipped back the brim of his hat. “Did I mention I’m a cowboy? Those fancy phones don’t last very long in the high country.” Whereas his flip phone was going on forever.

  “What am I supposed to do?” Panic edged her question.

  “Trust Big E?” If Big E’s grandsons could hear him now, they’d be hooting it up like they were at the Silver Stake bar and it was payday.

  “Trust a man I just met who claims to be my grandfather? Trust a cowboy heading for Montana in an old motor home?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” It would make the next few days that much easier on Conner.

  The traffic inched forward.

  “I suppose I set myself up for this,” Lily muttered. “My dad always says I never look before I leap. Always. And because he won’t let me live anything down, I always stood behind my choices, no matter how foolish.”

  “Conviction says something positive about a person.” In Conner’s book anyway.

  “Not if you’re a runaway bride.” She scoffed. “Or a cowboy kidnapper.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  JUST WHEN THEY finally broke free of Southern California bumper-to-bumper traffic and Conner could breathe easy, Lily’s stomach growled louder than the motor-home engine.

  “I’m going to need a pit stop.” Lily’s dress quivered.

  “But we just...” Conner caught the subtle, concerned change in Lily’s expression and rephrased. “There’s food in the kitchen and a bathroom if you need it.”

  “You have chips, coffee and soda. That’s not food.” At his raised brows, she shrugged. “You think I walked into a stranger’s motor home without checking everything first? My dad... My stepdad raised us to be careful.”

  Conner acknowledged her street smarts with a nod.

  “And given that I can’t get a seat be
lt around my dress, I won’t be able to squeeze into the little commode cabinet back there.”

  There was that, too.

  “We’ll gas up at the next truck stop.” They’d have food and clothes. And a map of rest stops near Las Vegas.

  She agreed.

  Half an hour later they rolled into a large truck stop, one of those grungy places that never seemed completely clean. It was busy. There were vehicles at nearly every gas pump. The diner looked pretty full. The small store had a line at the cash register and the soda fountain.

  Conner inched past Lily’s skirt and stood. “You need help?”

  “Ya think?” She held out her hands.

  They were smooth, warm and well manicured. They fit in his calloused ones like a broken-in pair of leather work gloves. He tugged her to her feet. The skirt had a mind of its own. It shoved her away from the seat and pushed him back onto the couch. She tumbled on top of him, smelling of flowers.

  * * *

  CONNER WAS REMINDED of the pleasant feeling of a woman filling his arms and the languid heat of slow kisses on a cold night.

  “Sorry.” Lily set her hands on his shoulders and pushed herself up, shoving aside thoughts of kisses in the process. “You must think I’m out of control.”

  “No, ma’am.” She was too elegant to lose control. When they were both standing, Conner helped her down the motor-home steps and into the hot desert air. “I’ve got a Blackwell Ranch credit card. We can get whatever you need inside.”

  “From a fine selection of T-shirts and tube socks, I’m sure.” She trotted toward the store, skirt bouncing up and down with each step. “So much for pride.”

  A man opened the door for them. “Vegas bound or returning?”

  “Bound.” Conner nodded his thanks. “Can’t get hitched without a slushie and a hot dog first.”

  Lily huffed but didn’t turn around. She stopped at a display of T-shirts proclaiming the dominance of Mack trucks, chose one quickly, grabbed a pair of sweats and showed them to the salesclerk before hurrying toward the restrooms in the back.

  Lily stopped at the door to the ladies’ room and turned. She had the most piercing stare. It probed and apologized all at the same time. “I need you to do something for me.”

  “What?” Cowboy kidnappers had to be careful what they promised to do.

  “I need you to help me get out of this dress.” Her cheeks bloomed with color.

  “Whoa.” Conner took a step back, giving her and the troublesome dress some room. Having eloped at eighteen, he hadn’t had to deal with frills on his wedding day.

  “It took all my sisters to get me into this.” Lily stared at her hands before returning her gaze to him. “There are about a hundred little buttons on the back that hide a zipper.”

  “But...” He was a divorced man who hadn’t dated in what seemed like forever, a simple cowboy who’d been told to safely transport a Blackwell to Montana. His fingers itched to touch while his head warned him not to. “Big E would not approve.” There. He’d found a boundary to prevent him from crossing into dangerous territory. Conner skirted around Lily and leaned in the open doorway of the ladies’ room. “Hello? Woman in need of assistance.”

  His words echoed and went unanswered.

  He circled back around and surveyed the convenience store. Men. Men. Men. At the coffee station. At the gas pumps. Even the clerk was a male. Really?

  “Calm down, cowboy.” Gently smiling, Lily shrugged. “I’m not going to seduce you.”

  “I knew that.” Hadn’t stopped his imagination, though. His cheeks flamed with heat. And they kept on flaming when she turned her back for him to begin the disrobing.

  I should never have left Montana.

  “Are you Big E’s foreman or right-hand man or something?”

  Small talk. That was exactly what he needed. He laid tentative hands on those tiny buttons. “I hate to disappoint you but I’m just a ranch hand.” One more used to girth straps and headstall buckles than delicate pearl fasteners on a wedding dress.

  She sighed and her slender shoulders drooped. “I suppose I have relatives in Montana.”

  “Some.” His fingers reached the buttons at the small of her back and he hesitated. Surely, she could move the zipper to her slim hips and wiggle out of this thing. “But...uh... Big E wanted to break the news to them himself. About you being family?” He drew a breath before tackling the pearls draping over the danger zone.

  “What?” She sent him a concerned look over her shoulder. “So what am I supposed to tell the Blackwells when I show up on their doorstep?”

  “You’ll check in as a guest.” Would the trail of buttons never end? “The Blackwell Ranch is a working cattle ranch but also has a guest ranch.”

  “Do you have a horse and everything?”

  “I have a horse and everything.” He reached the buttons at the gentle curve of her derriere and froze. “That’s enough.” He prayed that was enough.

  Her hands came around, checking his progress. “Now the zipper,” she instructed, as cool as a rodeo queen leading her entourage in the Fourth of July parade.

  Conner choked on a gulp of air. “Can’t you get it?”

  “No, I can’t.” Her head lowered. “I had an accident when I was a kid. A sharp crack to my head and...” She gave a weak attempt at a laugh. “My fine motor skills aren’t what they should be.”

  An image of her clumsily jabbing her finger at his cell phone came to mind. But this time it came with context, a ripple effect of sorrow and empathy for whatever had happened to her and the struggles she must have gone through since.

  Conner glanced back into the convenience store. Again, finding only men, he rubbed his palms over his jeans, procrastinating touching her once more. The zipper would reveal skin and underthings.

  Lily glanced over her shoulder, a glint of mischief in her blue eyes. “It’s a hardship, I know. And as a family member of your employer, it might even be considered inappropriate for me to ask. But I can assure you this is a heroic act.”

  Conner had never met a woman like Lily, delicate and determined, strong yet vulnerable, gracious when faced with a challenge but handling it with a sharp sense of humor. He liked her, which made him feel guilty about his need to deliver her to Montana over any doubts or regrets.

  She sighed. “I bet this day isn’t going the way either of us planned.”

  Conner took the plunge and eased the zipper lower. “You got that right.”

  * * *

  “WHAT’S ALL THIS?” Conner stepped next to Lily at the cash register. He’d given her a wide berth since releasing her from her wedding dress and leaving her unaccompanied to shop in the truck stop.

  “This is my travel bag.” Lily arranged her purchases on the truck stop’s counter and drew a big, corset-free breath, which did nothing to dispel the awareness she had for the rawboned cowboy. “Makeup remover. Deodorant. Razor. Toothbrush.” The razor handle was bulky and easy to grip. The toothbrush was also bulky and battery powered. Both compensated for her lack of reliable fingers, if she could get the items out of their packaging. But she had a cowboy for that.

  “You hungry?” Conner had hung her wedding dress over his forearm, enfolding the broad skirt against his side. The largest hoop nearly touched the ground. He added a can of almonds and some protein bars to her purchases. “You want to eat at the coffee shop next door?”

  “Oh, yes. Please.” She hadn’t eaten since a light breakfast and it was late in the afternoon.

  Conner smiled a little. He looked like he never smiled a lot. He gestured toward the items on the counter. “After I pay for this, I’ll put your dress and these things in the rig. Why don’t you go get us a table?”

  “Sure.” She walked out of the store with him and then through a set of doors into the attached diner, which had views of the busy gas pumps and the air of
hard use. She sank into a booth with duct-taped seats. Now that the wedding dress was off, there was no going back and she wondered how her family’s afternoon had gone.

  Dad—she had to remember to call him Rudy—would have had the most volatile reaction to her escape.

  After an intense argument with Big E, Rudy would have stood on the altar and told the wedding guests the day’s events were postponed. He wouldn’t say “canceled.” Canceled equaled defeat, a condition the career naval officer would never accept.

  Peyton would have no such qualms about rescheduling. Ever pragmatic, she’d give back any gifts or cards attendees had deposited upon entering the church and promise to return other gifts guests had bought and delivered beforehand.

  Fiona and Amanda would man the exit, handing out gracious apologies and helping Lily’s elderly guests down the church steps.

  Georgie would attend the groom’s family in case anyone passed out or suffered an attack of high blood pressure.

  Lily hoped her family had stuck around to enjoy the chicken luncheon and chocolate wedding cake in the church hall. Regardless, Peyton or Amanda would arrange the rest of the food to be donated to a local homeless shelter.

  And her groom? Danny would have retreated to the hotel they’d reserved for their wedding night, the one with the prepaid honeymoon suite. He’d be drinking and toasting bullets dodged, having canceled their trip to Hawaii. He’d insisted on buying trip insurance, after all.

  Should she worry about Danny when he hadn’t wanted to marry her in the first place?

  My cold feet make his look frozen in comparison.

  Still, a feeling of remorse was building inside her, like cotton in her throat. She’d taken the dishonorable way out. Her family and Danny deserved more from her.

  I shouldn’t have run away.

  But she shouldn’t have married him, either.

  “Your wedding dress is in the rear storage compartment.” Conner slid into a seat across from her, interrupting her thoughts. “It was either that or the bunk above the driver’s seat, and I’m afraid I’ll be needing you to sleep there tomorrow night. Tonight the bedroom is all yours.”