The Substitute Bride (The Great Wedding Giveaway Series Book 7) (17 page)

She breathed through lungs that suddenly seemed twice as big.  “Oh, what a relief!”

Drake nodded.  “It was what they call a white stroke, which apparently is a little less terrifying than the other kind.  So far, they can tell he has loss of movement on the left side, and some double vision, overall he’s one lucky son of a gun.”

Marly wanted to put her arms around him.  Though he was obviously profoundly relieved, he was so tired.  She could see the exhaustion in his eyes, which were shadowed, and in his mouth, which seemed to have lost its natural teasing curve. 

Suddenly remembering her manners, Marly turned to Robin.  “Hi,” she said.  “Are you here to see Fly, too?”

“No,” Drake answered for her.  “Robin’s actually been looking for you.  We just stopped in at the Courier.  Your mother told us we could find you here.”

“Looking for me?”  Marly couldn’t have been more surprised.  “Why?”

“Because...” Robin spoke up quickly, as if she wanted to forestall Drake speaking on her behalf.  But then she seemed to founder, uncertain what to say next.  She glanced at Drake, who merely nodded and waited for her to continue.

“Because I need to tell you something,” Robin soldiered on.  “About the contest.  About my application for the contest.”

Oh
. 
Of course
.  Amazingly, Marly realized she’d forgotten all about Robin’s two Giveaway applications.  Even given the drama of the past twenty-four hours, it seemed impossible that she could forget something that had once loomed so large.

“Don’t worry about the application, Robin,” she said.  “No one will ever hear about it from me.”

She wanted to look at Drake, to see if he believed her.  But she didn’t want him to think this was just a ploy to win his approval, or a payment for their night together.  She would never have run with this story, even if she hadn’t fallen in love with Drake.

Wait
. 
What
?

Fallen in love
...?

Her heart knocked wildly at her ribs.  What was she saying?  She couldn’t have fallen in love, not in one short week...

Suddenly dizzy, she glanced at him from under her lashes.  A rush of emotion blitzed through her.  Or rather, every emotion.  Desire.  Joy.  Tenderness.  Even fear—fear that this emotion was entirely one-sided.  And in that instant, she knew the truth. 

God help her, she hadn’t fallen in love with him this week.  She’d done it ten long years ago.

“But I
want
to tell you,” Robin insisted earnestly.  “Otherwise, you’ll always wonder, and maybe you’ll even think it was Drake’s fault.  He told me you did think so, already, and that’s unfair, because—”

“Not anymore,” Marly said, breaking in rather than letting the statement stand.  “I don’t think that anymore.”

“Okay, but still.”  Robin took a deep breath.  “What happened was, I was dating him. I was hoping he’d start talking marriage, but he just never did.  So I...well, I told you how bad I am about going after what I want, and how I almost always can get it, too.  So I went after him.  I thought if I made that video, and entered us in the contest, he’d see what a good idea it was.”

A flicker of her normal spitfire showed briefly, as she cut him a saucy look.  “I guess I underestimated how stubborn he is.  When I told him, he was furious.  He said I had to withdraw the application, and we were through.  Well, obviously I was devastated, and Ibby was so good to me through all of it.  He said such sweet things.  He said Drake was an idiot, and—“

Drake chuckled, and Robin glared at him.  “Well, I’m sorry, but he did say that, and you
are
.  Anyhow, as they say, the rest is history.”  She turned back to Marly with an ecstatic grin.  “Ibby and I fell in love, and the idea of a free wedding looked better than ever, because obviously Ibby doesn’t have as much money as Drake, so—”

“Enough,” Drake said, putting his hand heavily on Robin’s shoulder.  “I think Marly gets the general idea.”

“Yes,” Marly agreed.  “I definitely get the general idea.”

Robin looked pleased.  “So now you know it wasn’t his fault.  Except for being an idiot, and too stubborn to live.  The problem with your finding the old video was that nobody wants to hurt Ibby.  We don’t want him to know he wasn’t my first choice.”

Yes, Marly thought.  That would be very painful to learn.  No wonder Drake had been so angry when he thought she wanted to plaster it all over every news box in Marietta.

“It was all so upsetting.”  Robin sighed.  “I don’t fail like that very often, I can tell you.” 

Then, out of nowhere, a sudden coo of excitement seemed to jump out of her.  She held up one finger dramatically.  “Oh, that reminds me!  Did you hear?  I found the bridesmaid dress I want, exactly,
and
I found it in lemon-lime green!”

“Robin, for the love of God,” Drake began, but after that he just shook his head and gave way to quiet laughter.

Marly almost laughed, herself.  But somehow it didn’t seem quite right to mock the adorable Robin Armstrong, who was a decent person underneath all the foolishness, and clearly a force of nature. 

“Good for you,” Marly said.  “Guess you showed Lisa Renee, huh?”

“Yeah, because that woman is—”

“Okay,” Drake said firmly, interrupting whatever was to follow.  He put his hands on Robin’s shoulders and rotated her to face the lobby doors.  “You go home.  I need to talk to Marly alone now.”

Alone
?  Marly’s heart started that strange thumping all over again.  Why alone?

Robin muttered something under her breath and made a pouting face, but Marly could tell she wasn’t really insulted.

“He wants to talk about loooove,” she drawled, winking knowingly at Marly.  “How about that for a slap in the face?  I say one little thing about maybe we should get serious, and he’s all like
woah, girl, hold your horses, I’m not the marrying kind
.  Then you show up, and the cowboy starts singing a different tune.”

Marly didn’t look at Drake.  She couldn’t.  He must have wanted to strangle Robin right now.

“Anyhow, if he asks you to marry him, I hope you say no.”  Robin gave him one last dressing down with her eyes.  “His ego could use taking down a peg or two.”

“Robin, go home,” Drake repeated slowly.  “You won’t miss anything.  I’m not going to ask Marly to marry me.”

“Riiiight,” Robin said, dripping with sarcasm.  But she clearly knew Drake’s patience for her particular brand of cheeky charm was running out.  She wiggled her fingers at Marly, then headed for the doors.

For a minute, when she was gone, Marly felt something that resembled panic.  She was as aware of Drake standing next to her as if they were the only two people still alive in the universe.

Last night seemed too recent, the memories too vivid.  She stared at her shoes.  She wondered if he could hear her heart attacking her ribs.  She wondered if she was blushing.  She wondered if he knew what she was remembering...

“Come on,” he said.  “I’ll take you up to see Fly in a little while, but right now, they’re doing another MRI.  He told me to use the time to talk to you, but if I’m going to carry out all his wishes we’re going to need a little more privacy.”

Taking her hand, he led her toward the back of the lobby, and then through a different pair of double doors.  Beyond that, a secluded courtyard had been created, where families could come to be alone, to commune with nature, or to pray.

It was small, but lovely and peaceful.  Spreading shade trees created sheltered nooks, with white stone benches and waist-high, bubbling fountains.

They were the only visitors at the moment, but even so they chose one of the most private benches.  They sat side by side, their hands in their laps, their faces forward, as if they were waiting for a show to begin.

Neither of them spoke for several minutes.  Finally, with a long exhale, he leaned back, letting his shoulders touch the trunk of their tree.  He glanced at her once, a small smile playing behind his eyes, and then began to speak.

“Actually,” he said conversationally, “that wasn’t quite true, you know.  What I told Robin.  I
am
going to ask you to marry me.”

Her head whipped up.  “What?”

“I said I
am
going to ask you to marry me.  Just not today.  Today...I don’t know.  It feels too soon, don’t you think?”

She couldn’t think at all, to be perfectly honest.  She couldn’t even quite keep her mouth closed. 
Marry him
?  She’d never once dreamed of that, even when she allowed herself...other dreams. 

But maybe he was only teasing.

“I mean, we’ve technically only had sex the one time.”  He extended one finger, as if to demonstrate how insignificant an amount ‘one’ was.  “And seems to me one time is hardly—”

“Five times,” she corrected quietly.

He caught his lower lip between his teeth, which made his smile endearingly goofy.  “Excuse me?”

“I said that...technically, you know, if you’re keeping score, we had sex five times.”  She considered, tapping her lower lip.  “Or six, depending on whether you’re defining sex strictly as—”

With a soft but jubilant crow of laughter, he leaned over and scooped her up against him, tilting her into his arms.

“My point exactly,” he said.  “By this count, we’re practically strangers.  If I asked you to marry me now, you probably would say no, and that would be very hard on my ego.”

He held her so close she could feel his heart beating against her breast.  His was going almost as fast as her own. 

If he was teasing, his heart didn’t seem to know it.  Still, she wasn’t going to be the first to take this seriously—and look the fool.

“If you asked me to marry you now, I would
definitely
say no,” she assured him. 

“I was afraid of that,” he said mournfully.  “That’s what I told Fly.  But, okay, let’s sort this out.  What do you think?  Is ten enough?  Twenty?  Yes, maybe twenty.”

She smiled.

His answering grin was innocent.  “I only ask because we’ve got a couple of hours right now, before Fly is back in his room.”

“I have to go to work,” she said, laughing.  “And I can’t afford to play hooky right now, not when I just told my mother I’ll be needing the job on a permanent basis.”

His face sobered quickly.  His arms tightened around her.  “You did?”

She nodded.  “We talked first thing this morning.  I told her I’m going to stay in Marietta.  I shouldn’t ever have left, really.  This is where I belong.”

“Really?”  He frowned.  “No New York Times?  No Pulitzer before you’re thirty?”

“Well, no New York Times, anyhow.”  She wrinkled her nose.  “I don’t see why I couldn’t still win the Pulitzer for my Copper Mountain column, thank you very much.  The awards do have a small-circulation category, you know.”

“Sorry,” he said.  “My mistake.” 

He ran his hand lightly along the side of her arm.  He seemed distracted—completely unaware of the goose bumps he created in his wake.

“How did your mother feel about this new plan?  Was she frustrated?  I always got the impression you were her surrogate out there in the world.”

“Frustrated, definitely.  And cautiously pleased.  And of course, a lot of worry thrown in.”

“Worry about what?”

She hesitated.  This was where their banter might end up getting too serious.  “About you.  She was afraid I was choosing to stay because I’d fallen too hard for you.”

He made a low, displeased sound.  “She never did like me, did she?  Well, back then she was probably right.  My dad was an alcoholic, and we were always just one missed mortgage payment from being homeless.  Plus, I was a cocky son of a gun.  But your mother knows everything that happens in this town, so she undoubtedly knows how different things are at Three Horses these days.”

“What she knows is that you’ve found a buyer.  She thinks you’ve already got one foot on an outbound train.”

“Ahhh.”  He nodded.  “Well, please inform your mother that the deal fell through, quite unexpectedly, just this morning.  The buyer and I had a fundamental difference of opinion.”

She caught her breath.  “You did?  What went wrong?”

He smiled—and then, as if he couldn’t stop himself, he lowered his head and kissed the sensitive skin behind her ear.  He’d discovered that spot last night.

“Like I said, a difference of opinion.  See, he wanted me to sell him the ranch, and I wanted to keep it.”

“You’re not selling at all?”  A small starburst of pleasure appeared inside her.  “You’re staying?”

“I’m staying,” he said.  “I put the ranch on the market because I had decided I couldn’t bear to live there, with all the ugly memories following me around, from kitchen to bedroom, from garage to dining room, from the stables to the barn.  Everywhere I went, day and night.”

She put her cheek against his chest, her heart aching for him.  “I’m so sorry,” she said.  “I wish I could make them disappear.”

“You did,” he said, and the hint of laughter was gone.  This, she could tell, was a simple, unvarnished truth.  “You came to me.  And now, in that room, at least, nothing ugly survived.  Everywhere you touched is filled with light.”

She swiveled, looking up at him.  How wonderful, if he meant it.  How magical that their lovemaking had bathed that room in happiness.

“That was the gift you gave me, Marly.  You proved that love is stronger than hatred, that beauty is more powerful than pain.  I don’t have to leave my home.  I just have to overwrite it with joy.”

“Yes.”  She closed her eyes, saying a quick prayer that he was right.  That they could love away the bad memories forever.

“So that’s one room down.”  His voice had found that playful edge again.  “And...let’s see...just fourteen to go.  We probably should leave the barn and stables for last, don’t you think?  We might even want to wait until we’re married, so that we don’t shock the livestock.  Some of my horses are just plain prudes.”

She chuckled softly.  “Idiot,” she said.

But she loved his idiocy.  She remembered this silly boy so well.  Below her disapproving façade, she’d always been secretly attracted to his nonsense, his laughter, his irrepressible life force.