Cars lined the drive for a quarter of a mile, and still others spilled onto nearby pastures. Everyone in town appeared to be there, and Merry couldn’t say she was surprised. This was a party that no one in their right mind was going to miss.
She’d wanted a wedding that people would talk about for years to come, and it looked like she’d gotten it. But Lord, she hadn’t expected it to be under these conditions! Thomas should be at her side, damn him, with his ring on her finger and hers on his! Instead, he was on his way back to Chicago with his tail between his legs, and she was the one left to deal with the consequences of his cowardice.
Too late, she realized she should have cancelled the reception. She must have been out of her mind to think she could carry such a thing off. People would expect her to smile prettily and graciously accept their hugs and kisses and words of condolences, and she just wasn’t in the mood. She appreciated their support, but what she really needed was some time to herself.
Reading her thoughts, her mother said quietly, “You don’t have to do this, you know. No one would think badly of you if you thanked everyone for coming, then slipped away by yourself.”
“We can handle the party,” Janey assured her. “Why don’t you go back to your place and have a good cry? You’d feel better.”
For all of two seconds, she actually considered it. Then she remembered Thomas’s things. His clothes hung beside hers in her closet; his pillow lay beside hers on her bed. Not wanting to have to move into her house after they returned from their honeymoon, when they would both immediately return to work, he’d spent the last week transferring his things from his apartment to Merry’s house. Just thinking about facing that now, when she felt like she would shatter at any moment, had her shaking her head in panic. “No, I can handle it. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
The limo pulled up before the homestead then, and any time she had to compose herself was gone. Guests started swarming toward the car, and she was left with no choice but to paste on a smile and step out to greet them when the driver opened the door for her. Immediately enveloped in hugs and sympathy, she was passed from one person to the next, then the next, and carried along with the crowd to the back patio, where tables had been set up for the reception. There, even more people were waiting for their chance to talk to her.
Overwhelmed, she felt tears sting her eyes, and in spite of her best resolve not to cry, she couldn’t help herself. Horrified that she was going to fall apart right there in front of everyone, she looked around for an escape route, but she was cut off by the crowd at every turn. Then, just when she thought she was going to thoroughly embarrass herself, a drumroll sounded from the band that was set up at the opposite end of the patio.
“Ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention, please,” the lead singer called out loudly. “The guest of honor has arrived and the band would like to salute her with a song. Merry, this one’s for you.”
Giving her a thumb’s up signal, he turned to the band. With a nod of his head, he and his musicians swept into a rousing rendition of “I Will Survive.”
Chapter 2
With one song, the band did what no one else had—they made her laugh. And for the first time in what felt like hours, Merry was her old self, confident and fun loving, the life of the party. One cowboy after another asked her to dance, and she said yes to them all, hoping she could lose herself in the music. And for a while, she did. She two-stepped and waltzed and jitterbugged with the best of them and refused to let herself think. But it couldn’t last, not when she was hurting so badly. There was only one man she wanted to dance with, one man she wanted to hold her, and he wasn’t there. Try though she might, she couldn’t stop missing him.
And she hated herself for it. He’d dumped her, publicly humiliated her, then ran away like an irresponsible jerk. He wasn’t worth another tear, let alone a second thought. She knew that, but still, she couldn’t get him out of her head. In desperation, she smiled more, laughed harder, and to anyone who didn’t know her well, she appeared to actually be having fun. She had, in fact, never been more miserable in her life.
And her family knew it. Standing on the sidelines watching her on the dance floor, they could only watch in pained silence and sympathize. “Somebody needs to do something,” Angel said huskily. “Look at her out there, honey. She’s got to be hurting.”
“Maybe she just needs to get it out of her system,” Joe replied, his brown eyes dark with concern as he watched every move Merry made. “At least she’s not bawling her eyes out.”
“That’ll come later,” his mother predicted softly. “When everyone’s gone home and the letdown hits her. Then she’ll cry herself to sleep.”
His jaw rock-hard and his eyes narrowed on the cowboy that was holding Merry just a little too close, Zeke growled. “That jackass better watch where he’s putting his hands or he’s going to find himself picking himself up off the ground.”
“Maybe it’s time I cut in and gave that clown his walking papers,” Nick said tersely. “Excuse me.”
The song was just ending as Nick reached Merry and her partner, and with a single hard glare, he sent the other man packing. Merry never even noticed. Giving him a smile that had been known to knock lesser men out of their boots, she walked right into his arms. “There you are, Nick. I haven’t seen you in ages. Let’s dance.”
She melted in his arms as the band swung into the next number, and it wasn’t until then that Nick realized she was well on her way to being snockered. Over the years, they’d danced together more times than either of them could remember, and not once all those times had she ever draped herself around him like a limp dishrag. Nick didn’t even think he’d seen her dance that way with Thomas. She wasn’t into public displays and just didn’t do that kind of thing. Or at least, she hadn’t before tonight. But then again, she’d never been jilted before, either.
And like it or not, she felt too damn good against him. With no conscious effort on his part, he tightened his arms around her, cradling her close against him before he suddenly realized what he was doing. Biting off a curse, he quickly dropped his hands to her waist and put some breathing space between them.
“Somebody’s had a little too much to drink, and it isn’t me,” he said, frowning down at her when she murmured a protest. “You’re going to regret that tomorrow.”
Her smile faded, leaving her looking lost and lonely. “I’m going to regret a lot of things tomorrow. What’s one more?”
She had a point, but still, it broke Nick’s heart to see her this way. Damn Thomas! he thought furiously. Whatever doubts he’d had about getting married, he could have found a hell of a better way to break things off. He must have known weeks ago that he wasn’t going to be able to go through with the ceremony, so why hadn’t he told Merry then? Why had he waited and jilted her in front of the whole damn town?
“You don’t have anything to regret, Mer,” he said quietly. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Lifting stark eyes to his, she made no attempt to hide her pain. “I’m not so sure about that,” she whispered. “It wasn’t just anyone that Thomas didn’t want to marry. It was me. So I have to ask myself…what did I do to drive him away?”
“Nothing! My God, you can’t believe you’re responsible for this!”
But she did—he could see it in her eyes, in the tears that welled there and started to spill over her lashes. Up until
