Don’t look at Blue. Keep your focus on Val.
The small crowd of about forty people stood and swiveled to where Ryann emerged from around the front of the cabin. Ryann was even more beautiful in her second wedding than she was in her first thirteen years ago. Her red curls were wild and mostly untamed as they spilled down her back, though a crown of autumn’s last wildflowers circled the top.
Shane gasped at the sight of his bride and might not have breathed the entire time it took her to get to the altar. The ceremony was short and sweet. From where Thomas stood, he saw all the longing in Ryann’s eyes. All for Shane. No, she’d never looked at Thomas like that. They’d always been better off as friends. Only once had that type of longing been directed at him. Thomas had done a fine job of shutting that down, hadn’t he?
While everyone else in attendance oohed and aahed at the exchange of vows, Blue kept her chin low, as if looking at the happy couple would hurt too much. He hadn’t considered how a newly divorced person would feel at a wedding.
Pastor Joe read a verse from Song of Solomon about the kind of love God desires for married couples to share: Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away.
Realization drilled deep into him. It wasn’t the wedding ceremony that offended. It was the river. Blue couldn’t look at the river where Ella had drowned, yet her chair was facing toward it, fifteen yards away. His heart lurched for his friend. Thomas shuffled his feet but caught himself before he left the wedding party completely. An arm went around Blue’s shoulder.
Val.
Blue accepted the comfort. Val, however, kept her sight centered on Thomas. Her expression bled compassion.
Thomas mouthed a thank-you, and Val nodded slightly. Thomas liked her very much, even more after this gesture. But did he love her?
“Shane,” Pastor Joe began. “You may now—”
Ryann leaped forward, planting her kiss on Shane. The crowd laughed. All except Blue, Val, and Thomas.
Chapter Nine
Although the neon sign in the front window of Ollie’s Bar and Restaurant said Closed, the place was packed near capacity with all those celebrating Shane and Ryann. The jukebox crooned Bon Jovi’s “I’ll Be There For You” while the bride and groom swayed to their first dance.
At their table near the dance floor, Blue shared a bowl of pretzels with Val while Thomas had jumped in to help manage the excessive cars in the parking lot.
“How’s the screenplay coming?” Val asked.
“Better now that I have some folks to speak to,” Blue answered. “Thomas said you helped compile that list?”
“Yes, but those are only the people I’ve seen him help over the past few months. His friends can help gather more. And I’m sure you have several from your time together.”
“No. Not really. The heroic things he did back then were . . .” Blue chewed her words, which tied themselves like pretzel twists in her mouth.
“Only for you?” Val laughed. “Blue, I get it. I know Thomas was head over heels for you back then.”
“No, he was not.”
“Oh yes, he was. He swears you never dated, but sometimes I wonder. Thomas can be a bit—”
“Obtuse?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Naive?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Stubborn?”
“That pretty much nails it.” Val tapped a pretzel on the tabletop. “Aside from that, he’s a great guy. Oh, I heard something about the two of you. Is it true that you used to dance to that song from Singin’ in the Rain together?”
Blue smiled. Like a quilt worn with use, she’d reached for those memories more than any other during the hard times. “I love that movie. My grandfather was a stagehand on it, so it was my favorite. When I was a kid, I used to act out ‘Make ’Em Laugh,’ especially when Thomas’s parents, you know . . .”
Val grinned. “Actually, I don’t know. Thomas doesn’t confide much in me. I know they divorced when he was young.”
“We were fourteen. But even after they divorced, the custody battle went on for years. When things got ugly, I’d pull him into a play I made up. Eventually, I forced him to learn the choreography to ‘You Were Meant For Me.’ I had a ladder and a fan and everything. We used to perform it for our family and friends all the time. We even did it at prom.”
“I’d like to see that.”
“Ha! I’m sure you wouldn’t. It would be a mess for sure.”
Thomas rode the cold breeze through the front door of the restaurant just in time for the bridal party to head to the dance floor. Val didn’t hesitate to pair with him. While all the other couples pressed tight together, Val and Thomas kept a chaste distance. More than once, Thomas glanced Blue’s way. Which meant that more than once he’d caught her staring.
“Excuse me, everyone. I’d like to give a toast,” Robbie said from the stage, a microphone hot in his hand. “Ryann, you’re the best big sister a guy could ask for. Your piggy bank was always full of change to fuel my candy habit, your Barbies were excellent targets for my BB gun, and your diary made for great reading material. But as we grew up, you became more than someone to mess with. You inspired me to be a better person and to take people and relationships more seriously. And you taught me that you never regret fighting for the ones you love. I love you, sis.”
From their private table in the corner, Ryann rested against Shane’s chest. His fingers caressed the scars that laced her arms, all gained from her attempt to save her first husband.
“And Shane, you’re an answered prayer, brother. The day you arrived in Montana was a banner day for our whole family, and not a day goes by that I don’t thank God for you. That said, after you spend tonight with my sister, I refuse to make eye contact with you for at least three months.”
Shane shielded his eyes, and the crowd laughed while raising their glasses to toast the happy couple.
The rest of the wedding reception eschewed custom but was so perfectly Ryann and Shane, or at least what Blue knew of them. Of all the people dancing and celebrating their union, Blue was the biggest stranger of them all.
Even Val was more ingrained in this world than she was. Of course, Val was instantly likable. Her loving arm during the riverfront wedding ceremony was everything Blue needed when all her insides threatened to turn out.
Blue pulled out her phone to check the time. Two missed texts. The first one was from her father.
Just checking in on the script. Making progress? Also, we bought you a plane ticket for Christmas to visit us.
Plans? Her parents were sometimes as obtuse as Thomas. She closed the text, vowing to respond once she got home later.
The other text was from Hunter.
Hey babe. Caught a showing of our movie this afternoon. Forgot how talented you are. I heard you’re writing a new one. I want to hear all about it. Call me sometime.
“Hey.” Thomas’s greeting nearly made her drop her phone into her half-eaten slice of cake. Instead, it bounced on her leg, then down to the floor. But quick-thinking Thomas slid his foot beneath it to break the fall. He bent down to retrieve it and caught a peek at the screen before handing it back. “You and Hunter still talk?”
“Not really. He’ll send an occasional text, but that’s it. I always ignore him or send him to voice mail.” Blue waved off the thought of her ex-husband. “Where’s Val?”
“Talking to Ryann.”
“She’s a sweetheart. During the ceremony, I had a moment, and she put her arm around me.”
“That verse. Ryann said it was Pastor Joe’s doing.”
“It’s a beautiful verse. I told you. I don’t want people walking on eggshells around me.”
Thomas shrugged. “I nearly stepped out of line to take you as far away from the river as we could get.”
She waited for him to meet her eyes with his, but h
e didn’t. “You make a good hero.”
“Hey, guys, you’re in for a treat, but first, I need everyone to clear the floor.” Ryann stared straight at Blue and Thomas as she spoke into the microphone. Behind her, Joe carried in a ladder from the back room and placed it on the floor where couples had just been twirling about. A few familiar notes played over the restaurant’s speaker system. Oh no.
“Did you do this?” Thomas asked.
“No way. I’ve been enough of a spectacle these past few years.”
“Blue and Thomas, will you please regale us with a dance? As a wedding gift to Shane and me?” Ryann asked.
All eyes turned to them. No, she wouldn’t dance with Thomas. In the past when they’d done this bit, he’d never been dating anyone. Val appeared then, behind Ryann, carrying a fan. After she plugged it in, she looked Blue’s way and placed her hands together in a pleading position and mouthed, Please.
Robbie practically catapulted Blue out of her chair then. When the entire crowd participated in a cajoling rhythm of claps, Thomas caught her glance. “I’ll do it if you tell me to. I’ll also tell them all to get lost if you’d prefer.”
“For old times’ sake?” she asked.
“Sure.”
Moments later, Blue rolled her eyes as she climbed up a step on the ladder. At least her mother wasn’t here to see how time without her lessons had butchered their tap-dance choreography. Thomas glared once more at Ryann as he circled the ladder during Gene Kelly’s second verse. But he still took Blue’s hand and led her in a series of tentative, gliding steps across the floor.
A rare blush pinked his cheeks. Blue tried to bite away a laugh. How many goofy things had she convinced him to do, all in the name of friendship? Poor guy. At least everyone else was enjoying it, and not just because this was giving them months, maybe years, of fodder to tease Thomas, the heroic firefighter. Together, they put on a good show.
Just like in the movie, Thomas spun her across his body, and she released his hand, stepping away to the edge of the dance floor where Val, Ryann, and Shane stood watching with big smiles. A few other guests, who had never seen their high school antics, wore looks of horror. Someone took a picture of her.
Would that end up on the cover of a gossip rag with a headline about how pathetic her life had become since getting ditched by Hunter? She should’ve RSVP’d no to this wedding. She didn’t belong here. She didn’t belong anywhere anymore.
Before she could flee, Thomas turned her gently back to him. He placed his right hand on her waist and took her other hand in his, holding it out to the side. She responded by resting her free hand behind his shoulder in a perfect waltzing stance. A flicker of adventure sparked in his eyes, and the smallest hint of a smile curved his lips. Then they were off, spinning and stepping, tapping and gliding in what was undoubtedly the worst dance reproduction anyone had ever performed west of the Mississinewa River. But they didn’t care one bit. As the music rose and fell, they focused on each other, smiling stupidly through their fumbling steps. For one minute, they were Beck and Blue, two best friends without a care in the world, except for dividing the cookies evenly and pointing out every falling star in the Montana summer sky.
Yes, everything about this dance was utterly childlike. At least until Thomas lifted her effortlessly and they twirled in a slow circle. He gazed at her with total and complete adoration. When he lowered her to her feet, he held her marvelously but dangerously close as the final lyrics of the song reached too deep into her soul.
If the crowd clapped, she couldn’t hear it over the sound of her pulse thudding in her ears. Although she excused herself from the celebration minutes later, without giving Thomas or Val another glance, her pulse still tapped a quick beat the entire drive back to her parents’ home.
Chapter Ten
Blue finished her third cup of coffee. From her table at Canyon Street Coffee and Confections, she nodded to the barista and held up her mug. She’d use this last cup to help her organize her chicken-scratch notes. Over the past three weeks, through a series of interviews right here at this table, she’d learned more about the wonderful deeds of Thomas Beck, hometown hero. His life was starting to sound like a checklist of Boy Scout patches. Aid an older adult across the street, volunteer at the Earthquake Lake Visitor Center, change a stranger’s tire during a downpour, and clear the snow off sidewalks for people with health issues.
Then, of course, there were more significant acts. The ones that did more than brighten someone’s day. He’d rescued kittens from a drainpipe, pulled a man from the rubble of a cabin down at Ghost Village, and performed CPR on a woman who’d had a heart attack in the middle of a church service.
But in the past two years, he’d added a new element. He’d begun putting his life on the line. He’d scaled a cliff without equipment to aid an injured mountain climber. Over the winter, under the risk of avalanche, he’d located a cross-country skier who had been injured in a slide. Then, last summer, he’d become a firefighter. Yet even that wasn’t enough to fulfill whatever need he was harboring. And so, the night before Blue arrived back in town, he’d bucked the orders of his fire captain and entered a burning home in the forest to save a family no one knew was inside.
Why? She needed to figure it out soon. So far, Thomas had avoided serious injury and death, but one day his luck, or perhaps God’s favor, was sure to run out. After all, she’d seen that happen.
The barista filled her mug. The silky brew as it left the carafe in a stream flaunted the same colors as Thomas’s eyes. Fathomless in the center and transitioning to a lighter brown on the edges. Dreamy and welcoming, but they also gave nothing away.
The doorbells jingled. Blue got the distinct feeling she was being watched. She and Thomas had set tongues wagging after their dance at Shane and Ryann’s wedding. Although it was completely innocent and, let’s face it, forced upon them, it was that last close moment they’d shared that had done it. Keira, who’d acted as a volunteer wedding photographer, had shown her the picture of the two of them. The townsfolk were right. They certainly looked like they wanted to kiss each other if they hadn’t already.
And if people thought it was a powerful moment to witness, they would’ve combusted if they’d been in the moment. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure Thomas felt anything like she felt. But that was Thomas. He had the passion and intensity of a duck waddling to water. Meanwhile, the memory of Thomas’s hands cradling her rib cage after the lift forced Blue to loosen her scarf. No. She wouldn’t think of him like that. That would only lead to pain.
Of course, it didn’t help hearing story after story of his self-sacrifice, courage, and faithfulness—all things Hunter lacked.
A slow swishing sound neared, preceding the appearance of two sliced tennis balls in her line of vision. They stopped by the side of her table, and Blue followed them up the legs of a walker to the disgruntled face of Maxine Montgomery.
Blue opened her mouth to extend a greeting, but Maxine beat her to it.
“Save your pleasantries, Cecelia Walker. I know the kind of girl you are.”
Shame oozed through Blue’s veins, though she wasn’t entirely sure why. Maxine hadn’t even been at the wedding reception.
“What kind of girl is that?” she asked.
“The kind of girl who sets off fireworks right next to my house on the Fourth of July. You killed my Greta! I may be old, but I remember that.”
Blue closed her mouth and drew in a breath through her nose.
“Greta was my closest friend, and she had a heart attack thanks to you and your shenanigans.” As Ms. Maxine’s voice rose, her bespectacled eyes shot lasers straight through Blue, pinning her to the chair.
“Everything all right, Ms. Maxine?” Thomas appeared out of nowhere and stepped between Blue and her accuser.
“I was giving the Walker girl a piece of my mind. She killed my Greta.”
“Your chicken?” Thomas asked, his voice smooth and steady. “From back in 2002?”
“The very one.”
“I remember that chicken. She was a gem.”
“Yes, she was.” Ms. Maxine softened. “Thomas Beck, such a sweet boy. I should’ve taken you in as my own when your momma and daddy did you and your sister like they did.”
Thomas showed no reaction. “Can I get you a coffee or a cupcake, Ms. Maxine? Cecelia seems to be working.”
“I know. She’s the reason I made the trek out here.”
“To yell at her?”
“No, that was a side note. Help me sit down, son.”
Thomas raised his brow apologetically in Blue’s direction, then helped lower the woman onto the chair across from Blue, but he didn’t leave. Instead, he took a seat right next to Maxine.
“I heard you were looking for stories about Thomas. Well, I got one.”
Thomas winced but said nothing. The waiter delivered a plate with a large muffin on it along with a napkin to the spot in front of Thomas, who nodded but kept his focus on the table.
Maxine reached into her bag and pulled out a romance novel with worn edges. The hero bore a strange resemblance to Shane. That is if Shane’s shirt lost all its buttons. She withdrew a piece of newspaper from between the pages. “Oh, don’t you be eyeing my book. You can find your own copy, Cecelia Walker. Now, look here at this photograph.”
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