Second Chance Bride (Montana Born Brides) (13 page)

“Maybe the spa treatment will work.”

“Yeah. Maybe.” But Sharon didn’t look like she believed it and Scarlett had to admit, she had good cause.

“So Sharon,” she said, leaning closer, “This might sound strange too, but I’m curious about this accounting thing. Tell me about your job, what do you actually do?”

The men returned a few minutes later and the sightseers returned a little after that, full of all the amazing things they’d seen from the air, and the conversation was lively and lunch was ordered and arrived and was demolished with gusto and the atmosphere was festive.

With two hours to go before the wedding, people were just thinking about making a move to prepare for the ceremony when Alice
Svensson bustled nervously up to Robbo’s side. “Robert, Kristelle wants to know where you’ve put the gown.”

He shrugged. “I haven’t put it anywhere.”

Alice blinked and swallowed and tried again. “So where is it?”

This time
Robbo twigged. “The dress? You’re looking for the wedding dress?”

“Ye-
es.”

“I thought you had it.”

“Oh, god.” Alice peeled away from the table and disappeared and everyone around the table blinked, and that was really all there was time for because it was Kristelle who appeared next; Kristelle in a sundress with her skin glowing and hair all pinned up into an intricate and elegant up-do, and how every bride-to-be would want to look, if it wasn’t for the rabid eyes and her mother hovering anxiously behind.

“Robert, darling,” she said with words that fairly dripped with arsenic, “where is my dress? You know, the one I’m supposed to marry you in
. In. Less. Than. Two. Hours. From. Now?”

A sheen of sweat broke out on
Robbo’s forehead as the coaster in his fingers shredded. “I don’t know, darling. Where can it be?”

She laughed, if you could call it a laugh. “You seriously mean to tell me that you don’t have it?”

“I thought it was bad luck for me to have anything to do with it before the wedding day. When you weren’t carrying it, I assumed Alice had brought it with her.”

“
Aaaaargh!” She turned on her bridesmaid. “Sharon, you should have done something. Why didn’t you think of it?”

Sharon sat bolt upright in her chair. “How? Why?”

“Because you’re supposed to be supporting me. You should have known something was wrong. You should have done something about it.”

“But you came up the day before me. I didn’t know you didn’t have the dress.”

“You could have asked!”

“And you could have realized then and I could have brought it the next day.”

“You’re saying this is my fault? You’re useless!”

“Hey,” said
Robbo, “Leave Sharon alone. It’s not her fault.”

“Then whose fault is it?”

“Oh god,” said Rolf across the table, who looked like he’d been visited by the ghost of weddings past, and hailed a passing waiter for a double scotch.

“Calm down,” said her mother nervously hovering behind Cyclone
Kristelle, “we’ll get another dress. We’ll go shopping. It’ll be fine.”

Kristelle’s
fists clenched at her sides. “We’re in a tiny town at the arse-end of the world and I’m supposed to be getting married in less than two hours. Where am I supposed to find a dress?”

“Actually,” Mitch piped up, and said, before Scarlett could stop him, “Scarlett’s got a dress.”

All heads swiveled her way. “What?”

“You wouldn’t mind if
Kristelle borrowed it, would you, Scarlett?”

She shook her head. “I really don’t think...”

“A wedding dress?” all of them said. “You’ve got a wedding dress? Why?”

“It’s kind of a long story.”

Kristelle huffed. “This is pointless. Even if
she
had a dress, it would hardly be suitable for me.”

“I
dunno,” said Mitch. “It’s white and frothy and takes up half the wardrobe. What did you say it cost? Two thousand dollars? A Vera Wong or something.”

“Vera Wang,”
Scarlett corrected. “But I don’t think—”

Alice gasped, her gaze going from her daughter to Scarlett and back again, mentally sizing them up. “You’ve got a two thousand dollar Vera Wang gown hanging in your closet?”

“Mother, I hardly think—”

“Well think again,” her mother snapped. “Because right now there don’t appear to be too many other options.”

Which was why Kristelle and her mother were standing in their villa two minutes later as Scarlett unzipped the cover on the dress. “Oh my god,” Alice said, her eyes popping out at all that tumbled tulle, as if even she hadn’t believed this might work. “Kristelle, get your clothes off, right now.”

“It gapes,” complained the bride-to-be a few minutes later.

“It’s bound to,” said her mother, who already had the villa’s pre threaded needle kit out and ready to go. “You’re not as well-endowed as our American friend. But apart from that, it’s perfect. Hold still and I’ll fix it.”

A few tiny stitches under the arm,
and it was done. And even Kristelle had to admit, she looked amazing. But still...

“Look, I have to warn you, I don’t think it’s a very lucky dress.”

“Oh, you’d do that, wouldn’t you?” Kristelle sniped, “You’d deny me this dress to ruin my wedding day.”

Oh good grief, thought Scarlett. “So go ahead. Take the dress.”

“It’s a dress,” Alice said, matter-of-factly as she helped her daughter climb out of it. “It’s lucky you had it,” she said, securing it back in its protective cover. “I’ll see you back at the villa, Kristelle,” she said, and left with the gown.

“So long as you understand,
Kristelle, this dress has bad luck. Two brides and two disappointments.”

“Two?” She blinked, as she climbed back into her own clothes, and then shook the question away. “Well, that’s hardly likely to happen to me,” she said knowingly, “Robert can’t wait to get that ring on my finger. He loves me. Besides, he’d never marry better and he knows it.”

“Lucky Robert.” Try as she might, Scarlett couldn’t keep the snipe from her voice.

Kristelle
paused, her hands behind her back at her zipper. “It should have been lucky Mitch, as it happens, but I’ll settle. Meanwhile, we all know Mitch can do a whole lot better than you. And he will, because he’s not going to marry you, you know. If he wouldn’t marry me, he’s hardly going to stoop to marrying trailer trash like you.”

Wow. Nothing like laying it on the line. Had she just lent this woman a wedding
gown? Scarlett found a smile from the nether regions of somewhere. “You know, I really wish there was a way to say this nicely, seeing as it’s supposed to be a wedding ’n’ all. But I asked Mitch what you were like before we came, and he told me you were beautiful.

“Turns out he was wrong, as it happens, because you’re stunning. Super-model gorgeous in fact.” Scarlett paused, the look on the other woman’s face telling her she was clearly wondering what her problem was.

“What he didn’t tell me, because he’s too much of a gentleman, is that you’re a complete and utter bitch.”

Kristelle’s
face turned as cold and hard as marble. “Trailer trash!” she repeated, as she headed for the door.

“Happy wedding,” Scarlett said.
Just don’t say I didn’t warn you
.

Robbo
and Mitch were sharing a last pre-wedding tipple at the bar—one of a series of last pre-wedding tipples—when Mitch looked at his watch and stood up.

“C’mon, mate,” he said. “
Gotta get you to the church on time.”

Robbo
didn’t move, just sat hunched on his stool looking melancholy. “To be honest, I was kind of hoping she’d call it off.”

Mitch blinked and sat back down again. He was feeling a bit dazed
. The events of the past couple of days were spinning around in his brain and after a few drinks it was hard to pin them all down long enough to make sense of them. “Hang on, mate, what are you saying?”

“I thought it was a solution to everything.”

“Don’t you want to get married?”

Robbo
screwed up his face. “That’s a hard one. Ask me something else.”

“Do you love her? Do you love
Kristelle?”

“Oh,
Kristelle. She’s beautiful isn’t she? Like an ice princess or ice goddess or something. Ice. Cold. Something.”

“Mate, do you love her?”

Robbo frowned. “Who?”

“
Kristelle!”

“Oh, you still talking about her?” He shook his head. “I
dunno. I must. I mean she tells me I do.”

“So you don’t actually love her?”

“I dunno. How do you know when you love someone? I mean, how do you know you love Scarlett?”

Mitch shook his head. “Mate, it’s not like that.”

“Of course, it is. Anyone can see you’re nuts about her.”

“
Robbo—”

“And she’s nuts about you.
The three blind mice could see that. God, it should be you two tying the knot.”

“
Robbo, listen, this isn’t about me. This is about you. You and Kristelle. Because if you don’t love her, why are you marrying her?”

Robbo
sighed a long loud sigh of frustration. “Because she wanted to get married and I’m scared to bloody death of her! Why do you think? And because when I said I had doubts about getting married so quickly, she said I was nuts if I didn’t because I’d never do better.” He looked sadly over at his friend. “She was right, wasn’t she? I’m too bloody ugly for someone like her.”

“Jesus mate, has she got you well and truly stitched up.”

Robbo shook his head and drained what was left in his glass. “And then I came here and met Sharon—” he looked at his mate, “Have you met Sharon? She’s an accountant, too.”

Mitch clapped
Robbo on the arm. “Yeah, I know. I’ve met Sharon.”

“Yeah?”
Robbo grinned. “Isn’t she something else?” He hiccupped and turned his empty glass upside down on the counter. “I need another drink.”

“No you don’t,” said Mitch, signaling to the bartender for two
big black mugs of coffee. “What you need right now is a clear head and courage.”

“I’d rather have another drink.”

“Yeah,” Mitch said, “wouldn’t we all?”

The elegant gazebo was the perfect site for an intimate wedding. Surrounded by the lush tropical gardens and verdant lawns, the lily pond below lent an aura of tranquility, as silver and golden fish flashed by the surface and lingered a moment before swimming away, and exotic birds made even more exotic
calls from the trees around.

It could have been tranquil too, if the groom and best man weren’t missing in action.

“I’ll go look,” offered Scarlett, when the celebrant looked at his watch for about the seventeenth time.

She found them on their way, dressed formally for the wedding, sure, but looking more than a bit frayed around the edges. She caught Mitch’s arm and caught a whiff of alcohol with it. “Where the hell have you two been?” Although the answer seemed pretty obvious.

“Pondering the question of life, the universe and everything,” Mitch said.

“What?”

“Robbo has to talk to Kristelle. Where is she?”

“She’s with her father waiting to walk down the figurative aisle. Where do you think she is?”

Mitch smiled down at Scarlett in the green dress they’d bought together in Kalgoorlie and with her hair tied into an elegant knot. “Geez, you look beautiful, Scarlett.” And suddenly, in a bolt from the blue, he had the answer to Robbo’s question.

How do you know when you love someone?

You just do.

He blinked as his heart lurched with the enormity of the discovery. He glanced down at his watch. He needed to sit down and work this out a while. “How much time
do we have?”

“No time! Are you drunk?”

“Not half as drunk as Robbo.” He looked around for his mate. “Robbo?” But his mate was long gone, already wending his unsteady way along the path towards the gazebo. “Shit!”

They chased after him but he had a decent head start and beat them there. “I can’t do it,” they heard him say to the celebrant and his parents and
Kristelle’s mother. “The wedding’s off. Where’s Kristelle? I have to tell her.”

“You’re not marrying her?” said his mother.

“Nope.”

She put her hand to her head. “Oh, thank god for that.”

“Virginia!” Andrew chided, gesturing with his eyes in Alice’s direction, “Not now.”

Virginia put her hand on the other woman’s arm. “Nothing personal, Alice, because I like you and Rolf, I really do. But I have been worried about this whole wedding.”

“Really?” said Robbo. “I wish you’d told me. I wish someone had told me.”

“What
is
going on?” cried Kristelle, marching down the path toward them in her borrowed Vera Wang gown with her father and bridesmaid chasing after her. Quite a sight.

“Wow, that’s three hundred and fifty dollars’ value right there,”
muttered Scarlett and earned herself a pinch on the ass from Mitch for her observation.

“Ah!”
Robbo turned. “Just the person I wanted to see.”

“What is happening, Robert? Why are you so late?” And then she came closer and recoiled. “Oh my god. You reek!”

“I can’t marry you, Kristelle.”

“What?”

“I can’t marry you. I don’t love you.”

“What are you saying?” She was blinking wide eyes and smiling brightly and really turning it on. “Of course you love me, Robert.”

“Nope. I love the idea of you, sure, and I love the idea that someone as beautiful as you might want to marry someone as ordinary as me. But I don’t love you. I don’t think I even like you.”

Kristelle’s
face turned so hard it looked like it might shatter. “You’re drunk.”

“And you’re an ice... cold…bitch!”

“Oh!” She threw her flowers onto the ground and stomped on them before turning away, about to storm off, before she spotted Scarlett and Mitch on the periphery. “This is all your fault,” she said to Scarlett, tugging at the bodice and ripping her mother’s clever stitches so that it gaped and sagged and looked as sad as she did. “You knew this gown was bad luck, you knew!” And then to Mitch. “And it’s your fault too. You bring this piece of trailer trash to my wedding and look what happens.”

There was an audible hiss as everyone sucked air in and held their breath. Mitch looked at the woman before him, the woman he’d once shared a bed with, and
didn’t that knowledge make him feel sick to the gut. “Be grateful you’re a woman,” he said, through a jaw so tightly set it was a wonder the words could squeeze through, “because if you were a man, your face would be wearing my fist right now.”

There were tears spilling from her eyes, her beautiful face twisted and ugly in her anguish. “Don’t you see what she is? Are you blind?”

“Kristelle,” said her mother, gently. “Come on, sweetheart. We should go.”

She looked around, appealing to them all. “Are you all blind? Mitch should be marrying me! Not her!”

Looks were exchanged. Robbo shook his head. Sharon slipped her hand in his and he leaned into her, and his parents bowed their heads and gave silent thanks. The celebrant just sighed and closed his book and quietly drifted away.

“Come,” said Alice and Rolf to their distraught daughter. “Come.”

Mitch whisked Scarlett away from Cable Beach where the fallout and recriminations from the doomed wedding were bound to continue, and took her to Town Beach, on the Roebuck Bay side of Broome. Here there was a market set up with stalls selling food and souvenirs, with jugglers and buskers providing the entertainment, as people gathered in preparation for the famous Staircase to the Moon.

He was glad he hadn’t said anything foolish to her before the wedding. Now he’d had a chance
to think about it, he could see it would have been a mistake. Robbo had simply been so taken in by their acting roles, that he’d actually believed they were in love, and in Mitch’s alcohol-assisted brain, he’d almost believed it too.

Lucky he’d sorted that out in time.

Because it would have been the last thing Scarlett would want to hear. She was leaving. Going home to a place half a world away, and possibly as early as tomorrow. And he’d go back to his fly-in, fly-out job and he’d probably forget all about her by the next time he was on leave again.

They wandered around the stalls and ate
Indonesian satay and noodles before they found a place on the grass overlooking the bay before things got too crowded. There, as they sat and watched the huge tidal pull suck the bay dry, shrinking it to a tiny rivulet and leaving the muddy flats exposed and glowing under the fading sun, he called his travel agent.

Paying Scarlett in cash was no problem if that
was what she wanted, he’d told her, but making a reservation would be quicker and easier on his card, and she’d agreed to that, so long as it didn’t cost more than fifteen hundred dollars, or she’d rather take the cash and work it out herself.

And even as he dialed, he was selfishly hoping there was nothing available at short notice, and she’d have to stay a few more hours, even just overnight, until he himself had to catch the shuttle back to the
Kimberleys. Was it too much to ask for one more day and one more night? Just twenty-four hours more with a woman who had turned his world inside out and upside down in the space of just a few short days?