Page 181 of Modern Romance Collection March 2025 (1-4)

It was warm. Odd. He’d expected it to be cold.

He looked out into the pews of the church. There was no audience. And for a moment he felt outside of himself. But he continued walking up to the front. And there he stood, waiting for his bride. The doors opened, and there she was. A halo of glorious gold. White.

Her hair was piled on top of her head, and a veil concealed her face.

She was like a floating confection. An angel.

Spun sugar and sweetness. So strange that he should have a visceral reaction to her, because he could not recall ever having a reaction like this to Drusilla in the past.

No. He had always been decidedly neutral on his intended, which had been fine with him.

She was beneficial. She didn’t need to be anything else.

But now, the sight of her held him suspended.

It was like being reborn.

And then, he was certain he felt something bite his leg. He looked around the room, and was struck yet again by the fact that it was empty, except for himself and Drusilla.

He reached down and gripped his thigh. And there was warmth there.

He was confused.

Groggy.

Why?

Suddenly, the doors to the church blew open, and the wind was as an icy blast. All the warmth from before faded away. And Drusilla kept on walking toward him. But then her veil blew off. And he looked into the eyes of a stranger.

As snow began to fall inside the chapel.

The chapel?

No. There was no chapel.

He wasn’t in Cape Cod having a wedding. He wasn’t…

Suddenly, everything around him fell away. And the wedding dress transformed itself to a parka. While the chapel became a vast wilderness.

And then, his vision went black.

And he tried to cast his mind back, to figure out exactly how he had gotten here…

CHAPTER TWO

Two hours earlier

StevieParkerwascold and annoyed. The longer her takeoff was delayed, the more money she was losing. She needed to get this cargo over to the East Coast. If she didn’t, she wasn’t going to get paid, and if she didn’t get paid then it was going to be another very long winter.

When storms disrupted things half the time, and there was no way for her to get paid if she wasn’t actually making her deliveries, it was a recipe for disaster.

Her dad couldn’t work anymore. His liver was shot, and he was barely hanging on.

Things weren’t getting any cheaper. Inflation was making it impossible to feed her family.

She sighed heavily.

She loved her sisters. Every last one of them. All six of them.

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