The Men In Uniform Collection. Barbara McMahon
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“I might have if it hadn’t gotten smashed up...”
He flinched with regret. He needed to know what was on that computer. “Is it beyond repair?”
“No,” she assured him. “It’s just going to take me a little while longer. And we’re kind of busy at the moment.” She lowered her voice again. “Someone cut up Tanya’s wedding dress.”
His heart clenched. “Is she all right?”
“Yeah, Mom fixed it.”
“The dress?”
“No, there was no fixing that dress,” she said with a shudder. “It was completely destroyed.”
And his suspicions increased. Cutting up a dress was an act of incredible jealousy and pettiness.
“Mom found her another dress.” Nikki uttered a wistful sigh. “Wait until you see her...”
He stepped forward, but his sister shoved on his chest and pushed him back. “You’re going to have to wait,” she told him. “Mom’s gone above and beyond for this wedding and you’re not going to ruin it. You are not seeing the bride.”
“I actually want to see the maid of honor.”
Nikki opened the door a little farther. She wore a dress in some bronze color that complemented her reddish hair. She narrowed her brown eyes and glared at him. “I know what you’re thinking, and you’re wrong.”
He nodded and acknowledged, “I might be. Let me talk to her.”
Rochelle pushed past her friend and stepped into the vestibule with Cooper. She wore the same bronze dress as his sister but it wasn’t nearly as flattering. Maybe that was because of the resentful look on her face. She hadn’t bothered doing anything with her hair either; it hung in lank strings around her bare shoulders. “Have you come to your senses yet?” she asked.
“Maybe...” he murmured as he studied her face. Her eyes, a grayer shade of green than Tanya’s, were red-rimmed and swollen as if she’d cried all night. That could just be what she did every time she got drunk. He had met his share of sloppy drunks over the years. Or maybe she had been that upset over Stephen’s disappearance.
How upset had she been over his engagement to her sister?
She expelled a shaky breath of relief. “That’s good. You shouldn’t marry my sister.”
“Why not?” he asked. “Do you want your grandfather’s inheritance all to yourself?”
She sucked in a breath. “I—I don’t care about his money.”
“What do you care about?” he asked. “Stephen?”
Tears shimmered in her eyes and she nodded again. “She didn’t care about him at all.”
“Then why would she marry him?”
“For the money, that’s all she cares about,” Rochelle said. “No, that’s not true.”
“No,” he agreed. Tanya had become a social worker, she wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t care about other people. And she wouldn’t have been promoted to supervisor if she didn’t care enough about her job to be good at it.
“You,” Rochelle said, her resentment now turning on him. “She always had a crush on you.”
He would have told her how wrong she was, that Tanya had only wanted to be his friend, but he didn’t want to interrupt Rochelle. The more upset she got, the more she might reveal.
“So your marrying her is exactly what she wants,” she said, bitterness making her voice sharp and her face ugly. “And Tanya always gets what she wants.”
And Cooper suspected that Rochelle always wanted what Tanya had.
“Have you talked to Stephen?” he asked.
She gasped. “Of course not.”
“Why ‘of course not’?”
“He’s missing.”
“Yes,” he said. “Do you know where he is?”
She gasped again. “You think I have something to do with his disappearance?”
“I think you’re jealous that he was going to marry your sister,” he said, and he had no doubt that he was right about that. He just wasn’t sure about the rest of his suspicions. “And jealous women can be quite dangerous...”
She stepped closer to him, her eyes bright and her nostrils flaring. “You have no idea how dangerous I can be.”
He was afraid that he might have a pretty accurate idea.
She stepped back and shook her head. “You know, marry my sister with my blessing. I think the two of you deserve each other.” She stepped back inside the bride’s room and slammed the door behind her.
“You don’t have Parker’s way with the ladies,” Logan remarked as he joined Cooper in the vestibule.
“Neither do you.” Which was more ironic since they looked almost exactly alike. Logan wore his hair shorter than Parker’s but not as short as Cooper’s military cut.
“That’s fine with me,” Logan remarked. “I would rather stay single than do what you’re about to do.” He pointed toward the church. “Parker and the reverend are waiting for you.”
“Did Mom send you to get me?”
He shook his head. “No, to get Tanya.”
“Déjà vu.”
“I’m walking her down the aisle.”
She had no one else to do it. Her father had abandoned his family. Her original groom had disappeared. That left only Cooper and his family. He hoped they would be enough to keep her safe.
His mom stepped out of the church and crooked her finger, beckoning him inside. Unlike his siblings, he didn’t always blindly obey his mother. She hadn’t wanted him to enlist but he had. He had even fought her plan the night before...until he had realized that she was right.
The best way to keep Tanya safe was to marry her. But who was going to keep him safe? Because the minute he saw her looking both ethereal and sexy in white lace, he realized that he was in the most danger in which he had ever been. He was in danger of falling irrevocably in love with the woman about to become his wife.
* * *
IN HIS BLACK TUXEDO and white pleated shirt, Cooper Payne looked so handsome that he completely stole Tanya’s breath. He wouldn’t have fit in Stephen’s tuxedo. Mrs. Payne must have extra suits available the way she had dresses.
Actually, she’d had only one extra dress on hand. A very special dress...
Cooper’s gaze met hers and his eyes widened. Was that because he recognized his mother’s dress?
Tanya had the moment Mrs. Payne had brought it to her to replace the destroyed dress. She had seen that dress in the wedding portrait that hung over the mantel in the Payne living room. And she had refused to wear it. The woman that Cooper was going to marry for real—for a happily-ever-after not just until we get an annulment—deserved to wear that dress.
Not Tanya.
But Mrs. Payne had insisted in that gracious, indomitable manner of hers that tolerated no refusal or argument. And as she’d also pointed out, Tanya had no other options. Unless she wanted to get married in jeans and a sweater, she had to wear Mrs. Payne’s wedding dress.
Maybe she should have gone with the jeans—then she wouldn’t feel like such a fraud. Actually, she felt like a bride. A real one. Especially with how intently her groom was staring at her.
The strapless gown was all vintage lace and sparkling beads with a formfitting silhouette.