The Bride Said, 'Surprise!'. Cathy Thacker Gillen

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СКАЧАТЬ auburn hair, a shade darker than Meg’s, fair freckled skin and chocolate-brown eyes, he was definitely a Lockhart. Already tall for his age, he’d added another inch to his sturdy little body over the summer. “Just make sure you stay in our yard,” Meg cautioned as she helped him tie his sneakers. She shot a look at Luke next door and felt her stomach tighten. “I don’t want you getting in the way of the movers.”

      “Okay,” Jeremy said agreeably, going back to the table to quaff the last of his juice. “Do they have any kids?”

      Happy about the additional children in the neighborhood, Meg told him about Luke’s three girls.

      Jeremy grinned as he ran to get one of his toy trucks. “Now I’ll have someone my age to play with all the time.” Dashing back, he stopped just short of Meg and asked, “Can Alexandra come over and watch the movers unload the van, too?”

      Alexandra Remington was Meg’s sister’s new step-daughter, also five. Upon meeting, Jeremy and Alex had quickly become friends. “Sure,” Meg smiled. “If Clara says it’s okay.”

      “How come she has to ask Clara instead of Jake and Aunt Jenna?”

      “Because Jake and Aunt Jenna just got married yesterday afternoon, honey, and they went to spend their wedding night at a country inn.” Alex had stayed home with her housekeeper-nanny, Clara.

      Jeremy wrinkled his nose, perplexed. “How come they wanted to do that?”

      “Because they just got married and they wanted to be alone for a while,” Meg said.

      Jeremy frowned. “Are they gonna take a honeymoon, like Aunt Dani and Uncle Beau did when they got married?”

      “Yes, but not until later this fall, when things are more settled.”

      “How come you aren’t getting married, too?” Jeremy demanded, running his truck back and forth over the tabletop.

      Out of the mouths of babes, Meg thought. “Because I’m not in love with someone yet,” Meg explained. And the way things are going, she thought dispiritedly, might never be, especially with Luke underfoot, distracting her and reminding her what was and wouldn’t be again.

      “But you had me,” Jeremy continued.

      “Yes, I did,” Meg smiled, knowing that was the one thing—the only thing—she would never regret. “And I love you very much.” Meg knelt so they were face-to-face, wrapped her arms around Jeremy and hugged him tight. Loving the peace and happiness he brought to her life, she breathed in the baby shampoo scent of his hair and then drew back. Grinning at the excitement dancing in his eyes, she asked, “Now, do you want to call Alex?”

      “And Trevor and Teddy and Tyler, too?” Jeremy insisted.

      Meg smiled as she thought of the triplet sons of Annie and Travis McCabe. “Okay. Ask them to stay to lunch.” That would keep her and Luke from being alone. It would keep her from realizing all over again just how very attracted she was to him.

      UNFORTUNATELY, her sisters, Kelsey and Dani, who dropped by midmorning, were every bit as curious about Meg’s new neighbors as her son, Jeremy, had been.

      “I can’t believe Luke Carrington actually bought that house and is moving into it, as is,” Dani murmured, keeping a watchful eye on the five kids now congregated in the side yard, watching the unloading, while Meg, taking solace in the abundance of company, busied herself by rushing around the kitchen, intent on making enough kid-pleasing macaroni and cheese to feed an army.

      “It’s a very big house, structurally sound and was sold at a pleasing price. With three girls, Luke Carrington needs a lot of space,” Meg murmured, casting a glance out the window at the large turn-of-the-century Cape Cod next door.

      “The lavender exterior paint and the deep-purple trim aren’t exactly guy colors. Not to mention the clashing dark-green shutters and snowy-white door,” Kelsey began critically, watching as Dani’s husband, Beau, and Kelsey’s business partner, Brady Anderson, went over to introduce themselves and lend a hand to Luke and the moving crew.

      “That house has the most garish interior paint I have ever seen. I know, because I saw it before I bought my place,” Dani said as she sliced ham for sandwiches.

      “So Luke Carrington has his work cut out for him. I’m sure he can manage. To get inspired, all he has to do is look at my place,” Meg said as Kelsey began to help with the salad making. Maybe the redecorating would take up all his spare time and energy.

      “Or you,” Dani teased.

      Meg rolled her eyes at Dani. Luke had desired her once, but that didn’t mean it would ever happen again. “Just because you and Jenna are happily married and head-over-heels-in-love with your husbands does not mean I have romance on my mind.”

      “Maybe you should,” Dani said, covering the filled platter with plastic wrap and sliding it back into the refrigerator. “After all, Luke’s a doctor. You’re a nurse. You both work at Laramie Community Hospital. You both are single and both have kids.”

      “You know what I find interesting?” Kelsey interrupted as she washed the lettuce. “That the new doctor in town would have the same name as that buddy of yours from your grad school days in Chicago. Remember how much you used to talk about that guy on the phone to us? It was always Luke this and Luke that.”

      Leave it to baby sister Kelsey, the most fickle of all the Lockhart women, to remember a detail like that, Meg thought. And then bring it up at the worst possible time. When she was still feeling vulnerable from Luke’s visit.

      Dani’s amber eyes brightened. “That is a coincidence.”

      Meg knew she might as well be honest—her sisters would find out soon enough that Luke and she had known each other before. If not from John and Lilah McCabe, who were responsible for bringing Luke to Laramie, then from Luke himself. “It’s the same guy.”

      “How did he end up in Laramie?” Kelsey asked as she put the washed lettuce into the salad spinner and gave it a whirl.

      Wary of divulging her emotions, Meg gave more than usual concentration to the cheese sauce she was making. “Lilah told me he met John at a family medicine conference on rural medicine in New Mexico last spring,” she replied in the most casual voice she could manage. “John knew he was going to retire this summer, and he encouraged Luke, who was looking for a way to come back to the state where he grew up, to apply for the position at the hospital here.”

      Looking every bit the native Texas cowgirl she was, in jeans, chambray shirt and boots, Kelsey leaned against the kitchen counter and munched on a carrot. “You never did tell us why you had that falling out with Luke after Mom and Dad died.”

      Meg did her best to curtail a blush as she drained the cooked macaroni through the colander in the sink. “It wasn’t a falling out.”

      “Seemed like one to me,” Dani noted as she began slicing red cabbage into thin strips. “You wouldn’t take his calls or read his letters.”

      Meg put the drained macaroni into the buttered casserole and poured the cheese sauce over that. “I was just upset that summer, that’s all.”

      “Meaning it was all your fault and not Luke’s?” Dani asked, suddenly acting more СКАЧАТЬ