lace dress that skimmed her slender body and stopped below her knees, fairly flew out of her room to where they stood at the top of the stairs. She’d refused to consider a traditional wedding gown and had instead ordered her dress from Nordstrom, online.
A bold move, Aurora had thought at the time. But typical Meg and totally beautiful.
“What do you need?” she asked the bride.
“What time is it?” Meg smiled, but she looked a little harried. “Time seems to be moving very slowly this morning.”
Lucia checked her watch. “You have five, maybe ten, minutes. Guess what. Aurora found a man this morning.”
Meg seemed impressed. “What kind of man?”
“Sam’s brother, or so he says,” Aurora answered, following Meg back into the bedroom, Lucia trailing behind them. “They do look alike. A little.”
“What did you do with him?” Meg went over to the window, as if by looking outside she would spot him. The large, freshly painted pale blue room faced the back of the house, with three tall windows facing the barns and the hills beyond. Lace curtains hung to the polished wood floors and an enormous bed, its mattress covered in an exquisite blue and white Irish chain quilt, took up most of the space.
“I left him in town, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he followed me here. He knew that Sam was at the wedding.”
“Wow. What does he look like?”
Aurora frowned. “Handsome, of course. Like his brother. And he’s very confident.”
“Confident,” Lucia repeated, frowning a little. “What does that mean? He’s obnoxious?”
“No,” Aurora said quickly, not wanting to insult Lucia’s future brother-in-law. “He seems very self-assured, as if there isn’t anything that bothers him.” She threw up her hands. “I don’t know how to explain it. It’s as if any kind of trouble would slide right off the man.” She sat on the bed and ran her hand along the delicate stitching.
“Sam’s calm like that, too.”
“Maybe it runs in the family,” Meg suggested.
Lucia joined her at the window. “It could. They had a pretty rough childhood and haven’t seen each other in years. Sam’s going to be thrilled he’s here.”
“He’s here, all right,” Aurora said. “His daughter is—”
“Daughter?”
“You didn’t know he had a daughter?”
Lucia shook her head slowly. “I didn’t even know he was married.”
“Not exactly a prerequisite,” Meg pointed out. She smoothed the front of her dress nervously.
“No, but Sam didn’t say anything about Jake having a daughter. How old is she?”
“Eleven, twelve, maybe? It’s hard to tell with kids these days.” Aurora had absolutely no experience with children, unless she counted the rare times she was with Lucia’s boys. And they were special, sweet children who had excellent manners. She secretly adored the littlest one. There was something about those big dark eyes that got her every time.
“Eleven,” Lucia mused. “I can’t wait to meet her. We could use a girl in the family.”
“Chances are he’s in the barn talking to Sam right now.” She wouldn’t be surprised at all to discover he’d made himself one of the wedding guests.
“Well, let’s get this wedding going so we can check the guy out,” Meg said.
“You’re not supposed to be thinking about men other than Owen,” Aurora informed her. “You’re supposed to be gazing at yourself in the mirror and worrying about your hair. Which is beautiful. As is the rest of you.”
“I’ve done that and I agree—
I look pretty good.”
“More like radiant and gorgeous and very happy,” Aurora assured her. “You’re the prettiest bride in Montana.”
Lucia leaned over and adjusted the seed pearl headpiece that held an elegant lace veil intended to fall down Meg’s back. “I like this. It’s not too fussy, but it’s very bridal.”
“The boots are a nice touch,” Aurora said.
“I splurged,” Meg confessed, looking down at the white pointed-toe Western boots that peeked out from under the hem of her dress. “My mother was beside herself with joy.”
Lucia finished fussing with the veil. “When you’re marrying a Montana rancher on his ranch, in a barn, you’d better be wearing the appropriate footwear.”
Aurora noticed Lucia’s own deep purple boots, along with her long-sleeved, formfitting brilliant yellow dress. She was a petite woman, with black hair that could only come from her Lakota Sioux grandmother. Intricately beaded purple-and-yellow earrings hung almost to her shoulders. She had great taste, an eye for color and, as a widow and single mother of three, needed to live frugally.
Aurora hoped that the “frugal” part would change once she married Sam, but she doubted her friend would quit going to secondhand stores. She liked the thrill of the hunt too much to stop.
Aurora wondered what Lucia would think of her new future brother-in-law.
There was a mystery here, but if anyone could get to the bottom of it, Lucia would. And Aurora couldn’t wait to find out.
* * *
“WILL YOU TAKE this woman to be your lawfully wedded bride?”
“I will,” Owen MacGregor declared amid impromptu male cheers. There was shushing and sniffling and a baby cried.
Aurora didn’t know whether to laugh or burst into tears. Since she never cried in front of people and wasn’t much for bursts of laughter, she sat quietly next to Loralee and hid a smile. Leave it to the rough-and-tumble men of Willing to cheer during a wedding ceremony.
She opened her little yellow purse and pulled out a tissue, which she handed to Loralee, the weeping mother of the bride. She, Loralee, Shelly, Lucia, Sam and the children were seated in the front row as Meg and Owen exchanged simple and moving vows.
“And will you, Margaret Ripley, take Owen MacGregor to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“After all this, she’d better say yes,” Loralee muttered.
“I will,” Meg said, prompting another burst of cheering from the congregation gathered in the historic and enormous barn. Aurora wondered how Owen had cleaned the place so quickly. He didn’t own cattle or horses yet, but she assumed that as he revived the once thriving cattle ranch, he’d use the barn for practical purposes.
Or rent it out as a wedding venue.
The rings were exchanged as the crowd watched in respectful silence. Aurora had heard that Owen’s mother was too ill
