His Montana Bride. Brenda Minton

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      He pulled into the parking lot of the church that his family had been attending for generations and that he’d been avoiding as much as possible for a few years. Avoiding because he and God hadn’t seen eye to eye on several things. A broken engagement when he was twenty. And then at twenty-nine a fiancée who ran off with his best man two weeks before they were to get married in this very church. Those were his reasons for avoiding relationships. His reason for avoiding God had more to do with Marci. He shoved the thought away because he couldn’t go there right now, not with Katie sitting in his truck waiting to go to church. The look on her face was something close to a kid’s on Christmas morning.

      He shook his head, amused in spite of himself. He hadn’t expected to go to church when he woke up that morning. He really hadn’t expected to be there with a woman he barely knew getting out of the passenger side of his truck. But there he was, standing on the sidewalk, the rustic church with wood siding, stone and stained glass behind him.

      The sign out front with the name Mountainview Church of the Savior also had smaller print telling the history behind the church. Most folks just called it Mountainview now, and everyone knew which church they meant.

      “With no coordinator to help, will you call off the wedding?” Katie asked as she stepped next to him.

      “No.” He couldn’t explain to her that there was too much at stake. The town needed this wedding and the money it would bring in. They had a bridge in need of repairs and a museum they couldn’t finish without more funds. “I’ll just figure out how to pull off a wedding for fifty couples, maybe get some media attention for Jasper Gulch and hopefully not mess up anyone’s life.”

      “I think you’ll do just fine. Remember, it’s all about the dress.”

      “How long are you going to be in town, Katie?” He placed a hand on her back and guided her up the sidewalk that had a few uneven places.

      “I’m not sure. I’m supposed to be helping my sister, but she seems to have escaped and left me here.” She sighed and glanced at him. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t fair. Gwen is in a residency program and of course her time off is limited. And Jeff has a practice to tend to. I have several weeks of vacation and several personal days that I planned on taking so I could be here to help Gwen.”

      “Do you always give up your time to help your sister?”

      She looked away and he was sorry he had asked. Especially when she smiled at him a moment later, a hint of sadness in her eyes. “She would do the same for me.”

      “Of course. I didn’t mean...” What had he meant? “It’s really none of my business.”

      “You don’t have to apologize. I’m okay with being here, and with helping her.”

      “Do you think that as long as you’re here...”

      He didn’t know what to say. They were standing in front of the massive wooden doors that led to the church. She had a slightly red nose from the cool morning air and her lips were tinted with pink gloss. As long as she was there, she could be a friend. That wasn’t what he’d planned to say but the thought framed itself as a question in his mind.

      She was studying his face, waiting for him to finish.

      “Maybe you could help me with this wedding?” He asked the question that had originally been on his mind.

      “Me?”

      “You obviously have more fashion sense than I do. For me, dressed up is a sport jacket with my jeans and a pair of boots that I only wear to town or for special occasions.”

      “I see. I thought maybe you wanted me to run interference and keep the single women at bay. Hands off Cord Shaw, that kind of thing.” As she said it, somehow her palm came to rest on his shoulder as if they’d been friends forever.

      It was the strangest and maybe one of the best feelings. It tangled him up and made him lose track of the reality that he was standing in front of church. People he’d known his whole life were walking their way. The door could open at any moment. And for the first time in years a woman had made him feel at ease.

      “That wasn’t what I was thinking,” he finally said. “But your plan does have merit.”

      “Of course it does.” Her hand slipped away and she took a step back.

      “So, you’ll help me?”

      “Keep the women at bay?”

      “With the wedding?”

      “I’m not sure I want to be that involved.” Her voice was soft. “I already have to be my sister’s right-hand woman. I’m not sure I can be that and help you.”

      “I would be forever in your debt.”

      “The times I’ve heard...” She smiled and didn’t finish. “I’ll think about it. But I think you probably need someone local who has more knowledge of the area and what’s available. I’ve been a bridesmaid a few times. That is my total experience with weddings.”

      “I’ve never made it down the aisle, so you have more experience than me.” He pushed the double doors open and then with a hand on her arm he guided her down the aisle to the pew behind his family.

      He glanced behind them, looking for Marci and her grandmother. He’d promised to take Marci riding after church. No matter how busy he was during the week, he always managed to spend time with her on Sunday. It was their day. It was his way of keeping a promise to a friend.

      He hadn’t been to church too often since the day of Marci’s mother’s funeral.

      And yet, here he was, sitting next to Katie Archer, trying not to weep over the loss of a friend, a girl without a mother, and soon...

      He couldn’t think about soon, or about what Lulu Jenson, Marci’s grandmother, was going to face in the near future. In the seat next to him, Katie moved, turning to look around the old building. He tried to see it through her eyes, with the golden glass of the windows, the polished wooden pews, the history.

      At the back of the church and on the opposite side he saw Marci with Lulu. The two waved and he smiled. Both of them looked a little too happy to see him there. In the pew in front of him his mother turned to smile, the look in her eyes saying she thought a prayer had been answered. He was back in church. It had been a while.

      He settled back in his seat and ignored the woman next to him and the questioning look she gave him. Because she was the one person he didn’t really have to worry about answering to. She’d be gone in a month. Their stories weren’t connected.

      But he couldn’t ignore her, not completely. Not when he caught a scent of the oriental perfume that had followed him into his house last night, clinging to the jacket he’d slipped over her shoulders.

      She was temporary in this town, and in his life. What was permanent for Cord Shaw were the people in this church. The people connected to him each and every day, counting on him to be there for them.

      Right now it felt as if there were a lot of people needing him to pull off this Old Tyme Wedding. There were fifty couples counting on the wedding of the century at the end of the month. Jasper Gulch was counting on him. They needed this wedding. They СКАЧАТЬ