The Reluctant Bride (Montana Born Brides) (6 page)

“
I still want you. I’m not letting go of my anger until I hear an explanation that makes sense and rings with truth.”

He wasn
’t asking for much then, but to be fair, he deserved the truth. And all of it. She bit her lower lip and tried to find words, anything to say to him that would make him stop glowering at her. But she understood a little too well how he felt. “As afraid as I am of the future, I still was happy to see your face in my car window tonight.”

With that she opened the door and walked inside, heading for the Great Wedding Giveaway committee table and Jane Weiss.
Jane had no idea, but right at this moment she was going to be the best friend that Risa had ever had. Risa was going to cling to the other woman’s side and hope that Monty would cool down before she had to talk to him again.

“
Are you okay? I tried calling, but didn’t get an answer,” Jane said as Risa walked up to her. The barn had been transformed into something ethereal and so romantic. Lights hung from the rafters on long chains and the tables were decked with lace cloths. Risa had done the flowers and had been out earlier to help with the set-up, but seeing it tonight was magical.

“
Sorry. I had car problems and then I ran into my fiancé.”

“
Fiancé? You hadn’t said anything, so I wasn’t sure you were engaged,” Jane said with a friendly curiosity. The other woman was about Risa’s height and a bundle of energy. Full of new ideas, she was shaking up some of the long-term residents of Marietta but Risa, being a newcomer herself, enjoyed them.

“
Yes. I’ve been waiting for him to get back from Afghanistan and, of course, to move out here.”

“
Who is he?”

“
Um.” she scanned the room searching for Monty, but it took only a second for her to find him standing next to the bar talking with one of the Scott brothers, Lane, she thought his name was. Suddenly she felt really stupid. She remembered Monty’s email about his buddy stepping on the IED and almost dying. The buddy who was a double amputee. She hadn’t connected the dots until that moment. “He’s there next to Lane.”

“
I’ve met him. Very nice man. I think he served with Lane in Helmond.”

“
He did,” she said. She was distracted from Monty by the décor in the place. Everything had come together to create the perfect kick-off to the Great Wedding Giveaway. It was so romantic. How could she not have seen it before? “Everything looks really lovely here tonight. I’ve made some vouchers that I would like to put out. Is that okay?”

“
Go ahead. I really don’t need you here. You can go and enjoy being with your fiancé.”

Of course she could.
She should ‘fess up and tell Jane that things weren’t exactly perfect between her and Monty, but pride kept her mouth shut. She wasn’t about to open that can of worms. Not tonight or ever. “Thanks.”

She walked carefully across the room that was filling up with couples enjoying the chance to have a night out in the small town.
She slipped up behind Monty, linking her arm through his and tilting her head to the side. “Want to dance?”

He looked down at her, pointedly at her hand through his arm.
“Let me introduce you to Lane first. Risa, this is Lane Scott. Lane, meet Risa, my reluctant bride.”

She flushed and almost pulled her arm from his, but was acutely aware that Jane was probably watching her from across the room.
Even if she wasn’t, the last thing that Risa wanted was for the whole of Marietta to get a clue that she and her fiancé were having problems.

“
Not so reluctant now that my man is safely back by my side,” she said. “You don’t mind if I steal him for a dance, do you?”

Monty followed Risa out onto the dance floor.
The band was a local group who played a mix of modern country and old standards. But, to be honest, he couldn’t care less about that. He was still trying to figure out this latest move by Risa.

He
’d heard her in her car. She was confused and scared. He could understand that. He’d shut down after Lane’s accident but he hadn’t expected her to pull so far back. And now that he had her in his arms, a part of him wanted…he wanted a kind of revenge. But when he’d kissed her he’d realized he wasn’t simply mad at her.

He wanted her.
But he wasn’t ready to give up on being angry.

“
What’s the reason for this dance?” he asked.

“
Do I really need a reason to dance with my soon-to-be-husband?” she asked.

He raised both eyebrows at her, staring until he saw a blush spread over her creamy white skin.
She tossed her head and gave him one of her primmest looks.

“
I mentioned you were my fiancé to Jane and now she’s watching. I don’t want to look weird.”

He shook his head and laughed.
Really, if this was happening to one of the other guys in his squad, he’d be riding him for it. But the fact that it was his Risa who was dancing with him, not because of the romantic setting or the fact that she’d missed him, but to save face, kept him in check.

“
Risa.”

“
I know. It’s pitiful. I’d love to be enjoying this romantic evening with you. Like we were in Vegas, remember that?” she paused and looked up at him.

He nodded.

“But we can’t, can we? I ran and you tracked me down, and now we’ve got to sort it all out. We’re not in the right place to enjoy this night, but no one else knows that except us.”

“
So we’re pretending to be in love?” he asked. The words almost stuck in the back of his throat. They had talked about needing each other, missing each other and building a future together, but never of love. It was one of the things that had managed to elude him most of his life.

What he really wanted to know was how she felt about him.
Funny that this would be the moment his courage failed him. He didn’t want to remember the unlovable boy he’d been. The one whose mother had found it so easy to walk away from, leave him. He’d dealt with that long ago and was strong now. But Risa made him remember what it felt like to feel fear.

He didn
’t need it. He knew that. Had lived a contented life for thirty-three years without having a woman love him. But now he waited to see what she’d say.

“
Yes.”

“
Love?”

“
All of it. I’m one of the vendors in this Wedding Giveaway and I want the brides to feel like I understand them and what they need.”

“
So you don’t love me?” he asked, finding he needed to know. His words were bare and stark. Suddenly the games they’d been playing since he pulled up behind her convertible on the dark highway were gone.

“
I don’t know,” she admitted. “Do you love me? Or are you just hoping I love you, so you can walk away and really hurt me for leaving you?”

There it was again.
The real Risa in amongst the changing faces she kept presenting him. He spun her around as the band switched to The Tennessee Waltz. The lyrics were fitting, given his current situation with Risa. He did know how much he’d lost. He could still remember dancing to this song with his mom when he was about seven. It was one of his only memories of her. Why had he started a conversation he hadn’t wanted to have? He knew that tonight he couldn’t be rational or level-headed where she was concerned.

Being in the military for most of his adult life had taught him to keep his emotions in check.
To ensure that he made decisions based on training, rather than going off on his gut instincts. Yet that’s what he’d been doing. No matter how many times he tried to force himself back into military shape, it wasn’t happening.

And this woman was the reason why.

“God, you make me nuts,” he said under his breath. She smelled like a spring garden and felt light in his arms. Like something he’d been missing for way too long.

“
You’re welcome,” she said, wryly.

“
Woman, one day you are going to push me too far,” he warned her.

She tipped her head back, gazing up at him with those wide brown eyes of hers, and gave him a look so serious he knew that he wasn
’t going to like it.

“
I hope I do. Then I’ll see whatever it is you are so bent on hiding from me.”

“
You’re the one who ran.”

She went up on tiptoe and kissed him.
Her lips moved over his with that same tentative sweetness as earlier, but this time he knew it wasn’t because she was scared or shy; she was trying to soothe him. To reassure him in some way. But of what, he had no idea. Or didn’t want to admit he did.

They
’d stopped dancing. He cupped her butt through the fabric of her slinky dress and drew her more fully against him. Other couples continued to move around them, but he knew why he was here. Why he’d been so angry for so long. Because when he held Risa in his arms, the world dropped away.

No longer did he feel those heavy weights on his shoulders of making sure his team were all okay, and that his father didn
’t sink into that lonely sadness that had haunted the old man since Monty’s mom had gone. Nothing seemed to exist except him and Risa.

He needed her.
No matter that he really didn’t want to. After she’d run away, he knew he couldn’t trust her to stay. That he was going to have to keep his guard up. But what he really wanted, what he needed, was to be in her arms and let that feeling of coming home be real.

Risa couldn
’t breathe and didn’t want to think. Faking love wasn’t something she was prepared to do. This was a new wrinkle and one she hadn’t anticipated. She liked Monty—a lot. And she cared for him. Hell, that was why she’d left…so she didn’t hurt him. And maybe that was why she’d run when Monty was away. It had been all tied up in him not being at her side, the danger of his job and her parents’ dying. It had overwhelmed her.

But when he held her, it was easy to believe that none of that mattered anymore.
That nothing except Monty and this night were important. She’d said yes to him the last time she’d felt this way. And that scared her. Legit, knees shaking, knot-in-the-pit-of-her-stomach fear. The kind of thing she couldn’t outrun in her convertible, or even by leaving Montana. It was Monty. It was how he made her feel things she’d never thought she would and feared she never would again.

And he wanted to talk about love.

Love.

The band stopped playing and everyone around them applauded politely. She pulled away and stared into his steely grey-green eyes for as long as she could before she broke, turned and escaped.

He made her run.

There were no two ways about it.
She didn’t want to be the ball of aching nerves that Monty brought out in her. She couldn’t let herself depend on him. Not Monty, who so easily could be taken away from her.

Jane took to the stage to introduce the couples who were participating in the Wedding Giveaway.

“I see you met Lane’s Marine buddy,” Annie Prudhomme said, coming up to her and handing her a drink.

Risa took a sip of the Manhattan.
Annie looked sophisticated and happy, but then moving back home and finding that she’d been running away from the wrong thing had been just what she needed. She didn’t really know Annie very well. But both Annie and Annie’s future sister-in-law, Sienna Scott, had been very nice to her. They had invited her along to do things and made her feel like she was a part of the community, and not just the business one.