by Morey, Trish
Her sister hmphed. “Well, good luck with that.”
Scarlett smiled. She’d thought it crazy at first too. “Thanks.”
“And this guy who helped you work things out. Does he have a name?”
“Mitch.”
“And is he the one who upgraded the fare for those fancy priority baggage tags your bag is wearing?”
Scarlett’s mouth fell open.
“Hey, I’m a cop. I’m supposed to notice things. Anyhow, nobody gets off a plane that fast unless they’re up the point end. So is he?”
“Yeah, that was Mitch too. I kind of did him a favor and he helped me get home. I didn’t expect business class though. That was nice of him.”
“Must have been some kind of favor.” Her sister looked over at her. “You gonna see him again?”
Scarlett breathed in the sweet Montana air and turned her eyes up to the roof of the car to stop the moisture from trickling down. Even if he had felt half way inclined, the news that her mom had a potentially hereditary illness was sure to put any man off. “I don’t see how.”
“Yeah,” said her sensible sister and slapped her twin on the leg. “Well, maybe that’s for the best. You don’t exactly have the best track record with men.”
Ain’t that the truth?
“So how’s Simon?” she asked, before Tara could expound on the rest of her character faults.
“Oh, the same.”
“You guys still entered in The Great Wedding Giveaway?”
“Yep. Simon’s brilliant idea to score a free wedding. Hey, there’s a barn dance coming up in April where they announce the semifinalists. You coming to support your big sister? Mom’ll be there. You can give her a lift there and back.”
“Sure.” So nothing had changed here in Montana then. She was back ten minutes and her sister had her organized. But that felt good too. She was back at home and this was the way things had to be, and so she smiled, even though she was over weddings for a while. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Chapter Ten
“The name’s Mitch Bannister. I’m looking for Tara Buck.”
Everyone in range turned at his voice, the police officer behind the counter cocked his head. “You a friend of Officer Buck, sir?”
“A friend of her sister.”
“I see.” He picked up a phone. “I’ll just see if she’s available.”
Mitch nodded. He sure hoped she was available. He wasn’t certain how he’d find Scarlett otherwise, although come hell or high water he swore he would.
The officer behind the counter put down the phone. “She’ll be here in a couple of minutes.” He gestured to the row of seats along the wall. “Would you like to take a seat?”
“No thanks.” He’d been sitting for far too many hours as it was. Instead he turned and watched the people of the good city of Bozeman go about their business through the windows. A busy place, the street filled with shoppers and workers on their lunch break, the parking spaces along the side of the road filled with pickup trucks and SUVs. And somewhere out there in Montana was Scarlett.
So this was Mitch. Tara’s eyes narrowed as she checked him out. Not bad from the rear. “Mr. Bannister?”
He turned, his eyes narrowing, also, “Tara Buck?” And she had to admit the view from the front was pretty good too.
“I hear you’re looking for my sister.”
“That’s right.”
“She expecting you?”
“No.” He smiled. “I thought I’d surprise her.”
“Long way to come to surprise a woman. What if she doesn’t want to see you?”
“I’ll take my chances. Do you know where I might find her?”
Through the window Tara saw her twin coming back from the deli with the office lunch orders and disappear inside. “Yeah, maybe. You wanna ride?”
“I’d appreciate it.”
“Sure, give me a minute.”
She grabbed her hat and some car keys and told her co-workers she’d be back in ten.
He’d barely climbed into the black and white alongside her when she pulled out into the traffic. “So what do you do back in Australia?” she asked.
“I’m a mining engineer at an iron ore mine in the northwest.”
She took a right. “Yeah? That must pay pretty well?”
“Not bad.”
“Not bad? I’ll say if you can pay someone to fly home business class, it’s not bad.”
Mitch smiled. “It’s a long trip. I thought Scarlett could at least do it in comfort.”
“Very decent of you. So long as you’re not expecting anything in return, that is.”
“Like what?”
Another right. “You tell me.”
“Scarlett is safe with me,” he said.
“Yeah,” Tara said, with the indicator on again. They waited at the traffic lights before she made another right. “That’s what they all say. But Scarlett’s come back and she’s all settled down and I don’t want her shaken up again.”
“I appreciate that.”
She looked over at him. “So you’re not planning on shaking her up again, right?”
“Not if I can help it.”
“Good. Then we might even end up friends.”
He looked around. The street looked familiar. “I thought you were taking me to Marietta.”
Then he saw the police department directly ahead. She pulled up slightly short of it.
“Why would I take you to Marietta?” said Tara, “when Scarlett works right across the street.”
He looked out his window, searching for a clue. There was an old timber building, done up and with a sign out the front written in western style lettering.
Morison and Daume CPA
And there inside the glass frontage he saw a flash of color and movement.
Scarlett!
Tara got out of the car and leaned against the fender with her arms crossed. “Now you go see my sister, and I’ll wait right here, just in case she’s not all that happy with your little surprise.”
He smiled and said, “It’s been a pleasure meeting you, Officer Buck.”
Scarlett picked up the ringing phone, “Morison and Daume CPA, can I help you?” She listened a while and then, “just putting you through.” And punched another line before she hung up. Phew. After a week, she had the veritable antique of a switchboard mastered.
The bell above the door rang and she swiveled in her chair ready to give a similar greeting to whoever had just come in. “Welcome to Morison and... Morison and... Mitch?”
“Hi Scarlett. Long time no see.”
She squealed and jumped up from her chair and flew into his waiting arms. Mitch spun her around, their lips locked tight in a kiss that said it had been way too long.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, breathless and blushing, her eyes so big and green and alive.
“I missed you.”
“I missed you too.”
He looked around the office. “What are you doing here?”
“I have a job.”
“As an accountant?”
“Yeah. No. Not quite. But I’m learning about the office and I’m going back to college and if I do okay, over the next few months, the firm will let me work part time while I study.”
He smiled. “That’s great Scarlett. That’s really great.”
“I know. And I owe it all to you. But hey, how did you even find me?”
“Your sister showed me where you worked. But only after giving me the third degree on the drive here.”
She frowned. ‘She works right across the street.’
He smiled. “So I discovered.”
She laughed and looked out the window and there was her sister, indeed, right across the street, leaning against her patrol car. She waved to her through the window.
And Tara, watching from across the street, waved back and mouthed, “Go Scarlett,” and went back to work.
“How long are you here?”
“Not long.”
There was a cough behind them, and she turned to see old Mr. Morison sticking his head out of his office. “Everything all right, Ms. Buck?”
“Oh, Mr. Morison, yes sir.” And to Mitch she said, “I have to get back to work. Will you wait for me?”
“Sure, I’ll take a look around town.”
“Oh! And it’s the Barn Dance tonight for The Great Wedding Giveaway. Tara and Simon are entered and they’re announcing the semi-finalists. I’m going with Mom. Will you come with me? You have to come!”
He smiled. It wasn’t quite the way he’d planned the night to go, but he was here and she hadn’t recoiled in horror and maybe this wasn’t such an insane idea. “Sure, it’d be my pleasure.”
The blood in Scarlett’s veins fizzed as she slipped on the emerald green dress Mitch had bought for her in Kalgoorlie. It seemed fitting that she’d chosen it to wear tonight. Fitting that he’d arrived today in time to see her wear it again.
Why had he come? Simply because he’d missed her? She’d counted the days off since she’d come home, counted them in blocks of fourteen days on and seven days off. Felt a pang of hope during that seven days that maybe—but nothing. And then fourteen long days on again.
She’d hardly dared hope this time. But he was here.
Her heart was racing. She checked herself in the mirror, knowing she couldn’t linger. Right now Mom was entertaining Mitch in the front room and she daren’t leave them alone too long. If he thought a grilling from Tara was tough, he hadn’t seen nothing yet.
She was half way out the door before she remembered them, the earrings he’d bought her at the Staircase Markets that last night in Broome. Then, with one final glance in the mirror, she was done.
Mitch stood as she entered the room. “You look beautiful, Scarlett.”
“You don’t look so bad yourself, Mitch.”
Her mom flapped and fussed, as if charged by the crackling electricity in the room, fumbling for her purse and a coat. It was Mitch who took the coat from her shaking hands and slipped it over her black sequined top and leopard skin mini.
“Thank you, Mitch. Now we must get going. They’ll introduce all the couples and we can’t miss Tara and Simon.”
Scarlett let Mitch drive, giving him directions to Samuel T. Emerson’s big cattle ranch and the magnificent old barn, where the dance would be held, and she was glad she wasn’t driving. It meant she could sit back and concentrate on him while her Mom fired question after question.
He looked better than she remembered, and he’d looked damn fine then, and when he looked over at her now, her blood just fizzed some more. He smiled. “What are you looking at?”
“You.”
She was so busy watching him that they missed the turn off to the ranch and had to turn around and go back.
Mitch couldn’t believe the size of it when he drove up. He’d been expecting something like a shearing shed like they used at home for barn dances. But this was no old tin shearing shed. This was enormous. This was the mother of all barns.
Scarlett’s mother was already making a wobbly dash for the entrance when Mitch said, “Tammy—Mrs. Buck—would it be all right if we caught up with you in a moment? I just wanted to have a word with Scarlett.”
“I’ll see you inside,” she said, “I’ll save your seats.”
And Mitch pulled Scarlett around the side of the barn.
“We don’t have long,” Scarlett said, but her eyes were bright and hopeful and he was hopeful too.
“This won’t take long.” He took a breath. “Scarlett, I had to come because I had to tell you something. Something I didn’t have the courage to tell you back in Broome and something I thought I’d get over when I got back to work, but I didn’t, and I kept looking at that note you left me, and I had to come and find out if you felt the same way.”
Her eyes were wide and waiting, her breathing hitched. “Tell me,” she whispered.
“I love you, Scarlett. And I need to know if you could love me too.”
“Oh Mitch!” She threw her arms around his neck. “Oh yes, I love you! I’m crazy about you. Leaving you was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Didn’t you know? Couldn’t you tell?”
He was spinning her around, laughing and so filled with joy, there were tears in his eyes. “I was too afraid to hope. I was too wrapped up in my own misery.” His heart was filled to bursting as they kissed, but there was still room for more. There was still more he had to ask.
“I know this is sudden,” he said, “but I don’t have long and I know you’ve probably had a gutful of weddings for a while, but I need to know.” He swallowed. “Scarlett, will you marry me?”
Scarlett stood there, like a deer in the headlights. “You know about my mom, I told you about her sickness. You know there’s a chance...”
“Everything in life is ruled by chance, Scarlett. And maybe there’s a risk of something happening down the track and maybe there isn’t, but I do know that if I don’t take this chance on loving you, then I’m the loser, whatever happens.”
Her eyes filled with tears, she put a hand over her mouth. “Oh, Mitch. I love you so much. So yes,” she said nodding. “Yes, of course I will marry you.”
His heart crowed—buckadoodledoo!—and the music started up while they were kissing again and Scarlett said, “We have to go inside.”
“One more thing,” he said. “I don’t have a ring for you, but I do have this.” He pulled a pouch from his pocket and a string of pearls with one single teardrop pearl in the center. The one that matched her earrings.
And as he fixed it around her neck, he let his lips brush her skin, and felt the heated charge that came with being with this woman, and knew that it was right.
“Where’ve you been?” whispered Tammy as they took their seats under the crisscrossing fairy lights strung across the barn as the music wound down, “They’re about to introduce the couples.”
“Mitch asked me to marry him.”
“Oh!” Her mother slapped her hands over her mouth. “And what did you say?”
Scarlett smiled. “I said, yes, of course.”
“Oh my lord!” Tammy said, and at least a half dozen tables turned their way at the commotion. “First Tara and Simon, now you and Mitch. You have made me the proudest mama.”
Scarlett smiled up at Mitch and mouthed, “I love you.”
Epilogue
Miss Scarlett Buck became Mrs. Scarlett Bannister a month later under a warm spring sun on the lush lawns of Marietta’s Bramble House, an 1890’s Queen Anne mansion built on Bramble Lane by one of the founding families of Marietta.
Her aunt Margot gave her away, with Scarlett wearing a gown of organza and tulle with a ruched bodice and long floaty skirt that she’d found at Married in Marietta, though not on the sale rack this time, and not with, Scarlett had made sure, a past. In her hands were the sweetly scented roses that clever Risa Grant from Sweetpea Flowers had formed into a bouquet, and at her throat and on her ears were the pearls that Mitch had given her.
On her finger was the rock he had bought for their official engagement. A one carat Kimberly pink diamond. Nestled right up to the matching wedding band.
Her sister, Tara, looked stunning in her sapphire bridesmaid dress. She and Simon hadn’t semi-finalled that night at the barn dance, and while Simon had seemed disappointed, it hadn’t fazed Tara at all. She’d just blown off the disappointment and gone back to making their wedding plans the way she’d expected to all along.
Tammy was in her element, her blonde hair back combed to within an inch of its existence, her leopard print silk jacket floating over a gold pantsuit.
Afterwards they had cocktail hour on the white balustraded balcony and bride and groom mingled with their guests, both far-flung and local. An intimate wedding by wedding standards, but definitely a good one.
Mitch’s mum was over from Melbourne, loving every minute of it, and loving Scarlett’s mom and Aunt Margot into the deal. This e
nd of town was like her part of Melbourne. She could do leopard print and new age crystals with the best of them.
Robbo had made the trip over too, to be Mitch’s best man, and he’d brought a glowing Sharon along with him. “We’re getting married ourselves,” he admitted after the ceremony, as he pumped Mitch’s arm to congratulate him. “Sometime in spring back home, we’re hoping. And we’d really like it if you could both be there. Um, especially since we’d like you to be best man, Mitch.”
Mitch laughed. “Best man again, huh? Maybe this time I’ll get it right.”
“You just did, sweetheart,” said Scarlett, punching him in the arm, before reaching across to kiss them both, “We’re thrilled for you.”
And even Robbo’s parents had made the trip, just as they’d promised they would.
“A beautiful wedding,” sighed Virginia. “I’m hoping our next has a bit less drama than the last.”
Andrew wrapped his arm around his wife’s shoulders and pulled her close. “You know, we had a lucky escape from the daughter-in-law from hell. We’re not sure which of you two we owe the most to, but we just wanted to say thank you.”
It was a small wedding, but it was a great wedding. And after all the meet and greets had been done and dusted, and as soon as there was a break in the traffic, Mitch plucked two glasses of champagne from a tray and took his new bride aside.
He wrapped his arm lovingly around his new wife and planted a kiss on her lips before handing her a glass. “How do you feel, Mrs. Bannister?”
“Special. Loved. Like my life is starting over. Like I’ve been offered a second chance at everything. A second chance at life. A second chance at love.”
“A second chance bride?”
And she looked up at him. “Yeah, but this time, I got it right.”
“That you did,” he said, as he pulled her into his kiss. “That you did.”
The End
Montana Born Brides
The excitement is building in Marietta, Montana, with a series of stories centered around the 100th Anniversary of the Graff Hotel and—as part of the celebration—an incredible Wedding Giveaway.