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“Everyone can enjoy the party,” Brenna assured the boys. Well, everyone but Clayton.
“Thanks to all your hard work planning the reception,” Josh said with an appreciative grin. “I’m glad it wasn’t cancelled.”
Like his wedding. How did he feel about that being cancelled? Brenna didn’t know him well enough to gauge his mood. He didn’t seem angry or even all that hurt. Had having to raise his kids alone, after the devastation of his wife’s leaving him, made him an expert at guarding his emotions?
“We want to party, Daddy!” TJ shouted, bored with the adult conversation.
“Party, party!” Buzz echoed.
Josh straightened up, and then stared them down as if a stern look could enforce good behavior. They just grinned at him. As well as missing most of his hair, Buzz was minus a couple of front teeth. Doubting he was old enough for his teeth to have fallen out naturally, Brenna could only imagine the story that accompanied that loss.
“Daddy, we want punch!” TJ shouted.
“Punch, punch!” Buzz echoed.
Brenna smothered a laugh. “I can get them a glass.”
“No, hey, let Nick,” Josh offered as the best man joined them.
“Let Nick what?” Dr. Jameson asked, his green eyes narrowing. “What else are you going to try talking me into?”
“Getting the boys some punch.”
Nick shook his head. “Josh…”
“Hey, five minutes is better than two weeks.” Josh turned to Brenna, including her in the conversation with an explanation she would rather not have had. “Nick was supposed to watch the boys while Molly and I were on our honeymoon.”
Honeymoon. Her stomach lurched at the thought of Molly and Josh on their honeymoon. Making love. Her best friend and the man she…Nothing. She could feel nothing for Dr. Joshua Towers.
“Punch, punch, Uncle Nick,” Buzz demanded as he latched on to the handsome doctor’s leg.
“We need to talk,” Nick murmured to Josh as he let the twins drag him away.
“Don’t drink too much and spoil your appetites,” Brenna called after the boys. “We’ll be eating soon.” Alone with Josh, in spite of the crowded hall, her nerves jangled. “I should really go and see if my folks and Mrs. George need any help with the food.”
Before she could slip away, Josh caught her hand and squeezed her fingers. “I never really thanked you for all that you’ve done.”
Her lips parted, a nervous breath escaping. Damn. She ran a business, for crying out loud. She’d run this wedding before it had all fallen apart. It would take more than blue eyes and a killer grin to addle her brain and make her forget her loyalty to a friend.
“I didn’t mind. Molly is my best friend,” she reminded him—and herself. Not only had Molly been her friend since kindergarten, she’d been her college roommate when they’d both left Cloverville for the first time. If not for Molly, Brenna probably would have been too homesick to stick out college for her bachelor’s degree, let alone for an MBA.
She sighed. “I just wish things had turned out differently.”
Dr. and Mrs. Towers. The announcement echoed in her mind, reminding her that for a brief moment he’d belonged to her and not Molly. But the DJ had been wrong, and so was she. She couldn’t betray her friendship with Molly—not even for a man such as Josh.
“Now that I think about it,” Josh mused, his eyes twinkling, “isn’t a maid of honor like a second? If the bride can’t honor her commitment, her maid of honor has to step in?”
“You’re confusing a wedding with a duel,” she retorted. “No wonder Molly went out the window.”
Josh laughed, amused more by the expression on her beautiful face, the mock horror widening her green eyes, than by her accusation. “You forget that I’ve been married already. From experience, I can assure you that it’s pretty easy to confuse a duel and a marriage.”
Amy had picked endless fights in order to get what she wanted. And in the end that hadn’t included her children or her husband. She’d wanted her freedom more.
“I’m sorry,” Brenna said again, her eyes tender with sympathy over the thought of the boys’ mother abandoning them. “Molly told me that your wife left when the twins were babies.”
He shrugged off the memories of frustration and fear—could he manage alone? “It was a good thing, really, that she left when they were so young. They don’t remember her, so they can’t miss her.”
“I’m sorry,” she said again.
“It’s my fault,” Josh volunteered. “She was young, and I should have realized she was too young to become a wife and mother. My long hours at the hospital, having twins—it was too much for her. I can’t blame her for being overwhelmed.”
“That’s no excuse for leaving her husband and children.” Brenna’s voice hardened with indignation as she proclaimed, even though she’d never met his ex-wife, “She’s clearly a fool.”
He grinned at the remark. “Maybe you should have been my best man.”
Her face softened as she returned his smile. “Why?”
“Nick called me the fool.”
“Some friend,” she scoffed.
“My thoughts exactly.” But Josh knew that Nick was a good friend. His best friend. As well as always being honest with him, more often than not the bastard was also right. He’d thought Josh crazy for rushing into his relationships with Amy and Molly. Josh should have listened to him both times. He had to stop rushing into things. He had to fight this attraction to Brenna.
THE GROOM STOOD ALONE atop the five-tier wedding cake, which was bedecked with red and white frosting flowers. In his plastic tux and with his painted-on smile, he looked quite happy. Certainly not like a man who’d been left at the altar. But as with Josh, this groom’s bride also was missing.
A big hand slapped Josh’s shoulder, causing him to stumble forward. Grabbing the edge of the table, he caught himself from falling headfirst into frosting. The tiers jiggled, and the lone groom wobbled on the top. But he didn’t fall down.
“Sorry, boy, so sorry,” offered Emmet “Pop” Kelly, his strong fingers grasping Josh’s shoulder.
Mr. Kelly was a mammoth man with burly arms and a bulging belly that started just below his neck. Despite the lines of age on his face, his hair was still black—all but for one shock of white that fell across his brow. “Mr. Kelly…”
“Pop. I told you everyone calls me Pop.”
“Pop…”
“Damn shame, boy, about the bride. I can’t figure out what happened to her. She was just gone.”
“She left a note,” Josh explained. “She needs some time to think…”
“No, not your bride. His.” He pointed toward the plastic groom. “I swear she was on the cake when it left the bakery. I loaded it into the truck myself. Well, that nice kid helped me—Harold’s nephew.”
A headache pounded at Josh’s temple. While he’d fallen for the whole town of Cloverville the minute he’d set foot into it, he would need to live there a while before he’d be able to catch up on who was related to whom and who lived where and what used to be located in some spot before weather, age or redevelopment had brought it down. Hell, he might never catch up. Even so, the first time he’d come to Cloverville, he’d realized that it would be the perfect place to raise his boys, and that had been before he’d met Brenna Kelly.
His eyes narrowed as he glanced again at the lonely plastic groom. Could they have…Spying small fingerprints in the frosting on the bottom tier, he asked, “Have you seen Buzz and TJ?”
The older man laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “The boys have been having a great time.”
At least someone was, then. Josh had barely been able to eat for all the townspeople staring at him and casting him sympathetic glances. Mrs. McClintock turning the event into a welcome-home party for Abby and Lara had taken some of the attention away from him. Before he’d met them, Molly had filled him in on all her friends. Eight years earlier Abby had left Cloverville in disgrace, but apparently the town had forgiven her her transgressions because now they genuinely welcomed her back. Well, everyone but Clayton.
And the town had welcomed Josh and his boys, as well. Even though Molly had backed out of marrying him, Josh couldn’t back out of moving there. He’d been right to believe this town was the perfect place to raise his boys.
“When did you see them last? And where?” he asked Pop. “They weren’t heading to the bathroom?” With a little plastic bride. He patted the pockets of his tux and breathed a sigh of relief. At least they didn’t have his cell phone. Or his pager. Or his wallet. But, man, if that bride had a train on her plastic dress, they could clog the whole plumbing system of the American Legion Hall.
Dark paneling showed through the thin coat of white paint on the walls, and underfoot the linoleum was worn and cracked with age. His ex-wife would have hated this place. He’d had to book a swanky hotel in Grand Rapids for their small wedding. But with white and red lights and balloons, Brenna had transformed the dark hall, the only place in town for a reception, so that it was as enchanting as…she was.
As the older man rambled on, Josh scanned the hall. He should have been searching for his mischievous boys, but instead his gaze locked on Brenna. In her red satin gown, with her hair flowing around her shoulders and her pale skin shimmering with the glow from the fairy lights, she looked like a princess. Not like one from the old fables, which Buzz and TJ had grown bored with long ago, but one from the hormone-fuelled dreams of a teenage boy. Something about Brenna Kelly brought Josh back to that time before med school, before marriage, before kids, when life had been simpler—when his breath had caught and his pulse had raced at the mere sight of a pretty girl.
Brenna turned, and across the hall, their gazes met. Her lips, nearly as red as her gown, lifted in a smile. And Josh’s breath caught. And his pulse raced.
“Son?”
“Yeah,” Josh, distracted, responded to the older man.
“So it’s settled then.” The old man clapped his meaty hands together. “I’ll tell Mama. She’ll be thrilled.”
“Huh?” Josh pulled his attention away from the daughter to concentrate on her father. “What?”
“Mama was already fretting that she didn’t have enough time with the boys,” Pop elaborated. “They bring so much energy and life to the old house.”
“I’m sorry.” Josh shook his head. “I don’t understand…”
“Well, if Molly just needs time, you’ll want to wait for her. She’s a smart girl, nose always in a book. She’ll figure things out quickly,” Pop said.
Josh knew Molly had already figured out one thing—that she didn’t want him. When she turned up again, he doubted it would be to marry him. “Mr…. Pop…”
“Despite all the development on the east side of town, Cloverville still doesn’t have a hotel or motel. So you’ll stay with us,” the older man concluded.
Spend more time in close proximity to Brenna Kelly? He couldn’t. He shook his head. “You’re generous to open up your home to me and my sons, but I can’t impose,” he insisted. “You’ve already done too much.”
Pop’s meaty hand smacked Josh’s shoulder. “Nonsense. The house is too big for just us and Brenna.”
Josh couldn’t argue with him. The old Victorian house, with its turret and wide wraparound porch, was huge, but the Kellys had done their best to fill it to the rafters with antiques. Breakables had been his first thought when he’d seen their home initially the day before. The boys had thought it a gingerbread house, with its bright yellow siding and teal-and-purple trim. He’d had to watch them to make sure they didn’t try to break off a corner in order to taste it.
“Your house is beautiful,” Josh complimented the older man, “and full of lovely treasures. I adore my boys, but they’re not very careful with fragile things. I’d hate it if they broke one of your collectibles. Really, we’re better off going back to Grand Rapids for the moment.”
And he’d be better off away from Brenna and temptation.
Pop laughed. “That junk? Mama and I inherited most of it from our families. We don’t have much left now.”
“Family?” Josh asked.
The old man nodded, his eyes glistening.
“You have all those keepsakes to remember them by.” Josh offered comfort, he hoped, to his new friend. “And that’s all the more reason not to trust my boys around your heirlooms.”
“You don’t remember people with stuff,” Pop scoffed. “You remember them with your mind. So don’t worry about our junk. Your boys can’t hurt a thing.”
Josh’s cell phone company sure hadn’t agreed with that. Neither had any of the twins’ nannies. Stumped for another excuse, he said, “If you’re sure you have room…”
Despite the size of the house, there were only three bedrooms. He’d spent the night on a foldout bed in the parlor.
“Even with all our belongings, there’s plenty of room. Mama and I are usually rattling around all alone in the house since Brenna’s either at the bakery or traveling for the business,” her father explained. “She came home from college just bursting with ideas to expand the bakery. She built onto the back of the building and hired a slew of people. So Mama and I stay in the kitchen now and let her manage the rest. She’s got Kelly Confections in nearly every grocery store in the country now. That girl thrives on being in charge.”
“Does she know that you’ve made this offer?”
Pop sighed. “No, so she’ll probably be upset.”
Josh turned toward her again, but she wasn’t standing where she’d been on the other side of the room anymore. Although he scanned the crowd carefully, he couldn’t spot her. “I don’t want to upset Brenna.” That was the last thing he wanted to do, after everything she’d done for him.
“You won’t. I have.” Her dad laughed. “She’ll be mad that I beat her to the offer. She’ll love having you and the boys stay with us.”
“We won’t stay long,” he assured the other man—and himself. Even though Molly hadn’t become his wife, she was a friend and he’d like to make sure she was all right.
“You’re staying?” a throaty feminine voice asked.
He’d lost sight of Brenna Kelly because she’d come up behind him. He turned toward her and nodded. “Your father invited me, Buzz and TJ to stay with you.”
“Pop?” she questioned, her eyes widening as she stared at her dad.
Her father ignored her question and asked, “Honey, did Mama fetch my knife yet?”
Josh’s stomach tightened. “Knife?” Maybe the old man had noticed him ogling his daughter.
“To cut the cake, boy,” Pop explained, with another smack on Josh’s back. “I better see what’s keeping that woman,” he grumbled as he walked off. “She’s probably fixing her hair, as if she could get any prettier…”
Her daughter certainly couldn’t. Josh dragged in a deep breath, bracing himself for more time spent with Brenna. He’d been crazy to accept her father’s invitation. He couldn’t stay with her—and not fall for her.
Chapter Three
Left alone with her houseguest, Brenna could only stare up at the jilted groom. The one on the cake. She couldn’t look at Josh and manage to think. “Pop’s really upset about the bride.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Mama wanted the bakery to carry the one-piece groom-and-bride cake toppers, but Pop insisted they be individual so that we can mix and match, you know,” she rambled uncharacteristically, at the mercy of her nerves. “Brunette to brunette or brunette to blonde…”
“Or brunette to redhead,” Josh teased.
Heat rushed to Brenna’s face as his flirty tone flustered her. “Yeah, well, we don’t carry that many redheads. Not much demand.”
“Then I guess I’m not the only fool.”
“What?” she asked, totally confused by the comment and the twinkle in his striking blue eyes.
“I can’t understand there not being a great demand for redheads.” He grinned.
“Pop blames it on our notorious temper, you know.” While she didn’t have much of a temper, she’d rather blame the lack of demand for her on that than on her weight. She wasn’t about to starve herself into a size six, or she would have a hair-trigger temper and an ornery disposition. She knew from experience.
In her teens, during the rage of crash diets, she’d nearly lost her friends instead of losing any weight. But they’d remained loyal and supportive, no matter how bitchy she’d been. She had to be loyal and supportive, too—especially of Molly.
