“She’s all right,” he said the second he opened the door to the oldest McBride. “You didn’t need to come rushing over.”
His rugged face set in grim lines, Joe held up an overnight bag. “Mom thought she might need some things. Where is she?”
“In the guest room. Asleep,” he added as Joe strode past him into the living room. “She was pretty wrung out after we left the lake—”
“The lake? You took my sister to the lake? At night? After what that jackass did to her?”
“Hey, it was her idea, not mine,” Nick defended himself. “You know how headstrong she can be. She didn’t want to go home. And it’s because of what that jackass did to her that I agreed to go there in the first place. I thought it was better to humor her. Of course, I didn’t know then that she was going to burn her wedding dress.”
“What?!” Sounding like a parrot, Joe gaped at him. “She burned her wedding dress?”
“I don’t think she wanted any reminders of what happened,” he retorted. “Can you blame her?”
After giving it some thought, Joe couldn’t say that he did. “No. I probably would have done the same thing.” Picturing her tossing the dress into the flames, he had to grin. “God, I wish I could have seen that! I guess she was pretty steamed, huh? Good! The quicker she gets mad, the quicker she gets over the jerk.”
Hating to disillusion him, Nick knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. “She’s hurting, Joe,” he warned. “She had a pretty hard cry at the lake before we left, then cried herself to sleep when we got here. You need to warn the family she’s not going to get over this overnight.”
“Are you saying she still loves the bastard?”
“Would you have stopped loving Angel overnight if she’d stood you up at the altar?”
Put that way, Joe had to admit he had a point. He couldn’t imagine a time when he would ever stop loving Angel, regardless of what she did to him. He’d given her his heart, and that was forever. “No, of course not,” he retorted. “But I would have been forced to admit that we had a serious problem. Whatever trust there was between us would have been destroyed. And without trust, what have you got?”
“Not much,” Nick agreed, “but Merry’s not thinking about that right now. She’s hurting and just trying to understand what went wrong.”
“What went wrong is that he’s the wrong man for her and always has been,” Joe replied impatiently. “You’d think she could see that. She’s an intelligent woman. She’s always been pretty sharp when it comes to people. Except where you and Thomas are concerned.”
Nodding in agreement with everything he said up until that point, Nick stiffened abruptly, his dark brows snapping together in a frown. “What do you mean…where I’m concerned? What’s any of this got to do with me?”
“Nothing, unfortunately,” Joe said with a grimace. “And that’s what makes it so frustrating. If she’d just open her eyes, she could see that the best man for her, the one who really loves her, has been right by her side all along.”
The surprise that flared across Nick’s angular face was almost painful to watch. His expression suddenly as wary as a cornered wolf scenting danger, he didn’t so much as blink as his gaze locked with Joe’s. “And just who might that be?”
Too late, Joe realized he should have kept his damn mouth shut, but he’d already put his foot in it. Angel was going to kill him for interfering, but personally, he thought it was about time someone said something. If somebody had stepped forward years ago and pointed out to Merry that someone else besides Thomas was interested in her, she might have at least given Nick a chance. Who knew what might have happened then? As it was, they’d never know.
“Look, man, I know this is none of my business, and if you want to tell me to butt out, go ahead. That’s your right. I know you love her—”
Shooting a sharp glance toward the hall that led to the bedrooms, Nick hissed, “Who the hell told you that?”
“Nobody. I’ve known it for years. But, hey, it’s nothing to be ashamed of!” he added quickly when Nick started to swear. “I think it’s great! The two of you are perfect for each other. I just wish she could see it, then maybe she’d tell Thomas to take a hike—”
“Who else knows?” Nick demanded. “Dammit, Joe, how many other people know about this?”
Joe almost told him it had been common knowledge around Liberty Hill for years that there was only one woman Nick Kincaid would ever love and that was Merry McBride. But Nick was already shaken enough as it was, and Joe just didn’t have the heart to tell him the truth. A man was entitled to his pride. If Nick realized that the whole town knew and sympathized with him, he’d feel like he was the town laughingstock or something.
Nothing, however, could have been further from the truth. He was well liked and respected, not only for the job he did as sheriff, but for the fact that over the years, he could have tried to come between Merry and Thomas, and he hadn’t. He loved Merry enough to want her to be happy, even if it wasn’t with him, and Joe didn’t know many people who loved that unselfishly.
“No one knows, as far as I know,” he fibbed. “But even if they did, they wouldn’t fault you for loving her, Nick. Granted, she was a pain in the ass when she was growing up,” he added with a grin, “but she outgrew that quite awhile back. Thanks to Zeke and me keeping her and Janey in line, they both turned out all right.”
He was teasing and they both knew it, but Nick couldn’t manage even a halfhearted smile. God, he’d thought he’d hidden it so well! He’d always been careful to treat Merry just as he did any other friend. He didn’t touch her like he longed to or even flirt with her. They were just buddies, pals, their relationship always strictly platonic so that no one would suspect a thing. And all this time, Joe had known.
And if he’d seen through his act, others must have, too. He couldn’t help but wonder who. Sara McBride? Janey? Merry?
His stomach knotted at the thought. He wouldn’t, couldn’t, lose her friendship! Not Merry. She was the other half of his soul, dammit, and he wasn’t losing her!
“Merry doesn’t know, does she? She can’t! She doesn’t feel the same way, and that would only make her uncomfortable around me.”
Personally, Joe thought shaking Merry up a little might be just what she needed, but he kept that information to himself. “As far as I know, the thought’s never crossed her mind,” he assured Nick. “Anyway, you know Merry. She doesn’t hesitate to speak her mind. If she suspected you were in love with her, she’d come right out and ask you.”
He had a point, but still, Nick didn’t like it. His feelings were private, dammit, and the less people who knew about them, the better. “I don’t want her to know. I mean it, Joe,” he said firmly when he opened his mouth to argue. “It wouldn’t serve any purpose except to embarrass her. Merry loves Thomas, and that’s not going to change just because he got cold feet today. So this stays strictly between the two of us. Understand?”
Joe wanted to argue—Merry had a right to know another man loved her!—but Nick gave him that hard look of his, the one that kept everyone from disorderly drunks to macho cowboys to teenagers bent on mischief in line, and he knew better than to waste his breath.
His own granite jaw as unyielding as Nick’s, he grudgingly gave in. “All right, have it your way. But if you don’t want her or anyone else to know you’re in love with her, then you’d better learn to hide your feelings better. Every time you look at her, it’s written all over your face.”