The Bowen Bride Read online

  For Corey it hadn’t been the pregnancy that scared and changed her so much as facing the crushing responsibility of raising a child, not to mention the idea of spending the rest of her life with him, when neither of them had a job or a college degree. Then there was the judgment of everyone they knew. Anywhere Corey went in town, she knew there’d be talk behind her back.

  Katie nodded, then looked back down to where her hand covered his. For a moment he wondered if something had happened to Katie at eighteen when she left Bowen for Boston. She’d wanted to do it, she’d said so herself. But was it a decision she’d come to regret? Had something triggered the same panic in her that Corey had experienced?

  ‘‘You understand, don’t you?” The question left his mouth so quietly, he almost couldn’t hear himself.

  “Nothing as drastic as what happened to you and Corey, but…that age is hard. It’s a big transition time.” Her hand tightened over his.

  That was all it took. Before he could think about it, or analyze it, he bent and kissed her.

  When she didn’t pull away, he wrapped his other arm around her, pulling her closer, and brushed a second kiss against her lips. Her response was instant and nearly sent him to the floor.

  As her warm mouth moved against his, her hands slipped to his waist, shifting his tool belt. They ignored it, neither particularly concerned about the possibility of being scraped by the claw end of a hammer.

  After several more gentle, testing kisses, he eased her a few steps backward, into her workroom, just out of sight of the glass door to the shop.

  “In case Fred shows up,” he explained. “No need to ruin your good reputation by being seen with a screwup like me.”

  “I wondered if you were going to kiss me yesterday before he came in.”

  He kissed her once more, this time with a teasing smile playing at his lips. “It might’ve occurred to me.”

  A lazy, deliberate smile spread across her face in response. He noticed a glimmer of mischief flickering in the depths of her hazel eyes just before she placed her fingers on his cheeks and pulled his face back down to hers.

  All was forgotten the moment her mouth opened beneath his. His hands tightened around her waist, and he fitted her body flush against his. Her fingers dropped to the front of his jeans, and for a split second he wondered how far and how fast the kiss would go. She twisted her hand between them, and as he realized what she was doing, his tool belt fell to the floor.

  “Better,” she murmured against his mouth, then snaked her arms up and around his neck.

  He kissed her more deeply, wanting to get lost in the sensation, in the clean smell of her hair, the baby-soft skin on her face, the warmth of her lips. He marveled at her passionate response to him and her ability to match his kisses move for move.

  Was she as hungry for this as he had been? It seemed so, which surprised him and thrilled him at the same time. He lost track of time as they stood near the curtained door to the workroom, kissing each other, exploring each other with slow caresses.

  When he felt one of her knees give, he leaned forward, guiding her toward the oversize worktable. With one motion, he lifted her onto an empty spot. One of her legs wrapped around his, and she pulled him down, so his body stayed in contact with hers.

  “Hope this is a sturdy table,” he said, half serious.

  “Hope so, too.” She smiled, then kissed him again. Her hands lingered near his waist, then ran upward, her fingernails trailing along his back, nearly sending him over the edge with each stroke.

  He could close his eyes and let her do that all day. Damn, but it had been way, way too long. Had his body felt so on fire before? He couldn’t recall.

  He exhaled as her fingers tangled in his hair, and he dipped his head to kiss her neck, her jawline, then the small space behind her ear where her jaw ended and her hairline began. A soft sigh escaped her lips and she shifted under him. He savored the way the contours of her breasts pushed against his chest, and at the thought of what they’d be doing in a few more minutes if they kept up like they were, he nearly exploded.

  They hadn’t even made it to Celestino’s for their first date yet.

  He wondered what, exactly, he wanted from her.

  Certainly he wanted to make love to her—his body screamed for it. He knew sharing a bed with Katie, watching as she tilted her head back at that final moment, maybe murmuring his name as her blond hair splayed across his navy blue sheets, would be flat-out fantastic. Oh, how he wanted to give that to her. That moment of sheer, pure ecstasy.

  But what did he really want with Katie, both now and for the long term? After all this time, was he ready for a relationship that might go past a few casual dates?

  Was he insane to be thinking of this in the middle of kissing her neck, of feeling her warm breath against his cheek and the drag of her short nails against his scalp?

  If he made love to her, it couldn’t be a one-night stand. He’d never been wired that way, and he had the feeling Katie wasn’t, either. He was full-on making out with her in a room filled with wedding gowns, for crying out loud. But was he ready for the kind of emotional step it’d take to have someone other than Mandy in his home, sitting down with him to dinner or discussing the morning paper over coffee?

  And if he was willing to take that step—to finally pursue a relationship with a woman—was Katie the right woman? She’d turned him down once. There had to be a reason, a reason she’d pushed aside today.

  “So,” she whispered close to his ear, “if this is what I get after you come over to install cabinets, what happens after Celestino’s?”

  He propped himself up on his elbows, moving so his forehead rested on hers to give them a slight distance, but so he could still feel the length of her body along his own.

  If he had any sense at all, he’d say something flirtatious, and keep going, kissing her madly.

  He obviously had no sense at all.

  “I was wondering the same thing,” he admitted with a wry grin. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Of course, I hadn’t thought…well.” He wrapped his finger around a lock of her hair, playing with it for a moment before letting it fall back to her cheek, and she flushed in response.

  ‘‘No, me, either.”

  Reluctantly, he eased off the table and offered Katie a hand to pull her to a sitting position. They’d reached the awkward point where they either needed to go forward full tilt, or pull back and be reasonable.

  Reason won out. “At least Fred didn’t show.”

  “I knew we’d be safe for another hour or so,” she said.

  “So you were thinking ahead.”

  Her laughter filled the small workroom. “Well, I can imagine all kinds of things.” She stood, still holding his hand, unwilling to let go just yet. Her expression suddenly serious, she met his gaze and said, “There’s something to this, I think.”

  “I think so, too.”

  “I’m not the type who does this very often. Well, not at all since I got back to Bowen, if you want to know the truth, which you probably don’t.” She worried her lip, realizing that her words were emerging faster than her thoughts.

  He cupped her chin, then raised it so she wouldn’t look away, so she could see this was no casual encounter for him, either. “I want to know all about you. Everything. I’m not the type who does this very often, either, but what I don’t know is whether I’m ready for a relationship. For a number of reasons.”

  Well, two reasons. Mandy, obviously, and Corey. He’d never gotten over the fact Corey didn’t believe in him, and he needed to know that Katie could before he let himself even think of getting involved.

  She nodded in understanding, and he bent and kissed her again, though this time it was barely a brushing of the lips.

  “I’d still like to take you to Celestino’s on Friday,” he said, “but only if you’re up for it.”

  She hesitated, so he let go of her chin and glanced over his shoulder toward the main room. “Look, I’
m nearly finished with what I wanted to do today. Why don’t I knock off for the night. It might be easier to think if we’re not both in the same two hundred square feet of space. I’ll clean up the front room first—”

  “Nah, don’t worry about it. No one’s going to be out there today.”

  Probably true. And if he took too long straightening, he’d end up trying to get behind the curtain again to continue what they started. His brain would formulate some excuse, despite the fact they both needed time to process what was happening between them. “All right. I’ll be back tomorrow. You can tell me to take a hike then, if you like.”

  “Jared, you say you aren’t sure if you’re ready for a relationship. Well, I’m not sure I’m ready, either. For a lot of reasons. But I wouldn’t tell you to take a hike.”

  “Not before I finish the cabinets, at least.”

  That elicited another of her megawatt grins. “You’re a funny guy.”

  Funny wasn’t necessarily the way he’d want her to describe him, given their afternoon together. “As long as I leave you with a smile on your face, I guess that’s good enough.”

  For now.

  Chapter 6

  “He’s never this messy at home, really.”

  Mandy wrinkled her nose as she examined the dusty floor of The Bowen Bride. She took a ginger step around the cabinet frame her father and Uncle Stewart had carried in that morning, then spread her hands wide, as if pleading a case in court. “I swear he’s not. He even does the dishes before he goes to bed instead of letting them soak overnight, and he uses the good kind of laundry detergent to make his colors brighter and his whites whiter.”

  “It’s okay, Mandy, you can come back here to look at the design books,’ ’ Katie couldn’t hide her amusement as she waved the teen into her workroom. She hadn’t expected Mandy to stop by, but she wasn’t entirely surprised when the teen called from her cell phone to say she was on her way over, either.

  It figured she’d come over after she knew her father would be gone for the day.

  “It’s not that messy,” she told Mandy. “He offered to clean up and I told him to get. He has other jobs today. Besides, only a couple more days and he’ll be out of here. And when he’s finished, I’ll have custom cabinets and a gorgeous new countertop.”

  And who knew what else she’d have. A man in her life for the first time since she’d returned to Bowen? A bushel of doubts and fears, all brought to the surface again? Worries about trying to live up to someone else’s expectations?

  Or would she be stuck with a serious case of lust that wasn’t going to be satisfied in one afternoon? Kissing Jared had taught her that that, at least, was a given. If she closed her eyes, she could still imagine the drag of his lips against her throat and the way his skin warmed her palms, even through his T-shirt.

  She’d worked through the early afternoon with his freshly soaped scent still teasing her senses. As she’d measured and cut the fabric for a gown for a bride-to-be from the nearby town of Tekamah, he’d invaded her daydreams and ratcheted them to an instant R rating. She’d come close to making a mistake with her scissors more than once.

  “Wow, look at all this,” Mandy breathed as she entered the workroom and surveyed the bolts of silk, taffeta and satin lining the walls. “It’s magical back here. Cinderella’s fairy godmother probably couldn’t come up with this many choices of fabric and lace.”

  Katie said a polite, “thank you,” not wanting Mandy to dwell on whether or not the shop was truly magical, and set the design books at one end of the worktable for Mandy to peruse. Then she pulled out a legal pad to take notes. “You said you’d settled on a few things?”

  Mandy’s face broke into a broad smile. “Yeah. Kevin and I were out grocery shopping and I tried to get his opinion, but in a backward sort of way, you know? I wanted to find out what he likes, but I didn’t want him to know what I’m actually going to get. I think that’d be bad luck. So I commented on pictures of the wedding gowns worn by actresses on the front of the magazines at checkout.”

  “And did he have an opinion?”

  “Not really. Though I did eliminate some ideas. He hated anything that was too poofy. That was his one big thing.”

  “No poof, no problem. Though if you’re paging through the books and see a dress you like but are tempted to eliminate it simply because it’s too poofy, let me know. I can usually take poof down a notch.”

  “Actually, I already know what I want. I’ll find it.” Mandy flipped open the largest of the design books, then scoured the pages. Katie went back to the gown she’d been working on, allowing Mandy time to find the right photo.

  “This one,” she said a few minutes later, spinning the book around. “I saw this last time I was here. I really like the way the top is fitted. It’s graceful, plus it’ll cover the fact I’m not totally stacked. And I like the bottom of the one on the next page. Is there some way I can combine the two? I think it’d have a vintage look, like a classy Hollywood gown from the forties or fifties, you know?”

  Katie studied both gowns. “I have an idea.” She circled the worktable and grabbed another book, then opened it about midway, to a photograph of a gown her grandmother had designed. It had always been one of her favorites, something she’d wear, if she ever decided to get married. ‘‘What do you think of this?”

  “Oh, wow. Yeah.” Tears welled in Mandy’s eyes. “That’s totally what I had in my head. Totally. Do you think Kevin will like it?”

  “I don’t know Kevin’s taste,” Katie admitted. “But judging from your reaction, I bet he would. Guys notice demeanor more than they notice a dress. If you feel good, you’ll radiate that.”

  “Then that’s what I want. I’m positive.” She looked from the book to Katie. “We’re talking about getting married right after graduation, the first or second week of June. Is that enough time? I mean, a bridal magazine I read said gowns can take nine months or more.”

  “That’s plenty of time for me. In fact, it might be better if I hold off starting the gown for a couple months until, say, after Christmas. That’ll keep you from being locked in if you change your mind about what you want.”

  Mandy nodded, and Katie wondered if she caught the double meaning, that in time she might change her mind about the dress or about the wedding itself.

  Katie marked the page, then made a few notes on her pad while Mandy continued to stare at the picture. “I know you never knew her, but—”

  Katie glanced up, afraid of what was coming next. ‘‘Knew who?”

  “Do you think it’s the kind of gown my mother would like? I feel like I should have something she’d approve of.”

  “I’m sure she would, if she had an opinion. It’s a classic design and in a cut that’ll flatter your figure.” Mandy fiddled with the corner of the page.

  “Yeah. I just wish I knew for sure. If she decides to come, I want to look perfect.”

  Katie set down her pen and tried to think of how Jared would have her handle the topic. “Mandy, it’s my understanding you’ve never actually met your mother.”

  The teen shook her head. “She moved to Chicago when I was three weeks old. She hasn’t seen me since then, or even talked to me, but she talks to my dad a couple times a year to check on how I’m doing.”

  Katie could see how it hurt Mandy to admit her mother had never even spoken to her. “It’s probably hard, not having your mom around.”

  “It completely sucks.” A sigh escaped her, and she let go of the page. “None of my friends get it. They actually think it’d be cool to only have to get their dad’s permission to do something. Or to be able to have the whole house to yourself after school, because there’s no mother there and your dad’s still at work. They even say stuff like, ‘It’s not like you knew her and she died or anything.’ I mean, I’m sure that would make it harder, but puh-leeze.”

  “I know the feeling,” Katie replied. “My mother died when I was very young—not even a year old—and my dad neve
r remarried. My friends made similar comments.”

  Careful in her choice of words, Katie added, “I’m sure it’s even harder for you. You know your mother is out there, somewhere, and it makes you wonder. I never had to deal with that, with having to set aside someone who was alive but not around. But I always used to wonder what my life would have been like if she’d been around. Whether I would have been more confident, for instance. Or if I still would have gone away to college, or chosen to stay in-state at Omaha or Lincoln. All the what-ifs.”

  “I do wonder. All the time,” Mandy admitted. “I probably shouldn’t, but I do.”

  “I think it’s natural.” Katie leaned back in her chair, trying to keep her tone casual, while still getting the message through to Mandy. “I don’t know about you, but not having a mom around made me realize how much my friends took their mothers for granted. They might’ve argued more with their moms than with their dads, and sometimes griped about how strict their moms could be, but they always had someone they could talk with about girl things. It’s not the same with a father.”

  Mandy rolled her eyes. “No kidding. I love my dad, but like, I could never talk to him about Kevin. Not about anything too deep. It’d be bizarre. He tries, but he doesn’t get what it’s like to be a female. Last year I put highlights in my hair before junior prom, and my dad hit the freakin’ roof. I mean, come on. It was highlights. If my mom had been around, she’d have probably taken me to the salon herself.”

  Katie grinned. She could picture Jared’s face when his daughter walked in the door with unfamiliar streaks of color. She doubted he’d hit the roof, but he would’ve been taken aback, wondering why Mandy had done something he’d consider unnecessary.

  Mandy let out a little snort. “If he’s going to flip out over something stupid like highlights, imagine what he’d think if I tried to talk to him about stuff at school or about my relationship with Kevin. But a mom would talk about those things. Well, as long as I didn’t go into too much detail, if you know what I mean.”