Then Comes Love (Blue Harbor Book 6)

by Olivia Miles

  “That’s an interesting comment coming from you. I seem to recall you saying that you’d rather be home than sitting at a reception table, toasting to the happy couple.”

  He gave her a wry look. “I meant that the wedding is the fun part.”

  “Let me guess,” she said drolly. “It’s what comes afterward that is less fun.”

  He held up a palm. “You said it, not me.”

  She could only shake her head. “They do know I’m coming?”

  “Yes, they know you’re coming. My mother, on the other hand…” His brows shot up, and now it was her turn to laugh. She looked through the window as they came to the park, just at the edge of town. It was another outdoor wedding, and while the sky had been overcast that morning, the rain had held off so far.

  A string quartet could be heard as they walked across the grass to where the guests were already seated for the ceremony. Gabby watched Mrs. Monroe’s eyes widen when she saw Doug and then Gabby, but Doug’s expression remained unchanged when he dropped into the seat behind his parents and said, “Mom, you remember my friend Gabby Conway.”

  Carol’s smile was even larger than it had been when she’d thanked Gabby for the birthday arrangement. “Of course, Gabby, so nice to see you here!”

  It was painfully obvious that there was much more that Mrs. Monroe wanted to say, but she pinched her lips firmly. “It seems that we’re often at the same places these days.” Here her eyes drifted to her son.

  Doug remained expressionless as he pulled the ribbon from the program and unrolled it.

  “Yes, well, it is wedding season,” Gabby said with a smile. “I have a wedding booked nearly every weekend through September, I think.”

  “Oh, this is the last one for us,” Carol said. She again glanced at Doug, who pretended to be extremely engrossed in the music and reading selections for tonight’s ceremony. “Isn’t your uncle getting married soon?”

  “Next weekend,” Gabby confirmed. And it couldn’t come soon enough. All week she’d been fielding calls from her cousins about Candy’s latest demands and ideas, and with mild reluctance, had agreed to attend the last fitting for their bridesmaid dresses this coming week. She supposed Brooke wouldn’t mind the buffer, either. Every time Candy walked into Something Blue, she spotted a new gown that made her doubt her own. But then, Gabby understood. She couldn’t step into her sister’s boutique without wanting to try every dress on, too.

  The music swelled, signaling the start of the ceremony, and Mrs. Monroe fell quiet as everyone turned to watch. The mother of the groom was first down the aisle, dressed in a lovely peach dress that rustled in the breeze, led to her seat by the groom’s brother. Gabby caught Carol’s look of longing before she relaxed back against her chair.

  Gabby slid a discreet look at Doug, who gave her a subtle but conspiratorial wink as they stood for the bride. Gabby didn’t know her—the family was from a neighboring town—and just for tonight, she felt like she could relax into the event, and not fret over the flowers or the weather or the fear of disappointing the bride.

  She glanced at Doug and they exchanged a small smile.

  And just for a moment, Gabby almost forgot that this wasn’t a real date.

  “Well, I can tell you didn’t do the flowers,” Doug whispered to Gabby as they walked down the slope to the tent where the reception was being held next to the duck pond.

  She looked up at him in surprise, her green eyes flashing as her grin turned wary. “And how is that?”

  He jutted his chin to the tables, where large vases held flowers that he could never name, well, maybe aside from the roses. “These have a lot of greenery, whereas your arrangements always show off the flowers themselves.”

  “I can’t believe you noticed that,” she said softly.

  His stare bore down on hers. “I notice a lot of things about you.”

  Her cheeks turned pink when she blinked, and he cleared his throat, squaring his shoulders and looking away. He thrust his hands in his pockets, focusing on the party they were joining. “Makes it easier to tease you.”

  She gave him a playful swat, pulling his attention back to her. “You certainly do seem to make a sport of that. Why is that?”

  He stiffened, knowing the answer wasn’t one he wasn’t willing to share and for once at a loss of words for how to make another excuse for his behavior. Before he had a chance to answer, a look of recognition seemed to pass through her eyes and her cheeks turned a shade redder. She broke his stare, looking around at the various tables. “I…I think I need a glass of champagne. What’s a wedding without it?” She gave a laugh that sounded as nervous as he felt.

  He grabbed two flutes of champagne from a passing waiter and held one to her. “I’d suggest we find our table, but it looks like we have our pick. Should we claim our spots early?”

  “Before we get stuck sitting with your parents, you mean?”

  He grinned. “Exactly.” It was refreshing, this easy conversation they had, and enjoyable too. Not quite as fun as working her up, seeing her lips pinch and her eyes blaze as she was prone to do back in high school, but as she had pointed out, they weren’t in high school anymore. They’d grown up. And she had grown even more beautiful.

  He let her lead the way, her long hair grazing her bare back as she finally stopped at a table closest to the pond. “I just love weeping willows,” she sighed.

  He wasn’t aware that he was staring at her until her brow pinched and she said, “Let me guess. You have fifteen facts up your sleeve for why I should not love that particular kind of tree.”

  He decided to humor her. It was easier to fall back on their old dynamic. Safer too. Back then it had been a way to guard his heart. Something he’d lost sight of in recent weeks.

  “And what is it about a drooping, sad-looking tree that makes you love it so much?” he asked as they slipped into their seats at a table with two other couples, both slightly older than they were and likely out-of-town guests.

  She just shook her head at him and gave a little smile. “They’re so romantic.”

  Well, she had managed to officially silence him there. He glanced over at the pond in the distance, at the eaves that were grazing the water’s surface, and then back to the girl sitting beside him, who was casually sipping her champagne with one hand, brushing a loose strand of hair off her neck with the other.

  The last two seats of their table were soon filled, and introductions were made. Doug didn’t bother to glance around the tent to see where his mother was sitting—he didn’t need to. He could feel her stare from three tables over, sense it in his periphery.

  He told himself she just wanted the best for him. Wanted him to settle down, find the kind of love and life that she and his father had. They made it look so easy, but he knew better than that.

  With a large smile, he waved directly at his mother, who looked a little startled by being caught. She gave a hesitant smile, then a very obvious look at Gabby. Let her believe what she would. At least for tonight, she could think her job was complete.

  He turned back to the table. It was quickly established that, as he’d assumed, everyone else at the table was married, and, it would seem, happily so.

  “And how long have you two been together?” one woman asked once the main course had been brought to the table.

  Gabby turned to him with wide eyes, as if expecting him to take this one, and he could have sworn he saw a flash of amusement pass through them. He supposed he deserved it.

  “Gabby and I both grew up in Blue Harbor,” he said. Nothing dishonest there. “We really connected with the debate club, though.”

  He gave her a challenging look, fighting off the twitch in his lips.

  “Debate club?” This seemed to pique the interest of a few of their tablemates.

  “I thought it would be good practice for law school,” Doug said. “But I don’t think I ever knew why you joined, Gabby.”

  Her cheeks reddened and she didn’t meet his eye a
s she reached for her wineglass. “I overheard a guy I had a crush on mention that he planned to join the club. I joined, he did not. And the rest, as they say, is history.”

  Doug peered at her, as the table gave a collective laugh, seeming to find this amusing.

  “I learn something new about you every day,” he marveled in a low voice. “Chad’s loss was my gain.”

  “Are you saying that debate club would have been less interesting if I wasn’t there?”

  “Without a doubt.” He gave her a slow smile, sensing something growing between them, and felt a strange mix of enjoyment and wariness. “Oh, look. They’re cutting the cake. I know that’s your favorite part.”

  She elbowed him. “You know me too well.”

  He did. And everything new he learned was one more thing to like about her. And that was just the problem. Back in high school, a girl like Gabby wouldn’t have given him a second glance—like the rest, she had eyes for the jocks and the jerks. And now…now he wondered if she would, if he was willing.

  When the toasts were finished and the cake was passed around, he said to her, “What do you say we take these plates and go look at the weeping willow trees you love so much?” He lowered his voice, leaning in to whisper in her ear. “Between you and me, I can literally feel my mother’s eyes boring a hole through me right now. If I don’t move my neck to the left soon, I’m afraid I’m going to wake up with a kink in it.”

  She laughed and quietly took her plate and fork, following him down the grass until they were finally hidden by the trees.

  “Why is it exactly that your mother is so determined to set you up? Is she afraid you won’t stay in Blue Harbor otherwise?”

  “I love Blue Harbor. I missed it when I was away. I don’t see myself leaving again.”

  From the little smile she gave, she seemed to like that answer.

  “No, the real reason is that she’s worried about me. She doesn’t think I’m happy, and she thinks the only reason I came back to Blue Harbor is to run away from love.”

  gabby stopped at the bench under the tree and narrowed her eyes on him. “Wait. Are you telling me that you’ve been in love?”

  He considered this statement. He tended to take words at their value, and this was a topic he didn’t feel he could expertly argue.

  “To be honest, I don’t think I can answer that question.” He shrugged. “I thought I was in love at the time. Now…now I’m not so sure.”

  She dropped onto the bench dramatically. “And here I thought you didn’t believe in love.”

  He managed a rueful grin and took the space beside her. “Your debate skills are paying off. Your word choice has me on the spot.”

  “So do you? Believe in love, that is?”

  He wasn’t going to let her off that easily. Besides, it was too broad a question to answer. Even to himself. “In general, or for me personally?”

  “For you personally,” she said, and he raised an eyebrow, surprised that she was this interested in his personal life and not just in having an argument. But then, something had shifted between them these last few weeks, something had maybe even grown. Gone were the days of being right for the sheer sake of it. Now, he preferred to be understood.

  “It’s not very easy to measure an emotion, is it?”

  She gave a slow nod of her head, looking far too entertained for his liking. He had the uneasy feeling that he was losing this debate, and that for once, she was the one who was doing the gloating at making him squirm.

  “Ah, I see, we’re back to the evidence now. I know for a fact that love exists, and that it lasts,” Gabby said.

  “I won’t bother to argue with you,” he said, because the truth was that he agreed with her. Love did exist, and for the lucky ones, it also lasted. There was no doubt in his mind that his parents would be together forever, that when he saw his mother reach over and take his father’s hand, it was with just as much, if not more, love than they’d had for each other on their wedding day.

  He felt a pull in his stomach when he thought of his own circumstances.

  “So then by agreeing with me, you’re also saying that you do believe in love.” The smug satisfaction in her smile was so cute that he felt his eyes linger a moment longer than he should.

  Clearing his throat, he looked away, watching the ducks bob in the water, occasionally dipping their heads below the tranquil surface.

  “Fine. I do believe in love. For others.”

  Her brow knitted. “Why not for yourself?”

  He leaned back against the bench, releasing a pent-up breath. “I was engaged before I came here.”

  Now she set her fork down and gaped at him. “Douglas Monroe. You mean to tell me that you, the man who doesn’t believe in happy endings, actually did something as romantic as propose to a woman?”

  There was no getting out of this one. He shoveled a piece of cake into his mouth. A little drier than last weekend’s cake. By now he could almost become a wedding critic.

  He supposed in many ways, he already was one.

  “Down on one knee, with a ring and everything.”

  Her eyes were wide as she continued to stare at him with an open mouth of surprise. “But that’s just so…so optimistic of you!”

  “I was a different man back then,” he said, shrugging.

  She looked at him sadly and returned to her cake, going for the icing first, like last time. “What happened? If you don’t mind me asking.”

  “I’m the one who volunteered the information. The topic is free game now.” He set his plate in his lap. “We were halfway through the planning, and then one day she just said that she didn’t want to do it anymore. That she didn’t love me. And that maybe she never had.”

  “Ouch.” Gabby winced. “And you didn’t see it coming?”

  He let out a laugh that bore no amusement. “No, I didn’t. Now, looking back, I can see that things hadn’t been right between us for a while. That maybe they’d never been right. We were colleagues, and we had our work in common. We had a lot in common, really. We seemed like such a good fit, but something was missing. Something I can’t put into words. A feeling, in the gut.”

  She looked pensive for a moment. “I think I know what you mean,” she said quietly. “Someone can look so right on paper, and sometimes, someone can look so wrong, but your heart says otherwise.”

  He held her eyes for a beat and then looked away. He’d divulged too much already. Shared more than he had with anyone in a long time, maybe ever.

  “Well,” he said, shrugging off the old injury. “Now you know my little secret.”

  “And I’m guessing it’s the reason why your mother is so determined to see you matched up and soon.”

  “She assumes I’m lonely, which I’m not.” Only that wasn’t completely true. He wasn’t lonely tonight, sitting beside Gabby. If anything, he’d dare to say that he was perfectly content in a way he had never been with Lisa. “And she thinks that if I find the right woman that I’ll be happier.” He shook his head. “It’s not that easy.”

  “Maybe it is,” Gabby countered. “I mean, look at the bride and groom. And my cousins, and even my sister. I’m not saying that they didn’t have setbacks or stumbles, but a lot of it was about being in the same place at the same time. Being ready. When it clicks, it clicks.”

  “When it clicks, it clicks.” He looked at her, feeling a pull rise up that was stronger than anything he could push aside. It was the feeling, deep inside, the one that had nothing to do with ration or reason or facts or the promise he’d made to himself, either. It was bigger than that, irrefutable, even if it couldn’t be proven or factored in as evidence. It was reckless, the kind of emotion that led people to make the wrong choices, to end up in his office years or months later, tearful and disappointed, broken or angry.

  Only right now, he didn’t feel any of those things. And all those little warnings that told him to stand up, walk away, call it a night and go home, were replaced with something
deeper and stronger, and so much better.

  His eyes locked with hers, and he could feel his breathing slow as his heart started to pound. She was so close, and so beautiful, and it would be so easy to lean forward and kiss her right now. It was what he wanted. It was also, he supposed, what he feared. Following this feeling, daring to believe that it wouldn’t lead him astray. That he too could be one of the lucky ones.

  A burst of applause erupted from the tent, pulling Gabby’s attention from his. She turned, looking at the commotion, and said, “They’re going to toss the bouquet.”

  He looked at her, seeing the hope that filled her eyes when she looked back at him, and he knew that he couldn’t even find it in himself to tease her for this, even though once it would have been so easy.

  “Go on then. Maybe you’ll catch it.”

  She waggled her eyebrows and set down her cake. He watched from the bench as she hurried up the grass to the small fountain near the tent where the women were gathered, the bride holding the bouquet high in the air, and he found himself hoping that Gabby would be the one to catch the bouquet, and not just because it would make her happy.

  He’d seen that hope in her eyes, the belief that love would find a way into her life, and a part of him couldn’t help but want to find that for himself, too.

  Chapter Eleven

  Gabby sat in one of the blush-colored velvet chairs in the center of Brooke’s shop, covering her mouth with her hand while Candy silently flipped through the bridal lookbook, “just in case she missed something.”

  She didn’t dare look up and catch her sister’s eye. Every time she did, Brooke’s wide-eyed stare made her nearly burst out laughing, and more than once Gabby had needed to excuse herself to the bathroom.

  The wedding was now only three days away, meaning that there was no more time for any changes. Today was meant to be the final fitting.

  “Everything is just so beautiful.” Candy sighed and finally closed the book.

  Brooke wasted no time in bending forward and taking it from the table. She disappeared without a word into her back room, hugging it close to her chest. Candy sipped her tea and looked over to the dressing rooms, where the four daughters of Uncle Dennis were changing into their bridesmaid dresses.