Page 70 of Hometown Cowboy
“Nervous?”
Her mother’s voice sounded from behind her where she was helping with the buttons on the back of her dress.
“Surprisingly, no. Just excited.” She frowned. “That is, unless he doesn’t show. You don’t know something you’re not telling me, do you?”
Worry tried to slip into her happy glow.
Laughter smattered around the room.
Mary looked at Darby in the mirror and clucked at her. “Do you really think any of your brothers would let that happen? Even if he was nervous or even spooked?”
“Yeah,” Amy piped up. “Considering they are all his groomsmen, I think he’d have to be dead not to show up. They’d probably make him even then!”
“Great. Zombie bridegroom,” Darby muttered.
A low-soundingding, then Emma leaned over, holding up her phone.
“See? Nothing to worry about.”
Darby looked at the screen. She couldn’t help the smile that widened her mouth. Ryan, pointing at something out of sight of the lens, her brothers bar Gabe standing near him, all looking attentively at whatever it was he pointed at.
They were downstairs. The chairs in their neat rows with their simple but elegant slip covers sparkled in the bright sunshine, the big peach-coloured bows hanging from the back of each.
But her attention kept focusing on the immaculately dressed man with the untameable soft, blond curls.
She almost couldn’t breathe at the sight of him.
The screen suddenly went dark, Emma’s finger on the side button. “That’s enough of that.”
“Hey!”
Emma grinned unrepentantly. “No cheating. You have to wait to go down to drool over him. You’ll ruin your lipstick.”
Darby frowned and pouted. “Then why show me at all?”
Emma set her phone on the lamp table beside her chair. “So you wouldn’t freak out over nothing. Now you know he’s here, you can relax.”
“Fine,” she mumbled, the smile popping back again. “He does look rather delicious, though. Don’t you think?”
Groans smattered the air. The door opened. Darby looked over her shoulder to see her father standing there, resplendent in his grey suit. He held his hand out toward her.
“Showtime, pumpkin.”
*
Ryan rubbed hisbelly and stared out at the lake beyond the fancy gazebo that graced the wide dock. Transient ripples peaked and troughed across the water with the light breeze.
Slight pressure against his shoulder alerted him to Gabe’s presence. “Everyone’s seated. We should take our places. They won’t be long now.”
Abject terror flooded him. “What if she changes her mind? What if she doesn’t…”
What if she doesn’t come?He couldn’t even say it out loud.
Gabe forced him to look at him. “Stop it. Don’t go there. She’s here. You know that. Em told you, remember? She’s right through that door. She’s not Britney.”
Ryan sucked in a much-needed breath and nodded. His head knew that, but convincing his heart and the rest of him was taking some doing. He knew if she ran, he wouldn’t get through it. It would do him in, for sure.
He grabbed his top hat from Gabe and nervously straightened his suit jacket, the tails feeling odd as he tugged at the material.