The Stolen Bride

Joseph. It couldn’t be him. She knew he’d joined the police force and that he was friends with Rick, but she hadn’t expected to meet him. Not unprepared like this. Not in her wedding dress.

Once, she’d been closer to him than to anyone in the world. Then he’d broken her heart, or maybe she’d broken his. Most likely both.

“My accident was in Tustin,” she heard herself say. “That’s a different jurisdiction.”

“I know.” Tina picked up her bouquet and fingered the ivory, blue and green flowers. “Joseph investigated your mom’s accident. He thinks there might be a connection with what happened to you.”

“How could they be connected?” Alice’s near drowning and Erin’s hit-and-run had occurred four months and fifty miles apart.

“I’d better let him explain it. He promised it won’t take long.” Tina sounded torn.

“I can’t see him.”

“He said he tried to talk to you before, but Lance objected and my father ordered him to back off. He seems to think it’s important.”

The boy she’d adored when she was fifteen was standing right outside in the hallway. Joseph might not belong at her wedding to Chet, but he was already here. How could she send him away? But how could she see him when she already felt so shaky?

The woman Erin had been until six weeks ago could have handled the situation with quiet self-possession. Now, she didn’t trust her own reactions. During the past month, she’d found herself doubting everyone around her and getting upset for no reason. How could she maintain her poise with Joseph?

She remembered something that had slipped her mind. At the hospital, she’d learned that, when admitted, she’d been wearing the broken-heart pendant he’d given her in high school.

She wished she knew why she’d put that on, apparently right after calling Chet to accept his proposal. It didn’t make sense.

A lot of things didn’t make sense, she acknowledged with a start. She didn’t know why her friends in Tustin had abandoned her. Also, at her mother’s house, she’d imagined that conversations stopped abruptly when she entered a room. That the phone rang and was answered in hushed tones so that she couldn’t understand.

In high school, Joseph had been the one she’d turned to with her thoughts. Maybe he could help her sort things out now. In any case, she refused to send him away without saying hello.

“All right,” Erin said. “For a minute.”

“I’ll warn him not to overtire you.” Tina went to the door.

Not overtire her? That was going to be hard. She just hoped that, after the interview, she could recover her composure in time to walk down the aisle at Chet’s side with an appropriate smile on her face.

Tina ushered in a man. When his eyes met Erin’s, emotions pricked and stung like blood flooding through a sleeping limb.

The gray vagueness she’d known since the accident lifted. This was Joseph, her Joseph. She’d missed him terribly, even if she’d refused to acknowledge it.

The years had broadened his shoulders and given him an air of authority, but if she buried her nose in his chest, she knew how he would smell. If she smiled up at him, she knew how his face would glow with warmth. Or perhaps she was imagining it.

His dark blue eyes riveted Erin with their intensity. He hadn’t forgotten anything that had passed between them, she was sure of it, yet she saw no sign of tenderness or welcome. This muscular man wearing a navy sports jacket and tan pants had changed in ways she couldn’t even imagine.

Joseph glanced toward Tina. “This will only take a few minutes.” It was a polite dismissal.

With an apologetic shrug, the bridesmaid left the two of them alone.

“Thank you for seeing me.” Remaining where he stood halfway across the room from her, he took out a notepad. “I need to run over a few details with you.”

“Your timing leaves something to be desired.” She hoped for a wry smile.

“I’m afraid I had no choice. I wasn’t allowed to see you sooner.” No smile. No eye contact, either.

“This is awkward. I’m getting married, you know.” Realizing what she’d blurted, Erin felt spectacularly foolish. As if the fact that she was standing here in her wedding dress didn’t give him a hint! “Is it that urgent?”

“You nearly got killed recently and so did your mother.” Although Joseph kept his voice level, she noted his tightly coiled tension. “I’d say that’s one heck of a coincidence.” The look he slanted her suited his tone: edgy and challenging.

“They were accidents,” Erin responded. “I don’t know what else I can tell you.”

“Were they?”

“Were they what?”

“Accidents.” He tapped his pen against the pad and waited.

“I don’t know.” She gripped the arm of the nearest chair, expecting to get light-headed again. It was the way she’d reacted all month when Chet and Lance and her mother told her things that didn’t match her distorted perceptions.

They’d said Alice was fine, even though to Erin she seemed gaunt and nervous. They’d said it made sense to go ahead with the wedding even in her befuddled state.

But her mind stayed clear. This hard-faced policeman wasn’t arguing with her perceptions. Instead, he’d implied that someone had deliberately attacked her and her mother.

It was the first thing Erin had heard in the past six weeks that made sense. And it scared the wits out of her.

JOSEPH HAD BEEN prepared to confront a wealthy young woman subtly dismissive of the man she’d once been foolish enough to date. He hadn’t expected to care whether she respected him, let alone liked him. No one knew better than he did the uselessness of holding on to the past.

After spending five years among police officers who worked high-stress jobs on rotating shifts, Joseph had seen relationships crumble right and left. People who’d once believed their hearts irretrievably shattered simply picked up the pieces and got over it, and so had he.

Or so he’d believed. Right now, he wasn’t sure.

Seeing Erin took him back to the innocent, hope-filled days of high school before his world fell apart. He wanted to cup her heart-shaped face and to smooth those quizzical eyebrows. He wanted her to melt into his arms and help him find the trusting young man he used to be.

Yeah, sure, she’d been pining for him all these years. That was why she was marrying Chet Dever, big-shot candidate for Congress and a superslick operator, judging by the way he came across in television interviews. That was why she sported a diamond necklace and crown that probably cost more than a policeman earned in a year. Or ten.

Still, it bothered Joseph to see her hanging on to a chair for support. What was the darn hurry to get married so soon after a major accident? If he were Chet—well, he’d be in just as big a hurry, he supposed.

“I apologize for the inconvenience, Miss Marshall,” he said. “Please bear with me and I’ll make this as brief as possible.”

“My name’s still Erin. And please tell me why you think that van hit me.” Despite the pallor of her complexion, she released her grip on the chair and held herself straight. Her late father would have approved.

Joseph forced his attention to the task at hand. He’d better make the best of these few minutes because, after Erin became Mrs. Chet Dever, he’d never get a chance to talk to her again unless this whole case blew wide open. By then, it might be too late.

“I don’t know the motive,” he said. “I don’t even know for sure that a crime’s been committed. Call me naturally suspicious.”

“The Tustin police called it an accident,” she said.

“The witnesses said they thought it might have been accidental. The police aren’t so sure.” He’d spoken at length with the investigating officer.

Her brown eyes widened. “Chet told me he read the report himself.”

“He probably read the cover sheet.” Joseph knew better than to call a man a liar without hard evidence. “Basically, no one saw the van hit you, only the aftermath, and there are several unexplained issues.”