The Stolen Bride

“I didn’t mean…” Joseph ducked his head. “I was thinking your dress must be complicated. But you wouldn’t want me fumbling with it. I’ve got butterfingers.” And a tongue tied in knots, he thought in embarrassment.

When she was amused, Erin glowed. It should happen more often, he thought. “You don’t have to tell me! Remember that Santa Claus costume? When you first put it on, you had a beard growing out of your ear.”

“I did not!”

“Yes, you did. It was cute.” Her face tilted toward him. For a moment, she became again a laughing girl of fifteen and he was seventeen, so much in love he couldn’t see straight. He had to kiss her.

Joseph stopped. He wasn’t a kid, and besides, he’d come here to protect Erin, not indulge himself. “Better hurry. We don’t want to be here when your parents get back.”

“Oh.” With a visible effort, she recovered her poise. “I won’t be long.” She whisked away, leaving a floral scent in her wake.

Since he considered himself to be on an investigation despite the chief’s orders, Joseph scanned the area. In violent households, one might expect to find a broken lamp or a dent in the wall. He saw none.

Moving to the lake side of the house, he glanced into the sunroom. Through a wall of windows, daylight gleamed across enough wedding presents to stock a department store. Despite the brevity of the engagement, friends had showered the bridal couple with heaps of silver, crystal and china.

After checking through a front window to make sure no cars had pulled in, Joseph paced the living room as the minutes ticked by. Finally Erin rejoined him, toting a suitcase and an overnight bag. She’d swapped the wedding gown and diamonds for a pair of jeans, a pink sweater and a simple pearl necklace.

“I hope I didn’t take too long.” She glanced past him to the table covered with gifts. “Oh, my! Those all have to be returned. I should write notes to the guests, too.”

“Unless you plan to hire a moving van, I suggest you let your mother take care of it,” Joseph said. “Besides, no one expects you to write notes in your condition.”

“But it’s my responsibility.”

“Who appointed you the world’s only perfect person?” It was a phrase he’d used often when they were teenagers.

“I’m being Little Goody Two Shoes again. You’re right. Without your healthy corrupting influence, I slipped right back into the role,” she teased.

He didn’t bother to ask how a corrupting influence could be healthy. He understood what she meant.

On a message pad, Erin wrote a message to her mother. “Okay, how’s this? I’m asking her to return the gifts and give the diamonds to Chet. She can leave them with Betsy—she’s the board secretary at the office.”

“Sounds good.” Joseph was glad she didn’t insist on handing them to Chet herself. No matter what the etiquette books said, as far as he was concerned, the less contact between them, the better.

“Well, that’s that.” Erin signed the note. “Mom can reach me on my cell phone.”

“Have you decided where you’re going?” Taking the suitcase, Joseph led her onto the porch.

“Not yet.” After locking up, she dropped the key through the mail slot. Joseph would have advised her to hold on to it in case of emergency, but she’d beaten him to the punch. “Before I know what I can afford, I need to consult Stanley Rogers at the company. In addition to being the chief financial officer, he manages my trust fund. Until he gets in on Monday, I don’t have much money with me.”

“Excuse me?” A multimillionaire, and she made it sound as if she were broke!

“I’m not trying to plead poverty. It’s kind of complicated.” Erin beat him to the car and let herself inside. But once there, she sank back as if she’d expended most of her energy. She must have been operating on adrenaline, Joseph reflected as he stowed her possessions in the trunk.

When he got in, Erin resumed her explanation. “The fund makes a quarterly deposit in my account, and I turn it over to the Friend of a Friend Foundation. That’s confidential, by the way.”

“You’re behind the Friend of a Friend Foundation?” The organization had made a generous grant to the after-school tutoring program founded by his mother and a close friend of hers, a teacher.

“Even Tina doesn’t know that.”

“Obviously not.” Tina volunteered at The Homework Center, and she’d been as mystified as anyone about who was behind the donation.

“I’ve been living on what I earn at my job,” Erin said. “Believe me, that doesn’t go far. My bank account in Orange County has a couple of hundred dollars at most. Of course, there’s always my credit card.”

“Card, singular?”

“I told you, I’ve been living on my income,” she said. “I’m not sure when the next quarterly payment is due, but maybe I can get an advance.”

“You could call this financial guy at home.”

“I’m not that desperate,” Erin said. “I don’t think it’s right to force an employee to go into the office on his day off just to suit my convenience.”

As he drove, Joseph reflected on the contradictions in her attitude. On the one hand, she saw herself as an owner with an obligation not to abuse her authority. On the other hand, she seemed to doubt her ability even to tap into her resources for a small advance. She owned a half interest in the Marshall Company, for heaven’s sake!

Well, these decisions belonged to her, not him. What she needed from her old friend, he mused, was emotional support and physical protection.

He knew he tempted fate by getting involved where no one except Erin wanted him, and he wasn’t entirely sure how she felt. Perversely, the prospect of defying the rest of the world appealed to him. If he ever stopped leaping before he looked, life could get awfully boring.

“Well, if you still haven’t decided where to stay, I’m taking you to my house,” he said.

Erin didn’t answer.

“If that’s all right,” Joseph added.

She gave him one of those sweet, enigmatic expressions that made him want to kiss her and poke her in the ribs at the same time.

“Or I could drop you at the mall,” he said with mock solemnity. “Considering that you more or less own it.”

“There’s a tempting thought. I could pitch a sleeping bag in the food court.” She made a face.

“Well?”

“I’d love to go to your place, but I don’t want to get you in trouble,” Erin said. “You worked hard to get where you are.” She might not know the details, but she obviously suspected the hurdles he’d had to leap to get hired on the force, not to mention making detective so quickly. After what had happened to his father, some people had been waiting for him to fail. They still were.

“It’s only for the weekend.” Joseph negotiated the curving side streets toward Old Lake Highway, the most direct route into town. “It’s too isolated for you to stay there next week while I’m at work.”

“Where exactly do you live?” she asked.

“In the woods.”

“You always said you wanted to be close to nature,” Erin recalled. “If I remember right, at one point you talked about becoming a forest ranger.”

“I’m too stubborn for that,” Joseph said.

“Too stubborn?” After a moment, Erin answered her own question. “You mean, if you left town, everybody would think you were running away.”

“Exactly.”

“You gave up your dream to prove a point?” she demanded.