Hard Lovin' Man

She heard the front door open behind her and glanced over her shoulder to see who was arriving late. She choked back a laugh when she realized the futility in that gesture. She didn’t know the bride and groom, much less any of their wedding guests. With a shake of her head, she turned her attention back to the ceremony, silently praying that the long-winded preacher would speed things up.

She felt a shoulder bump hers and glanced over to find a man had slipped into the room and was standing beside her. When she got a good look at his face, she did a quick double take, snapping her gaze to the front of the room and the groom, then back to the man at her side, sure that she was hallucinating. The two men could be identical twins—only the groom was wearing a suit, and the man beside her was wearing camouflage pants and a black T-shirt. She smothered a laugh. And she’d been concerned about attending the ceremony dressed in boots and jeans.

The eyes that met hers were a deep chocolate brown, and she couldn’t help but stare. His face obviously hadn’t seen a razor in a couple of days, because the stubbled beginnings of a mustache and beard the same shade of brown as the hair that brushed the neck of his black T-shirt covered his jaw and chin. And his eyes. There was a wildness, a desperation in them that was downright scary.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, and shifted away, putting space between them.

Tearing her gaze from his, Lacey quickly turned her attention back to the ceremony just as the minister said, “If anyone present knows of a reason why this man and this woman should not be joined in holy matrimony, may he speak now or forever hold his peace.”

“I do!” the man beside her growled.

Lacey whipped her head around to stare at him, as did everyone else in the room. As Lacey had, to a person, they did a double take when they got their first look at his face.

“Travis!” the groom exclaimed, a smile beginning to spread over his face. “You came!”

The stranger—Travis, the groom had called him—didn’t return the smile. “And just in the nick of time,” Lacey heard him mutter under his breath as he pushed himself away from the wall. He took a step forward, then stopped, squaring shoulders as broad as those of the man he confronted. “Mike, our foreman, sent me a wire relaying your message. I can’t let you go through with this, Jack.”

The smile that had bloomed on the groom’s face quickly dipped into a scowl. He turned back to the preacher. “Ignore him. Go on with the ceremony.”

Travis took another step forward. “Don’t listen to him, preacher. He’s crazy.”

Lacey watched the groom’s shoulders rise then fall in an obvious search for patience before he turned slowly back around. “There’s nothing wrong with me, Travis. I’m okay now.”

Travis closed the distance between them. “No, you’re not.” He nodded his head toward Alayna, who was staring at him, her eyes wide with shock, her face pale beneath the sheer veil that shadowed her face. “Not if you’re about to get married again. You made one mistake. I can’t stand by and watch you make another.”

“Then leave,” the groom snapped. He turned to face the preacher again. “Finish the job,” he growled.

The preacher gulped, glancing nervously from one man to the other.

Travis slapped a hand on Jack’s shoulder and whipped him around to face him. “If I leave,” he said, the warning undergirded with a thick layer of steel, “I’m taking you with me.”

Jack’s face turned bloodred with rage. He knocked Travis’s hand from his shoulder. “Like hell you are.”

If asked later, Lacey couldn’t have said who threw the first punch, but, in the blink of an eye, fists were flying. The bride screamed and one of the little kids in the room started crying. Another kid yelled, “Cool, dude! Hit him again, Dad!”

There was a grunt of pain, but Lacey couldn’t be sure if it was Travis or Jack who had made the guttural sound.

Mandy’s husband, Jesse, and Sam’s husband, Nash, quickly jumped into the fray, trying to pull Jack and Travis apart. But it was Merideth’s husband John Lee—a tall man with arms as thick as his wife’s waist—who managed to wedge himself between the two men and separate them. For his trouble, he caught the left meant for Jack square on the chin.

Testing his jaw to make sure it wasn’t broken, John Lee kept a hand braced on Jack’s chest, holding him back, while Jesse and Nash struggled to pen Travis’s arms behind his back.

John Lee looked from one furious face to the other, then suggested mildly, “Now why don’t you boys tell the rest of us what this little scuffle’s all about.”

“He’s crazy,” the two men said in unison, gesturing with their chins at the other.

John Lee nodded his head. “Well, I’d have to agree with you on that score, because you’re both acting like a couple of nutcases.” He glanced over at Travis. “Nice left,” he added, rubbing his still-throbbing chin.

“Thanks,” Travis grumbled.

Lacey would’ve laughed at the absurdity of the conversation, but she was afraid she might miss something.

John Lee let his hand drop from Jack’s chest and began to pace between the two men, his hands clasped behind his back, looking much like a trial lawyer preparing to question a crucial witness. He stopped after a moment to peer at Travis. “So why’d you want to stop the wedding?”

Travis scowled at Jack. “Because he’s not ready to get married.”

“That’s a damn lie.”

John Lee made a tsking sound with his tongue. “Now, Jack,” he scolded gently. “Remember there are ladies and children present, not to mention a man of the cloth.”

Jack stuffed his hands in his pockets and ducked his head, properly chastised. “Sorry,” he mumbled, then shifted his gaze to Travis’s, his eyes narrowing dangerously. “I know what I’m doing.”

Travis shook his head. “You may think you do, but you’re still running on emotion. Your wife’s been dead less than a year.”

“Ex-wife,” Jack corrected.

John Lee listened to the exchange, then focused on Jack. “Do you love Alayna?”

“With all my heart.”

“And you want to marry her?”

Jack turned to his bride and took her hand, squeezing it in his own as he gazed deeply into her eyes. “Yes.”

“And do you want to marry Jack?” he asked the bride.

Her lips trembling uncontrollably, she could only nod her head.

John Lee lifted a shoulder. “That’s good enough for me.” He turned to Travis. “I’d say you’re fighting a losing battle, buddy.” He eyed him a moment longer. “Think you can behave yourself, now?”

“Yeah,” Travis muttered, though Lacey could see that there was still some fight left in him.

John Lee gave a nod to Jesse and Nash. “Turn him loose.”

Scowling, Travis jerked free of the two men, then dragged the back of his wrist across his mouth, swiping a trickle of blood from a lip that was quickly swelling. John Lee pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to him.

“Thanks,” Travis mumbled.

John Lee folded his arms across his chest and reared back to study him. “Judging by the resemblance, I’d say you’d have to be Jack’s twin.”

Travis shot his brother a glare, then turned to John Lee, sighing heavily as he stretched a hand out in greeting. “Yeah. Travis Cordell.”

John Lee smiled as he shook the offered hand. “Pleased to meet you, Travis. I’m John Lee Carter.” He leaned close. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

Self-consciously, Travis lifted a shoulder. “No, I guess not.”

“Do y’all always scrap like this?”

The brothers exchanged an indefinable look, then Travis mumbled, “Yeah. Mostly.”