Kidnapping His Bride

“Oh, I think Clay will probably do some hell-raising when he gets here,” Griff told him affably, as though he wasn’t worried a bit.

Casey let out a loud chuckle. “Ain’t that the truth, you taking his bride and all. Okay, what all you having?”

“Two burgers with everything and home fries. Also, two ice teas, sweet,” Griff said.

Casey scribbled down the order and set off. As soon as he rounded the corner out of sight, Tessa heard him chuckle again. Since the doctor seldom reacted outright to anything, she wondered what his doing so now meant.

It didn’t matter; she had more important things to deal with right now. She pointed toward the kitchen. “You’re eating every bite you ordered,” she told Griff. “I’m not going to cancel the wedding because I burst out of my gown.”

“No, you’ll cancel it because you don’t really want to marry Clay.”

“Who said I don’t?” She watched Griff’s blue eyes narrow, but then she thought of something and looked back to the doorway through which the older man had disappeared. “You know, Doc Casey has e-mail, and he seemed uncommonly glad to see you.”

“Whoever wanted me down here to stop the wedding would have had to know what my e-mail address was. I never gave it to Doc Casey.”

“Well, who did you give it to?”

He shrugged. “My parents, Clay, Sadie—”

“Shoot, if you gave it to Gran, the whole town could have it.” Suddenly Tessa sat up straight and frowned. “My grandmother never told me she was staying in touch with you.”

“She didn’t stay in touch with me, apart from an electronic Christmas card or two. I just wanted her to have my address in case she ever needed me.” Or if you did, Griff added silently.

Relieved that her grandmother was not reporting her every move to Griffin Ledoux, Tessa found her thoughts wandering to the enticing way the muscles in his shoulders had moved when he’d shrugged seconds ago. And that made her think more unwanted thoughts, like how good it had felt to be held by him ten years ago, when her dreams centered around having the perfect family with Griff, someday, when they were both ready—but there was no sense thinking about that. It was too late, too much had happened.

Someone came through the front door, making the bells on it jingle. The arrival reminded her that, at any minute, she and Griff could be joined by Clay and a whole bunch of her friends, and her grandmother Sadie. They would part without anything resolved between them, and there would still be someone out there, this mysterious e-mailer, who had already known, or guessed, too much about her life, and was maybe itching to tell Griff more.

“Okay,” she said, “let’s get this conversation wrapped up. I need to call Clay so he can bring me back to the wedding.”

Griff leaned back in his chair and met her stare for stare. “Since you aren’t in love with him, why exactly are you marrying Clay?”

“That’s none of your business.” Tessa’s heart picked up its rhythm, and she took a deep breath to try to keep calm. “We aren’t that close that I would tell you my secrets.” They could never be that close again, she thought sadly. “I never cross-examined you about your marriage to Janie, did I?”

“My life’s an open book,” Griff said. Tessa couldn’t believe he was as nonchalant as he sounded. “What do you want to know?”

“Nothing!” That was true. She didn’t want to know the personal, intimate details of any facet of Griff’s life, or risk an emotional involvement with him ever again. She’d learned her lesson the first time. Besides, it would ruin everything. She had to remain determined to do what was right.

“I caused my ex a great deal of heartache by marrying her for the wrong reasons, and that’s why I’m trying so hard to get you to walk away today. I don’t want the same thing to happen to you and my brother.”

“You keep saying that. How do you know I would bring Clay heartache? You’ve been living elsewhere almost ten years, Griff. The Air Force Academy, then all that military service. None of us are the same people as when you left. Maybe marrying me would make your brother happy. Did you ever consider that?”

“Is that why you’re marrying him? He’s fallen in love with you, and you think one of you being in love is enough to hold you together? Because it isn’t. I know this from experience. It won’t give you your dream of a loving husband and a family forever after, Tessa.”

“I’m not discussing this with you.”

“Fine. Call Clay. He’ll tell me what I want to know.”

No, Tessa thought, Clay wouldn’t tell him. Clay, like she, would do anything to keep their secret, as would the only other person who knew—Sadie, her grandmother. Which made her wonder how this mysterious e-mailer could have possibly found out what he had, and what else whoever it was might know that he could tell Griff.

She couldn’t chance Griff finding out anything else about her marriage to his brother. She had to get him to leave town.

But how? Sitting back in her chair, Tessa lifted her gaze to meet Griff’s. If she pushed him too much to leave, would he begin to suspect there was something else behind her not wanting him there? Something that could change his life—and others’—forever?

Chapter Two

Before Tessa could decide what to tell Griff, the small cowbells on the front door jingled again and seconds later, two elderly men in overalls came into the section where she and Griff were, greeted the third man already there and sat down with him at a long table near the front of the room, all facing her. Tessa frowned. Doc Casey came in with her and Griff’s ice teas, then stopped at the other table to take orders, wearing a totally unfamiliar grin on his face. As Doc Casey turned to head back into the kitchen, the bells clanged again, and another elderly patron moseyed in to join the other three.

“Just my luck,” she muttered. “The bakery’s mid-morning coffee club showing up in the afternoon to see the town’s favorite deputy sheriff’s intended bride meeting with his brother. By the time they’re done building this story up, everyone’s going to think I’ll make Clay a terrible wife.”

“They’d be right, but for the wrong reasons.”

Her irritability level rose another notch, like mercury in a thermometer. She leaned in close to him and whispered, “You’re wrong. Unlike you, who had to prove the only way you could be content is to be totally free, your brother liked being married.” He’d loved his deceased wife Lindy tremendously. The whole town knew that. “Clay and I both want the same thing—to stay in Claiborne Landing among family and friends—which is why we will be compatible. That compatibility will bring us happiness.”

Griff didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to. His eyes did his talking for him, and suddenly, Tessa realized how close the two of them were, almost face-to-face, mouth to mouth. She could feel his warm breath against her cheek. Without knowing how it happened, she found herself wanting, desperately, to kiss him.

Her emotions were doing her thinking again, that’s how it had happened. She backed up abruptly. “Just how long are you going to be in town, anyway?”

“Long enough to figure out who made the effort to get me here.”

“Why would that matter?”

“Somebody besides me thought you two getting married was not a great idea. I’m kind of thinking it might be good to stick around long enough to find out who and the why behind it. Stock up ammunition.”

“It’s a wedding, Griff, not a war.”

“Divorce is a war, and I figure that’s where you two will eventually wind up if you don’t think this through all the way.”

Tessa groaned. She was going to have to get Griff out of town, and the sooner, the better. To not do so could only lead to disaster.

“I’m going to call Clay.” She rose and turned as Doc Casey rounded the corner again, this time carrying catsup and mustard bottles to the other table. Then she remembered Sadie had her purse, and she would need a quarter for the pay phone. Rather than ask Griff for anything, she walked up to Doc Casey to ask him to let her use the phone in the back, just in time to catch his last words, “Don’t worry, boys. Things’ll pick up right soon now.”

“Looks like you’re having a sudden surge of business, Doc.” She frowned with disapproval. “Could it be the entertainment?”

Doc Casey’s eyes twinkled. “Naw. There hasn’t really been any.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“But there’s fixin’ to be,” he added gleefully. “Clay just arrived.”

“You called him?”

“Have to stir up the pot for the audience,” he said, without one lick of guilt whatsoever coming from him.

Sure enough, the now grating jangle of the bells announced Clay’s entrance through the front door. He saw Tessa and came to the doorway between the dining rooms, where he stopped and stared from her to his brother with a look that asked them both, What now?

Her heart went out to him. Clay had had enough to deal with being a deputy sheriff and a single father to a six-year-old for the past year after his wife Lindy’s death from cancer; he didn’t need to be in the middle of an argument between his only brother and his soon-to-be second wife, and definitely not in front of the biggest gossips in town.

“Doc, sometimes you go too far,” Tessa said, indicating the elderly men with a nod of her head.

“C’mon, Miss Tessa, don’t spit bullets over this. Deputy sheriff’s fiancée gets carried off from the wedding by his own brother and ends up here? Biggest thing to happen around Claiborne Landing in ages. Usually Athens sees all the action. If this had been happening at your grandma’s doughnut shop, she would have called in her favorite customers, too. Have to be loco not to.” Doc Casey lumbered over to the other table and left her to deal with Clay.

“Tessa, what is going on?” he asked quietly, his face now unreadable.

“Your brother kidnapped her, deputy!” the old man next to Tessa said. “Picked her up, plopped her over his shoulder and carried her right out of the church.” He slapped his knee with his Casey’s Kitchen cap. “Wish I’d a been there.”

Tessa glanced at Griff, who was frowning at both of them. She frowned right back. If he’d only been ten minutes later, she’d be married to Clay and wouldn’t be in this predicament. Speaking of happiness, well, to say the least, she’d been happier. A lot happier.

Like when she’d been in Griff’s arms. She hushed that thought away and turned her attention back to Clay, the one she couldn’t let get away, the same second as Doc Casey reappeared with a tray, headed for Griff. With this anonymous e-mailer loose, she didn’t want to let anyone alone with Griff for long, so she grabbed Clay’s sleeve and led him well away from the table with the elderly customers, to an empty area where she could talk softly to him without being overheard and still keep her eyes on Griff. Even across the room she could feel his eyes on her. Warmth drifted up through her body like the smoke before a fire.

“We’ve got to get Griff out of here. Someone sent him an e-mail telling him we aren’t in love.”

“So he came and kidnapped you from the wedding.” Clay ran his splayed fingers through his wavy black hair, looking, Tessa thought, as disconcerted as he had after his wife’s death over a year before, only without the pain this time. “Who would send him news like that?”

“I don’t know,” Tessa said grimly. Noting with relief that Casey didn’t say a word to Griff as he delivered their food, she gestured for Clay to lean down. “What I’m worried about is,” she whispered, “what if this person somehow has found out the truth behind our engagement, gets Griff aside while he’s here and tells him. We can’t let that happen.”

Clay agreed. “I’ll stick to him like glue for the rest of the day, but after that, since I’m not getting married today, I’ll probably need to go back to work.”

“After that,” Tessa said, “it’s my turn anyway. What we need is a way to make him leave. If he does, maybe the e-mailer will think Griff doesn’t care about our getting married and leave him alone.”

Clay gazed down at her for a long minute. “I think I might have an idea, but let me think about it. I’ll let you know. You sure his leaving is what you want?”

“I swear,” Tessa said. “Where Griff is concerned, I’m ice.” She’d have to be. Everyone in town knew that she’d been in love with Griff Ledoux when she’d been younger, even while he was in the Academy. It hadn’t been easy to convince them all that she’d fallen for Clay. But the people in the town were family, and she cared what they thought of her, so she had. She wasn’t about to gamble with her future now by showing that she had any feelings at all left for Griff.

Even though she did. Just physical, she assured herself, but even that was more than she wanted to deal with.

“What about the wedding?” she asked.

“It’s off for now. The pastor had another one in Ruston to get to. I told everyone we’d be in touch. I think they headed over to your grandma’s for the free food.”

“Let’s hope that’s where they went,” Tessa said, staring grimly at the small crowd in the diner watching them. “We sure don’t need any more help here.”

Across the room, Griff worked on the burger Doc Casey had brought right before Tessa started whispering in Clay’s ear, which had made Griff tense up inside something awful for some reason. His brother said a few words, then Tessa looked at Clay with those jewel-blue eyes of hers, and her hand briefly brushed Clay’s sleeve. Griff felt a sudden flush of heat as though it were he whom she was touching. He quickly pushed down the surge of jealousy that followed, fully aware he had no right to that feeling.

The two of them began to walk over, and he quickly reminded himself that his intentions were very honorable. He was only there for one reason—to make sure they weren’t fixing to do something they would regret, leading to a bad marriage. As soon as he was sure, then he’d be gone, since he had no right in Tessa’s life. He knew full well he wasn’t the settling kind. No use fooling himself about that. It was just too bad that seeing Tessa again had been an uncomfortable reminder of what he had missed out on.

“Kidnapping, Griff?” Clay asked, making no attempt to keep his voice down. “If this is a joke, it’s not very funny.”

Griff could say the same thing about his brother marrying Tessa, knowing how close Griff and she had been at one time, but he didn’t. It wasn’t the place. Besides, he was here to convince Clay to call off the wedding, not to end up in a brawling heap with his own brother.

Turned out he didn’t have to say anything in reply. One of the old men from the other side of the room slapped his thigh and called out, “Not funny? It’s pretty darn amusing to us, Deputy!”

“Better than the Two Worlds Collide soap opera,” the grizzled man next to him, Jasper Tremaine, agreed, grinning. “Where’s your sense of humor, Clay?”

“Must have left it behind at the altar,” Clay said.

Jasper chortled. “Yeah, marriage has a way of turning a man grim, that it does. But that usually don’t happen until after the nuptials and the honeymoon.”

“Yeah, well, most people don’t have a brother like Griff, either,” Clay said amiably enough, but Griff could feel the tension behind his words.

The strain wasn’t evident to the other side of the room, though—they were all laughing. Bemused, Clay shook his head as he sat down next to Griff, taking the seat Tessa had formerly vacated. “Now I remember why we didn’t invite that bunch to the wedding.”

Tessa shook her head as she slipped into a chair opposite them, her back to the elderly onlookers. “We didn’t invite anyone but your parents and Sadie. She was the one with the stamps.”

“I take it Tessa told you about my e-mailed invitation?” Griff asked Clay. When his brother nodded, Griff suggested, “Maybe Sadie sent it.”

Tessa’s gaze flew to him. “I don’t think so. Anonymous isn’t really my grandmother’s style.”

An uncomfortable silence fell over the table and, at last, Clay asked the question Griff had been expecting. “So why did you steal Tessa away?”

“I haven’t done that yet,” Griff replied, his eyes penetratingly intense. “Have I, Tessa?”

“Of course not,” she protested, bracing both hands on the table and taking a long breath. “And neither are you going to. Clay and I are still going to be married.”

“So why aren’t you two already driving back to the church?” Griff said, picking up his burger.

“The wedding has been temporarily postponed,” Tessa told him. “The pastor had another engagement.”

“Good.” Griff barely kept himself from grinning.

Clay’s already grim expression deepened even more. “Yeah, well, since you’re so pleased about it, and it’s all your fault anyway, we’ll let you be the one to explain everything to Sadie. She’s already madder than a wet hen. Make sure, little brother, that you take all the blame.”

“Guilty,” Griff agreed. “I’m surprised she isn’t here with you.”

Clay began to loosen his tie as he spoke. “I took off right after I told everyone the news to avoid Sadie’s questioning me. I doubt she’ll look for us here.” He indicated the second plate that was in front of him. “You want that?” he asked Tessa.

She shook her head. “You can eat Griff’s food after what he’s done to our wedding?”

“The way I figure it, he owes me a meal after the worry he caused me. I thought you’d changed your mind, Tessa.”

“Never!”

Her reply came so swiftly, Griff’s eyebrows rose in question. She lifted her chin. “One broken engagement in a lifetime was enough.”

And they all knew what that referred to. As she and Griff did battle with their eyes, Tessa was wondering if there wasn’t something to what he’d said earlier about war. Oh, no, he’d meant with divorce. The two of them weren’t even close, let alone married. It beat her why she would have purposely struck out at him with words, wanting to get a reaction out of him.

“Yeah, well…” Clay removed his tie and placed it on the table in a heap, as Griff continued to watch Tessa. “It’s really too crowded to talk privately here, and the food’s served. No sense wasting it.”

“No sense,” Tessa echoed, feeling stunned. Griff broke eye contact and ate another fry. Men! How could they be so peaceable about the whole thing? Her insides felt topsy-turvy, and her emotions were in an uproar with Griff so near.

Making a decision, Tessa rose. “Griff, I’m sure Clay can straighten you out a lot better than I ever could. He’s had years more practice.” She didn’t have anything more she wanted to say to Griff, anyway. She’d said it all years before, when she’d broken it off with him. “I’m thinking that you’ll reconsider and be leaving town just as soon as you have a chance to talk to Clay privately, so goodbye, and take care of yourself.”

Griff rose swiftly and came around the table to take hold of her arm. Tessa didn’t wish to be reminded of how warm his hands could be on her body, or how gently he could caress her skin, but she could feel his heat through the satin as his thumb stroked her forearm, and was powerless to break away, even with Clay and everyone else there, witnessing everything. They silently looked at each other, neither moving, until a voice sliced through whatever it was holding them together.

“You get your hand off my granddaughter, Griffin Ledoux. She’s been spoken for.” Like a bolt of lightning, seventy-year-old Sadie Newsom herself appeared in the space between the rooms, still decked out with the pink rose corsage, burgundy silk dress and matching hat she’d worn to the wedding.

Griff dropped his hands to his side. “Yes, ma’am.” Almost immediately, Tessa felt her cheeks flush. Now she’d done it. The only thing she could think of to do was to play innocent.

“Grandma, I’m glad you’re here. I need a ride home.”

The cowbells started ringing steadily as Sadie was swiftly joined by two other ladies around Sadie’s age, her closest friends, sisters Claudette and Reba, and by an assortment of ten or so other guests, all in their Sunday best, and all looking rather perturbed. Tessa couldn’t blame them. She was feeling that way herself.

“Not so fast, Tessa.” Peeling off one of her white gloves, Sadie marched right up to the three of them. “You put that tie right back on and get out of that chair, Clay.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Clay agreed and rose to his feet out of respect for Sadie, but made no move toward his tie. “Why?”

“Because we’re all fixin’ to return to that church and wait for Brother Jonas to finish over in Ruston. I got to him before he left, and he said he could be back at the church after five. Are you three ready to go?”

“Yes,” Tessa said, hoping the problem of Griff would go away if she were married.

“No,’ Griff and Clay said simultaneously.

Tessa’s mouth fell open. Griff would say no, but Clay? “Why not?” she asked him.

“Yes, why not?” Sadie repeated, her mouth pursing.

“My brother and I have something to discuss, and besides, quite a few of our guests have probably gone home.” He gave Sadie a smile of genuine fondness. “Since I know you want the wedding to be a memory you’ll cherish forever, let’s reschedule so the church is filled.”

“Is that what this wedding is going to be, Tessa?” she heard Griff ask, his voice low. “A wedding you’ll cherish forever?”

To a man she didn’t love. With Griff’s eyes on her, never wavering, Tessa felt the room grow close.

Sadie was not fooled. “You want to postpone your wedding so you can discuss something with your brother?” Sadie gazed at them all, one by one, her eyes lingering on Griff and then coming back to Tessa. A lightbulb seemed to click on, and Sadie nodded. “I guess you’re right, Clay. No sense in rushing these things.”

“It’s not what you’re thinking, Grandma,” Tessa hastened to say. Sadie turned to her.

“Then what is it? What on earth pulled you away from your own wedding which I waited your lifetime for?”

“She wasn’t pulled, Sadie,” one of the elderly men informed her gleefully from behind them. “She was carried! Kidnapped right out of the church! When Doc Casey called, he said Griff had slung her over his shoulder like a sack of meal.”

Tessa groaned.

Sadie moaned.

The elderly ladies tittered.

Sadie’s eyes focused on Griff, blinked, then focused again. “Good grief. Is that how your mother raised you? No, I know the answer to that. That is not how your mother raised you.”

“I’ll say,” Clay interjected.

The side of Griff’s mouth turned downward, and Tessa realized she was in trouble. Sure enough, he had something to say.

“I guess your grandmother wasn’t the one who emailed me to come and stop the nuptials, huh?”

In reflection, Tessa thought, maybe she should have told Griff to take her into the woods to talk and let him drive until he ran out of gas somewhere. They would both have been a lot better off.

“Stop the nuptials?” Sadie asked, looking from Tessa back to Griff in bewilderment. “Why on earth would I want to do that?” She slapped him with her glove. “Or anyone else, for that matter?”

Griff looked as if he was going to laugh, and that would have been the end of him as far as Sadie was concerned—she demanded respect from anyone under forty, and quite a few over, too. Even though Tessa was annoyed with Griff and wouldn’t have minded seeing Sadie unleash her irritation on him with Griff powerless to stop her, Tessa took her grandmother’s arm.

“I have no idea why anyone would want to stop my wedding, Grandma,” Tessa told her. “But you don’t have to challenge Griff to a duel over it. I’ll forgive him—someday—and Clay’s going to talk to him. Let’s go home, and we can talk about rescheduling this wedding for a later date.”

“Later? How much later?”

With all the eyes staring at them, Tessa did not want to pursue this subject. “We can talk at home,” she told her.

“Yes, let’s. Clayton, Griffin, we’ll get this ironed out there, and everyone—” she turned to the crowd, most of whom were now displaced wedding guests, and gave a regal sweep of her arm “—I’ll let you know the rescheduled date as soon as possible.”