The Bachelor's Northbridge Bride

“The daredevil,” she qualified.

“I have been known to take some risks, that’s true,” he confirmed.

“You nearly scared poor Kate to death when you flew over earlier,” Marti contributed in explanation. “I think she thought a plane was about to crash into us.”

He hadn’t taken his eyes off Kate even when his sister spoke, and he didn’t now. “You must be easily frightened,” he goaded.

“It did sound like you were going to land in the bedroom,” Marti said.

He grinned as if that was exactly what he’d been going for. But he finally glanced away from Kate to look at Marti. “I had to let you know I was on my way,” he countered remorselessly. “And I wanted you to see the banner.”

Marti rolled her eyes at him, apparently not wanting him to know she’d been delighted by his antics.

But it was to Kate that she said, “I’m forgiving him everything today because he got Gram out of hiding in the kitchen for my wedding—that was where she watched Wyatt’s because she’s so skittish about being around a lot of people. I don’t know if you saw her and Mary Pat, but they came down the stairs and watched from just behind where everyone else was sitting—it made me feel like she was at least a little more a part of it.”

“I did see her and her nurse,” Kate said. She’d also noticed out of the corner of her eye during the ceremony the frequent glances Ry Grayson had cast in that direction, accompanied by reassuring smiles.

“She’ll do things for Ry that none of the rest of us can ever get her to do. He’s a master,” Marti said with admiration.

“Your grandmother wouldn’t stay downstairs afterward, though?” Kate asked because she hadn’t seen Theresa since the pronouncement of Noah and Marti as man and wife.

“Not even Ry could get her to do that, no,” Marti said sadly. “She’s fearful and phobic. And she’s particularly embarrassed about facing people in Northbridge—I’m sure Noah has told you that we’re just piecing together why that is and trying to convince her that she doesn’t need to be.”

But as if that wasn’t a subject for a festive occasion, Marti changed it and said to her brother, “Ry, I also wanted you to meet Kate because she’s a masseuse.”

That brought a slow, lascivious smile to Ry Grayson’s handsome face. “A masseuse. Really? You know, when someone says masseuse the first thing you think of is—”

“Medical massage therapist?” Kate challenged, knowing what he was insinuating.

“Ry…” Marti said in an exaggeratedly reprimanding tone. “You are not honestly making a massage-parlor innuendo to the Reverend’s granddaughter—who you just met—at my wedding, when I’m trying to get you medical aid, are you?”

“Who? Me?” he asked, the picture of innocence were it not for the gleam of mischief in his remarkable eyes.

Marti shook her head and said to Kate, “He can be incorrigible.”

“I never would have guessed,” Kate responded partially under her breath.

But rather than being insulted by her remark, Ry Grayson laughed again and his gaze locked onto Kate’s once more as if he were enjoying the polite sparring.

“Anyway,” Marti continued. “What I was about to tell you, Kate, is that Ry hurt his shoulder yesterday—trying out his neighbor’s son’s skateboard, if you can believe it. I thought there might be something you could do to help since he couldn’t see anyone in Missoula before coming here.”

Kate didn’t have a chance to respond to that because her own brother appeared behind Marti right then, insisting that there was someone his new bride needed to meet.

“Can I trust you alone with Kate?” Marti asked Ry, rather than merely agreeing to go.

“Absolutely. I’ll be on my best behavior,” he swore, raising his right hand.

Marti must not have been completely convinced because she still said, “Do not give Kate a hard time. Remember she’s my sister-in-law now and the Reverend’s granddaughter.”

“Best behavior,” Ry repeated.

Marti cast him a warning look before abandoning Kate to him. Kate, who was still backed into a corner.

She raised her chin, wondering if Ry Grayson was going to keep his word to his sister or not, ready for it if he didn’t.

Then he surprised her and did.

“So you’re Noah’s little sister,” he said conversationally. “Wyatt and I both think a lot of him.”

“I’m glad,” Kate said, meaning it.

“We weren’t sure anyone could ever replace the guy Marti was with before—Jack. We all knew him since we were little kids and he was more than a friend. He was like one of us. When he was killed in the car accident on the way to their wedding, Wyatt and I grieved almost as much as Marti did.”

“It must have been awful,” Kate said, her guard dropping a little in spite of herself because what he was saying—confiding—seemed genuine and heartfelt.

“Jack was a hard act to follow,” Ry continued. “And even though we never said it to Marti, we didn’t think it was possible for us to ever like anyone else as well. But we’ve talked about it—Wyatt and I—and while Noah is different from Jack, we think he’s great.”

Okay, so Ry Grayson was gaining ground with every kind word he said about Noah. Kate couldn’t help it; she was close to her brothers and sister, they were important to her, and it was nice to know Noah’s in-laws were welcoming him so warmly. Nice for Ry Grayson to tell her….

“We feel like we’ve hit the jackpot with Noah when it comes to the remodel and with the work on the Home-Max location, too,” Ry was saying.

Noah was the contractor who had been hired to update and refurbish Theresa Hobbs Grayson’s long-neglected childhood home. It was how Noah and Marti had met and from that, Noah had also agreed to do construction on the building that would house the Northbridge branch of the family’s chain of home-improvement stores.

Ry went on with his accolades. “There are places in the house where Noah has replaced a section of the original crown molding or the spindles in the staircase and even I can’t tell what’s new and what’s old.”

“He is good at what he does,” Kate agreed. Then, testing to see just how fond of her brother the Graysons were—and knowing that Noah had been concerned about what Ry and Wyatt Grayson thought about the fact that Marti was pregnant with Noah’s baby due to a one-night stand at a hardware convention—she said, “What about the baby? Are you and Wyatt okay with that?”

The question didn’t seem to faze Ry. “We’re fine with it. Actually…”

He moved slightly toward her as if what he was about to say was even more of a confidence, and Kate caught a whiff of clean, citrusy cologne that was like a breath of fresh orchard air enticing her a fraction of an inch closer to him, too.

“…I hated what Marti had told us before,” he said in a slightly quieter voice. “She claimed she’d had artificial insemination and I was afraid she’d done it because she was so lonely after losing Jack that it had driven her to extreme measures. I felt like Wyatt and I must have dropped the ball, that we must not have given her enough time or comfort or attention. That we’d really failed her. But the thought that she had met somebody who made her realize that she hadn’t died along with Jack? Somebody she wanted to spend the night with? That just proves she’s human and let me know she was getting over Jack’s death. And to tell you the truth, it was a relief to me not to have to think we’d let her down somehow.”

Kate couldn’t help smiling at that. And wishing he hadn’t just given her a reason to like him.

“What about your side?” he asked then. “A reverend’s family? Are you all wanting to hang your heads in shame because the pregnancy came before the wedding? Or thinking less of Marti because of it?”

“No,” Kate said without hesitation. “I mean, those of us who know Marti is pregnant don’t want to hang our heads in shame and we definitely don’t think any less of her.”

“Those of you who know?”

“Noah hasn’t told the Reverend yet—”

“You call your grandfather the Reverend?”

“No one calls him anything else,” Kate said. Then she went back to answering his question. “The Reverend would be outraged that a member of his family had conceived a child out of wedlock, so Noah put off telling him. In a month or so, Noah will announce it to him as if it’s just happened and leave it at that. But the rest of us know, and since this will be our first niece or nephew, we can’t wait. Well, I can’t wait. And Meg is excited, too. We’ve already started buying baby things. And we really do love Marti. We think of her as another sister. We couldn’t have picked anyone better for Noah ourselves.”

“No, you couldn’t have,” Ry Grayson confirmed. Then, with that subject exhausted, he smiled a smile that was reminiscent of his earlier devilish one, and said, “So, we’re talking medical massage?”