finally found the perfect man for her.
The doorbell rang again. Amy’s stomach lurched and her heart beat so hard, she knew it would pound its way right out of her chest.
“That’ll be Derek,” Luke said. “I’ll get it.” He returned to the door as Amy practiced slow breathing and prayed she wouldn’t sink to the floor in a dead faint like the heroine of some old-time novel, felled by her own secret past. “Come on in,” said Luke.
And then, there he was.
Derek Dalton. In Wranglers and a soft chambray shirt. He took off his hat and his hair was just as she remembered it, thick and unruly, sable brown. He was just as she remembered—only bigger, broader. A grown man now, not a nineteen-year-old boy.
He hung his hat by the door. Luke signaled him forward and he entered the living room, filling it with his presence, with their past that seemed to suck all the air right out of her lungs. He greeted Eva and Viv. And then he turned to Amy, those leaf-green eyes homing right in on her. “Hey, Amy. Long time, huh?”
She stared up at him, unable to speak. But then he held out his big, blunt-fingered, work-roughened hand. She forced herself to take it and the shock of touching him again after all these years sent a bolt of lightning straight up her arm—and jolted the necessary words out of her.
“Hey, Derek.” She pulled her fingers free of his grip and somehow managed the barest semblance of a smile. “Great to see you again.”
“You, too.” With that, he turned away at last and lowered his big frame into the other wing chair.
The meeting began.
Viv opened a binder, pulled the rings wide and took out a small stack of papers. “Derek.” She handed several sheets to him. “And for you, Amy.” She passed Amy the rest. “You each now have the phone numbers and email addresses of everyone in the wedding party. Also, you’ll find a series of suggestions for the joint bachelor-bachelorette party, which is slated for the Saturday before the wedding. You two will be working as a team to pull it together. Invitations have already been sent and we’re counting on a big crowd. I threw in a few brainstorming sheets. It always helps to have those—just as a way to get the ideas flowing, you understand.”
“Wonderful,” Amy said, because Viv was looking at her and it seemed important that she say something.
“As for the bachelor party venue,” said Viv, “Maverick Manor is a dream setting, luxe and rustic at once. A real coup that we got it.” She gave Derek a nod. “Big thanks to Derek.”
“Don’t thank me,” Derek said. His voice was a little different somehow, deeper than Amy remembered. The sound of it reached down inside her, stirring up memories, reminding her of tender moments she really needed to forget. He added, “Nate Crawford’s the one.”
Eva asked, “You remember Nate, Amy?”
“Yeah. Of course.” Nate had been four or five years ahead of her in school, but everybody knew him. He was the oldest of six children. His parents, Laura and Todd, owned the general store.
“Nate’s become kind of a town benefactor in the last few years,” said Eva. “He’s a major shareholder in Maverick Manor.”
Derek said, “I just mentioned the party to him and he offered the Manor as a good place for it.”
“Ah,” said Amy, staring straight ahead, unable to make herself look at him though he was sitting right there at the other end of the coffee table from her. “Terrific.”
Eva explained, “Instead of separating the girls and the guys, I wanted one big party for all of us—with nothing X-rated, if you know what I mean.”
Viv clarified, “No strippers. And the games can be a little sexy—”
“—but nothing over the top.” Eva patted Luke’s hand. “Just good fun, right, Luke?”
“Works for me.” The groom nodded.
“It’ll be a nice, relaxed get-together for everyone,” added Eva, “not only for the wedding party, but also for all of our friends in town. We want it to be loose and easy and the Manor is a beautiful, comfortable place for it.”
Viv nodded at Derek and then at Amy. “Food and music are already taken care of, again thanks to Derek.”
Wait a minute. Had Derek paid for all this? Or just arranged everything? The boy she’d known in high school hadn’t had a lot of money. So then, he’d done well for himself?
Not that it mattered how much money he had. What mattered was that she would make sure the financial burden didn’t all fall on him—and wait a minute. Why was she worrying about Derek and his finances anyway?
Really, she didn’t even know the guy anymore....
Viv was still talking. “If you need specific songs played or whatever, I’ll be happy to pass your requests along to the band. You two will be putting your heads together and coming up with some fun things to do for the event, along with party favors and prizes.
“Mostly, it’s a balance. You don’t want to pack in too many activities, but you need a few games and such, to get people mingling. I’ve listed some very basic ideas on your party brainstorm sheets, just to jump-start the process for you. I’ll be ready with more suggestions if you need them and to help in any way I can.”
Amy tried really hard to focus, to keep her mind in the now, to think about great things to do at a coed bachelor party and what prizes and favors might be cute.
But her brain defied her will. Images assailed her, of those five days all those years ago, the tacky motel by the highway, the sound of the big rigs going by in the night, the reassuring warmth of Derek’s strong arms around her. How much she had loved him.
How scared she’d been, her life spinning out of control, nothing going the way she’d planned it.
“Fun activities,” she heard herself repeat. “Will do.”
From the other chair, Derek spoke up, too. “Uh, yeah. We’ll get right on that.”
The meeting continued. To Amy, it seemed endless. The memories pressed in on her, making it hard to breathe. But really, no one seemed to notice that she wasn’t saying much. Did they?
Eva and Luke seemed relaxed, happy as only two people in love can be. Viv was laser-focused on the wedding plans. Eva, a baker to the core, was all about the food and the cake, while Viv talked flowers and ways to make the barn setting really pop.
They discussed music for the wedding day, too. Luke and Eva had put in hours practicing their first dance. The band—the same group they were using at the bachelor party—had been given a long playlist of the couple’s favorites to fill up the evening. Luke joked that of course local eccentric Homer Gilmore would be welcome at the wedding. But they had to make absolutely certain that Homer’s infamous moonshine didn’t find its way into the punch.
As for Derek...
Well, Amy didn’t know how Derek was faring. From the moment he took the chair across from hers, she hadn’t been able to make herself so much as glance in his direction.
When
