Forever His Bride

“Everyone can enjoy the party,” Brenna assured the boys. Well, everyone but Clayton.

“Thanks to all your hard work planning the reception,” Josh said with an appreciative grin. “I’m glad it wasn’t cancelled.”

Like his wedding. How did he feel about that being cancelled? Brenna didn’t know him well enough to gauge his mood. He didn’t seem angry or even all that hurt. Had having to raise his kids alone, after the devastation of his wife’s leaving him, made him an expert at guarding his emotions?

“We want to party, Daddy!” TJ shouted, bored with the adult conversation.

“Party, party!” Buzz echoed.

Josh straightened up, and then stared them down as if a stern look could enforce good behavior. They just grinned at him. As well as missing most of his hair, Buzz was minus a couple of front teeth. Doubting he was old enough for his teeth to have fallen out naturally, Brenna could only imagine the story that accompanied that loss.

“Daddy, we want punch!” TJ shouted.

“Punch, punch!” Buzz echoed.

Brenna smothered a laugh. “I can get them a glass.”

“No, hey, let Nick,” Josh offered as the best man joined them.

“Let Nick what?” Dr. Jameson asked, his green eyes narrowing. “What else are you going to try talking me into?”

“Getting the boys some punch.”

Nick shook his head. “Josh…”

“Hey, five minutes is better than two weeks.” Josh turned to Brenna, including her in the conversation with an explanation she would rather not have had. “Nick was supposed to watch the boys while Molly and I were on our honeymoon.”

Honeymoon. Her stomach lurched at the thought of Molly and Josh on their honeymoon. Making love. Her best friend and the man she…Nothing. She could feel nothing for Dr. Joshua Towers.

“Punch, punch, Uncle Nick,” Buzz demanded as he latched on to the handsome doctor’s leg.

“We need to talk,” Nick murmured to Josh as he let the twins drag him away.

“Don’t drink too much and spoil your appetites,” Brenna called after the boys. “We’ll be eating soon.” Alone with Josh, in spite of the crowded hall, her nerves jangled. “I should really go and see if my folks and Mrs. George need any help with the food.”

Before she could slip away, Josh caught her hand and squeezed her fingers. “I never really thanked you for all that you’ve done.”

Her lips parted, a nervous breath escaping. Damn. She ran a business, for crying out loud. She’d run this wedding before it had all fallen apart. It would take more than blue eyes and a killer grin to addle her brain and make her forget her loyalty to a friend.

“I didn’t mind. Molly is my best friend,” she reminded him—and herself. Not only had Molly been her friend since kindergarten, she’d been her college roommate when they’d both left Cloverville for the first time. If not for Molly, Brenna probably would have been too homesick to stick out college for her bachelor’s degree, let alone for an MBA.

She sighed. “I just wish things had turned out differently.”

Dr. and Mrs. Towers. The announcement echoed in her mind, reminding her that for a brief moment he’d belonged to her and not Molly. But the DJ had been wrong, and so was she. She couldn’t betray her friendship with Molly—not even for a man such as Josh.

“Now that I think about it,” Josh mused, his eyes twinkling, “isn’t a maid of honor like a second? If the bride can’t honor her commitment, her maid of honor has to step in?”

“You’re confusing a wedding with a duel,” she retorted. “No wonder Molly went out the window.”

Josh laughed, amused more by the expression on her beautiful face, the mock horror widening her green eyes, than by her accusation. “You forget that I’ve been married already. From experience, I can assure you that it’s pretty easy to confuse a duel and a marriage.”

Amy had picked endless fights in order to get what she wanted. And in the end that hadn’t included her children or her husband. She’d wanted her freedom more.

“I’m sorry,” Brenna said again, her eyes tender with sympathy over the thought of the boys’ mother abandoning them. “Molly told me that your wife left when the twins were babies.”

He shrugged off the memories of frustration and fear—could he manage alone? “It was a good thing, really, that she left when they were so young. They don’t remember her, so they can’t miss her.”

“I’m sorry,” she said again.

“It’s my fault,” Josh volunteered. “She was young, and I should have realized she was too young to become a wife and mother. My long hours at the hospital, having twins—it was too much for her. I can’t blame her for being overwhelmed.”

“That’s no excuse for leaving her husband and children.” Brenna’s voice hardened with indignation as she proclaimed, even though she’d never met his ex-wife, “She’s clearly a fool.”

He grinned at the remark. “Maybe you should have been my best man.”

Her face softened as she returned his smile. “Why?”

“Nick called me the fool.”

“Some friend,” she scoffed.

“My thoughts exactly.” But Josh knew that Nick was a good friend. His best friend. As well as always being honest with him, more often than not the bastard was also right. He’d thought Josh crazy for rushing into his relationships with Amy and Molly. Josh should have listened to him both times. He had to stop rushing into things. He had to fight this attraction to Brenna.

THE GROOM STOOD ALONE atop the five-tier wedding cake, which was bedecked with red and white frosting flowers. In his plastic tux and with his painted-on smile, he looked quite happy. Certainly not like a man who’d been left at the altar. But as with Josh, this groom’s bride also was missing.

A big hand slapped Josh’s shoulder, causing him to stumble forward. Grabbing the edge of the table, he caught himself from falling headfirst into frosting. The tiers jiggled, and the lone groom wobbled on the top. But he didn’t fall down.

“Sorry, boy, so sorry,” offered Emmet “Pop” Kelly, his strong fingers grasping Josh’s shoulder.

Mr. Kelly was a mammoth man with burly arms and a bulging belly that started just below his neck. Despite the lines of age on his face, his hair was still black—all but for one shock of white that fell across his brow. “Mr. Kelly…”

“Pop. I told you everyone calls me Pop.”

“Pop…”

“Damn shame, boy, about the bride. I can’t figure out what happened to her. She was just gone.”

“She left a note,” Josh explained. “She needs some time to think…”

“No, not your bride. His.” He pointed toward the plastic groom. “I swear she was on the cake when it left the bakery. I loaded it into the truck myself. Well, that nice kid helped me—Harold’s nephew.”

A headache pounded at Josh’s temple. While he’d fallen for the whole town of Cloverville the minute he’d set foot into it, he would need to live there a while before he’d be able to catch up on who was related to whom and who lived where and what used to be located in some spot before weather, age or redevelopment had brought it down. Hell, he might never catch up. Even so, the first time he’d come to Cloverville, he’d realized that it would be the perfect place to raise his boys, and that had been before he’d met Brenna Kelly.

His eyes narrowed as he glanced again at the lonely plastic groom. Could they have…Spying small fingerprints in the frosting on the bottom tier, he asked, “Have you seen Buzz and TJ?”

The older man laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “The boys have been having a great time.”

At least someone was, then. Josh had barely been able to eat for all the townspeople staring at him and casting him sympathetic glances. Mrs. McClintock turning the event into a welcome-home party for Abby and Lara had taken some of the attention away from him. Before he’d met them, Molly had filled him in on all her friends. Eight years earlier Abby had left Cloverville in disgrace, but apparently the town had forgiven her her transgressions because now they genuinely welcomed her back. Well, everyone but Clayton.