his. The rest of the plans he’d made with The Belles—the changes for their wedding—would prove that to Julie, when she was ready to hear them.
Hiding the grim resolution, he said to Callie, “So send her out. Let Julie’s kidnapping begin!”
Surely every bride feels this same need to bolt as the wedding gets close….
But Julie knew the stats. She’d reassured hundreds of nervous grooms, but only a few nervous brides in the three years she’d been working at The Wedding Belles.
What was wrong with her? She had everything— a dream wedding, Mr. Right…
Or so she’d thought, and that was the trouble. Since the night of their engagement party, she’d begun to wonder if he’d ever loved her, or if he was merely doing the right thing, the gentlemanly thing, rewarding her for standing by him during the dark times for McLachlan’s.
She knew it was paranoid, but whenever he was in town and came to see her, or when he called, she could hear it—he had something he needed to tell her, but it was bad. His obvious unhappiness at needing to tell her spoke for itself.
He’d been distracted for weeks before the party. She’d thought it was to do with the creation and marketing of the water converter that not only saved McLachlan’s but made him rich again.
Matt and Elise, that was.
She couldn’t face him. Couldn’t let him touch her. She’d never been able to resist him when his hands were on her, and there were too many doubts…not to mention that the wedding had become bigger than either of them. It resembled a runaway train careering downhill at a breakneck pace, and gaining speed by the second.
“Am I missing something, or has the hallway become more fascinating than it was half an hour ago?”
Julie smiled at Callie, the cheeky Belle. She used to use humour to hide her emotions from others; now, ecstatically wed to her high-school buddy turned sweetheart, Jared, whom they’d dubbed “My Favourite Geek”, Callie used humour to dig.
“Uniformity can be a good thing now and then,” she quipped back, hoping the joke didn’t fall flat. Hoping Callie didn’t keep digging. Her friends had all been trying to get her to talk to them for weeks now—since a few days after the engagement party—and it was obvious she was tense whenever she had to be with Matt for another interview or photo shoot. It was so tiring trying to act the happy bride-to-be, especially when every other Belle was a happy new bride or bride-to-be—or ecstatic new wife, in Regina’s case.
But until she’d spoken to Matt, it would be a betrayal.
The trouble was what to say. Three months ago she’d been certain Matt was the love of her life. Now she didn’t feel sure of anything.
“Change can be even better.” Callie said, braking in on Julie’s gloomy thoughts with a mysterious air…and a little wink.
Julie stared at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Callie shrugged just as Regina and Serena came out of their respective offices, and with conspiratorial smiles, each took one of Julie’s arms. “All work and no play has made Julie a very uptight girl lately. It’s time you had some fun.”
“And we know just the man you should be having fun with…” Regina said, with a mock- demure air.
Natalie and Audra joined the others. Since there were no arms left to take, Audra loosened Julie’s hair from its tight braid—her latest attempt to tame her wretched red curls—and Natalie put her hand firmly between Julie’s shoulder blades, pushing her toward the entryway.
“What have you done?” Julie asked, torn between laughter, dread and a sudden sense of gladness, a soaring hope.
Stupid woman. What are you expecting, hoping for?
Serena, another ecstatic newlywed, laughed. “We’re merely walking you out the door, darling. Welcome to your kidnapping. You’re off to the airport. He arranged everything, and you’d better go along with it!”
Matt had done this? What had he arranged…? Julie’s heartbeat fluttered as anticipation took wings. Was this what they needed? What had he arranged? Flowers perhaps, champagne, an island in the Caribbean? A week or two of the romance that had been stolen from them during the near collapse of McLachlan Industries, and the high- society, very public cancellation that had almost destroyed The Wedding Belles…?
Just an opportunity to talk—
What do we talk about? The secrets he’d been keeping? Elise?
Sudden panic gripped her. She didn’t know if she was ready to hear what he had to say. She tried to gather her thoughts, marshal arguments, but all she could think was time alone for the first time in a long time…with Matt. “But…my desk…”
“Is manned adequately and doin’ just fine, darlin’,” came the ladylike twang of the original Belle. “I haven’t done this in a long while. It’ll be fun. You’ve been a rock here since things started going downhill with the Vandiver cancellation. It’s our turn to give to you. You officially have two weeks off.”
“I already have next month off for the wedding and honeymoon,” she protested, feeling her throat closing up in protest and her heart, her stupid heart doing double time, whispering, Matt, Matt…
“We know,” Regina said gently, and kissed her cheek. “Consider this our prewedding present to you. You’ve covered for us during the past few months while we’ve fallen in love, beaten you to the altar or reconciled.” She smiled with quiet happiness, and Julie tried hard not to feel eaten up with envy, knowing each of the Belles deserved what they had. “And you never once complained.”
“So go.” Belle waved a hand with the Southern grace that allowed no room for dissent. “Get out that door, feel the sunshine and wind on your face and enjoy some time with that good-looking young man of yours.”
“It was your love story that helped us all find ours,” Callie said softly as they all marched her down the front passageway to the outside door. “We owe you, girl, big-time. Nobody deserves some happy time more than you and Matt. Now go.”
They pushed her gently through to the front of the building that housed The Wedding Belles. And beside the simple sedan he’d bought when he’d sold his beloved Jaguar to pay for her engagement ring, stood a tall, dark- haired man with touches of grey threaded through it, eyes like Antarctic ice, and a mouth so beautifully formed, so male, she ached to kiss him, long, slow and hot, until the fire blasted to life and she forgot the world existed.
Just as always.
The man of her daydreams, and more recently, her day-nightmares. Matt.
And, just like her daydream, he had flowers in one hand—but though he grinned and winked at the Belles, it was the expression hiding in his eyes that caught her breath in her throat. Bleak. Haunted. Resolute.
Nothing had changed.
It
