Hayley Gardner - Kidnapping His Bride

“I don’t know,” Tessa said grimly. Noting with relief that Casey didn’t say a word to Griff as he delivered their food, she gestured for Clay to lean down. “What I’m worried about is,” she whispered, “what if this person somehow has found out the truth behind our engagement, gets Griff aside while he’s here and tells him. We can’t let that happen.”

Clay agreed. “I’ll stick to him like glue for the rest of the day, but after that, since I’m not getting married today, I’ll probably need to go back to work.”

“After that,” Tessa said, “it’s my turn anyway. What we need is a way to make him leave. If he does, maybe the e-mailer will think Griff doesn’t care about our getting married and leave him alone.”

Clay gazed down at her for a long minute. “I think I might have an idea, but let me think about it. I’ll let you know. You sure his leaving is what you want?”

“I swear,” Tessa said. “Where Griff is concerned, I’m ice.” She’d have to be. Everyone in town knew that she’d been in love with Griff Ledoux when she’d been younger, even while he was in the Academy. It hadn’t been easy to convince them all that she’d fallen for Clay. But the people in the town were family, and she cared what they thought of her, so she had. She wasn’t about to gamble with her future now by showing that she had any feelings at all left for Griff.

Even though she did. Just physical, she assured herself, but even that was more than she wanted to deal with.

“What about the wedding?” she asked.

“It’s off for now. The pastor had another one in Ruston to get to. I told everyone we’d be in touch. I think they headed over to your grandma’s for the free food.”

“Let’s hope that’s where they went,” Tessa said, staring grimly at the small crowd in the diner watching them. “We sure don’t need any more help here.”

Across the room, Griff worked on the burger Doc Casey had brought right before Tessa started whispering in Clay’s ear, which had made Griff tense up inside something awful for some reason. His brother said a few words, then Tessa looked at Clay with those jewel-blue eyes of hers, and her hand briefly brushed Clay’s sleeve. Griff felt a sudden flush of heat as though it were he whom she was touching. He quickly pushed down the surge of jealousy that followed, fully aware he had no right to that feeling.

The two of them began to walk over, and he quickly reminded himself that his intentions were very honorable. He was only there for one reason—to make sure they weren’t fixing to do something they would regret, leading to a bad marriage. As soon as he was sure, then he’d be gone, since he had no right in Tessa’s life. He knew full well he wasn’t the settling kind. No use fooling himself about that. It was just too bad that seeing Tessa again had been an uncomfortable reminder of what he had missed out on.

“Kidnapping, Griff?” Clay asked, making no attempt to keep his voice down. “If this is a joke, it’s not very funny.”

Griff could say the same thing about his brother marrying Tessa, knowing how close Griff and she had been at one time, but he didn’t. It wasn’t the place. Besides, he was here to convince Clay to call off the wedding, not to end up in a brawling heap with his own brother.

Turned out he didn’t have to say anything in reply. One of the old men from the other side of the room slapped his thigh and called out, “Not funny? It’s pretty darn amusing to us, Deputy!”

“Better than the Two Worlds Collide soap opera,” the grizzled man next to him, Jasper Tremaine, agreed, grinning. “Where’s your sense of humor, Clay?”

“Must have left it behind at the altar,” Clay said.

Jasper chortled. “Yeah, marriage has a way of turning a man grim, that it does. But that usually don’t happen until after the nuptials and the honeymoon.”

“Yeah, well, most people don’t have a brother like Griff, either,” Clay said amiably enough, but Griff could feel the tension behind his words.

The strain wasn’t evident to the other side of the room, though—they were all laughing. Bemused, Clay shook his head as he sat down next to Griff, taking the seat Tessa had formerly vacated. “Now I remember why we didn’t invite that bunch to the wedding.”

Tessa shook her head as she slipped into a chair opposite them, her back to the elderly onlookers. “We didn’t invite anyone but your parents and Sadie. She was the one with the stamps.”

“I take it Tessa told you about my e-mailed invitation?” Griff asked Clay. When his brother nodded, Griff suggested, “Maybe Sadie sent it.”

Tessa’s gaze flew to him. “I don’t think so. Anonymous isn’t really my grandmother’s style.”

An uncomfortable silence fell over the table and, at last, Clay asked the question Griff had been expecting. “So why did you steal Tessa away?”

“I haven’t done that yet,” Griff replied, his eyes penetratingly intense. “Have I, Tessa?”

“Of course not,” she protested, bracing both hands on the table and taking a long breath. “And neither are you going to. Clay and I are still going to be married.”

“So why aren’t you two already driving back to the church?” Griff said, picking up his burger.

“The wedding has been temporarily postponed,” Tessa told him. “The pastor had another engagement.”

“Good.” Griff barely kept himself from grinning.

Clay’s already grim expression deepened even more. “Yeah, well, since you’re so pleased about it, and it’s all your fault anyway, we’ll let you be the one to explain everything to Sadie. She’s already madder than a wet hen. Make sure, little brother, that you take all the blame.”

“Guilty,” Griff agreed. “I’m surprised she isn’t here with you.”

Clay began to loosen his tie as he spoke. “I took off right after I told everyone the news to avoid Sadie’s questioning me. I doubt she’ll look for us here.” He indicated the second plate that was in front of him. “You want that?” he asked Tessa.

She shook her head. “You can eat Griff’s food after what he’s done to our wedding?”

“The way I figure it, he owes me a meal after the worry he caused me. I thought you’d changed your mind, Tessa.”

“Never!”

Her reply came so swiftly, Griff’s eyebrows rose in question. She lifted her chin. “One broken engagement in a lifetime was enough.”

And they all knew what that referred to. As she and Griff did battle with their eyes, Tessa was wondering if there wasn’t something to what he’d said earlier about war. Oh, no, he’d meant with divorce. The two of them weren’t even close, let alone married. It beat her why she would have purposely struck out at him with words, wanting to get a reaction out of him.

“Yeah, well…” Clay removed his tie and placed it on the table in a heap, as Griff continued to watch Tessa. “It’s really too crowded to talk privately here, and the food’s served. No sense wasting it.”

“No sense,” Tessa echoed, feeling stunned. Griff broke eye contact and ate another fry. Men! How could they be so peaceable about the whole thing? Her insides felt topsy-turvy, and her emotions were in an uproar with Griff so near.

Making a decision, Tessa rose. “Griff, I’m sure Clay can straighten you out a lot better than I ever could. He’s had years more practice.” She didn’t have anything more she wanted to say to Griff, anyway. She’d said it all years before, when she’d broken it off with him. “I’m thinking that you’ll reconsider and be leaving town just as soon as you have a chance to talk to Clay privately, so goodbye, and take care of yourself.”

Griff rose swiftly and came around the table to take hold of her arm. Tessa didn’t wish to be reminded of how warm his hands could be on her body, or how gently he could caress her skin, but she could feel his heat through the satin as his thumb stroked her forearm, and was powerless to break away, even with Clay and everyone else there, witnessing everything. They silently looked at each other, neither moving, until a voice sliced through whatever it was holding them together.

“You get your hand off my granddaughter, Griffin Ledoux. She’s been spoken for.” Like a bolt of lightning, seventy-year-old Sadie Newsom herself appeared in the space between the rooms, still decked out with the pink rose corsage, burgundy silk dress and matching hat she’d worn to the wedding.

Griff dropped his hands to his side. “Yes, ma’am.” Almost immediately, Tessa felt her cheeks flush. Now she’d done it. The only thing she could think of to do was to play innocent.

“Grandma, I’m glad you’re here. I need a ride home.”

The cowbells started ringing steadily as Sadie was swiftly joined by two other ladies around Sadie’s age, her closest friends, sisters Claudette and Reba, and by an assortment of ten or so other guests, all in their Sunday best, and all looking rather perturbed. Tessa couldn’t blame them. She was feeling that way herself.

“Not so fast, Tessa.” Peeling off one of her white gloves, Sadie marched right up to the three of them. “You put that tie right back on and get out of that chair, Clay.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Clay agreed and rose to his feet out of respect for Sadie, but made no move toward his tie. “Why?”

“Because we’re all fixin’ to return to that church and wait for Brother Jonas to finish over in Ruston. I got to him before he left, and he said he could be back at the church after five. Are you three ready to go?”

“Yes,” Tessa said, hoping the problem of Griff would go away if she were married.

“No,’ Griff and Clay said simultaneously.

Tessa’s mouth fell open. Griff would say no, but Clay? “Why not?” she asked him.

“Yes, why not?” Sadie repeated, her mouth pursing.

“My brother and I have something to discuss, and besides, quite a few of our guests have probably gone home.” He gave Sadie a smile of genuine fondness. “Since I know you want the wedding to be a memory you’ll cherish forever, let’s reschedule so the church is filled.”

“Is that what this wedding is going to be, Tessa?” she heard Griff ask, his voice low. “A wedding you’ll cherish forever?”

To a man she didn’t love. With Griff’s eyes on her, never wavering, Tessa felt the room grow close.

Sadie was not fooled. “You want to postpone your wedding so you can discuss something with your brother?” Sadie gazed at them all, one by one, her eyes lingering on Griff and then coming back to Tessa. A lightbulb seemed to click on, and Sadie nodded. “I guess you’re right, Clay. No sense in rushing these things.”

“It’s not what you’re thinking, Grandma,” Tessa hastened to say. Sadie turned to her.

“Then what is it? What on earth pulled you away from your own wedding which I waited your lifetime for?”

“She wasn’t pulled, Sadie,” one of the elderly men informed her gleefully from behind them. “She was carried! Kidnapped right out of the church! When Doc Casey called, he said Griff had slung her over his shoulder like a sack of meal.”

Tessa groaned.

Sadie moaned.

The elderly ladies tittered.

Sadie’s eyes focused on Griff, blinked, then focused again. “Good grief. Is that how your mother raised you? No, I know the answer to that. That is not how your mother raised you.”

“I’ll say,” Clay interjected.

The side of Griff’s mouth turned downward, and Tessa realized she was in trouble. Sure enough, he had something to say.

“I guess your grandmother wasn’t the one who emailed me to come and stop the nuptials, huh?”