Snowbound with the Best Man

by Allie Pleiter

  “Let’s just get you married before something else goes wrong,” Bruce said, brushing off the warmth Darren’s comments kindled in his chest. “I think that’s enough of an agenda for a day like today.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Kelly lined up each of the two bridesmaids ahead of the bride, placing Carly just in front of the entry door she’d open in a few minutes. The sounds of the church organ filled the building, and Kelly sent up a prayer of thanksgiving that the power had been restored. Last night she’d feared she’d have to ask Marvin to bring his accordion.

  “Miss Tina looks beautiful, doesn’t she?” Carly said.

  “She does. And so do you.” Carly did look adorable.

  “I love my headband.” The child posed like a princess with her birch wood basket of flower petals.

  “That makes me happy.” Kelly glanced down the entranceway to ensure that the two bridesmaids were ready in line. Bruce and the maid of honor had been given the rings to hold since the ring bearer ended up stuck in Indianapolis. Everything was as ready as it would ever be.

  “You look beautiful, too,” Carly added.

  Kelly hoped the rush of warmth she felt in her cheeks didn’t show. “That’s a nice thing to say, Carly.”

  “Has Daddy told you he likes you? I know he does. Lots.”

  Kelly leaned down to Carly’s height. “How about we concentrate on the wedding right now, sweetie?” She pointed to the basket. “Get some in your hand. We’re going to start.” Kelly pulled open the door that led into the sanctuary, and sent the final groomsman to his post beside Bruce and Darren. She pointed down the aisle. “There’s your daddy, and you drop these petals along the aisle as you walk toward him nice and slow just like you practiced. Are you ready?”

  Carly held up a tiny handful of red petals. “Yep.”

  Kelly looked over to the side of the sanctuary where Samantha’s photographer was stationed. The man had kindly offered to use his equipment to record and live-stream the ceremony to Darren’s parents still stranded in Ohio. Really, there wasn’t a single person in the valley today who hadn’t pitched in in some way to make this wedding happen—even the out-of-towners like the photographer. Today of all days, this town earned its name of Matrimony Valley.

  The processional music began. Carly’s adorably nervous smile led Kelly to give the girl a kiss on the top of her head as she waved her on her way. There was no denying how fond she had grown of Carly. Lulu had made some casual friendships with valley children before, but the near-instant and sister-like bond she’d made with Bruce’s daughter truly seemed rare and special.

  Carly made her way down the aisle, earning coos and whispers of “Isn’t she adorable?” from the valley residents and wedding guests who had gathered to fill the church. The only person who wasn’t here was Yvonne, because she was back in her shop. She’d launched into a furious surge of baking once the power came back on in order to have a wedding cake ready by the time the reception started.

  When Carly was halfway to Bruce, Kelly sent the first bridesmaid down the aisle. The second followed, and then the all-important pause as the congregation stood and the organist began the “Bridal Chorus.”

  For all the stress and strain, for all the compromises and makeshift preparations, Tina looked glorious and glowing with happiness as she stepped into the doorway. As Mayor Jean had advised, Kelly held a gentle hand out to Tina’s father to ensure that Tina paused, then looked at the top of the aisle to see Darren’s face transform at the sight of his bride.

  Jean always said that moment was the fuel that kept her going, and Kelly could see why. It was nothing short of wonder, a little piece of everything that was still right in the world. A pure moment of love’s power to conquer all.

  She tried not to let her gaze wander to Bruce as she touched Tina’s father’s elbow as a signal to begin. Still, it was as if she couldn’t help but catch Bruce’s eyes as the bride went to meet her groom. This day had become such a mix of emotions between them; work and joy, fear and accomplishment, remembered love and endured loss. She saw it all in his expression, just as she was sure he could see it in hers.

  What they were feeling was true, wasn’t it? Not just a product of today and all the chaos that had led up to it? It felt true—powerfully true—but so did all the reasons why it ought to be impossible. She was too tired to trust how his gaze sent her pulse dancing. Too swept up in the moment to believe how his compliments and admiration felt as if it made her skin glow.

  She was tearing up because she always teared up at weddings. Not because some defiant part of her had started to believe another happy ending might be possible for her. That disobedient hope had slipped out of her control, unstoppable as the water down Matrimony Falls.

  “Dearly beloved,” Pastor Mitchell began, “we are gathered here to celebrate the victory of love over just about every hurdle we can imagine.”

  While everyone laughed, Kelly was surprised to see the bridesmaids and groomsmen break into jubilant applause. Applause? Now? Congregants often applauded when the bride and groom were announced as man and wife at the end of the ceremony, but then again, didn’t Tina and Darren deserve congratulations for simply making it to this moment, as well? She felt new tears slip down her cheeks as she joined in the cheerful display. It was unconventional, but what about this wedding had ever been conventional?

  “Now,” said Pastor Mitchell, raising his hands to quiet the ovation, “shall we get down to business?” And with that, he began the happy, long-awaited task of joining Darren and Tina as man and wife before God, some of their friends and family and nearly all of Matrimony Valley.

  * * *

  Bruce felt someone tug on his sleeve while he waited for Carly to finish up her photographs with the bride and bridesmaids. He turned to find that Lulu had seated herself on the pew next to him.

  “It was bee-u-tiful, wasn’t it?” she asked, stringing the word out with little-girl glee.

  He knew valley residents had filled the pews out of kindness to the newlyweds, but he couldn’t deny how right it felt to have Kelly and Lulu in the church to watch the ceremony. He’d told himself it was because of the huge part they’d played in making the wedding happen, but it was more than that. Too much more than just professional investment. He simply couldn’t bring himself to squelch the warm glow that filled him when they were around. Kelly most certainly, but Lulu, too. “It sure was beautiful,” he answered.

  “I really like weddings,” Lulu said, swinging her legs. With a smile, Bruce noticed that she’d swapped out her own bootlaces for strips of sparkly purple fabric so that her footwear mimicked Carly’s. Lulu’s spunk amused him in so many ways.

  “That’s good, figuring what your mom does and where you live.” He sat back, relief mixing with fatigue. He could count the number of hours he’d slept this weekend on one hand—that had to be part of the reason for all this new emotionality messing with his composure. “Once word gets out about how the valley pulled this one off, I expect you’ll be one busy town.”

  “Do you like weddings?”

  No. Or I didn’t. More scared of them, maybe, until today. “Oh, they’re fine enough,” he replied. “I’m happy for Darren and Tina.” It was true. Last week he wasn’t sure he could get through the ceremony without feeling like a numb imposter on the fringes of someone else’s happiness. Then Kelly caught his gaze across the sanctuary as the wedding started.

  Those eyes. That slightly nervous hint of a smile. The tender way she bent down and kissed the top of Carly’s head. How on earth does a man get taken in by the curve of a woman’s cheek from clear across a big room like that?

  For a few seconds, he almost forgot where he was, or how to breathe, or that he used to be numb. Or even that anyone else was in the room. Something inside him that had started to crack open shoveling his way into that cabin last night split wide open today. Something
he wasn’t sure would—or should—come to life ever again. An uneasy sense of impending—what? Doom? Happiness? Change?—raced up from behind him like a storm he had to outrun to stay on course. He’d had the sense of something changing all weekend, and during today’s ceremony he’d realized what it was: the return to living in a world where happiness was once again a possibility.

  “I’m glad we get to come to the party,” Lulu went on, leaning up against him as if they’d been friends for years. “It’s gonna be fun. It’s great that Mom and I get to sit with you and Carly.”

  So the matchmaking was still going full force. He’d been meaning to put a stop to that little scheme to have them sit together, but never got around to it. And it wasn’t hard to work out why. The idea of sitting with Kelly at the lantern-lit dinner he knew Tina and Darren had planned felt as tempting as Marvin’s sundaes. To watch the candlelight play across her face the way it had back when the power was out. To see her without the stress of the wedding winding her tight and devouring her time. He wanted to have one—just one—leisurely dance with her. This mountain of chaos and obstacles had actually worked itself out into a wedding—wasn’t that worth one dance?

  “Mr. Bruce?”

  “Huh?”

  “You sure do go away in your head lots.”

  He looked at Lulu. “That’s what Carly said she calls it,” she went on. “Mom does something like that. Thinks real hard for a long time. She’s been doing it loads since you showed up.” She looked up at him with wide, “trying to look innocent” eyes. “What do you suppose that means?”

  Bruce was grasping for an appropriate answer when Samantha’s photographer clapped his hands. “Thank you, everyone,” he called. “I’ll see you over at the inn for the reception.”

  Carly came bouncing over to the pew. “Let’s go. Miss Tina says I get to have our dance together first thing, even before dinner.” She looked at Lulu. “We’ve been practicing and everything.”

  “Mom likes to dance, too,” Lulu offered.

  Carly grinned with the same “not quite innocent” look. “You’re gonna dance with Lulu’s mom, too, aren’t you, Daddy?”

  Bruce began to feel outnumbered and outmaneuvered. “We’ll see.” He forced himself to coat his tone with enough doubt to squelch this little campaign.

  Lulu pouted. “My mom says it just like that, too.”

  “Where is your mother?” He tried to sound casual, as if he hadn’t noticed the minute she left the sanctuary and felt the void left by her absence. He’d flown rescue squads with firefighters that required less strategy than the two girls currently flanking him.

  “She had to take the church flowers over and turn them into things for the party tables ’cuz there wasn’t enough for both,” Lulu said, picking up her coat and handing Carly hers in alarmingly big-sister fashion. “I’ll help you with that. See?” she said as she finished up Carly’s jacket zipper. “Just like sisters.” And with that, the two girls skipped up the church aisle holding hands.

  He was grabbing his own coat when Tina and Darren came up behind him.

  “Tina...” Bruce started.

  She only smiled the blissful, dreamy smile of a new bride. “See you over at the inn.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  She’d done it.

  Well, they’d all done it, the whole valley, but when Samantha went on and on about the amazing way this wedding had come off and the glowing article she planned on writing, Kelly wanted to dance with joy.

  Actually, she wanted to dance with Bruce. And laugh with him. And talk about God and love and loss and little girls with him. Oh, she and Bruce tried to put up a respectable amount of resistance to the obvious schemes of the girls, but it wasn’t working. She was falling for him. Hard. And all the convincing she could muster about this being some kind of fantasy bubble certain to pop wasn’t helping to stop her feelings one bit.

  “How did they learn to do that at their age?” Bruce muttered with unconvincing annoyance as Lulu and Carly practically shoved them out together on the dance floor.

  “I have no idea.” Oh, why did he have to be such a good dancer? Different from Mark, but still wonderful. She’d always loved to dance, and hated being a “pity partner” of generous husbands at valley functions. “You can cut a rug, Mr. Lohan.”

  His face softened with memory. “Sandy loved to dance. Sorry, I’m probably way out of practice.”

  “No, you’re not—no more than me anyway.” After a moment, she said, “It’s okay, you know. They’re here.”

  “Who?”

  “Mark. And Sandy. We were married to them. They’re part of us, part of our daughters. They’re here today, in a way, and that’s okay.” She dared a look up into his eyes. “How are you?”

  His smile sent her heart to a host of unwise places. “Okay.” After a moment, he took a shaky breath and said, “Fine. A surprising, scary kind of fine, actually.” He stared into her eyes, and suddenly it was hard to feel the floor under her feet. “Kelly...”

  If it wasn’t the first time he said her name, it felt like it. Close and quiet, whispered like a secret. She both wanted him to say whatever was on the tip of his tongue, and dreaded any admission. It had to be the same thing she was thinking: I’m scared. I’m unsure. I’m not ready. I’ve missed this so much.

  “Tuesday’s coming,” she managed to blurt out, citing the day he’d told her he and Carly would drive back home. The day reality would push its way back into their lives. The day that, right now, she couldn’t bear the thought of coming.

  His face fell. “Actually, Monday’s coming. I haven’t told Carly yet, but we have to leave a day early. The service called, and with the weather they’re shorthanded and they need me back.”

  Kelly forced a casual, friendly tone to her voice. “And are you ready to go back? You said you’d taken the time off because things hadn’t been going so well.”

  He gave her a lopsided, almost bittersweet smile that she found far too endearing. “I figured a few things out while I was here.”

  “I’m glad,” she said, and it was mostly true. Glad he found some of the peace he sought, but unsettled by his readiness to return to the job she found so difficult to embrace. Did You send this, God? Kelly wondered to herself. A reminder of what he does to knock some sense into me? Mark’s ever-changing schedule had been challenge enough. Bruce’s job frequently dealt with unplanned emergencies, and could pull him away from her at any moment—or a crucial moment—leaving her alone. She didn’t want to learn to depend on someone again only to have them called away by duty or disaster. Who could ever say, “I’m sorry about that forest fire or flood, but I could really use you here”?

  “Hey,” Bruce said, touching her cheek in a way that made her head spin, “I’m still here now. We have an amazing wedding reception to enjoy.”

  She knew what he was trying to say. To stop planning and analyzing and just enjoy the moment, relish her accomplishment. But being here, with Bruce, was so much more than that. No matter how lovely tonight might be, Monday would come. Monday always came. “I...”

  “Carly told me last night she wanted to move here and be Lulu’s little sister and grow up to run Marvin’s ice-cream shop.”

  Kelly allowed herself a soft laugh. “She told me that, too. I like a girl who can plan.”

  Bruce looked over her shoulder, likely in the direction of where the girls were sitting. “What would you say if I told you I liked her plan?”

  It wasn’t fair what that question did to her. All the wishing it unleashed. All the practicality it denied. All the very fragile hope it ignited. “How?” was all she could manage, and even that was more of a sigh than a word.

  “I’m not sure,” he said. His eyes told her he wanted to try, and she felt the last of her resistance crumbling away under the power of his gaze.

  “I’m not sure, either,” sh
e replied, even as his arms tightened around her. How could she be sure of anything right now, except how delightful the moment felt and how much that delight scared her to death? If they were alone, she would have kissed him. And he would have kissed her back, and it would have been wonderful. But they were not alone—half the town was around them, and more important, the girls.

  As if in defiance of that fact, the music slowed. Bruce pulled her close to him. “How about we just stop talking about it. Just put your head on my shoulder and enjoy the music.”

  Oh, the one thing sure to pull her under, the one thing she missed most of anything, was having a shoulder to lean against. The safe, blissful sensation of leaning her cheek against a strong shoulder. If any gesture meant “you’re not alone” to her, it was that one. Kelly knew that if she allowed her head to rest against Bruce’s shoulder, any hope of keeping sensible margins—of Bruce being just a customer or even just a friend—would be lost.

  She’d faced down a storm, faced down a grouchy reporter, faced down a mountain of problems to see Darren and Tina married, but nothing felt as treacherous as the moment where Kelly tilted her head and felt Bruce’s entire body change with the contact of her cheek against his collarbone.

  Bruce’s sigh was full of wonder and relief and fear. It sounded exactly like the tumble of sensations going through her heart. It was so much more than the embrace he’d given her in the hardware store. That one was careful and tentative. This one was full and strong and splendid. Her guard dropped even as his had, and she let herself lean into his strength. Kelly let herself be held up and swept across the floor by this man, this father, this soul seemingly so well matched to hers.

  Did two dances go by or twelve? Kelly lost any professional sense of time and place, enthralled by the moment.

  “Do you know what I’d give right now for Monday not to come?” he said softly.