The Fairy Tale Bride (5 page)

“It’s a strawberry daiquiri. I save them for special occasions.” She moved a little closer in a conspiratorial whisper. “I count them as one of my five a day.”

“It’s a special occasion?” He expected to see a birthday cake appear from somewhere.

She shrugged. “This is the bad-day-at-work drink. I don’t have them often – but when I do – only a strawberry daiquiri will do.”

He shifted in his seat as the barman presented one pink and one orange cocktail along with five bottles of beer. He pushed the drink over towards Lisa as something clicked in his brain.

“The celebrity wedding?”

She nodded her head solemnly as she focused on her drink. “Oh yeah. The celebrity wedding.” It was obvious she was trying to be discreet but Adam was curious.

“Tough customers?”

Lisa pressed her lips together, as if contemplating what to say. She took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. “The bride – is lovely. A local girl done good who just wants to marry the man she loves.”

So, that was how Lisa played things. It was what she
didn’t
say that was important.

He took a sip out of his bottle of beer. “But Sage’s chocolates didn’t win around the bridesmaids?”

Lisa gave a shudder and rolled her eyes. “I’m going to have to buy a whole lot more chocolates. I may have to fight you for all the chocolates in the store. Round two is on Tuesday.”

Adam’s tiny self-preservation streak kicked in. He kind of wished the whole wedding would take off to another state. But Lisa looked worried. More than that, she looked exhausted. Most Hollywood stars were notorious for being demanding. She’d probably spent all day running after people who showed no appreciation.

For the first time he actually stopped to think what a wedding like this might mean to the people of Marietta. It wasn’t really so surprising that they’d want to help a local girl celebrate her wedding. And what might this actually mean to small-town store like Lisa’s?

“Are you up for Round Two?” he asked, “or would you rather throw in the towel?”

“What?” She sat up straighter and looked horrified. She waved her hand. “No way.” There was a glint of determination in her eye. “I make a promise to every woman who steps over my door that I’ll find her her dream dress.” She pointed her finger at Adam and pursed her lips. “Even if they don’t know what that is.”

He gave her a cheeky grin and leaned forward, grabbing her straw and taking a suck. “Wow.” The sharpness of the daiquiri struck his taste buds. “Those sound like fighting words.”

She batted his hand away. “Hands off the drink, Dr. Brady. You’ve no idea how much I need this tonight.”

There was something about the way she said the words. As if this wasn’t just about a bad day in the bridal store. The cheeky grin fell from his face as he leaned a little closer. Close enough that it felt like no one else was around. Close enough that when he inhaled he sucked in the spicy aroma of her perfume. Close enough that all the background noise seemed to cancel out.

From here he had a close-up view of her perfect skin. The tiny freckles across her bare shoulders and décolletage playing havoc with other parts of him. Close enough to realize just how tantalizing those pale blue eyes were, or how plump her pink-stained lips were.

Their gazes meshed and for a few seconds he thought she was going to say something else. It was almost as if the words were hovering around the edges of her perfectly formed lips. Then, there was a flash of blue in his peripheral vision and a little jolt at his hip.

“You’re in my seat, cowboy,” the beautiful blonde quipped. Her eyes widened as she spotted the fresh cocktail. “Oh, great.” Her eyes ran up and down Adam and then back to her friend. “If he’s buying the cocktails then he’s made the first cut.”

Lisa gave a little smile. “Magdalena, this is Dr. Adam Brady, he started at Marietta Hospital a couple of months ago.”

Mags raised her eyebrows then lifted her glass towards him. “Finally, someone who isn’t a cowboy around here. Thanks for the drink, Dr. Brady.” Her eyes darted between Lisa and Adam. It was clear she’d picked up on something. He just wasn’t exactly sure what it was.

The moment between him and Lisa was gone. Lost in the blink of an eye. But now he was curious. For the first time in a long time, he wanted to find out a little more about the woman in front of him. Had she been about to share something else? There was no chance of that now. It surprised him just how much that piqued his interest.

He picked up the tray of beers. “Enjoy your cocktails, ladies. Lisa,” he said, nodding his head at her, “I guess I’ll see you around the hospital sometime.”

He gave her one final glance before elbowing his way back through the crowd with his tray of beers. A cheer erupted from the poker table. “We thought you’d got lost!” shouted Jake.

“We’re dying of thirst here,” added Dawson. “Got waylaid by a pretty woman?” It was a loaded question and there was no way Adam was going there.

Life was good in Marietta. Life was simple. A woman would only complicate things. And complications were things he didn’t need.

He thudded the tray down on the table. “Naw. No pretty women. Just a big queue at the bar. Now, whose hand is it?”

*

Lisa watched Adam’s
retreating back through the crowd. He was wearing a simple polo shirt. It was the first time she’d noticed the defined muscles in his upper arms, or just how broad his shoulders were. As she turned back to her cocktail Mags met her with a hard stare. She shook her head, blonde hair everywhere. “Oh no you don’t, girl. Spill. Now.”

Lisa shifted uncomfortably on her stool. She’d been friends with Mags forever. Mags knew things about her that the rest of the world didn’t. And vice versa.

Even though they’d been young, Mags had been the friend to hold her hand when her sister had died. She’d been the person that Mags had shown her positive pregnancy test when she’d been seventeen. It didn’t even matter that Mags had moved away. It just meant lots of long late-night phone and video calls – the distance hadn’t mattered at all. Watching Mags’s bouncing baby girl grow into a beautiful teenager had been one of her great pleasures. She’d been her shoulder to cry on when she’d caught Melody in bed with her fiancé.

She was just so glad that Mags had moved back home. Not only did she have a knockout face and figure – she also had a knockout voice.

But a knockout voice didn’t pay the bills when you had a baby. Mags was now an experienced web designer and had been bending her ear for months to help her develop the website for
Married in Marietta
.

Tonight, was supposed to be a business meeting. But no one had told the cocktails.

Lisa took a sip of the strawberry daiquiri. “What?” she tried to say innocently. “There’s nothing to tell.”

Mags narrowed her gaze. “This is me you’re talking to. Did you see the way the hottie doc looked at you?”

Lisa felt her cheeks flush. “No. What do you mean?” Her stomach gave a little flip flop. She hadn’t imagined it. She hadn’t imagined that tiny second where all she could focus on was those brown eyes.

“I thought you called him Dr. Grumpy? He didn’t seem all that grumpy to me.” She gave a wicked little smile. “He mightta looked like a whole lot of other things though.”

“Mags! Stop it!”

Mags waved her hand. “Fine. If you want to pretend he doesn’t exist and his eyes weren’t permanently fixed on your cleavage then that’s fine.” She pushed some papers over towards Lisa.

Lisa was glad of the distraction. Mags had a tendency to not let her away with anything. A change of subject was just what she needed. After a strawberry daiquiri she’d cave easily. “What are these?”

“These are what one friend does for another. I’ve registered your domain name.
Married in Marietta
is now officially a website. Once news gets out about the celebrity wedding everyone will want to know about the stock in your store. Get your digital camera out girl. You’re going to need it.”

Lisa shook her head, then rested it on the bar. “After today? You have no idea. There’s every chance they won’t choose
anything
from my store. This whole idea could be a bust.”

“Oh ye of little faith.”

Mags was good at this. For other people she had all the confidence in the world. For herself? Not so much.

She leaned forward. “Just think, if we make you a killer website, and we photograph all the dresses you have available, as soon as news hits that the Wedding of the Year is going to be in Marietta, people will be all over your site.” She lifted her eyes up as if she were dreaming what it would look like. “This could be the break you’ve always needed. Your dresses are exquisite. It’s about time the whole world knows it.” She shrugged. “Anyway. How bad can Nancylynn Pruitt be? She might be a few years younger than us but wasn’t she okay in high school?”

“It’s not Nancylynn that’s the problem. It’s her bridesmaids. The two pneumatic blondes. Apparently Married in Marietta is the eighteenth store they’ve visited to try and find bridesmaid dresses. I feel as if I should rename it Last Chance Saloon.”

Mags laughed and shook her head. “Oh no you don’t. That domain name is probably long gone.
Married in Marietta
it is.”

Lisa was still stirring her daiquiri with a straw. She was trying to concentrate on what Mags was saying – honestly, she was – but a set of deep brown eyes kept invading her consciousness.

“Lisa?”

“Oh, what? Sorry.” Lisa straightened in her seat. “You’re right. You know you’re right. I’ll take my camera tomorrow and start photographing the dresses. And thanks for registering the domain address. How much do I owe you?”

Mags was grinning at her. Her smile reached from ear to ear and her head was shaking, ever so slightly.

She sagged back in the stool. “Wow. It’s a long time since I’ve seen that face.”

Lisa wrinkled her brow. “What face?”

Mags pointed her finger. “That face.”

How many daiquiri’s had she drunk? “What on earth are you talking about?”

This was the trouble with having a lifelong friend. Nothing could be hidden. And sometimes Mags could read her better than she could herself.

Mags started to laugh. “This was the look on your face the first time you saw Jimmy Belmont in grade school. This was the look on your face in high school when you had the hots for Frankie Mason. And this was the look on your face the first night we came to Grey’s and you met Joe Talbot.”

Lisa was horrified. “You’ve got to be joking. There’s nothing going on with my face.”

She pushed herself up on the stool, trying to catch a glimpse of herself in the glass gantry of the bar. “There’s nothing weird about my face. Nothing at all.”

Mags gestured over to Cameron, the barman. “Two more cocktails, Cam.” She rolled her eyes as she looked at Lisa. “We’re going to need them. It’s going to be a long night.”

‡

I
t was ridiculous.
He felt like some kind of night-time prowler. He’d spotted Lisa earlier, talking to someone at the hospital entrance and this was the third ward he’d ‘wandered into’. What on earth was wrong with him?

Mary had eyed him suspiciously on the children’s ward as he’d glanced into the room she’d been in before. He’d said he was looking for Dan – but he was quite sure that hadn’t washed.

The nurse on the assessment unit was friendly and easy-going. “Hi, Adam. You heard we had cookies, didn’t you?” She lifted a silver tray from behind the desk. The aroma hit him instantly. Double chocolate, white chocolate and cranberry, raisin and oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies were all crammed on the tray.

He smiled. “Have you been guarding these with your life? I’m surprised the whole hospital isn’t queued out the door.”

She gave him a wink. “You’re late. This is actually the third tray. One of our nurses was baking cookies for her kid’s school and decided just to bake a whole lot more for us. We’ve had people in and out all day.”

Adam grabbed a cookie and took a bite. “What kind of people?”

He cringed as she frowned. Subtlety obviously wasn’t his strong point. She waved her hand as she picked up a set of notes and started down the corridor. “All sorts. Help yourself. I need to finish admitting a patient.”