myself less as a tagalonger and more as part of the wedding party.”
Daisy didn’t turn to look at John to sanction this silly statement. She was well aware he was taking Sam’s role of being a trickster, but she wasn’t going to be the one to cry “uncle.” If these two wanted to play chicken, it was probably a game they’d played before. “I don’t care one bit.”
Sam turned to glare at John. “You can’t cause any trouble.”
“Me?” John feigned surprise and innocence. “I never cause trouble.”
“Never cause trouble,” Sam muttered under his breath, starting the truck, and Daisy wondered how this situation was going to end up by nightfall. John appeared determined to call Sam’s bluff, so there was a great possibility that Sam might find himself at the altar saying “I do,” something he’d always proclaimed he would never do.
Until today.
This was terrible. With John sitting in the backseat goading his friend on, Sam might not feel as if he could bow out. Sam had just been trying to bring John to his senses—but like other plans in Bridesmaids Creek had been known to go, this one appeared to have taken a turn for the worse.
I don’t even need anyone to marry me.
With the two men dug in for the long haul, apparently, Daisy decided she might as well take a nap. Pretend to take one, anyway—as if she could ignore John’s long, lean body in the backseat. She could feel his gaze on her, studying her. Waiting to see if she’d crack.
The man really believed she was so hung up on him that he could haul out of town without saying goodbye—then show back up in her life and throw the equivalent of a cold, wet water balloon to explode her plans.
Ass.
“I’m sorry, pumpkin, did you say something?” Sam asked, clearly intending to play the This Is Chicken and I’m Not Gonna Lose scenario to its incongruous end. “It sounded like you said ass.”
Daisy shook her head, kept her eyes closed. “I didn’t say ass.”
“I thought I heard her say ass,” John said, putting his two cents in from the backseat.
“Guys, leave me out of the rooster-like posturing, please,” she said, and they had the nerve to guffaw.
“Daisy, lady, you’re far too much for my gentle friend to handle,” John said.
“And yet he’s handling me just fine,” Daisy said, and that shut John up for the space of five blissful minutes.
Of course, John had to start fielding calls on his cell phone. From the backseat, she could hear him gossiping about today’s wedding plans. He told everyone who called that she and Sam were running off—which of course brought on a flurry of phone calls, all of which John seemed pleased to discuss in laborious detail. Daisy’s nerves were stretched tight, and Sam looked positively unlike himself.
Handsome Sam had turned into a shadow of his former devil-may-care self.
Daisy was relieved when Sam finally pulled up in Vegas. He’d found a quaint little chapel, a white incongruous place that didn’t shout Elvis.
“I’ll take the groom in and tidy him up,” John said jovially, and Daisy snapped, “Fine.”
“Ooh, bridal nerves,” John whispered to Sam, but he made sure his whisper carried. “I think she’s got ’em bad!”
She was going to clock John Lopez Mathison a good one if he didn’t take his annoying self far from her. A delicate, elderly woman approached. “You must be the bride.”
“Not today,” Daisy said. “I’ll give you five hundred dollars if you sneak me out of here and keep those two hunky cowboys I came in with busy long enough for me to get to the nearest airport.”
* * *
KNOWING THE FIRST place Sam and John would look for her was Bridesmaids Creek or Branch Winters’s place in Montana, Daisy took herself somewhere she knew she was totally safe. She went to New York, waited a day for her father to overnight her passport, and flew out to Australia, where Robert Donovan had recently purchased properties. It was a great excuse to check out the real estate, which made her father happy, but most of all, it gave Daisy time to think through her situation.
For a girl who loved riding fast on her motorcycle, her life had become way too fast-paced. She was going to be a mother. It was time to sit and think, figure out what she was going to do. Here she was completely safe from the game-playing duo of John and Sam.
She put a hand on her stomach as she looked out over the Sydney skyline. John had never suspected the baby was his—which had annoyed the heck out of her, but they’d been completely faithful about using condoms, so she guessed she could understand why he might assume the baby was Sam’s.
Then again, he was still an ass. She might have been wild, but she’d never been promiscuous, and John knew that. Part of her wondered if Sam would tell him the truth—but one never knew with Sam. He marched to the beat of his own unseen drummer, one that played a tune no one could predict.
It would all work out. She had to believe that. To think otherwise would mean giving up on the BC magic—something she would never do. Her father owned buildings around the world; she could live anywhere she liked. But Bridesmaids Creek was home.
And that’s where her baby would be born.
She just needed to let the smoke clear. Once John and Sam cooled their jets, she’d return.
It was time to make up for her part in the problems in BC—and she’d never been a girl to back down from what she knew had to be done.
She couldn’t wait to get started.
* * *
“THAT’S THE FUNNIEST story I ever heard!” Sheriff Dennis slapped his thigh, causing the biggest frown he could muster to crease John’s face. Cosette Lafleur and Jane Chatham didn’t appear to be any less amused by the tale of Daisy ditching both him and Sam at the altar, so this was just one more BC legend John was going to have to live down.
He didn’t mind admitting that he didn’t understand Daisy. He prided himself on being able to catch anything that moved on the planet—anything. He’d been an excellent sniper—hence Squint, short for Squint-Eye—he’d been proud to protect his fellow countrymen. He had no trouble bagging any kind of game, and horseshoes and hand grenades were right up his tree of fun.
But the sexy brunette with the key to his soul—she confounded him. Eluded him, and stunned him. He’d had every intention of making her go all the way up to the altar with Sam, for the sheer pleasure of watching her back out at the last second.
Oh, she’d backed out big-time. They were lucky she hadn’t taken the truck and stranded them in Sin City.
One day he’d have to thank her for not doing that. He couldn’t really have blamed her if she had.
The worst part was nobody knew where she’d gone—or if they did, they sure as heck weren’t telling. John sent a sour look to his booth mates at The Wedding Diner.
“One
