Happy Is The Bride Read Free

children and live happily ever after?
    Beth pulled her hand away from her mother's. "Mama, Mason will be at the church, and the wedding will happen."
    Her father peered over his spectacles. "Let's hope so. You'd better get married this time." He looked down at his paper and muttered, "Probably is your last chance."
    Beulah put her hands on her hips. "Y’all leave Miss Beth alone so she can eat without getting the jitters. She's gonna be the prettiest bride this town ever seen."
    Finally, one other person who believed Beth would be wed today. Beth smiled her thanks, and Beulah went back to the kitchen.
    "Don't eat too much, dear, or your dress might be tight. After all, we've had it for several years."
    "Mama, I know precisely how long we've had the dress." As usual, Beth's sarcasm was wasted on her mother.
    "It's just like you to be thoughtless and agree to wed that boy with only three weeks' notice. There's been too much to do. As soon as you've eaten, we need to hurry to the chapel. The buckets of flowers and other supplies are already loaded on the buckboard."
    "I'll hurry." Beth dug into her food, thankful for the fact that Mason would never leave her at the altar. But after being jilted three times in as many years, a tiny seed of doubt swelled deep inside her. She prayed that noth ing would keep Mason from meeting her at the chapel.
    Dear God, help me. I couldn 't take the humiliation of another wedding gone wrong and cancelled.
    Tomorrow morning she would be mistress in her own home, subject only to sweet Mason's directives— but no more than he would be to hers. Then the folks in town would be forced to admit she wasn't jinxed. It might take a couple of children to convince them she wasn't cold, but surely her marriage to Mason would put an end to the constant gossip about her. That thought cheered her. Today was indeed a special day.
 
 
    Two
    Mason forked straw from the loft onto the wagon. The sun shone brightly overhead, but he thought rain clouds gathered low on the southwest horizon. He fig ured the church grounds needed the coarse stem roughage spread to prevent buggies from sticking and help keep folks' feet dry if it rained before the wedding.
    His ranch hand, Rowdy Vines, worked beside him. "Boss, you sure this marriage is what you want?"
    "Yep, dead level positive." Mason had loved Beth for as long as he could remember, but had never told anyone. He thought of her eyes when he looked at a perfect spring bluebonnet Her hair matched honey, or maybe cornsilk. He couldn't decide, but it didn't matter. He loved her, and after tonight she'd be his forever. Nothing could please him more.
    Thinking about her made him grow hard and his denim britches fit too tight. Dang, he wanted Beth so much he had trouble sleeping nights, but he wanted more from her than her body. He loved talking to her, wanted to spend his life at her side. Until now she'd had little love in her life, but he planned to protect her and shower her with the love and devotion she de served.
    For years he'd dreamed of building his future with her as his partner. She was the woman he wanted as mother to his children, and he hoped their future held a couple of blond, blue-eyed girls like her and a boy or two to carry on the ranch. With or without chil dren, they'd have a grand life together.
    Mason knew how hard her parents were on her, al ways wanting her to be a society leader, sending her to that fancy school when she wanted to stay home, never saying anything nice no matter how she tried to please them. The Pendletons had never consulted Beth to ask what she wanted. He'd see Beth had anything she de sired that was within his power to give her.
    Though Beth and he had been friends since he was eight and she was seven, she'd never given him any in dication she returned his affection other than to tell him she thought of him as her brother and best friend. That was, until her proposal three weeks ago.
    Wait. He stopped and scratched his head. Come