Last Year's Bride (Montana Born Brides) Read Free Page A

transformation. “You were right. It’s amazing.”
    “ Must be,” Troy agreed drily, “to get you here.”
    “ Doin’ my dad a favor. I’m meeting McKays. You’ve met Tom?”
    Troy nodded. “Good man. Hope he comes back to town. Oh, hell. Jane’s waving. Gotta run. Have a good time.”
    Jane Weiss was the mover and shaker behind tonight ’s ball. The head of the Marietta Chamber of Commerce, the reason for the Great Wedding Giveaway 100 th Anniversary that tonight’s ball was celebrating, Jane had come to town last fall and had pretty much taken Marietta by storm.
    She and Troy had even dated for a while. They were still friends. So it could happen, Cole told himself. Maybe someday he could just be friends with Nell. But the sudden knot in his stomach didn’t encourage that line of thinking. He’d never just wanted to be friends with Eleanor Corbett, not from the moment he’d laid eyes on her. There was something about Nell that had caught his attention at once. With her heavy thick straight honey-colored hair, her flawlessly smooth olive complexion, and her dark slightly slanted eyes, deep brown with gold flecks, she had been radiant that afternoon—and every day thereafter. She was both exotic and undeniably beautiful. Her smile was as warm as it was friendly. And she always seemed to go golden in the sun.
    Now Cole resolutely pushed his memories away and looked around for Tom McKay. The tables were filling up. The room was crowded with people. Tom had purchased a whole table for the event and had even tried to get Sam to come as well, but of course Sam had declined.
    It was fine to bully his son into attending, but God forbid he should get duded up himself and put in an appearance.
    “It makes him uncomfortable,” Em had offered as an excuse.
    Cole knew the feeling. He didn’t like crowds much himself. But his dad had become more and more anti-social over the years. Rumor had it that Sam hadn’t always been a hermit. When Sadie’s mother had been there, the two of them had occasionally gone out.
    Not enough, apparently, because before Sadie turned two Lucy had left, had gone back to waitressing in Vegas, telling Sam she couldn’t stand the silence. Since then Sam had foregone sociability entirely.
    Em said, “That’s just the way he is,” and since his heart attack, Sam’d had an excuse for staying home. No one wanted to be the one who provoked another heart attack, so no one pushed him to do anything.
    “ Ah, Cole! There you are!” Tom McKay came through a crowd, a smile on his face, a hand outstretched. “Glad you could make it.” His smile widened as they shook hands. “Come meet my daughter.” He smiled. “She’ll appreciate the hat.”
    Lacey McKay did appreciate the hat. She was a tall, slender girl, with a riot of red curls that might once have been tamed, but probably not in recent memory. At least Cole couldn’t imagine she’d done her hair that way on purpose. She confirmed his suspicion a moment later, confiding, “I love hats.” She twisted her fingers in her unruly curls and tugged at them. “They cover a multitude of disasters.”
    Cole nodded, liking her in spite of his misgivings about the evening. “They do.”
    Two years ago when he ’d been bucked off a bronc at the Wilsall Rodeo and cracked his head on a fence rail, no one had ever known—except Nell—because she’d brought him home. He’d used his hat to cover the gash.
    “ You should get stitches,” Nell had advised, crouching down next to him once they’d dragged him out of the arena. She’d been so close he could smell a fragrance of cinnamon and citrus on her.
    “ A kiss will make it better,” he’d told her muzzily, still managing to give her his best come-on grin.
    “ You think?” Her words had been gentle, but dry.
    They had only met that afternoon, and Cole didn ’t ordinarily proposition women the instant he met them. But with Nell it was different, he’d been attracted from the moment