The Reluctant Fiancée (The Taylor Triplets Book 3)

by Lynne Marshall

  Brynne was hunched on the bench, head in her hands. Paul clutched at the intense stab under his lower rib cage. It cut deep. He approached her, completely out of breath.

  She must have sensed him and looked up, emotional pain covering every inch of her face, while his grimace was thanks mostly to that blasted side stitch from tracking her down, plus a world of worry.

  “What’s up, babe?” He tried to sound casual, though his pinched tone gave away how out of breath he was, and when did he ever call her babe?

  “I don’t know. I think I’ve gone crazy.” At least she didn’t tell him to stand back.

  He dropped to a knee in front of her. “Not you. You’re the sanest person I’ve ever met.”

  “Then why am I scared to death about getting married?”

  His head dropped back at the truth. He squinted against the late-afternoon sun. It was time to be honest, to quit brushing off Brynne’s concerns. “Because I’m forcing you to make a decision you’re still not ready to make?”

  “But I love you.” Her tone was weak and completely unconvincing, and his heart joined in with the aching side stitch.

  “But apparently you’re not ready to get married.” He hated admitting it.

  “Everyone expects me to.”

  “That’s not a good enough reason to go through with it.” Was he honestly campaigning against his best interests? And hers, if she’d just see straight and finally realize what a great team they’d make.

  “And I love you. I do.”

  Well, then, at least there was still that. But he needed proof. “Are you sure?”

  She hesitated.

  “Then that’s not good enough for me, sweetheart.” He stared at her; she stared back. Was today actually not going to happen? Sadness zinged through every part of him. It was Brynne’s call.

  “Things got out of hand.” She continued to sound weak and unsure, nothing like her normal self. All he wanted to do was support her.

  “Your sisters showed up.”

  “My mom posthumously came out of the closet.”

  “I gave you an ultimatum.” He added to the list. His discomfort was emphasized by his knee being on some gravel.

  “Dick.”

  Ouch. But, yeah, he’d suspected as much. She was still angry at him. “I know. But I’m a dick who loves you. Who just wants us to be together.”

  “I assumed we’d elope, but there’s so many people here.”

  “Just some family.”

  “Nona’s even here! That’s a lot of family.”

  “I guess I just wanted to make our elopement kind of like the wedding we planned. Let others enjoy it along with us.”

  “And that’s another thing—you do everything different than me.” Her eyes narrowed, she looked confused.

  “I’m a guy.” Finally the side stitch let up. “You’re foreign territory for me, too.”

  “I want my mom.” Surprising him, she cried, and he did what came naturally where Brynne was concerned. He consoled her the only way he knew how, by sitting next to her on the bench and pulling her to his chest, then holding her as she went snotty with tears on his shoulder. They stayed this way for several seconds.

  “I wish she was here, too.”

  “I’m so angry at her for dying.”

  “Is that part of this?”

  “Yes! She left me to go through my wedding alone, and I’m so mad I could spit. She was always supposed to be there. She’d always been my rock.”

  “But you’ve got your sisters to help, now.”

  “Stop! Could you just stop trying to fix everything? I’m sorry for lashing out, but just listen to me. I’m mad at Mom for dying and missing my big day. I’ve been so busy being mad, instead of grieving, I got stuck. I read an article about mourning and the importance of not rushing into anything after the loss of a loved one. I grabbed onto that bit of information and have strangled it close ever since.”

  “I’m not telling you to move on or anything, I’m just mentioning it might be a good time to let go of that.”

  She gave a quick sigh, and he worried he’d pissed her off again.

  “I realize I’ve been transferring my anger at Mom onto you,” she said, surprising him. “Because you’re the person I trust most in the world now that she’s gone.”

  “Uh, thanks?”

  She laughed lightly. “I know, I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay, sweetheart. I’ll take anything you need me to take, because I love you so much.” He gathered her close and hugged her tighter.

  “I guess this is my twisted way of telling you I do love you.”

  Finally, no question in her tone! “You’ve just made me the happiest guy in the world.”

  Brynne’s resistance broke—he felt it. She collapsed against him. “How can I not want to marry you?” she said between sobs and gulps with her face a smeared mess of mascara.

  “I’m not sure what that means, but I’m hoping you’re going to?”

  Slowly and solemnly, she nodded against his shoulder.

  “Because you want to?” he recited syllable by syllable.

  She nodded again, this time with less resistance.

  Maybe they’d made it over the final hurdle.

  “I love you,” she whimpered to his chest.

  “Good. But seriously, we don’t have to get married today if you’re not—”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Okay.” His hands shot up.

  “And besides, everyone’s here.”

  Here they went again. He held her out, at arm’s length. “I repeat, that shouldn’t be the reason.”

  “I don’t want to live my life without you.”

  He saw it in her puffy eyes, the willingness. “Then I believe you.”

  They stared into each other’s faces, verifying the truth. He did indeed love her, and she loved him back, and today they’d get married to prove it. Then they’d move in together and begin their life. She’d take whatever job made her happy, and he’d be her support system for the rest of their lives. Kids. No kids. Whatever. The realization made him smile. “Now go wash your face. I’ll meet you at the chapel at ten.”

  “Okay.”

  He pulled her to a standing position, smiling the whole time she rose. When he had her full attention, he winked with the nonblack eye. “I can’t wait to get my socks knocked off by that new dress.”

  Through her drying tears she laughed, then swatted his arm. And he knew all was right with his world, again. Because Brynne was finally going to marry him.

  Chapter Fourteen

  At 10:00 p.m. on the dot, everyone had gathered in the tiny white twenty-four-hour walk-in chapel, with the unique drive-through tunnel of love. Brynne wore the dress she’d bought online with her sisters just a few short days ago that highlighted her legs, along with the perfectly matched shoes.

  Her heart beat erratically as she stood out of sight of Paul and waited for the cue to walk the short aisle. Rory stood beside her in a dress, something she had never seen her wear before, ready to give her away. Lacy and Eva were right behind her—whether for moral support or stationed to keep her from bolting out the door, she wasn’t sure. Though she was positive she wouldn’t want to get married without them.

  Everything in the tiny white chapel was cheesy and overdone, from the wallpaper and the white-backed stained-glass windows to the red carpet and gold-painted pedestals holding plastic bouquets, to the artificial grass and the pink Cadillac parked outside in the tunnel of love with cherubs painted on the deep blue ceiling. But Brynne loved it. Because she cherished the man standing at the front waiting for her to say I do.

  Traditional wedding-march music started playing through the chapel speakers, and Eva and Lacy cut around her to walk to their seats. Zack, Joe and the kids sat on the bride’s side in the
two-seater pews, where her sisters joined them. Paul’s parents, his youngest brother, Frankie, who had volunteered to be best man, and Nona sat on the groom’s side.

  Rory, who’d arrived too late to join everyone for dinner, handed Brynne the all-inclusive bridal bouquet then held out her arm to escort her, and the smile she gave came from her heart. Brynne’s did, too, especially when she caught sight of Paul’s reaction to her as she did her version of how she thought a bride should walk down the aisle. From the look of awe in his eyes, she knew how much he loved her. There was no doubt she loved him, either. Throughout all the chaos in life, she could depend on Paul. He’d never proved it more than the last week.

  He smiled at her, black eye shining, a great story to one day tell their kids. Wait. Kids?

  They’d make, from this day forward, a good life together, an imperfect and complicated life that would be both challenging and wonderful, but above all filled with love. And compromise. If her sisters could do families, so could she. Mom had known from the start he was the guy for Brynne, and she’d been his biggest advocate. Tonight, Brynne felt her mother’s presence and approval, especially with Rory walking her down the aisle. The thought made her eyes prick and water.

  In no time at all, Rory slipped her arm away and took her place in the front pew. Eva stepped to one side of Brynne and Lacy the other—good thing, too, because she was beginning to feel weak-kneed. Paul and Frankie faced them, and the music stopped. The official wearing a fancy pastor-style robe began the ceremony.

  Soon, she surprised Paul by having brought a ring. She might have seemed like she didn’t know why everyone wanted to stop in Las Vegas on the drive home, but she’d come prepared. Yesterday, after the girls’ night out, she’d dug through her drawers and found the ring she’d bought for Paul at the beginning of the year where it was still safely tucked away. He wasn’t the only one who knew how to plan ahead. The surprise in his eyes when Eva produced it for Brynne to slide on his finger was priceless.

  “I do,” he said, practically before the official had asked the question, “Do you take this bride?”

  When it was her turn to repeat the vows, she looked into Paul’s eyes. Then she promised with all her heart to love him for the rest of her life. When he put the ring they’d picked out ages ago on her finger, she lost it, but smiled all the way through her happy tears. And though their first kiss as man and wife turned out to be a soggy one, it was the best kiss ever.

  A year later

  Brynne had never dreamed she’d have three birth coaches, but next to Paul stood Lacy and Eva, each taking turns to get her through one long and hard contraction after another. Just her luck—or maybe it was payback—hers had been the longest labor she’d ever participated in.

  Something told her this contraction might be the final one, especially since she thought she might blow off the top of her head as she pushed like everyone, including the doctor, told her to. She looked at the three faces helping her. First the man she loved more than she could ever imagine, her husband, who looked a bit wild-eyed and downright scared by this whole ordeal. Then she watched her two sisters whom she loved without regret, as though she’d known them her entire life. They’d both been through labor before and gave her the confidence she needed to make it through.

  “You can do this, Brynnie!” Lacy kept saying.

  “You’ve got this, sister,” Eva encouraged.

  When the contraction let up, in a rare moment of clarity, Brynne remembered the lesson she’d finally figured out that her mother had left behind. Their story, the surrogate and her triplets who got separated at birth, was what it was and couldn’t be changed. It was one of the millions of confusing stories told in countless families across the world. The lesson was to make the best out of what they’d been dealt, all three of them. The bonus was that they’d found each other. They were family now. Their babies would be cousins and would always be in touch. They’d celebrate birthdays and holidays together and would always have the special connection of being relatives. Nothing could ever change that now.

  During the brief lulls between contractions, conversation picked up.

  “How are you guys going to work out childcare?” Eva, the pragmatist, asked.

  “Brynne takes off the first six months, and I take the second six months. After that, we’ll have my mom and Rory help with babysitting to work around Brynne’s shifts at the hospital.”

  “Great planning,” Lacy said.

  “We’ll see how it works out,” Brynne said, as it became obvious another contraction was starting.

  “No reason you can’t do it all, my love,” Paul said, smiling down at her. “Now push!”

  Holding Paul’s hand on one side, gripping with all her strength, with Lacy and Eva holding on to her other hand, everyone coaxing her to give it all she had as it rolled through, Brynne, exhausted and nearly ready to give up, made the final push.

  A whole new kind of love overwhelmed her as they put the baby girl on her chest, and she sobbed. Paul did, too. “She’s so beautiful,” he said.

  Her daughter joined them crying, and it was several moments before things settled down.

  Eva’s radiant smile lit up her face. Lacy beamed beside her, and they joined in the group cry.

  Brynne stole glances at her daughter, instantly in love.

  Paul hadn’t hesitated for one moment when they’d found out she was having a girl and she’d told him her name choice.

  She cuddled her baby and said to her sisters, “Meet Jessica. Jessica Taylor Capriati.”

  After today, another redhead would be added to the Taylor family tree.

  * * *

  Don’t miss the other Taylor Triplet romances:

  Cooking Up Romance

  (Lacy’s Story)

  Date of a Lifetime

  (Eva’s Story)

  Available now wherever Harlequin Special Edition books and ebooks are sold.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from The Nanny’s Family Wish by Helen Lacey.

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  The Nanny’s Family Wish

  by Helen Lacey

  Chapter One

  Annie Jamison took a deep breath, clutching the resignation letter between her fingers. Quitting was never easy. And she knew her boss wouldn’t take it well. There would be questions. Demands. And annoyance and irritation, too.

  Actually, it probably wouldn’t even register, since irritation was classed as an emotion and David McCall was a robot.

  Of course, he wasn’t really a robot. He was a flesh-and-blood man.

  She’d worked as his nanny for over four years. And in truth, Annie loved the work. She especially loved his kids. Jasper and Scarlett were wonderful children and being their nanny was a joy.

  But...

  I can’t do it forever.

  Because Annie wanted her own life and not one that revolved around David and his adorable children. She was thirty-three years old and hadn’t had a boyfriend since forever. And that wasn’t going to change if she spent every waking hour thinking about David McCall’s needs, and not her own.

  No, her resignation was a long time coming. Sure, David was generous—she had the privacy of her own suite in one part of the house, drove a top-of-the-range Jeep supplied by her employer and received a Christmas bonus every year. But none of that mattered. At some point, Annie knew she had to start considering herself.

  She’d been planning this move quietly for weeks. For months. Heck, for the last year. It was a secret she’d been holding close to her chest, only sharing her intent with stepsister Tess, who had remarried her ex, ranc
her Mitch Culhane ten months earlier and now had a baby of her own. Mitch was David’s cousin and best friend, and although David didn’t have the Culhane surname, he was certainly one of them in character.

  The Culhanes were one of the oldest families in the county. On the Triple C, Mitch ran cattle and also bred and trained some of the best quarter horses in the state. By comparison, the McCall ranch was smaller, more of a hobby farm, but it was a beautiful place to live and raise children.

  Except they’re not my children. They belong to another woman.

  David’s wife, Jayne, and his mother, Sandra, had both been killed in an airplane crash over four and a half years earlier. The family had closed ranks after the accident. All six Culhane siblings had tried their best to shelter David and his children, even as they struggled with their own problems. They were close, good friends as well as family. And for the last few years, Annie had been welcomed into the fold and made to feel like one of them.

  Which was about to change. She needed to forge her own life, away from David, his kids and Cedar River. With a population of over three thousand, the small town sat quietly in the shadow of the Black Hills of South Dakota. Once a vibrant mining town, now it was used as a stopover for people going through to the state line. There were several dude ranches in the area, as well as thriving cattle and horse ranches, and plenty of activities to keep the tourists entertained. And of course, the renowned O’Sullivan hotel. She loved Cedar River, but knew she needed to move on. If she stayed in town, Annie knew she was bound to run into David and the kids all the time—and that would simply be too hard to bear.

  Annie headed down the hallway and stopped outside David’s office. It was a Saturday – usually his day off, but she knew his grandmother was watching the kids for an hour while he worked. He owned a large accounting and financial planning practice in town and had clients from across the county. He was well respected in his field and very successful. He was also a good and caring dad, and she knew he loved his kids.