His Montana Bride

“Excuse me?” she blurted out, shifting her purse over her shoulder.

“Beth would probably prefer to ride with her sister,” Cord said with a shrug that said he’d made a logical choice.

“Yes, of course.” Katie looked around the room seeking an ally. Everyone seemed to be content with the plan. Everyone but Beth, who cast a jealous look at her as she left with her sister. Julie, whom Katie thought might be a friend, just smiled and hurried out of the room.

“I’m really sorry,” Katie offered as she walked out the front door with Cord.

He smiled at her. “Katie, if you want to go to church, you should go. And if I have to go, I prefer taking someone I can at least have a conversation with.”

“Thank you.” She didn’t know if it was the correct response, but what else could she say? Once again she’d been put in a box, the one labeled Friend. She told herself she was good with that. After all, she’d been a new-and-improved Katie for the past year. No more chasing after love. No more insecurity. Friend was safe. She wanted safe.

* * *

Cord had to count to ten as he walked around the front of his truck to the driver’s-side door. He didn’t know exactly how his perfect fishing day had turned into a date, or was it church, with Katie? But here he was climbing in his truck and heading for the main road and church. With Katie at his side.

Once again his dad was the one to thank.

In the seat next to him, Katie toyed with her purse, fiddled with the necklace hanging around her neck and then watched out the window as the scenery passed them by. Did she see what he saw? That it was a perfect morning for fishing? The air was brisk and smelled of drying leaves and pine. There were a few white clouds chasing each other across a perfect azure sky. They wouldn’t have many more mornings like this.

Well, maybe God would appreciate his sacrifice and bless him with some decent trout. Not that God worked that way. He wasn’t so far gone that he didn’t still believe, still pray, still take time for the Almighty. He just had a few issues to work out.

“I’m sorry,” Katie finally said. Her voice was clear, bright, sweet.

Strong.

He had the overwhelming impression of strength when he looked at Katie. But there was more to her than that, there was something in her expression, something a little lost about her.

“Why are you sorry?” He glanced her way and then refocused on the road.

“That you’ve been stuck with me again.”

“I’m sorry if I made you feel that way. I’m going to be honest with you, I’d feel stuck no matter who they put in my truck. I think my dad put me in charge of this wedding thinking it would make me all romantic, give me ideas about forever and the like.”

“And?” She smiled a big smile and those green eyes twinkled. For the first time since he walked into the main ranch, he felt a little easier on the inside.

“It makes me want to run as fast as I can in the other direction. Your sister and her fiancé seem decent but I’ve heard more bickering and arguing in the past week, since the couples for the wedding arrived in town. There is a couple staying with a family in town. She knows this wedding is vintage but she’s got this dress ordered from New York, and why can’t she have her own cake, and what about her aunt Milly from Oregon?”

“I think I met that bride last night. Andrea, I think. You’re safe with me, though. We can be birds of a feather.”

Smiling came a little easier. “I’m glad to hear that. So, you think they were going to toss Beth my way?”

“She’s pretty and very sweet. They’re going to throw the most tempting package at you.”

“And you think you’re not...” Well, now, how in the world did he continue this conversation and not sound like a jerk or the world’s biggest flirt?

“Tempting?”

“You think Beth is more tempting?” He cleared his throat, feeling pretty uncomfortable with this whole conversation. But she was laughing now and he enjoyed her laughter. When he looked at her, she shrugged in answer to his question.

If he was going to have to go to church, he might as well have a good time. He wouldn’t have enjoyed it with Beth at his side. He’d met her two days ago and she’d made pretty big hints. No, not hints. She’d outright asked him to show her the town. The next day she’d told him she’d heard about the café and the homemade pies but she was stuck with her sister.

His phone buzzed and he gave her an apologetic look and answered because it was finally the wedding planner. “Cord Shaw.”

He listened. He tried to argue. He counted to ten, more than once. And then he tossed his phone on the seat.

“Bad news.”

“Yeah.”

“They put your name down with Beth’s as the fiftieth couple?”

He smiled and he hadn’t meant to smile. “No. That was the wedding coordinator. She’s quitting. She was doing this pretty much free and she got a better offer, one that pays.”

“Ouch. So now what?”

“I’m not sure.”

He pulled into the parking lot of the church that his family had been attending for generations and that he’d been avoiding as much as possible for a few years. Avoiding because he and God hadn’t seen eye to eye on several things. A broken engagement when he was twenty. And then at twenty-nine a fiancée who ran off with his best man two weeks before they were to get married in this very church. Those were his reasons for avoiding relationships. His reason for avoiding God had more to do with Marci. He shoved the thought away because he couldn’t go there right now, not with Katie sitting in his truck waiting to go to church. The look on her face was something close to a kid’s on Christmas morning.

He shook his head, amused in spite of himself. He hadn’t expected to go to church when he woke up that morning. He really hadn’t expected to be there with a woman he barely knew getting out of the passenger side of his truck. But there he was, standing on the sidewalk, the rustic church with wood siding, stone and stained glass behind him.

The sign out front with the name Mountainview Church of the Savior also had smaller print telling the history behind the church. Most folks just called it Mountainview now, and everyone knew which church they meant.

“With no coordinator to help, will you call off the wedding?” Katie asked as she stepped next to him.

“No.” He couldn’t explain to her that there was too much at stake. The town needed this wedding and the money it would bring in. They had a bridge in need of repairs and a museum they couldn’t finish without more funds. “I’ll just figure out how to pull off a wedding for fifty couples, maybe get some media attention for Jasper Gulch and hopefully not mess up anyone’s life.”

“I think you’ll do just fine. Remember, it’s all about the dress.”

“How long are you going to be in town, Katie?” He placed a hand on her back and guided her up the sidewalk that had a few uneven places.

“I’m not sure. I’m supposed to be helping my sister, but she seems to have escaped and left me here.” She sighed and glanced at him. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t fair. Gwen is in a residency program and of course her time off is limited. And Jeff has a practice to tend to. I have several weeks of vacation and several personal days that I planned on taking so I could be here to help Gwen.”

“Do you always give up your time to help your sister?”

She looked away and he was sorry he had asked. Especially when she smiled at him a moment later, a hint of sadness in her eyes. “She would do the same for me.”

“Of course. I didn’t mean...” What had he meant? “It’s really none of my business.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I’m okay with being here, and with helping her.”

“Do you think that as long as you’re here...”

He didn’t know what to say. They were standing in front of the massive wooden doors that led to the church. She had a slightly red nose from the cool morning air and her lips were tinted with pink gloss. As long as she was there, she could be a friend. That wasn’t what he’d planned to say but the thought framed itself as a question in his mind.

She was studying his face, waiting for him to finish.

“Maybe you could help me with this wedding?” He asked the question that had originally been on his mind.