The Maverick's Accidental Bride. Christine Rimmer

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      She got him to drop her off at the boardinghouse and promised to meet him at the Manor in an hour and a half.

      Upstairs in her room, Jordyn got right to work packing an overnight bag. Once that was done, she started gathering the rest of her things together for tomorrow. After work she would pile everything into her old Subaru and follow Will out to the ranch.

      The door to her room stood ajar as she packed. She’d left it that way on purpose for Melba, who appeared just as Jordyn was tucking a stack of T-shirts into one of the suitcases spread open on the bed.

      “So it looks like you’re leaving us earlier than you planned,” Melba said, huffing a little from the climb up the stairs.

      Jordyn went to her. The old woman wrapped her in a hug. Jordyn breathed in her comforting scent. Melba always seemed to smell of lemon polish and cinnamon cookies.

      Melba stroked her hair. “I heard the news that you married Cecelia’s brother. Congratulations, honey. I know you’ll be very happy.”

      Jordyn felt a sharp stab of guilt at deceiving Melba, who had always been kind and generous to her. “Thank you. I’ve known Will forever. He’s a wonderful man.” She stepped back from the old woman’s embrace. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you yesterday. It was all kind of sudden.”

      “Sometimes love is like that.”

      “Uh, yeah. Yeah, it is—and listen, I’ll come back tomorrow, after work, to pick up everything and turn in my key, if that’s okay.” Melba took her hand and pressed a small piece of paper into it. It was a check, the amount Jordyn had paid ahead for her July rent, plus her original deposit. “Oh, no. Melba, I didn’t even give you notice.”

      “Shh, now.” Melba patted her cheek. “Consider it a wedding present from Old Gene and me—and don’t you dare be a stranger, you hear? You come back and see me now and then. I want to know all about how married life is treating you.”

      “I will definitely be back to visit.” Until August, anyway, when she would be leaving for good.

      Melba gave a pleased little laugh. “And didn’t I tell you to have faith, that the perfect man for you would come along?”

      More than once in the past two years, Jordyn had cried on Melba’s kindly shoulder because everybody else was coupling up and getting married, but she’d yet to meet the guy for her. “Yes, you did.”

      “And just look at you now.”

      Jordyn put on a big, fat smile. “You’re right. It all worked out in the end.” And it had. Just not in the way that Melba assumed. Jordyn was married, as she’d dreamed of being. But by the third week in August, barring the slim chance that she might be pregnant, she would be divorced.

      Also, when she’d dreamed of marriage, what she’d really been longing for was that special, special man and true love to last a lifetime.

      Will was special, all right. And he loved her—as an honorary baby sister he felt he had to take care of.

      It was a long, long way from what she’d been dreaming of.

      * * *

      When she knocked on Will’s door at the Manor, he answered with his cell phone at his ear.

      He ushered her in and went on with his conversation—with his mother, Carol. “Yeah, Mom. I know. I should have called. Sorry. It is a big, big deal, and I know you hate being left out of the loop...Yeah. Absolutely. You had a right to be here. It’s just that, well, when I swept Jordyn Leigh off her feet, I needed to make her mine before she came down to earth and had second thoughts.” He glanced Jordyn’s way, arching a dark eyebrow and grinning, as if to say, Boy, do I know how to make this crap up. And he did. He went on, “I wanted that ring on her finger before she had a chance to think twice. Couldn’t have her changing her mind on me, now, could I?” His mother said something and he replied, “Tomorrow, that’s right. We’ll be moving in then...Thanks. I will...” And then, “Yeah, she’s here...”

      Jordyn dropped her overnighter on the floor, scowled at Will for putting her on the spot—and then gave in and took the phone. “Hi, Carol.”

      “Jordyn Leigh, I am so happy.” Will’s mom had been crying. She sniffled. “I have to say, I always wondered about you two, always suspected there was more going on between you than any of us realized.”

      Seriously? “And you were so right,” she lied. “Just look at us now.” She sent Will another scowl. He put on a big smile and gave her a thumbs-up.

      “I have to tell you,” Will’s mom said in her just-between-girls voice. “I was beginning to think Will would never find the right woman and settle down. But now I get it. He was waiting to get to Rust Creek Falls—and you. I just... Words fail me. They do. Your mother and I have always dreamed that someday our families would be joined together. And now it’s happened. It’s really happened. You’re my own daughter now. I only wish we could get up there to see you this summer.”

      “Well, that would be wonderful...” And awkward. And strange.

      “But even if we don’t make it to visit before the end of summer, we’ll see you here at home for Thanksgiving.” They would? “Will says you’re off to Missoula at the end of August, but he promised to bring you home to us over your Thanksgiving break. And then you’ll both be coming down for Christmas, of course.”

      “Erm, of course...”

      “Oh, sweetie, I can’t wait.”

      Jordyn played her part. She said she couldn’t wait, either. And Carol Clifton babbled happily on for another ten minutes.

      Finally, she asked for Will again. “I have a few more things I need to tell him, and then his father will want to congratulate him.”

      Jordyn tossed Will the phone as if it was a scalding hot potato, scooped up her overnighter and made a beeline for the bathroom, which gave her a door to shut on Will as he told more brilliantly detailed lies to his own mother.

      Determined not to go back out there until Will had finished his call, Jordyn set her toiletry case on the shelf, ran a comb through her hair and put on some lip gloss. She was just peeking around the door to make sure the coast was clear when her own phone rang. It was her mother, who was crying happy tears just like Will’s mother had been.

      Jordyn emerged into the main room and dropped to the sofa as Evelyn Cates said how thrilled she was about the marriage. She was also hurt that she hadn’t been there to see her youngest daughter say I do to the man of her dreams. Jordyn talked to her for fifteen minutes, in the course of which her mom got past her hurt and confessed that she was over the moon at the news.

      “I’ve always favored Will over his brothers,” her mother confided in an excited whisper. “Though make no mistake, I do love his brothers, too.”

      “I know you do, Mom.”

      “And your father and I are going to see what we can do, see if we can make it up there to the Rust Creek Valley for a visit this summer...”

      “It would be so great to see you.” Except for how I’ll have to lie straight СКАЧАТЬ