Luke.
“She’s got quite the grip, doesn’t she?” Luke smiled down at Amber as Penny tried to compose herself.
Amber spotted Maggie and took off in the direction of her mother.
“You should see her with my puppy, Flicker.” Penny held her breath as Luke’s gaze floated over her dress up to her face. She wasn’t eighteen anymore. What if he didn’t like what he saw?
Nonsense. She never let a man make her feel insecure.
Luke finally met her eyes. “I’m supposed to walk you down the aisle.”
Her world was lost in a sea of blue, so rich and inviting that if she could, she would strip naked and dive into their warm depths. Warmth soaked through her body and her knees felt loose in their sockets.
She shook herself out of his spell and managed a smile that didn’t feel entirely plastic. “Yes, you are.”
“Or from the looks of those heels, keep you from falling on your ass?” That mischievous twinkle she’d always loved lit in his eyes.
“Oh, these little things?” Penny lifted her shoe to contemplate it.
Apparently the past was where it belonged: in the past. She smiled easier. Luke hadn’t changed much since high school, but his shoulders seemed less tight. Maybe he’d finally learned to let things go. When she’d first noticed him as more than just another classmate, he’d been filled with anger and grief after the death of his parents. She knew what it was like to be left by the ones you loved. And even though his parents hadn’t meant to leave, the pain he’d felt had seemed close to her own.
“Looks like we’ll be spending most of the evening together,” Luke said.
Penny blinked up at him as her stomach gave a little flip of joy at the remembrance of nights spent in his arms. Hot nights in the back of her beat-up Chevy. They’d laughed and forgotten about the rest of Tawnee Valley while they lost themselves in exploring each other. Fogged windows. Naked skin to naked skin. His hands and mouth had made her forget how to breathe.
“I’m the best man,” he said, slowly. “And you’re the maid of honor....”
“Of course.” She tried to laugh it off, but it came out stilted as she tried to control the heat bubbling within her. “I’d hate to keep you from your date, though.”
“I didn’t bring one.”
“She couldn’t make it?” Penny fished just a little, knowing that if there was a she, Penny needed to shut down this attraction. She didn’t mess with taken men.
“There isn’t a she.” He looked over her shoulder briefly before returning his gaze to her eyes. “What about your date? Won’t it make him jealous that I’ll have you in my arms most of the night?”
“If he existed, it probably would.” The men she hooked up with were always free agents and never more than that. “I guess that means I’m yours tonight.”
His dark eyebrow lifted as if his train of thought had just arrived at the same station. A spark of awareness raced down her spine.
“If everyone could line up,” Beatrice Miller called out in her singsong voice. The kindergarten teacher helped out at the church for the wedding coordinator. She treated every wedding party like a group of five-year-olds who needed to get in line and wait patiently for their turn. Many of them had had her as a teacher, so it wasn’t hard for her to rein them in.
Luke held out his elbow, and Penny hesitated for only a moment before slipping her hand over his jacketed arm. They were to be the first down the aisle.
“Mom and Dad should be here,” Luke said so softly that she almost missed it.
Her fingers squeezed his arm and she leaned against him. “Yes.”
As they stood by the door waiting for the procession music to begin, the crisp, clean scent of Luke wafted over her. He pulled her in tightly to his side. His warmth penetrated her silk dress. He was as solid next to her as he’d always been. Almost as much a safe haven to her as her grandmother’s antiques store had been when she was young. Had he stayed in Tawnee Valley, would things have been different for them?
The doors to the chapel opened, and Penny straightened and put on her smile. This was Maggie’s day. The past was gone. Only right now mattered. The entire town had turned out for the wedding. And they were all looking at her walking arm in arm with Luke Ward.
She could almost see the matchmaking gears in ole Bitsy Clemons’s head turning on overload. Bitsy had brought every eligible man in Tawnee Valley to Penny’s store. As if Penny would die if she didn’t marry soon.
It was bad enough to be walking down the aisle with an ex, but to do so in front of everyone who had known how hot and heavy they had been...
They made it to the preacher and split ways. As Luke went to the other side of Brady, she turned and their eyes met. She saw a hint of humor and speculation in those eyes. She could definitely lose herself in him for a night or two. After all, he could only improve with age.
Amber started down the aisle and tossed wildflowers on the path before her. When she reached the front, she turned and sat in the pew next to Sam Ward.
The music changed and the doors reopened to reveal the bride. The congregation stood as she walked slowly down the aisle with a smile filled with such love that Penny couldn’t stop the tears that sprang to her eyes.
As she reached the wedding party, Maggie passed her bouquet to Penny to hold and took Brady’s hands.
Brady looked as if he’d just been handed the most precious gift in the world. It hit something inside of Penny, and she had to look away. Luke came into sharp focus.
Years ago, she’d thrown away what they had together, but she’d never forgotten. Every man she had been with, she compared to him, never truly letting him go. Once tomorrow came, she’d have to let him go again, but tonight was filled with potential.
“Thought you were going to miss it,” Sam said.
Luke raised an eyebrow but continued to stare out the truck window. “I was called to scrub in on a last-minute surgery.”
Sam grunted. “Family’s not that important.”
If the reception had been any closer to the chapel, Luke would have walked rather than get in the truck with his oldest brother. Sam had helped raise him after their father died when Luke was fourteen. Two years later, their mother had succumbed to cancer and Brady had gone off to college, leaving only Luke and Sam.
“Of course family is important.” Luke flicked a piece of lint from his tux sleeve. “Which is why I’m here today. When it matters.”
Sam gave a noncommittal sound as he pulled into the parking lot of the Knights of Columbus. The hall was a standard block construction on the outside. It might not be big-city classy, but Tawnee Valley didn’t offer much else in the way of reception halls.
The
