Charlene gazed at their reflections in the mirror, her eyes unmistakably misty. For a brief moment, her mother rested her cheek against Wynona’s. “It was also incredibly brave of you, darling,” her mother said in a low voice. “When I think of that man hurting and threatening sweet Andrea Montgomery, it just makes me sick.”
That, at least, was something about which she and her mother could agree. “He’s in jail now and won’t be going anywhere for a long time.”
Robert Warren was being held without bail in the Lake Haven County Jail, facing a long list of charges including kidnapping, assault and attempted murder. The case against him was so strong, she had every belief he would soon realize he had no choice but to plead guilty and serve prison time.
By the time he got out, Andrea’s children would be grown and possibly having families of their own.
She smiled, thinking of those cute kids. Because of them, she knew Andrea would be okay. Her friend was resilient. In a short time, she already seemed like she had been an important thread in the fabric of Haven Point forever.
“Still,” Charlene said with a sniff as she made a few more passes with the comb and hair spray, “I don’t know what Cade was thinking, to let you get shot! I hope he takes better care of you, now that the two of you are dating.”
Was that what they were doing? She had to smile.
“Trust me,” she said blandly, “Cade takes very, very good care of me.”
“Bragger.” Katrina wandered in from her own preparations in the bathroom just in time to hear. “It’s so unfair that you won’t even give details!”
“Someday I hope you’ll meet a man worthy of a little discretion,” Charlene said pertly and Wyn grinned at her sister, who, despite her teasing, seemed thrilled about the two of them.
Her sister acted as if Wyn’s new relationship with Cade had been Katrina’s idea all along.
The rest of her family was a little harder to read. The details of the shooting were still a little hazy, though she vividly recalled her first glimpse of Marshall after he rushed to the crime scene, only to find his sister bleeding copiously from a head wound and Cade kissing her. She imagined it was the same expression Marsh would probably wear if somebody knocked him over the head with a bo staff.
Marsh seemed to have come around, though the few times she had seen him since then, he’d appeared startled all over again, as if he couldn’t quite reconcile the idea of his best bro and his pesky little sister being in love.
Elliot had made a video call from Denver to check on her the day after the shooting, when she was still in the hospital. Cade hadn’t known she was talking to her brother when he walked into the hospital room and straight to her bedside to kiss her fiercely, as if he’d been away for months instead of a few hours.
She smiled a little now, remembering how mortified Cade had been when Elliot cleared his throat and he’d turned to find her brother’s face, eyebrows raised, watching them from her tablet. Elliot hadn’t seemed particularly surprised, though, so she assumed Marsh had passed the juicy info along already.
As for Charlene, her mother seemed to have taken things in stride since she’d shown up near hysterical at the hospital emergency department that night and found Cade refusing to move from Wyn’s side. Other than one shocked look, her mother seemed to accept the new state of affairs with equanimity—or maybe she had just been so relieved that Wyn’s gunshot wound had been relatively minor.
Wyn thought she had accepted things, until Cade told her with bemusement a few days after the shooting that Charlene had stopped by his house to warn him in no uncertain terms that if he hurt her daughter, Charlene would find a hundred creative ways to make him pay—including, but certainly not limited to, pulling up every single vegetable he ever tried to grow for the rest of his life.
A wave of warmth and love for her family washed over her. She would miss them all so much when she left for graduate school—but she would come back on weekends and holidays and they could talk and Skype all the time.
Though the thought of being ninety miles away from Cade right now made her throat ache and tears threaten the careful job she’d done on her mascara, she was determined to earn her degree.
You can do hard things, my dear, her dad often told her.
She could. This was important to her, a chance to reclaim the person she had been and the dreams she’d envisioned for herself before that horrible winter when she was attacked and Wyatt was killed.
When she graduated in May, she could come back to Haven Point to work. She’d already had an offer from the director of an at-risk youth program.
Maybe this time next summer, she would be planning her own wedding.
Her face felt hot at the idea but somehow once it took root, she couldn’t seem to shake it. She loved Cade Emmett. She wanted nothing more than to be able to spend the rest of her life showering all the love and tenderness on him he had lived so long without.
“Okay, hair done, makeup done. Let’s get you into your bridesmaid dress,” Charlene said.
Wyn hurried to her closet and pulled out the dress, an elegant confection in the palest mint green. It flattered her coloring and her figure. Finally, after so many stints as a bridesmaid, she could come through the experience with a dress she might actually wear a second time.
“Oh, you’re both so beautiful,” Charlene exclaimed after zipping Wyn into it. “I need a picture.”
She grabbed her little camera and shot a few frames of Wynona and Katrina together, then Kat shot a couple of selfies with her phone of the three of them.
When they finished, Wyn hugged her mother. Yes, Charlene could be exasperating sometimes with all her fussing and fretting, but Wyn wouldn’t trade her for the world.
“Thanks again for helping me, Mom. You always do such a great job and make me look far better than I could do alone.”
“Maybe the next time I help you with your hair for a wedding, your dress will be white,” her mother said, an unmistakably wistful note in her voice.
“The next wedding will be Devin and Cole’s,” Wyn reminded her. “I hope Dev doesn’t pick white for her bridesmaids. That would just be weird.”
“Okay. The one after that,” Charlene said.
“Maybe that one will be yours,” Katrina teased.
“Oh stop,” Charlene said, her cheeks suddenly pink.
Over the last few weeks, Wyn had become far more accepting of the idea of her mother with Uncle Mike. He was a good man and her mother did deserve to be happy again. It didn’t mean any of them would ever forget John Bailey but he was gone now and wouldn’t want his widow to spend the rest of her life grieving and alone.
Mike and Charlene were quite sweet together, anyway, like a couple of awkward teenagers not quite sure what to do with themselves.
“We should probably get moving,” Charlene said. “You’ll want to see if McKenzie needs any last-minute help, of course.”
“Is Cade still picking you up, or do you need a ride with us?” Kat asked.
The doorbell rang at that precise moment and Pete, from his spot on the floor watching the proceedings with interest, lumbered to his feet and headed toward it. He adored Cade almost as much as Wyn did.
“That should be Cade,” she said, unable to control the little kick in her pulse rate. “He was able to arrange with other officers to cover the shift but he may have to leave the reception early.”
“We’ll see you there, then,”
Charlene said.
The two of them opened the door and Cade stood on the doorstep looking incredible in a close-fitting blue suit she had seen him wear only a few times.
She had left him just a few hours before but joy bloomed through her all over again.
“Oh, look how handsome you are,” Charlene exclaimed.
He kissed her cheek and then looked embarrassed and pleased when Wyn’s mother straightened his tie a little and adjusted his collar.
“Seriously, Cade, you should wear a suit every day,” Katrina said, with a slightly dazed look. “I would consider that part of your sworn duty to the women of Haven Point.”
He shook his head and kissed her cheek too, holding the door for both of them.
“We’ll see you two there,” Charlene said.
“Hate to break it to you, but you two really don’t have any time to, um, dawdle.” Kat gave her a meaningful look over their mother’s shoulder as they headed toward her completely impractical sports car, and it was Wyn’s turn to flush.
“Goodbye,” Wyn said firmly and closed the door behind the two of them.
As soon as they were blessedly alone, Cade pulled her into his arms.
“I missed you,” he murmured and Wyn gave a happy sigh and kissed him.
So what if she had to redo her lipstick? It was completely worth it.
“Kat’s right,” she said regretfully after several long, delicious moments. “We don’t have time to, um, dawdle.”
“Too bad,” he answered, his mouth warm and tender against hers.
He loved her. She still couldn’t quite wrap her head around how huge and humbling and amazing that was.
With a sigh, Wyn finally pulled away. “I really do have to go. McKenzie would never forgive me if I missed her wedding and she would know just who to blame.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. And our mayor is not a good person to cross.”
He gave her one last kiss brimming with so much sweetness it made her throat ache all over again, then helped her out to his car.
They would have time later, she told herself. They had tonight, tomorrow and the rest of their lives.
She couldn’t wait.
* * * * *
Single mom Andrea Montgomery only agreed to look in on injured sheriff Marshall Bailey as a favor to his sister, but when these lonely hearts are snowed in together, there’s no telling what Christmas wishes might come true.
Turn the page for a sneak peek at SNOWFALL ON HAVEN POINT, the next book in New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne’s Haven Point series!
If you loved Riverbend Road, then get ready to fall in love with
SNOWFALL ON HAVEN POINT
There’s no place like Haven Point for the holidays, where the snow conspires to bring two wary hearts together for a Christmas to remember.
Order your copy today!
Don’t miss any of the sweet and heartfelt stories in the charming Haven Point series by New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne!
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Snow Angel Cove
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Snowfall on Haven Point
by RaeAnne Thayne
CHAPTER ONE
SHE REALLY NEEDED to learn how to say no once in a while.
Andrea Montgomery stood on the doorstep of the small, charming stone house just down the street from hers on Riverbend Road, her arms loaded with a tray of food that was cooling by the minute in the icy December wind blowing off the Hell’s Fury River.
Her hands on the tray felt clammy and the flock of butterflies that seemed to have taken up permanent residence in her stomach jumped around maniacally. She didn’t want to be here. Marshall Bailey, the man on the other side of that door, made her nervous under the best of circumstances.
This moment definitely did not fall into that category.
How could she turn down any request from Wynona Bailey, though? She owed Wynona whatever she wanted. The woman had taken a bullet for her, after all. If Wyn wanted her to march up and down the main drag in Haven Point wearing a tutu and combat boots, she would rush right out and try to find the perfect ensemble.
She would almost prefer that to Wyn’s actual request but her friend had sounded desperate when she called earlier that day from Boise, where she was in graduate school to become a social worker.
“It’s only for a week or so, until I can wrap things up here with my practicum and Mom and Uncle Mike make it back from their honeymoon,” Wyn had said.
“It’s not a problem at all,” she had assured her. Apparently she was better at telling fibs than she thought because Wynona didn’t even question her.
“Trust my brother to break his leg the one week that his mother and both of his sisters are completely unavailable to help him. I think he did it on purpose.”
“Didn’t you tell me he was struck by a hit-and-run driver?”
“Yes, but the timing couldn’t be worse, with Katrina out of the country and Mom and Uncle Mike on their cruise until the end of the week. Marshall assures me he doesn’t need help, but the man has a compound fracture, for crying out loud. He’s not supposed to be weight-bearing at all. I would feel better the first few days he’s home from the hospital if I knew that someone who lived close by could keep an eye on him.”
Andie didn’t want to be that someone. But how could she say no to Wynona?
It was a good thing her friend had been a police officer until recently. If Wynona had wanted a partner in crime, Thelma and Louise style, Andie wasn’t sure she could have said no.
“Aren’t you going to ring the doorbell, Mama?” Chloe asked, eyes apprehensive and her voice wavering a little. Her daughter was picking up her own nerves, Andie knew, with that weird radar kids had, but she had also become much more timid and anxious since the terrifying incident that summer when Wyn and Cade Emmett had rescued them all.
“I can do it,” her four-year-old son, Will, offered. “My feet are freezing out here.”
Her heart filled with love for both of her funny, sweet, wonderful children. Will was the spitting image of Jason while Chloe had his mouth and his eyes.
This would be their third Christmas without him and she had to hope she could make it much better than the previous two.
She repositioned the tray and forced herself to focus on the matter at hand. “Sorry, I was thinking of something else.”
She couldn’t very well tell her children that she hadn’t knocked yet because she was too busy thinking about how much she didn’t want to be here.
“I told you that Sheriff Bailey has a broken leg and can’t get around very well. He probably can’t make it to the door easily and I don’t want to make him get up. He should be expecting us. Wynona said she was calling him.”
She transferred the tray to one arm just long enough to knock a couple of times loudly and twist the doorknob, which gave way easily. The door was blessedly unlocked.
“Sheriff Bailey? Hello? It’s Andrea Montgomery.”
“And Will and Chloe Montgomery,” her son called helpfully, and Andie
had to smile, despite the nerves jangling through her.
An instant later, she heard a crash, a thud and a muffled groan.
“Sheriff Bailey?”
“Not really...a good time.”
She couldn’t miss the pain in the voice of Wynona’s older brother. It made her realize how ridiculous she was being. The man had been through a terrible ordeal in the last twenty-four hours and all she could think about was how much he intimidated her.
Nice, Andie. Feeling small and ashamed, she set the tray down on the nearest flat service, a small table in the foyer still decorated in Wyn’s quirky fun style even though her brother had been living in the home since late August.
“Kids, wait right here for a moment,” she said.
Chloe immediately planted herself on the floor by the door, her features taking on the fearful look she had worn too frequently since Rob Warren burst back into their lives so violently. Will, on the other hand, looked bored already. How had her children’s roles reversed so abruptly? Chloe used to be the brave one, charging enthusiastically past any challenge while Will had been the more tentative child.
“Do you need help?” Chloe asked tentatively.
“No. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
She was sure the sound had come from the room where Wyn had spent most of her time when she lived here, a space that served as den, family room and TV viewing room in one. Her gaze immediately went to Marshall Bailey, trying to heft himself back up to the sofa from the floor.
“Oh no!” she exclaimed. “What happened?”
“What do you think happened?” he growled. “You knocked on the door so I tried to get up to answer and the damn crutches slipped out from under me.”
“I’m so sorry. I only knocked to give you a little warning before we barged in. I didn’t mean for you to get up.”
He glowered. “Then you shouldn’t have come over and knocked on the door.”
She hated any conversation that came across as a confrontation. They always made her want to hide away in her room like she was a teenager again in her grandfather’s house. It was completely immature of her, she knew. Grown-ups couldn’t always walk away.
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