But astonishingly enough, the weddings were going to happen, at least Scarlett’s, even now that she knew Ian had been in on the conspiracy. Ian was off changing into a suit, and Maddie Gallagher, the chief conspirator, had hauled off his bride so the assembled community could finish turning the old decommissioned courthouse—on which they’d spent the day finishing renovations—into a wedding chapel.
Click-clack click-clack. Veronica had to grin at the sound. Scarlett’s least favorite person, Hayley Sullivan aka L.A. Barbie, had appointed herself the set designer, and she’d actually done a bang-up job.
But that didn’t mean Scarlett wouldn’t grind her teeth if she knew.
“You do grow the most gorgeous flowers,” Hayley said as Veronica stepped back to judge the latest placement. “The hot colors of these marigolds and celosia absolutely glow under this candlelight.”
“Thanks. Brenda was a huge help.”
The girl beside her, thin and young and anxious, was a runaway with a hidden past, but Ruby had taken her in and trained her as a waitress at Ruby’s diner, yet another of Ruby’s strays.
“I didn’t do that much.”
Veronica turned. “You have a deft hand. When I can afford you, I’m going to do my best to steal you from Ruby.”
The girl’s eyes glowed. “I would love that—but I couldn’t leave Ruby hanging.”
“I know. We all adore her.” Veronica patted her shoulder. “We’ll work it out, don’t you worry. Anyway, I’m a long way from affording full-time help.”
“But you need it, don’t you?” Hayley asked. “Everyone says—”
“Everyone needs to mind their own business,” Veronica interrupted. “I am not the town charity case.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s only that here you are, a new widow with three children and a whole flower farm to take care of—”
“David’s been gone a year. I’ve adjusted.” A lie, but she was trying. Keeping the wolf from the door was a constant battle, and she missed David. She hadn’t loved him when they’d married—her heart had had no room for anyone but Jackson then—but he’d been her knight in shining armor, charging to her rescue when she’d realized she was pregnant and Jackson had vanished utterly.
The side door opened, and Ian and Mackey stepped inside.
“All right, everybody, places!” Hayley ordered. “Let’s get these brides in here before somebody gets cold feet again.”
Laughter swept the room.
Veronica adjusted one more arrangement, then stepped back. As she made her way to her children, she passed by Ian and stopped to give him a hug.
“I’m so happy for you both.”
Ian hugged her back. “I want what you and David had.”
Her eyes misted, and she couldn’t speak.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
“No.” She placed one hand on his forearm. “He’d be happier than anyone to see this day come. He’d want to be here with you and Mackey, even if—”
Ian grimaced. “Even if Jackson’s missing.”
She stiffened. Ian couldn’t know—no one did.
But she would not discuss Jackson Gallagher. He’d abandoned her. Abandoned all their dreams. “I’d better get to my seat.” She clasped Ian’s face in her hands. “You are the best man I’ve ever known, Ian McLaren. You marry that woman and be the happiest man on earth.”
“That’s saying a lot, given that you were married to David.” Ian bent and kissed her cheek. “I’ll still be here anytime you need me, you know that. I won’t let you down.”
“You never have. But I’m fine now.”
“Veronica…”
She could see the pity train rolling again, so she derailed it. “See you, Mackey,” she said over his shoulder to David’s other closest friend. “I’ll keep an eye on Rissa.”
Mackey snorted. “Good luck with that. It’s a full-time job.” The love in his gaze demonstrated how crazy he was about his new wife.
Then Veronica saw the door open to admit Scarlett and Ruby, and she hurried to join her children in the audience.
Ian’s whole face brightened like the sun as he spotted Scarlett, and Scarlett’s eyes were locked on his as she and her grandmother escorted each other down the aisle to their respective grooms while famed country singer Walker Roundtree sang.
Just as Scarlett reached Ian, his gaze was caught by something at the rear of the room, and for a moment he seemed to freeze. Then he nodded and slid his arm around Scarlett’s waist as they turned to face old Judge Porter, who would marry them.
Veronica tried to see what Ian could have been looking at, but her tall son Ben and others in the crowd blocked her view.
Then the magic of the wedding ceremony drew her back, and she gave it no more thought.
He’d let himself be banished once. He damn sure wasn’t doing it to himself.
What was it about this place that tossed him right back into eighteen and confused?
Jackson knew he could buy and sell this town a hundred times over. Hadn’t he dragged himself out of homelessness and misery, building a life step by determined step, clawing his way to the top by sheer grit and refusal to quit? Now he was worth a fortune, had the respect of many, had his world by the tail.
He would go see Aunt Ruby. Figure out how to help her. He’d set the wheels in motion to accomplish whatever she needed.
Then he’d be gone.
But as he crested the hill that led to the turn in the river where Sweetgrass nestled, he could see pickups and cars by the score all parked around the courthouse that had been abandoned for as long as he could remember. Ruby had purchased it at auction, he knew, with a dream of someday making it a centerpiece of restoring Sweetgrass to its former glory. She’d mentioned her newly-discovered granddaughter’s surprising appearance and Scarlett’s plans to help, and he’d been glad for her.
But what was going on over there tonight? As he rolled into town, he spared a glance around. The place was a ghost town. The only lights were at Ruby’s Cafe and at the courthouse.
Seeing no one around to ask, he parked the Rover and made his way through the rows of vehicles, hearing music as he neared. Approaching from the side, he saw the front door of the courthouse closing, so he stepped to a side window.
Most of Sweetgrass appeared to be present in the rotunda, and when someone moved, he spotted…flowers? Candles? What was going on?
An oddly familiar voice accompanied by two guitars provided music, something slow and romantic. Was that…famed country singer Walker Roundtree?
Stranger and stranger…
But he forgot any speculations once he spotted Ian, the best friend of his youth, standing in front of what appeared to be an altar. Besides him stood an older man also dressed in a suit, both of them staring down a makeshift aisle with smiles on their faces.
A drift of white lace peeked between people, and Jackson’s eyebrows rose.
Ian was…getting married?
Jackson turned away. He wouldn’t intrude.
But damn, he missed the man who’d been his brother in all but name. Ian had practically lived at the Star Bar G. His mother had abandoned him as a kid, and it had been just Ian and his dad.
His buddy had grown up, that was for sure. He’d know that bronzed hair anywhere, but the man was a stranger, tall and muscular. The quarterback to Jackson’s wide receiver, they’d been an unbeatable combination in so many ways.
Now Ian was getting married. Once Jackson would have been his best man. He wanted to be present, even if Ian would never know. Maybe he could sneak in the back and watch.
It was a crazy notion…but he acted on it anyway.
When he stepped inside, Ian glanced up. Stilled. Stared straight at him. Jackson wondered if his buddy would even know him.
He nodded hello, just in case.
Eyes wide, Ian nodded back, then gathered his bride to him and turned.
Right behind them, a tiny woman in red joined the older man
, and when she looked over and smiled, Jackson realized it was his Aunt Ruby, also with a bouquet. The older couple stepped up beside Ian and the petite beauty with him.
Son of a gun—Aunt Ruby…could she be getting married, too?
Everyone was riveted by the happenings at the altar, fortunately. He didn’t want to attract attention—he’d thought only to see Aunt Ruby—so he looked about him carefully, hoping not to be seen by anyone he knew. He slid to a place behind the last row, his height allowing him a view over the heads of the crowd.
And now he was stuck. He wouldn’t risk distracting from the proceedings by opening the door again.
He hadn’t felt this exposed or vulnerable in years.
Someone in front of him shifted, and a blonde head came into view. When the woman turned to speak to a little girl at her side, Jackson’s breath stalled.
Dear God. It was her.
Veronica.
Pale and thin, so slight she looked as though she’d blow away, shadows beneath her eyes.
And more beautiful than ever.
“Mommy, Scarlett looks like a fairy princess,” Beth whispered. “I want to be a bride like her.”
Don’t we all? But Veronica tapped her forefinger to her lips and shook her head for silence before bending to the quieter of her twin daughters and whispering. “She is, isn’t she?”
Scarlett had become a dear friend, and Veronica couldn’t be happier for her, or for the man by her side. Ian deserved this happiness more than most anyone she knew.
That didn’t keep her heart from aching. Her own wedding to David had been a few words in front of a justice of the peace, exactly as Veronica had told David she preferred. Still shell-shocked from Jackson’s disappearance and on the heels of the staggering knowledge that at seventeen she was going to bear a child, she’d thought she’d fall completely apart if she had more than a simple legal proceeding. She didn’t want to be reminded of her dreams of marrying Jackson in some romantic spot, of being a bride completely in love with her groom.
Poor David had gone along with the colorless ceremony, though she could not fully imagine what must have been going through his mind. He’d told her later that he’d had a crush on her since junior high, but he hadn’t summoned the nerve to ask her out.
He hadn’t known she and Jackson were together—no one had—until he’d accidentally seen them late one night. She’d insisted on the subterfuge because her father would literally have killed Jackson if he’d known. Even if Vernon Patton hadn’t been a violent man, bad feelings between Pattons and Gallaghers went back generations to a reputed swindle of some sort.
Jackson had fought her on it, but in the end, he’d wanted her too much, and she’d threatened to walk away rather than risk the price they would both pay.
They’d been living for Jackson’s graduation, followed a year later by her own.
But Jackson had never graduated.
He’d also never tried to contact her after he’d left.
And if her father had had a clue that she was pregnant by his enemy’s son…
David alone had understood that there was another victim of the accident that killed his sister, that Veronica was scared and sick and grieving, only she was doing it alone, unlike his family. He’d reached out to her when she was at rock bottom and offered to marry her, but she was still two weeks away from turning eighteen…and even more, she didn’t love him. She’d refused to ruin his life that way.
But David had seized upon the notion as a way to make his life mean something in the wake of losing both his sister and his friend, and he’d worn her down. When she was at last eighteen, they’d run away to San Antonio and gotten married. Life was hard, but they’d made it work. Despite the fact that she was married to a man—boy, really—she didn’t love, what she felt for David only deepened as he took crap job after crap job until after the baby was born.
When Ben had come into the world, she’d been terrified that he would have Jackson’s striking coloring, the thick black hair, the electric blue eyes that shone like jewels. Though a part of her had longed for any trace of Jackson to keep with her, she couldn’t have anyone know.
David had immediately embraced Ben as his own, so when they’d been summoned back to take over the Butler land when his folks moved away, no one suspected a thing.
Ben hadn’t resembled Jackson at all when he was small—his hair was nearly blond as a child, and his eyes were her own hazel—but his hair had darkened every year and he was shooting up in height.
But he was theirs, hers and David’s, every cell of him.
She jolted back to the ceremony when a chuckle swept through the crowd as normally reserved Arnie Howard dipped Ruby and planted a kiss on her lips.
Ruby came up spluttering. “Stop that, you old goat.” Yet pleasure bloomed in her features as she gripped Arnie’s elbow and followed Scarlett and Ian down the aisle.
Veronica, along with everyone else, could only smile. The surprise weddings had been a crazy notion begun by Ruby herself, and high drama had been the order of the day.
But all’s well that ends well, and two couples who belonged together had been united in the company of everyone who loved them.
Just as Ruby neared where Veronica and her family stood, her gaze swept the crowd, and shock skated over her face, followed by stunned pleasure.
She cast a quick glance at Veronica, then back to the rear of the room. She released her hold on Arnie, and picked up her skirt. “You come here right now, young man. Give your auntie a hug.”
Like everyone else in the room, Veronica turned to find out who Ruby was addressing, but she couldn’t see over the people standing behind her.
Suddenly Penelope Gallagher’s voice rang out. “Jackson!” She began to run toward the back.
A buzzing rose in Veronica’s head. She couldn’t make herself turn again to look.
“Mom?” Ben asked. “Is that him? Dad’s friend, the last of the Four Horsemen? He’s back?”
“Mommy, who is it?”
Rissa charged past them down the aisle.
Everyone was talking at once.
Veronica couldn’t breathe.
She had to get out of here.
She needed to see his face.
She would never forgive him.
She couldn’t…she wasn’t…
“Mom?”
“Mommy?”
Chapter Two
An electric shiver went through the room.
People went silent.
Then a buzz began.
Aunt Ruby stood before him, her eyes bright, her smile huge and cat-in-cream satisfied, while the man at her side cocked his head. “You must be Jackson. I’m Arnie Howard.” He extended a hand.
Before he could respond, a woman flew into his arms.
Penelope. His twin.
Automatically he clasped her, and his eyes closed as she trembled. This…she was his first companion in…everything. With her, he had learned the world.
“You left me,” she whispered hoarsely, her voice full of tears.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured. A gaping void opened up inside him. “I couldn’t—” Couldn’t let myself miss you. She’d been a hole in his heart nearly as huge as Veronica.
Veronica. Where was she? He lifted his head, scanning for her—
Another body slammed into his.
“I hate you!” A tall, gorgeous redhead who must be his little sister Clary socked a fist into his chest. Then she grabbed his face. “We—you—” Tears spilled from her stricken eyes, and she socked him again. “You could have been dead. I needed you. Damn you, Jackson, I—” She covered her face with her hands.
He gathered her to his other shoulder. “I’m sorry.” He kissed her hair, this Amazon beauty who had grown from a skinny twelve-year-old who’d dogged his every step. “I’m sorry.”
He closed his eyes and hugged them, even as he was desperate to get away from the thundering, raging river of emotions he hadn’t let himself fe
el in so long he’d managed to convince himself he didn’t have them. Didn’t need them.
That these people didn’t need him, either.
A man who could only be his buddy Mackey approached and laid his hand on Clarissa’s back. His gaze seared Jackson’s with accusation. “What the hell, Wiz?” Wiz, the old nickname for Wizard, as his buddies called him.
She jerked from Jackson’s hold and threw herself into Mackey’s arms. He wrapped her in his embrace and with one last glance Jackson couldn’t read, took her away.
Jackson watched them for a second, then glanced at Aunt Ruby. Her eyes were soft and sad. “Welcome home.” As much chagrin as gladness dwelled in those Gallagher blue eyes.
He shouldn’t have come.
He wanted out of here.
He tried to disentangle himself gently, but Penny gripped him tighter, and he knew he couldn’t leave, though around him muttering rose and few eyes spoke of welcome.
Then a very familiar voice broke into his musings. “Figures you’d wreck a good day. What in the hell are you doing here, boy?” James Gallagher demanded.
Penny’s head rose. She turned away but kept her arm around Jackson. “Jackson’s come home, Dad. After all these years of wandering, your son is back, thank goodness.”
His father’s eyes shot daggers. “I have no son.” He shoved through the crowd and out the door.
It shouldn’t still hurt.
What the devil had he expected, anyway? His father had hated him for a long time before he’d beaten him within an inch of his life, then thrown him out into the world alone with only the clothes on his back. What he’d done with his life didn’t matter. His father hadn’t even waited to find out where he’d been or what he’d accomplished.
Texas Rebel Page 2