Sweet Talk. Jackie Merritt
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laid on him made him feel as if he’d shriveled from his normal six feet to child-size.
“Sorry,” he said quickly, hoping an immediate apology would alleviate her distress, which he didn’t understand but felt responsible for.
Her reply, “Yes, you are,” shocked him. He stood there like a ninny for a long moment, wondering what, exactly, she had meant with those three words.
But he knew. Deep down where it hurt, he knew. She had told him coldheartedly that she thought him to be a sorry specimen of humanity.
No one treated him that way, especially women. Doc Fairchild was a freezing-cold woman, one any man with a dram of good sense would give a wide berth, so why was he already trying—once again—to figure out a way to break through her icy exterior and reach her heart?
Chapter One
The wedding of Max Cantrell and Jinni Fairchild took place at the Rumor Community Church on Saturday, November 1, at 7:00 p.m. Valerie Fairchild was her sister’s attendant and Michael, Max’s son, all decked out in a gorgeous dark suit comparable to his father’s, was best man. It was Michael’s first experience with a wedding, Jinni had confided, and Val sensed strong emotion behind the youth’s rather swaggering exterior. Obviously, Michael preferred that no one know how touched he was by this very adult affair.
Val understood exactly how the boy felt. She, too, was emotional. She had to bat her lashes every few moments to hold back tears. She didn’t want to cry at Jinni’s wedding, she wanted to be happy and joyful and smiling. Growing up, the Fairchild sisters had not been close at all, but when Jinni dropped everything in New York and came to Rumor to help out during Val’s chemotherapy treatments, it had been the most pleasant surprise of Val’s life.
Now the sisters were very close, and the frosting on the cake was that Jinni had met Max Cantrell and they had fallen in love; Rumor, Montana, was now Jinni’s home as much as it was Val’s. It struck Val, while she stood there listening to Pastor Rayburn’s kindly voice uniting her sister with the man she so dearly loved, that even when things looked darkest, there was often a ray of light on the horizon. Val’s dark days had indeed been brightened by her sister’s unexpected appearance. Jinni fairly glowed with her enjoyment of life, and she rarely had a negative word to say about anything. She had bolstered Val’s spirits more times than Val could recall, and during their many conversations, hours spent talking and laughing, they had become true sisters.
“I now pronounce you man and wife,” Pastor Rayburn said. Val sighed inwardly, feeling a spark of regret because the ceremony was over.
Max put his arms around his wife and kissed her. At that very moment, a wave of weakness—a backlash from her chemotherapy treatments—struck Valerie. No! she thought frantically. Not now! Given no choice in the matter, she sought someone to lean on. She took two shaky steps and grabbed Michael’s arm. He looked at her as though she had sprouted horns.
“Bear with me,” she whispered, comprehending his dismay. “I need to steal a bit of your strength…just for a moment or two.”
“Uh, sure,” he said, then remembered that Jinni’s sister wasn’t well. In fact, when he thought about it, there had been several instances of conversation about Dr. Fairchild doing battle with cancer. Just thinking the word sent icy fingers up Michael’s spine, but he would crumble to dust right where he stood before letting this nice woman know that he was so easily rattled.
The guests in the small church left their seats to congratulate the newlyweds. Val managed to kiss her sister’s cheek, then Max’s, and to wish them every happiness before the crowd got to them.
“I’m fine now, Michael,” she told him. “Thanks for the use of your arm.”
“You can hang on to my arm anytime you, uh, need to.”
Val saw the red stains on Michael’s cheeks and adored the boy for his response. He always acted so tough and uncaring, but underneath his bored-with-it-all expression, his practiced glower, he was a sweet young man.
“You’re a dear,” she said with a soft smile. “I think you and I might be related now. Let me see. Jinni is now your stepmom and I’m her sister, so I think that makes me your stepaunt. What do you think?”
“Yeah, could be,” Michael mumbled.
Val wanted to laugh, but for Michael’s sake she didn’t. The boy was well aware of Jinni’s new status. He didn’t have to call her Mom, but legally she was his stepmother. Val knew for a fact that Jinni was thrilled at gaining a son along with a truly marvelous husband, but Val could only guess at how Michael perceived the quite serious change in his life. Jinni was positive, and had said to her sister that she and Michael were developing a great relationship.
The church hadn’t been full; only a dozen or so guests had been invited, as the Cantrell family wasn’t exactly riding high these days. Max’s mother was there, and Val noticed Michael gravitating toward her. Mrs. Cantrell was torn, Val could tell—happy for her eldest son, Max, and worried for her younger son, Guy, who was in jail, awaiting trial for the murder of his deceased wife, Wanda, and her lover, Morris Templeton.
There was not going to be a wedding reception, either. The Cantrells—with Jinni present—had discussed the event and decided that with Guy in such jeopardy they would eliminate any flamboyance. When the trial was over and Guy was freed—they were positive of the outcome, as they knew Guy could never harm, let alone murder, anyone—then they would throw a party that would knock the whole town’s socks off. Jinni had ardently agreed with her future family.
While the newlyweds were kissed and congratulated by everyone, Val dodged bodies, went to a pew and sat by herself. Watching the gaiety at the front of the church spill into the center aisle, she realized how much Jinni’s family had expanded in the past few minutes. Val’s family consisted of one person, Jinni, while her sister had Max, Michael, Mrs. Cantrell and Guy.
Val sighed quietly. She would never be a bride. She couldn’t force herself to let a man get close no matter how clever his attempts. She’d been hit on many times since that horrible long-ago experience that still haunted her dreams. The extended therapy she had undergone after the incident had helped, of course, but she’d known from her first session that she would never regain her old confidence and be the carefree, flirtatious woman she’d been before that terrifying day. Absorbed wisdom from the best therapist money could hire had made her more or less whole again but it had also destroyed her affection for the opposite sex. She liked men, as long as they kept their distance.
It wasn’t something she talked about; it was just who she was these days, a sexless being with a good career, a handful of friends and a sister that she had come to love very much.
But who wouldn’t love Jinni? Val asked herself. She was so alive, so vibrant and beautiful. Jinni brought life into any room she entered. Was it any wonder that Max had fallen in love with her? The good citizens of Rumor had never met a sparkling dynamo like Jinni Fairchild, and she’d taken the place by storm. Now, of course, she was one of the townsfolk, and Val would bet anything that once Jinni and Max settled into their marriage, Jinni would become Rumor’s leading hostess.
It was a pleasing thought, and Val was smiling when Jim and Estelle Worth approached her. These wonderful people had started out as employees, helping out when Val became ill, and had evolved very quickly into good friends. Both Jim and Estelle were retired, Jim from the U.S. Forest Service and Estelle from nursing. Jim was a big man with thick shoulders, a bit of a paunch and a full head of graying hair that would make many a younger man blanch in envy. Estelle was tall and thin—her dark hair also graying—and so full of cheerful energy that she appeared to bounce from one task to another. This great sixty-something couple still worked for Val, Jim in the Animal Hospital and Estelle in Val’s home, and Val could talk with ease to each of them. Not about herself, of course, or her disturbing past, but Jim and Estelle had become parental figures to her. She truly loved them both.
“What a precious wedding,” Estelle said with a nostalgic sigh, as though recalling her own wedding. Jim stood behind her and