“All right,” she said at last. “I’ll borrow it—just for that day.”
“No, you’ll pass it along as I did,” her companion countered in a no-nonsense tone, suddenly sounding exactly like the teacher Jenna had once known. “And I’ll get my reward from the sight of a young man’s face as he watches you walk down the aisle. All I ask,” she added, “is that you keep it a secret until then.”
Jenna knew when she was licked. “All right, Miss Hester, whatever you say.”
A sudden sparkle lit in Hester Goodbody’s gaze, making her look far younger than her years. “Spoken,” she declared with quiet satisfaction, “like a star member of my first-grade class.”
THE WEDDING COTTAGE had been the site of countless Harmony nuptials over the years. Nestled in the center of a large corner lot on a peaceful street, the two-story frame house painted a mossy green was snugly surrounded by a well-tended garden. There, a wealth of fall flowers dominated the picture, and tall, leafy trees poised on the brink of their annual autumn transformation chimed in to produce a bright scene despite the layer of thin clouds hiding the late-afternoon sun.
Accompanied by his best man, Ross took in the sights around him as he made his way from an adjacent parking lot down a winding sidewalk leading to a side door reserved for the lesser members of the wedding party, which at the moment included the groom. He knew full well that until the ceremony started, the bride was the one who counted—and with that thought in mind, he had to wonder how Jenna was making out. He hadn’t spoken to her since the evening before when he and his daughters had met her family over a quiet dinner hosted by the Lorenzos. Adam, who’d arrived in town a day earlier than the rest of the Lassiters, had joined them.
“Nervous, cuz?” Adam asked as they settled themselves in a small side room. Both men wore dark suits, white shirts, subtly striped ties, and had a tiny red rosebud stuck in the buttonhole of their jackets.
“I was more on edge last night,” Ross admitted, “but I think I passed the test.”
“With flying colors, in my opinion,” Adam remarked. “Your about-to-be in-laws are a nice bunch, and they were obviously thrilled with the girls.”
But were his girls thrilled with them? Ross couldn’t honestly say one way or the other. At least Katie had been more talkative than in recent weeks, and he supposed he’d take that as a good sign.
“The maid of honor is quite a looker, too,” Adam continued. “Too bad she’s too young for me.”
“Glad you recognize that,” Ross said. “Joe Lorenzo might not look kindly on any serious flirting with his youngest child, and as big as he is, a smart man probably wouldn’t test it.”
“Hmm. At least I got to meet the mystery woman. And I have to say you’ve got good taste. There’s definitely something about her that stirs the juices. I mean,” Adam added hastily at Ross’s lifted brow, “my juices might get stirred if she wasn’t well on her way to being your wife.”
Deciding to be satisfied with that concession, Ross looked in a mirror placed on a narrow wall sporting printed wallpaper in masculine shades of brown. He straightened a tie that didn’t need straightening and wondered how many grooms had stood where he was standing. The last time he himself had been a groom cooling his heels in another room, his father had been his best man. Now, it was hard to even imagine that.
Just then, Judge Reynolds, a longtime friend of the Hayward clan, poked his graying head into the room. “Time to take your places, gentlemen,” he said in his usual courteous fashion. “The bride and her party have arrived.”
Adam grinned, displaying a handsome set of teeth. “Showtime, cuz.”
It wasn’t long before both men stood beside the judge at one end of a large room decorated in a garden theme as though it were an extension of its outdoor surroundings. Directly in front of them, a straight walkway displaying a length of floral-print carpeting led to an arched doorway, with long rows of wicker chairs painted a leafy green lining both sides of the aisle.
The room itself was filled with familiar faces, and the most familiar of all to Ross belonged to his daughters, who sat next to Adam’s parents in the first row. He smiled at them, and Katie, dressed in cheery yellow, managed a tiny one in return. Caroline, who was partial to quieter shades of blue and wore it today, nodded her head, but didn’t smile. In contrast, Hester Goodbody, looking well pleased with the day’s events, met his fleeting glance with a wide curve of her thin lips from her seat behind the children.
Music began to swell from a small organ near the rear of the room, and then a shapely brunette barely over twenty appeared in the doorway wearing a floor-length dress of dusky-rose silk. A matching hair ribbon held back Sophie Lorenzo’s cap of short curls. An appealing grin broke through as she approached the men who awaited her, prompting Adam to lean over to his cousin and mutter, “Are you sure she’s too young for me?”
Before Ross could reply, the wedding march started, right along with a sea of whispers as the guests got to their feet. Even though he couldn’t make out the words, Ross drew his own conclusions. Those who hadn’t yet met Jenna were most likely speculating about what she looked like, and those who had were probably wondering how she’d be dressed for the occasion.
He had to admit to being curious himself on that last point. She’d only told him that she’d settled on something and hadn’t gone into details.
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