now turning on him. “She always had a crush on you.”
He would have told her how wrong she was, that Tanya had only wanted to be his friend, but he didn’t want to interrupt Rochelle. The more upset she got, the more she might reveal.
“So your marrying her is exactly what she wants,” she said, bitterness making her voice sharp and her face ugly. “And Tanya always gets what she wants.”
And Cooper suspected that Rochelle always wanted what Tanya had.
“Have you talked to Stephen?” he asked.
She gasped. “Of course not.”
“Why ‘of course not’?”
“He’s missing.”
“Yes,” he said. “Do you know where he is?”
She gasped again. “You think I have something to do with his disappearance?”
“I think you’re jealous that he was going to marry your sister,” he said, and he had no doubt that he was right about that. He just wasn’t sure about the rest of his suspicions. “And jealous women can be quite dangerous...”
She stepped closer to him, her eyes bright and her nostrils flaring. “You have no idea how dangerous I can be.”
He was afraid that he might have a pretty accurate idea.
She stepped back and shook her head. “You know, marry my sister with my blessing. I think the two of you deserve each other.” She stepped back inside the bride’s room and slammed the door behind her.
“You don’t have Parker’s way with the ladies,” Logan remarked as he joined Cooper in the vestibule.
“Neither do you.” Which was more ironic since they looked almost exactly alike. Logan wore his hair shorter than Parker’s but not as short as Cooper’s military cut.
“That’s fine with me,” Logan remarked. “I would rather stay single than do what you’re about to do.” He pointed toward the church. “Parker and the reverend are waiting for you.”
“Did Mom send you to get me?”
He shook his head. “No, to get Tanya.”
“Déjà vu.”
“I’m walking her down the aisle.”
She had no one else to do it. Her father had abandoned his family. Her original groom had disappeared. That left only Cooper and his family. He hoped they would be enough to keep her safe.
His mom stepped out of the church and crooked her finger, beckoning him inside. Unlike his siblings, he didn’t always blindly obey his mother. She hadn’t wanted him to enlist but he had. He had even fought her plan the night before...until he had realized that she was right.
The best way to keep Tanya safe was to marry her. But who was going to keep him safe? Because the minute he saw her looking both ethereal and sexy in white lace, he realized that he was in the most danger in which he had ever been. He was in danger of falling irrevocably in love with the woman about to become his wife.
* * *
IN HIS BLACK TUXEDO and white pleated shirt, Cooper Payne looked so handsome that he completely stole Tanya’s breath. He wouldn’t have fit in Stephen’s tuxedo. Mrs. Payne must have extra suits available the way she had dresses.
Actually, she’d had only one extra dress on hand. A very special dress...
Cooper’s gaze met hers and his eyes widened. Was that because he recognized his mother’s dress?
Tanya had the moment Mrs. Payne had brought it to her to replace the destroyed dress. She had seen that dress in the wedding portrait that hung over the mantel in the Payne living room. And she had refused to wear it. The woman that Cooper was going to marry for real—for a happily-ever-after not just until we get an annulment—deserved to wear that dress.
Not Tanya.
But Mrs. Payne had insisted in that gracious, indomitable manner of hers that tolerated no refusal or argument. And as she’d also pointed out, Tanya had no other options. Unless she wanted to get married in jeans and a sweater, she had to wear Mrs. Payne’s wedding dress.
Maybe she should have gone with the jeans—then she wouldn’t feel like such a fraud. Actually, she felt like a bride. A real one. Especially with how intently her groom was staring at her.
The strapless gown was all vintage lace and sparkling beads with a formfitting silhouette. Much more formfitting on Tanya than it had been on the petite bride who’d originally worn it. Mrs. Payne must have worn high heels so that the hem hadn’t dragged on the floor. Tanya had forgone shoes. She felt the runner under her bare feet, the red velvet soft against her skin. Each step brought her closer to the altar.
To her groom.
As it had the night before, her heart pounded so loudly that she heard it as well as her blood rushing in her ears. The organ was drowned out. She never heard what Logan said to her as he leaned down and kissed her cheek. Even the first words the minister spoke were lost to her.
Then Cooper took her hands in both of his and her heart stopped beating entirely for a moment. She felt like that teenage girl she’d once been—the one who’d dreamed every night of Cooper Payne declaring his love for her. But then she reminded herself that all that Cooper had ever declared for her was friendship.
She would like to believe that he’d only done that because her grandfather had warned him off. But if Cooper really wanted something, like joining the Marines, he hadn’t let anyone scare him off or talk him out of it. Just as he hadn’t let getting shot at—twice—the night before scare him away from marrying her. But he wasn’t marrying her for her.
He hadn’t really wanted her. Then. Or now.
He was marrying her for Stephen—for his safe return. If Stephen was safe...
Was it already too late to save him?
Tears burned her eyes, blurring her vision even more than the veil that Mrs. Payne had also loaned her. It was a thin, delicate lace through which Tanya had had no problem seeing earlier.
“Do you take this man to be your husband, Tanya?” the minister prodded her as if he’d asked the question before.
A couple coughs disrupted the eerie silence of the church. But there weren’t many guests. Even when she was going to marry Stephen, she had insisted on keeping the guest list to a minimum. And now Stephen’s family and friends weren’t present—thanks to the calls Mrs. Payne had made.
It would have been more than just awkward to marry another man in front of them. They wouldn’t have understood that she was doing this for him—for Stephen.
Cooper squeezed her hands and nodded as if in encouragement.
And Tanya found herself opening her mouth and whispering the words, “I do.”
But was she doing this for Stephen or for herself? Because she was fulfilling
