derision didn’t faze her mom, however, who continued, “The same things you need.”
“A wife?” she teased, used to dealing with her mother’s not-so-subtle attempts at matchmaking. Mary McClintock refused to accept that Colleen wasn’t ready for marriage—not now, and maybe not ever.
Mom squeezed her waist. “A husband.”
An image of Dr. Nick Jameson, standing at the altar, flashed into her mind, and Colleen’s pulse quickened. “I’m only twenty-three.”
Her mother smiled wistfully. “I was barely twenty when I married your father.”
And look how that had ended, with more heartache than any woman should have to endure.
Colleen blinked again to clear the mist from her eyes. That was why she wasn’t ready. She wasn’t strong enough yet to deal with the kind of loss her mother had experienced. She doubted she would ever be that strong. She far preferred unrequited crushes to a relationship.
“You and the best man made quite the dashing couple when he escorted you out of the church,” her mother observed.
“I wasn’t the only one to notice.”
Colleen bit the inside of her cheek, but the arrival of several of the town busybodies saved her from responding. The organist, Mrs. Hild, in a wildflower-patterned dress and wide-brimmed hat, pulled her mother into a hug. “Oh, Mary, you were so brave to turn the-wedding-that-wasn’t into a party.”
The wedding-that-wasn’t.
“And generous,” Mrs. Carpenter added. She was married to the owner of the hardware store, one of the thriftiest men in town.
“Poor Molly,” Mrs. Hild murmured.
Poor Molly. They shouldn’t be having her reception without her. Despite her request for time alone, they should probably be out looking for her. Maybe Eric had been telling the truth, and Molly really wasn’t with him. Colleen knew how it felt to run away and have no one care enough to come looking. She murmured some excuse, letting her mother handle the gossips. As she walked away, Colleen passed the cake table. The five-tier confection rose in a pyramid to the little plastic figurine standing at the top. Alone. Just the groom. The bride was gone.
“THIS IS A MISTAKE,” Nick said, letting the door close behind him as he stepped inside the men’s restroom with the jilted groom.
Josh crossed the green tile floor to a row of old porcelain sinks, then ran water over his palms to splash on his face. “I’m surprised you’ve controlled yourself this long.”
Nick tensed. “What?”
He should have known that he could hide nothing from his oldest, closest friend. Josh must have noticed how hard Nick had fought his attraction to the young bridesmaid, which hadn’t been easy plastered against her in the back of a limousine. Trying to make some space between the two of them, he’d inadvertently knocked the maid of honor off the end of the bench seat. He had to focus on his friend now, and not on some female who would probably prove as untrustworthy as her sister.
“I don’t know how you managed to wait this long to say I told you so.” Josh’s hands shook as he dragged them over his face.
“Man, that’s not why…”
“You followed me into the bathroom?” Josh finished for him.
“We shouldn’t even be here,” Nick said. “This is a mistake, coming to your reception when you’ve skipped the wedding.”
“I didn’t skip the wedding.” Josh laughed. “Only the bride skipped the wedding.”
“Why are we here?” Nick asked, concern for his friend increasing. Josh had had a rough time when his first wife abandoned him and the boys. What must he be going through now? Besides the obvious denial?
“Like Mrs. McClintock said back at the church,” Josh reminded him, “the food is already paid for.”
By the bride’s brother. But Josh had tried to pay—Nick had heard him offer more than once. That was the kind of guy Josh was, generous and selfless. Nick shook his head, bemused as always, that they were friends when they were so different.
“The whole town was looking forward to a party, and like I reminded you in the limo,” Josh continued, “we’re opening an office here. We need to meet our potential patients.”
Nick didn’t need the reminder about the office. Even before the bride had vanished, he’d been against opening a practice in Cloverville. While he couldn’t argue that the town was growing, it still wasn’t big city enough for him or close enough to the hospital where they had surgical privileges. But Josh’s dream had always been to open a small-town practice, a partnership. Nick had made Josh’s dream his—except for the small-town part. “All two patients?” he scoffed.
Josh snorted. “We’re going to have more than that. The only other doctor in town retired last year.”
“Retired or went bankrupt,” Nick muttered. “And he was a G.P. We’re not general practitioners. Does this town really need an orthopedic surgeon and a plastic surgeon?”
“Plastic surgery may be my specialty, but I intend to handle more,” Josh reminded him. “Cloverville’s just in the burbs of Grand Rapids. We still have surgical privileges at the hospital. We’ll have plenty of patients. They just have to get to know us.”
Nick wasn’t comfortable with anyone getting to know him.
“That’s why we’re here,” Josh continued.
“You didn’t have to come,” Nick pointed out. They hadn’t had to use the limo, either, even though it had already been paid for, too. But the entire wedding party had ridden together to the reception—well, everyone but the bride. “I could have represented us here.”
“And ushered us into the poorhouse,” Josh teased. “You’d scare away more patients than you’d attract. You’re not exactly known for your bedside manner.”
Who had time for small talk? He’d never had. He’d rather repair people’s broken bones or replace their hips and knees than discuss the weather. “I’m a surgeon.”
“I am, too.”
Dr. Joshua Towers had a bedside manner other doctors envied. Everyone loved Josh. Well, everyone but the women he loved. How did someone so smart keep falling for unsuitable women? Not that Molly McClintock had seemed unsuitable. As well as being beautiful, she was smart. Nick personally knew how tough medical school was. And the few times Nick had met her, she’d seemed sweet—far sweeter than Josh’s money-grubbing ex. In fact, she’d seemed the exact opposite of Amy. No wonder Josh had proposed so quickly.
“You’re also a man who just got left at the altar,” Nick said, knowing Josh was used to, and even relied on, his brutal honesty. When he needed it, Josh had always been there for him. “No one expected you to show up for the reception after what just happened. Come on, what’s really going on with you?”
Josh offered a halfhearted smile. “The boys wanted to party.”
Nick
