Kidnapping His Bride. Hayley Gardner

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СКАЧАТЬ glanced at Griff, who was frowning at both of them. She frowned right back. If he’d only been ten minutes later, she’d be married to Clay and wouldn’t be in this predicament. Speaking of happiness, well, to say the least, she’d been happier. A lot happier.

      Like when she’d been in Griff’s arms. She hushed that thought away and turned her attention back to Clay, the one she couldn’t let get away, the same second as Doc Casey reappeared with a tray, headed for Griff. With this anonymous e-mailer loose, she didn’t want to let anyone alone with Griff for long, so she grabbed Clay’s sleeve and led him well away from the table with the elderly customers, to an empty area where she could talk softly to him without being overheard and still keep her eyes on Griff. Even across the room she could feel his eyes on her. Warmth drifted up through her body like the smoke before a fire.

      “We’ve got to get Griff out of here. Someone sent him an e-mail telling him we aren’t in love.”

      “So he came and kidnapped you from the wedding.” Clay ran his splayed fingers through his wavy black hair, looking, Tessa thought, as disconcerted as he had after his wife’s death over a year before, only without the pain this time. “Who would send him news like that?”

      “I don’t know,” Tessa said grimly. Noting with relief that Casey didn’t say a word to Griff as he delivered their food, she gestured for Clay to lean down. “What I’m worried about is,” she whispered, “what if this person somehow has found out the truth behind our engagement, gets Griff aside while he’s here and tells him. We can’t let that happen.”

      Clay agreed. “I’ll stick to him like glue for the rest of the day, but after that, since I’m not getting married today, I’ll probably need to go back to work.”

      “After that,” Tessa said, “it’s my turn anyway. What we need is a way to make him leave. If he does, maybe the e-mailer will think Griff doesn’t care about our getting married and leave him alone.”

      Clay gazed down at her for a long minute. “I think I might have an idea, but let me think about it. I’ll let you know. You sure his leaving is what you want?”

      “I swear,” Tessa said. “Where Griff is concerned, I’m ice.” She’d have to be. Everyone in town knew that she’d been in love with Griff Ledoux when she’d been younger, even while he was in the Academy. It hadn’t been easy to convince them all that she’d fallen for Clay. But the people in the town were family, and she cared what they thought of her, so she had. She wasn’t about to gamble with her future now by showing that she had any feelings at all left for Griff.

      Even though she did. Just physical, she assured herself, but even that was more than she wanted to deal with.

      “What about the wedding?” she asked.

      “It’s off for now. The pastor had another one in Ruston to get to. I told everyone we’d be in touch. I think they headed over to your grandma’s for the free food.”

      “Let’s hope that’s where they went,” Tessa said, staring grimly at the small crowd in the diner watching them. “We sure don’t need any more help here.”

      Across the room, Griff worked on the burger Doc Casey had brought right before Tessa started whispering in Clay’s ear, which had made Griff tense up inside something awful for some reason. His brother said a few words, then Tessa looked at Clay with those jewel-blue eyes of hers, and her hand briefly brushed Clay’s sleeve. Griff felt a sudden flush of heat as though it were he whom she was touching. He quickly pushed down the surge of jealousy that followed, fully aware he had no right to that feeling.

      The two of them began to walk over, and he quickly reminded himself that his intentions were very honorable. He was only there for one reason—to make sure they weren’t fixing to do something they would regret, leading to a bad marriage. As soon as he was sure, then he’d be gone, since he had no right in Tessa’s life. He knew full well he wasn’t the settling kind. No use fooling himself about that. It was just too bad that seeing Tessa again had been an uncomfortable reminder of what he had missed out on.

      “Kidnapping, Griff?” Clay asked, making no attempt to keep his voice down. “If this is a joke, it’s not very funny.”

      Griff could say the same thing about his brother marrying Tessa, knowing how close Griff and she had been at one time, but he didn’t. It wasn’t the place. Besides, he was here to convince Clay to call off the wedding, not to end up in a brawling heap with his own brother.

      Turned out he didn’t have to say anything in reply. One of the old men from the other side of the room slapped his thigh and called out, “Not funny? It’s pretty darn amusing to us, Deputy!”

      “Better than the Two Worlds Collide soap opera,” the grizzled man next to him, Jasper Tremaine, agreed, grinning. “Where’s your sense of humor, Clay?”

      “Must have left it behind at the altar,” Clay said.

      Jasper chortled. “Yeah, marriage has a way of turning a man grim, that it does. But that usually don’t happen until after the nuptials and the honeymoon.”

      “Yeah, well, most people don’t have a brother like Griff, either,” Clay said amiably enough, but Griff could feel the tension behind his words.

      The strain wasn’t evident to the other side of the room, though—they were all laughing. Bemused, Clay shook his head as he sat down next to Griff, taking the seat Tessa had formerly vacated. “Now I remember why we didn’t invite that bunch to the wedding.”

      Tessa shook her head as she slipped into a chair opposite them, her back to the elderly onlookers. “We didn’t invite anyone but your parents and Sadie. She was the one with the stamps.”

      “I take it Tessa told you about my e-mailed invitation?” Griff asked Clay. When his brother nodded, Griff suggested, “Maybe Sadie sent it.”

      Tessa’s gaze flew to him. “I don’t think so. Anonymous isn’t really my grandmother’s style.”

      An uncomfortable silence fell over the table and, at last, Clay asked the question Griff had been expecting. “So why did you steal Tessa away?”

      “I haven’t done that yet,” Griff replied, his eyes penetratingly intense. “Have I, Tessa?”

      “Of course not,” she protested, bracing both hands on the table and taking a long breath. “And neither are you going to. Clay and I are still going to be married.”

      “So why aren’t you two already driving back to the church?” Griff said, picking up his burger.

      “The wedding has been temporarily postponed,” Tessa told him. “The pastor had another engagement.”

      “Good.” Griff barely kept himself from grinning.

      Clay’s already grim expression deepened even more. “Yeah, well, since you’re so pleased about it, and it’s all your fault anyway, we’ll let you be the one to explain everything to Sadie. She’s already madder than a wet hen. Make sure, little brother, that you take all the blame.”

      “Guilty,” Griff agreed. “I’m surprised she isn’t here with you.”

      Clay began to loosen his tie as he spoke. “I took off right after I told everyone the news to avoid Sadie’s questioning me. I СКАЧАТЬ