Forever His Bride (10 page)

Brenna had been there with Molly through most everything but medical school. She knew how hard Molly had pushed herself. Her anger drained away, and she sighed. “You’re right. She deserves to take some time to herself for once.”

“Yes,” Abby agreed.

“So what are you doing today?” Brenna asked. She hoped that Abby was moving home and opening an office of her clever Temps to Go employment agency in Cloverville. But she didn’t ask. She suspected Mary McClintock was already putting enough pressure on Abby, and she didn’t want to add any more.

“I’m giving Lara a behind-the-scenes look at a bakery.” Abby smiled, her eyes shining with love as they always did when she thought of her daughter.

Brenna stood up and peered around Abby’s frame, looking for the shy, little girl. “Where is she?”

“Your parents stole her from me the minute I walked through the door.”

Brenna laughed and warned her friend, “You may not get her back. They’ve pretty much stolen the twins from Josh.”

“I thought I heard them,” Abby said. Even now back in the wing of offices, peals of laughter could be heard all the way from the kitchen. “Lots of sugar might not be the best idea for them.”

“They’re good boys,” Brenna insisted. “They’ve been through a lot.”

Abby nodded. “I know.” She adjusted her eyes again, as if scrutinizing Brenna. “Josh still staying with your family?”

Brenna nodded. “He’s waiting for Molly to come back.” Despite what he claimed.

“
Poor
Molly,” Abby said with a smile. “Men always fall for her.”

No one knew that better than Brenna. But she couldn’t blame Molly for being Molly. She couldn’t blame Molly for anything—Brenna was the one who had betrayed their friendship. Until Molly told her personally that she had no more interest in Josh, Brenna had no business kissing him.

Heck, even if Molly didn’t want him, Brenna didn’t either. She glanced down at her desk, to where a corner of the glossy magazine peeked out beneath a file for Kelly Confections. She could never compete with a lingerie model, and she had no interest in trying.

“I can’t believe how much this place has changed,” Abby said, gesturing around her. “You have a wonderful setup here.”

Brenna settled her hip on the corner of her desk, careful not to knock over the pile of folders. A smile of honest pride formed. And she couldn’t resist adding just a little pressure of her own for Abby to move back home. “See, you can run a successful business from Cloverville.”

“
Et tu,
Brenna?”

She laughed. “Yes, I think you should open an office in Cloverville. I think you should stay here, and not just until Molly comes back. You should stay here for
good.
It’s home.”

Abby sighed. “No, Brenna, it’s not.”

Brenna reached out, closing her hands around Abby’s shoulders. She stared steadily into her friend’s eyes, letting Abby know that she’d seen the kiss on the dance floor between the blonde and Clayton McClintock—the man Abby claimed to hate. She’d also heard about another kiss between the pair, right in front of Mr. Carpenter’s hardware store on Main Street. Every townsperson who’d stopped by the house to help Josh this week had commented on how the couple hadn’t been aware of anything but each other.

Abby’s slender shoulders tensed beneath Brenna’s hands, as if she were bracing herself for taunts or “I told you so’s.” But she would never purposely hurt a friend. So all Brenna offered was a bit of wisdom. “Home is where the heart is, honey.”

P
AINT DRIPPED
from the bristles of the brush, sliding down the crease between the trim and the wall. Josh grabbed a rag, caught the drip and wiped green paint off the white trim. He hadn’t envisioned spending his honeymoon like
this.
With
him.

“Nick,” he called out to his friend. “Can you believe we’re almost done?” It seemed almost impossible that the entire house had been cleaned and painted in just a week. Of course, just about the entire town of Cloverville had helped out at one point or another. But especially the Kellys—and most especially, Brenna Kelly. She couldn’t make it any more obvious that she wanted him out of her house.

Her parents’ house, actually. She considered this her house, and he’d been very fortunate to beat her to it.

“Nick!” he called out again.

His friend pushed a dry roller against the wall, taking more of the green—sage—paint off the kitchen walls than he’d put on. He’d showed up today, but he hadn’t been much more help than the boys. Only his body was present, his mind, somewhere else.

Josh suspected it was with Colleen McClintock. Biting back a grin, Josh dipped his brush into the can of paint, then flicked it so droplets spattered across Nick’s face.

Nick turned his attention to the roller, which he hadn’t bothered to dip in the paint for quite a while. So Josh flicked him once again. More paint drops splattered his face and slid down his neck.

Nick closed his eyes and threatened, “Hey, Buzz, I’m going to get you for that.”

Maybe because Buzz was his namesake, he and Nick shared a special bond. And Buzz could never quite leave Nick alone—he constantly sought his attention.

“You better run,” Nick threatened. He whirled around, as if ready to chase down his namesake.

But only Josh stood behind him, unable to entirely wipe the grin from his face.

“Where are the boys?” Nick asked.

Josh’s face strained as his grin widened. “Brenna took them back to her house for naps.”

“Naps?” Nick repeated, incredulous, as if he doubted they
ever
slept.

“Working on the house tires them out,” Josh explained. And they had really worked, at Brenna’s urging. She’d been right, too. They weren’t as opposed to living here now that they’d helped turn the house into a home. But he suspected they would still struggle when it came to leaving the Kellys’, where every moment was filled with food and fun.

Nick shook his head, stunned. “I didn’t see them leave.”

“You haven’t been very aware of anything today,” Josh pointed out. “I’ve been calling your name for a while now.”

Nick shrugged. “I often ignore you, so that’s nothing different.”

“You are,” he insisted. “You’ve been different since the wedding.”

“The wedding-that-wasn’t.”

He laughed at his friend’s obvious ploy to divert the conversation back to Josh. “You’re not going to distract me.”

“Probably not,” Nick readily agreed. “I don’t have red hair and big…”

Josh flicked the paintbrush again, before his friend could finish his description of Brenna Kelly. Nick blinked and wiped at his eyes and mouth. But instead of getting mad his best friend was smug, so Josh cursed him, “Damn you!”

Nick laughed. “See, I distracted you. Or was that her…”

“Who’s distracting you?” Josh asked. “Or do I need to ask? Let me see. She has brown hair and big brown eyes. And an innocence and vulnerability about her that suggests she’d be easily hurt.” Josh set his paintbrush on the counter, which, like the cupboards, had been covered with plastic drop cloths. “Are you going to hurt her?”

“You didn’t marry her sister,” Nick said, his deep voice defensive. “You’re not her big brother.”

Oh, Nick
…When would the guy stop fighting falling in love. Josh hoped it was before Colleen got hurt, because she really was a sweet girl. “I’m her friend,” he said.

“You’ve only just met her.”

“I’ve known Colleen for years,” he corrected Nick.

“You have?”

“From the hospital.”

“You knew she volunteered?”

“You didn’t?” Josh laughed. “Oh, that’s right. You make it a point to never pay attention to the volunteers or the staff. Only the patients.”

“It’s kept my life uncomplicated,” Nick pointed out. “Your life would have been better if you’d done the same.”

“Easier, maybe,” Josh agreed since he’d met both his brides at the hospital. “But not better. I don’t regret having my sons.”

“They’re good kids.”

Josh laughed. “I thought we’d sworn we would never lie to each other.”

“No, really, they are,” Nick said as if he meant it.

Josh grinned, his chest filling with pride in his children. “Yes, they are.”

“The house is finally starting to shape up,” Nick said as if he’d just opened his eyes.

“I’m not selling it.” He—and Brenna—had worked too hard to make it a home. Too bad he couldn’t share it with her. While she wanted the house, she didn’t want him or his sons. Would she, if she believed Molly didn’t want him?

“No, I think you should stay,” Nick admitted. “This place suits you and the boys.”

“Cloverville could suit you, too.” If the fool would stop fighting those feelings for Colleen.

Nick shook his head.

“I heard you looked at the Barber place.” Mrs. Applewhite had called. Apparently she was divorced, and looking for more than property.

“Small towns. Nothing goes unnoticed.” Nick sighed, more resigned than disgusted. “I thought since there are no hotels, that it might be smart to have a place here. You know, for when the weather’s bad.”

“Okay.”

Nick rubbed his hands over his face as if to remove paint, but Josh suspected it was mostly because he didn’t dare meet his gaze. “Not that I’ll need it,” his friend went on. “I doubt I’ll spend as much time in the office as you will.”

“I heard you were already lining up appointments at the hardware store.”

He laughed. “I didn’t really have a choice. It was either that or Mr. Carpenter was going to take off his shirt so I could examine his shoulder. And Mrs. Hild…” Nick shook his head. “Their appointments aside, I’m really not going to be at the office much. I’ll mostly be at the hospital, doing surgeries. Nothing has to change all that much.”

“It already has,” Josh spoke softly, the way he did to Buzz and TJ when they’d had a nightmare and he didn’t want to scare them further. “
You’ve
changed.”

Nick’s face paled and he hotly denied it. “I haven’t changed. We’ve just been here a week.”

“It’s been long enough for you to fall in love,” Josh observed. Had he done the same thing—not with his bride but with her maid of honor?

“Don’t make me hit you again,” Nick threatened.

“You haven’t taken a swing at me since I got drunk in college,” Josh reminded him. “I had it coming,
then
.” He’d gotten drunk and stupid over some girl he’d been seeing, when he’d caught her trying to kiss Nick.

“You do now, talking crazy.” Nick shook his head. “I know you don’t have much of a sense of humor, but this isn’t funny, even for you.”

“I’m not trying to be funny, but you know that,” Josh pointed out. “I’m trying to have a serious discussion with my best friend, because I’m afraid he’s going to throw away his one shot at true happiness.”

“One shot. You think that’s all we get?”

Josh laughed. “Not the rest of us. Only you. I’ve known you a long time, Nick, and you’ve never once let down your guard enough to fall in love.”

“I didn’t let down my guard.” He bristled, probably feeling as if Josh had backed him into a corner. “I can’t. She’s just like Amy, like Molly, working at the hospital to catch a husband. I’m not fool enough to fall for that mantrap.”

Josh laughed again, unoffended. “You’re not as stupid as I am, huh?” Grinning, he shook his head. “You’re an arrogant bastard.”

“Hey!”

“And a gutless coward,” Josh continued with the insults.

“You’re really pushing me to hit you again,” Nick threatened.

“Come on, Nick. You’re grasping at any excuse, just because you’re scared.”

“I’m not husband material.”

Josh laughed, with bitterness this time. “Apparently, neither am I.”

“Come on. You believe in this crap.”

“Crap?”

“Love.” He snorted. “Happiness.”

Josh’s laugh grew heartier. “Only you would call love and happiness crap.”

“Anything that fleeting can only be crap.”

“Nick, it doesn’t have to be fleeting,” Josh persisted. Because he had a feeling if he let himself fall for Brenna Kelly, his love for her would last forever. That was why he couldn’t fall, and why he’d been fighting his feelings. Why would he want to love a woman who’d no doubt leave him like every other woman he’d cared about—or thought he could care about—had?

Nick shrugged. “I haven’t seen any proof that it lasts.”

“My parents.”

“Since that’s the only example you’ve got, I’d call them a fluke. Look at all the people we work with, all the divorce horror stories we’ve heard.”

“Our job. Our hours. It’s hard on a relationship,” Josh acknowledged. “That’s why I wanted the private practice,” he continued. “We can set our own hours. As few…”

“Or as many as we want,” Nick agreed.

“You’re already pulling double shifts.”

“I didn’t have scholarships—I’ve got loans to pay off. And now we have another one.”

“You won’t regret opening the office here,” Josh assured him. Because he believed that eventually things would work out between Colleen and his best friend. He had less hope for himself.

Brenna stepped across the threshold that Josh had carried her over such a short time ago. With the hardwood floors gleaming and the walls painted the colors she’d chosen, the house had become the home she’d always known it could be.

Just not for her.

She followed the clink and clatter of noise into the kitchen. With the clever hands that had made his first wife beautiful, Dr. Towers turned a screwdriver on the hinge on one of the kitchen cabinets.

“You were right about the new hardware,” he said, gesturing toward the black wrought-iron hinges and handles on the red oak. “You were right about the colors, too.”

“It’s done,” Brenna said, taking in the sage-painted kitchen and family room.

“I almost feel guilty for outbidding you,” Josh admitted.

“So let me have it,” she teased him.

His blue eyes threw off sparks as he turned toward her. “I’d love to, but you’re not interested.”

“I’m interested in the
house
,” she insisted. And him. But she shouldn’t be. She couldn’t be, not without losing herself and forsaking the loyalty to her friends that had always been such an integral part of who she was.

“I said almost,” he reminded her. “I don’t feel guilty enough to give it up.”

“Where are your helpers?” she asked. His car had been the only one in the driveway. If she’d been stronger, she wouldn’t have stopped but she’d been drawn irresistibly to the house…and to Josh.

“Rory pulled a muscle at his soccer game the other night, so he didn’t come over,” he explained.

“And Nick?”

He shrugged. “I think he got scared away.”

“From Cloverville?” she asked.

“From Colleen.”

She nodded. She’d thought something was going on between her young friend and the handsome doctor. “So he’s scared of Colleen?”

“Of what he feels for her,” Josh clarified.

Brenna could identify with the orthopedic surgeon’s fear.

Josh sighed. “I just hope he doesn’t blow his one shot at happiness.”

“One shot?” she asked. “You think that’s all a person gets?”

Josh nodded. Then he explained, “There’s only one shot for a person like Nick, who’s determined to fall for no one.”

“And what about you?” she asked, her heart pounding as she waited for his answer. If he really believed all a person got was one shot, had the mother of his sons been his? Maybe loyalty to Molly wasn’t the only reason Brenna had to fight her attraction to him.

“According to him, I fall too easily.”

And maybe his best friend was right—Josh admitted to himself but only to himself. He’d fallen fast for his first wife, although he’d realized after the fact that that had been more lust than love. And Molly…She was such a nice girl he’d been convinced he could fall for her. But instead he’d fallen for her maid of honor. He couldn’t fight his feelings for Brenna any longer.

A week had passed. If Molly had changed her mind about marrying Josh, she would have been back before now. She would have at least called. Surely Brenna had to realize that her friend didn’t want him. Did Brenna?

She didn’t respond to Josh’s comment, as if she wasn’t interested in his love life—or his love. Instead she inspected the house, moving from room to room. Josh trailed every step she took in her high heels, watching her hips swaying in her khaki skirt. His head grew light. Probably from the paint fumes. Or maybe because all his blood had rushed to a lower part of his body.

“It’s done,” she said. “You can move in now.”

And out of her house. Josh winced. He’d always known she wanted him gone, but still her rejection stung. “I couldn’t have finished it without all your help.”

She waved a hand, as if dismissing what she’d done. “I didn’t do anything Molly wouldn’t have done.”

“I thought you weren’t her second,” he reminded her.

“No, I’m just her friend.” Her husky voice, pitched even deeper, implied a warning.

Not to try anything with her again? “You’ve made that clear,” he said.

“Not clear enough,” she murmured.

“You’ve been a good friend to her,” he insisted. “You went above and beyond the duties of the maid of honor for the wedding. And definitely for this house.”

“It was bad enough losing the house to you,” she said, her lips curving in a teasing smile. “I sure didn’t want you messing it up.”

He hadn’t messed up the house, but he’d messed up everything else. If he hadn’t proposed to Molly first, he might have had a shot with Brenna.

“Well, I appreciate how hard you worked,” he said then teasingly added, “even though it was to get rid of me and the boys.”

“I didn’t want to get rid of the boys.”

Josh forced a carefree grin. “Just me.”

Brenna shook her head. “I wish I wanted to get rid of you.”

Josh’s breath caught. “You don’t?”

Waves of red hair swirled around her bare shoulders. Today she wore a green silk tank top with the khaki skirt, looking both sophisticated and sexy.

“You are so beautiful,” he said, reaching out to brush a lock of hair back from her face.

She arched an eyebrow and asked, “Did you smear paint on me again?”

“Who, me?” he asked, in mock innocence. When she continued to stare at him as hard as his old third-grade teacher used to, he buckled just as Mrs. Hoolihan had always made him buckle. Back then, he’d given up Nick as the one who’d shot spit wads into Sally Kruger’s hair…even when it had been him. “Guilty.”

“You don’t always set a very good example for your sons,” she admonished him.

Especially not with Nick, who was usually the brunt of Josh’s practical jokes.

“You’re lucky they’re such good boys,” she said.

He scrutinized her face to see if she was kidding. But as Nick had been earlier, she was serious. “Yeah,” he said, with pride, “they are.”

“Despite you.”

“Hey!” He laughed.

“No, you’re a good father, Josh.”

No compliment had ever meant as much to him. He stroked his fingers across her cheek. His throat thick with emotion, he rasped out a grateful, “Thank you.”

Brenna stepped away from him, so that his hand dropped back by his side. And she blinked, as if breaking a connection between them. He wished it were that easy. Then she turned away, and clearing her throat she complimented the house, “It looks beautiful.”

Not nearly as beautiful as she was.

“You really like this paint color?” he asked, gesturing toward the walls of the family room.

“I really like this house.”

“I’m not giving up the house,” Josh insisted as he stepped in front of her, so she’d have to look at
him
and not his house. “But I’d be willing to share it.”

With Molly
. Brenna reminded herself that he’d bought this house for her best friend. Not her. “You are sharing it,” she reminded him, “with your sons.”

“Thank you,” he said, “for helping them to start thinking of this place as their home. I hope you’ll come visit them.” He touched her face again, his fingertips, rough from all the manual labor, stroking along her jaw to her cheek. “And me. Often.”

Brenna bit her lip and nodded. “Sure. Of course.”

He leaned closer, his mouth brushing her cheek where he’d streaked the paint that morning. “You are so beautiful.”

Her pulse quickened with his touch, so she reminded herself of his type. The woman in the magazine. Molly. “I’m no model.” Nor had she ever wanted to be. “Like your first wife.”

He pulled back slightly, and a muscle twitched along his jaw. “Nick told you?”

She shook her head. “No. The boys told me, when they showed me her picture in a magazine. One I guess you have already shown them.”

“Were they okay when they saw her?” Josh asked, his eyes full of concern for his sons.

“They got a little emotional. That might have been because they were overly tired, though. I stopped by the bakery instead of bringing them right home to nap.”

A faint smile stole across his mouth. “They really don’t nap.”

“No, they don’t,” she acknowledged with a sigh. “They talked Mama and Pop into taking them to the park again.”

“They probably wanted to see the headless horseman.” Josh shook his head as if awed by their imagination.

“They’re talking about Colonel Clover,” she explained. “The statue of our town founder.”

“Well, I’m sure he’s not headless.”

“Actually, he is.”

“What?” he asked with a deep laugh. “A headless statue? Maybe Nick’s right about this town.”

“He was the victim of a drive-by years ago,” she explained. “Or a drive-through. I’m really not sure what to call it.” An accident. And she wished her young friend would give herself a break over something that hadn’t hurt anyone but Colleen herself.

“And here I thought Cloverville was a nice, safe place to raise my kids,” he teased. Yet concern for his sons still haunted his eyes.

She reached out and touched Josh’s arm, running her fingers over the short, coarse hair. “But there are some things no father can protect his children from.” Like the pain of their mother’s abandonment.

He shook his head. “I wish I could have.”

“So, the woman in the magazine…” The plastic-looking model. “She really is their mother?”

His shoulders jerked in a tense shrug. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told them. But they ask about her, about why they don’t have a mommy and everyone else in preschool does. They don’t remember her, but they wanted to know what she looks like.”

“She never visits?”

He shook his head.

“Never calls?”

He shook his head again.

“She just walked away from them?” Brenna asked, stunned. “And you?”

“Yes,” he answered, with no perceptible trace of pain in his voice. Instead he focused on Brenna, running his fingers across her face to play with her hair.

“I don’t understand.”

“Maybe it’s easier for her, and them, that she doesn’t come back,” Josh explained. “Maybe it’s better to make a clean break.”

Like Brenna needed to make with him. But temptation tingled along her skin with Josh’s touch, as his fingers stroked her cheek, and then along her throat to her shoulder. “Josh…”

His eyes darkened with desire and something close to awe. “I’ve never met a woman like you.”

She smiled. “Real?”

“Wonderful.” His lips replaced his fingers as he kissed his way down her throat. Then, using his teeth, he pulled the strap of her tank top down her arm.

She shivered and lifted her hands, pushing her fingers into his thick, soft hair. She wanted to push him away, but she could only clutch him closer. She’d never wanted another man the way she wanted Josh Towers. If Molly was really committed to him, she would have been back before now. She would have been begging him to forgive her and take her back.

Brenna wanted to beg him to take her. “I…”

Josh pressed his mouth to hers, unwilling to hear her reiterate all the reasons they
shouldn’t
be together. He wanted to show her that they
needed
to be together. He kissed her again and again, slipping his tongue between her lips.

She kissed him back with the same intensity of desire burning in his heart and throbbing in his tense body.

“Brenna…”

He slipped her straps down her shoulders, so that the green silk dropped to her waist. Then he pushed down the cups of her strapless bra and brushed his fingers over her breasts and the little cupcake tattoo. Still kissing her, he held the fullness of her heavy breasts and ran his thumb over the distended nipples. Back and forth, teasing her with his touch.

She arched her back and moaned against his mouth, then bit his lower lip. His hands smoothed down her sides to her hips and pulled her closer. She was so damned beautiful, so curvy and soft.

He fumbled with the clasp on her skirt. But Brenna’s hands covered his, stopping him. Then she reached for the hem of his paint-spattered T-shirt and lifted it up. Her breath hissed out between her teeth as she pulled the shirt over his head. “You’re the beautiful one, Josh.”

Her hands skimmed over his chest, her fingers pushing through the dark hair. Then she leaned forward and pressed a kiss against his heart, which pulsed beneath her lips.

Too impatient to fumble with the clasp, he fisted his hands in the skirt and lifted the material. Then he lifted her onto the kitchen counter. He ran his hands over the warm, soft skin of her bare thighs, parting them and pushing aside her panties, so that he could make love to her with his mouth. She was so hot—so sweet.

Her nails bit into his shoulders and she screamed his name. “Josh!” Then her fingers gripped his hair, pulling him away. “We can’t. Molly…”

Heart hammering hard, he reminded her, “She left me at the altar. She doesn’t want me. And I don’t want her. I want
you,
Brenna!” His body ached with wanting her.

The battle between guilt and desire waged in the depths of her green eyes. Just when Josh thought he’d lost she touched him, her nails skimming down his chest, over his stomach to the snap at the waistband of his jeans.

Air shuddered out of his lungs and he dared to breathe again. “Brenna…”

“I want you,” she murmured, the rasp of her voice echoing in the rasp of his zipper as she undid his jeans.

Control snapping, Josh shucked his jeans and underwear, pausing only to retrieve a condom from his wallet. Brenna pulled the foil packet from his hand, ripped it open with her teeth and sheathed him, as impatient as he was. Pulling her closer to the edge of the counter, he pushed inside her. “You’re so…”

She lifted her legs, wrapping them around his waist and taking him deeper. “It’s been a while for me,” she murmured, kissing his shoulder.

“Me, too…” But it had never felt like this with anyone else. Like coming home. He drove deeper yet, and she arched her back, taking all of him. “You’re so hot.”

Her nails gripped his shoulders again, and her body tensed. She came, shuddering and keening. “Josh…”

He thrust again, burying himself inside her. His legs shook with the intensity of the orgasm roaring through him. “Brenna!” His breathing harsh, he lowered his head, kissing first the top of her breast, then the little tattoo on the side. And now he lifted his mouth to hers. As he kissed her, he tasted salt. He pulled back, pulling out of her and lifted his hands to cup her face. Tears trailed down her cheeks.