Page 25 of May I Kiss the Bride
Viola gave a half laugh. “I have all the time in the world.”
REY STOOD IN LINE AT the bakery. Not because he was monitoring the crowds again—those had dwindled by half—but because he was purchasing a pie. Elsie’s birthday was tomorrow, and he told Barb he’d provide the dessert. Not that Barb would expect him to bake a cake or anything.
Besides, Rey hoped to chat a moment or two with Beth Cannon. Find out how Miss Delany was doing back in San Francisco. Find out if she’d enrolled in nursing school. Find out what her parents had said.
It wasn’t that he was expecting a letter—although he’d hoped she might write to him. Yet she didn’t owe him any sort of chronicling of her life.
Rey moved up another few steps in line.
He missed seeing Viola at the pie counter. He missed the half smile on her face when their eyes connected. He missed her directness. He missed the gray of her eyes and contrast of her dark eyebrows to her golden hair.
And, of course, he’d had to field questions about Viola from his daughter. All these reminders of the woman were making her impossible to put out of his mind.
“Hello, Sheriff,” Phil said.
“Hey there.”
They shuffled forward another two steps.
The conversations around him were general “how-are-you’s” and “sure-hot-today.” It was August now, the hottest part of the year, and Viola Delany had been gone for longer than she’d been in Wyoming. Yet Rey remembered everything about her as if he’d seen her an hour ago.
“Next, please,” Sidney said, manning the register today.
Rey glanced around for Beth but didn’t see her.
“I’ll have a peach pie,” Rey said. “How are you doing, Sidney?”
“Fine as always.” She cast a smile to Phil, who stood behind Rey, waiting his turn.
“And Miss Cannon? Is she up and about today?”
“Oh, she’s next door at the mercantile picking up a few things.” Sidney boxed up the pie and handed it over.
He paid, then tipped his hat. “Have a nice day.” He’d turned to leave when Sidney’s voice stopped him.
“Did you hear the latest about Viola?”
Rey froze, then slowly turned, calming his jumping pulse to say in a steady tone, “I did not. What’s the latest?”
“She’s going to school in Cheyenne. Wants to be a nurse, I guess.” Sidney shrugged like she hadn’t just turned Rey’s world upside down. “Should be arriving any day now. Miss Cannon is hoping she’ll stay here and commute, but there’s boarding there too, so we don’t know what she’ll decide.”
Rey swallowed once. Then twice. “Is that so? Well, good for her. She’ll be a fine nurse.”
Sidney flashed a smile, then turned her full attention on Phil. “What can I get you, Phil?”
Rey didn’t hear one word between Phil and Sidney after that. He was trying to do the impossible. Walk while carrying a pie as his mind caught up to all that Sidney had packed into a fewshort sentences. He’d accepted the fact that Viola was in San Francisco. What had changed her mind?
Curiosity burned through him, and without even considering what he was doing, he headed to the mercantile. With a little luck, Beth Cannon would still be there and he could ask her himself. Maybe Sidney had some of her facts wrong? Rey’s heart thumped a couple of extra beats. He hoped she didn’t. He hoped to high heaven that Viola Delany was indeed returning to Wyoming.
That would be one step closer to … to what? Seeing her? Courting her? A lump pressed against his throat as his heart tried to escape his chest. Viola was coming back. Maybe not to Mayfair, but Cheyenne was thirty minutes by horse. And he couldn’t wait to see her again. Because Rey was done kidding himself. He was halfway in love with the woman, if not all the way.
It was something he had to admit to himself. These past few weeks without her had made his life feel like the Sahara Desert—empty, vast, and uncomfortable.
His boots barely touched the ground as he strode into the mercantile. He never thought he’d feel this way about a woman again. Sure, he assumed he’d remarry someday … in the distant future … but to have all his thoughts and energy and desires once again center on a woman … This was unexpected.
The moment he spotted Beth Cannon examining ready-made aprons, Rey’s steps faltered. Was he putting too much hope in the reasons for Viola’s return? It might just be coincidence on her part—or a rift with her parents, and Rey didn’t want that for her. Or it might be driven by the relationship between niece and aunt. All of this had nothing to do withhim. He had to put himself firmly into place and not let his imagination get away with him.
“Hello, Miss Cannon.” Rey approached the woman.
