Page 16 of I'll Be There
Yes, finally,finallyhere, in her arms. Yes. Now everything would be perfect.
He came up for air. “I’m sorry I’m late.” He set her down, but caught a strand of her hair in between his fingers. “We had a bit of...trouble.”
“You’rein trouble, dude!” Grace stepped up. “You’re not supposed to see the bride in her wedding dress before the big day.”
His face hollowed. “Oh, uh.”
Then he cupped his hand over his eyes. “I’m not looking.”
Oh, she loved him. Liza rose on her tiptoes and covered his mouth with another kiss, sweet, containing promise. “Don’t go anywhere.”
She hustled back to the bedroom.
Grace helped her out of the gown, hanging it up on the satin hanger. “So, now what do you think?”
“It’s still a latte,” Liza said, pulling on her shirt, her jeans. “But...” She touched the dress, the soft material sliding through her fingers. “It’s gorgeous.”
“Atta girl,” Mona said.
She came out of the bedroom and found Conner looking at the pile of RSVPs. He raised an eyebrow as Reuben, Pete, and Jed, his groomsmen, each caught her in a hug.
Pete had helped save her life this summer after the grizzly attack.
“So, you’re really going to marry this guy?” Pete said, voice laced with faux incredulity. “I’m available and ready to make a run for it with you.”
“Sorry, Pete. I’m not sure I could keep up with you.”
Pete glanced at Conner, now looking at the programs she’d designed.
Um, yeah, she heard the question reverberating in her head.Can I keep up with Conner?
Her throat thickened, and she walked over to him, slid her hand into his. “Are you hungry?”
“Famished.” Conner pressed a kiss to her hair. “And, I need to talk to you. Can we walk down to World’s Best and get a donut?”
She glanced at Grace, who nodded, as if sayingI got this.
“Mmmhmm.”
Something about the way the guys looked at Conner as they walked out raised the tiny hairs on her neck.
Weird.
They hit the sidewalk, and he reached for her hand. Gripped it tighter than she expected, as if needing to hold on.
“You okay?”
He nodded, but didn’t look at her as they walked down to the main road, crossed it, and headed along the harbor to downtown.
She’d moved to Deep Haven a decade and a half ago to help Mona start up her bookstore and coffee shop by setting up her pottery shop in the tiny yellow house they’d rented together. Mostly because she didn’t have anywhere else to go, frankly, but Deep Haven had welcomed her, influenced her pottery, given her friends. Family.
She loved the cry of the gulls over the harbor, the sight of bridal-white sailboats moored against the deep blue of Lake Superior. The Tavern grill had fired up for the season, hickoryand barbecue seasoning the breeze. Tourists lounged on the rocky shore, their children firing stones into the surf, some of them skipping through frothy waves.
“We were...in a car crash.”
She stopped, and the motion turned him back to her. “What?”
For the first time, she noticed the lines around his eyes, fatigue in his voice. “We hit the storm head-on, and a car next to us spun out and flipped. A kid was killed, a passenger.”
