Doctors in the Wedding

The other woman, a strawberry blonde with a face that was probably round even when she wasn’t in the last stages of pregnancy and green eyes that were friendly despite the faint shadows beneath, introduced herself in return. “I’m Lila Polanski. My husband, Tommy, is an old friend of Carl’s. He’s serving as an usher Sunday. Are you one of the bridesmaids? Sorry, I should know that, probably, but I don’t know BiBi or her friends very well.”

“Yes, I’m a bridesmaid. I’ve known BiBi since college. Do you live here in Dallas?”

“No, Tommy grew up here, but I’m originally from Wisconsin. We moved to Houston a couple years ago for Tommy’s job. We drove up for the wedding. Tommy thought a day at a dude ranch sounded kind of cheesy,” she added in a stage whisper, glancing around to make sure BiBi wasn’t within hearing range. “But I think it will be fun. Not that I can participate much.”

She patted her protruding tummy with a mixture of pride and impatience.

Madison chuckled. “When is your baby due?”

“Next month. Our first. A boy.”

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you. Do you live in Dallas?”

Madison explained that she, too, had traveled for the wedding weekend, and they passed the remainder of the ride chatting congenially. Lila was a talker who tended to share a bit too much information quite freely with strangers. Madison liked her, though, and enjoyed the conversation. Madison’s job never came up, and she saw no need to mention that she was a doctor. ob-gyn was not her specialty, and she wasn’t prepared to answer a string of medical questions from the eager mommy-to-be. Better just to be another wedding guest, she thought.

She didn’t know whose idea it had been for the men to stand around the bus door and help the women descend the steps onto the graveled ranch parking lot. It seemed to be taking the back-to-the-Old-West theme a bit too far, with the strapping cowboys offering assistance to the fragile ladies, but she told herself not to take it so seriously. Today was all in fun. Maybe she’d gotten a little too sensitive about gender issues in medical school, where there were still a few deeply ingrained biases toward male doctors, even though women made up nearly half of modern medical school classes. When two men rushed forward to assist Lila Polanski, Madison told herself that it really was sort of nice that Southern gallantry still existed, despite the old-fashioned gender implications.

A man in a well-worn brown hat, a denim shirt rolled back on the forearms, jeans and boots that were definitely not new stepped up when she moved into the bus door. He held out a hand to her, tilting his head back so she could see his face beneath the brim of his hat. Her breath caught hard.

She’d been absolutely correct earlier. Jason D’Alessandro looked damned good in Western wear.

Realizing she was holding up the women waiting behind her to get off the bus, Madison placed her hand in Jason’s. It would have been rude to ignore his friendly offer of assistance, especially with other people watching. Among them, she realized, BiBi and Corinna, who stood nearby chatting with other guests, but still surreptitiously watching Jason.

She was glad the sparks that flew when her bare palm pressed against Jason’s existed only in her own overactive imagination. Or was he aware of them, too? She thought she heard his breath catch when his fingers closed around hers, but maybe that, too, was just something she imagined. Reminding herself that he was off-limits, she withdrew her hand quickly, meeting just a little resistance when she pulled away, as if he had been reluctant to release her.

BiBi rushed forward, almost dragging a tall, lanky cowboy with her. The man wore neatly pressed dark jeans over tooled leather boots, a tan denim shirt with colorful floral embroidery up the front and across the back yoke, a bolo tie and a battered hat with a feathered band. Madison figured he was so stereotypically dressed that he must be an employee of the dude ranch.

BiBi proved the guess to be correct. “Everyone, this is Buck. He’s our ranch host for today, so if anyone has any problems or questions, he’s the man to ask. Right, Buck?”

He agreed congenially, then made a short welcoming speech outlining the activities planned for the day and urging everyone to feel free to ask any ranch employee for assistance as needed.

“And now let’s all load up on the wagons,” he said, indicating three large open wooden wagons, each with a driver holding the reins to a pair of sturdy-looking horses. “We’re about to head back in time to a real Old West ranch experience.”

Madison heard a few muted snorts from some of the men in the party—probably men who had either grown up on real ranches or had at least some familiarity with them. BiBi had insisted she knew this was basically an amusement-park version of ranch life, but she didn’t care. It was going to be fun, she’d said. And fun was what her wedding weekend was all about. She’d also admitted to her girlfriends that she was looking forward to seeing her citified lawyer fiancé on horseback. Just because Carl had grown up in Dallas didn’t make him a cowboy, she had added with a laugh. And since several of her wedding guests were from out of state, like Madison, BiBi wanted them to have a true Texas experience.

Once again the men stepped up to help the ladies onto the wagons. Again, it took two—her husband and another volunteer—to get Lila onto a bench. Madison privately wondered if it had been a good idea for Lila to attend this outing, but Lila seemed so genuinely excited to be here that she supposed no one had the heart to suggest she stay behind.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jason moving in her direction, but another man stepped between them. “There you are, Madison. You slipped away from the party so quickly last night that I didn’t have a chance to say good-night. It’s good to see you again today.”

She forced a smile. “Hello, Allen. Nice to see you again, too.”

Carl’s cousin had dressed as enthusiastically for a ranch visit as he had for the costume party. His hat, boots, tooled-leather belt and embroidered red shirt all looked new, though his jeans looked to have had some use. “I see you’re still a red shirt,” she commented.

He laughed. “So I am. Last night I wore the colors of the losing army and now this. If I were appearing on an episode of Star Trek