Three Brides, No Groom Read online

  “You bet I do!” she cried, so angry she couldn’t sit still any longer. “Counseling is exactly what Roger needs. I can’t believe that the Lockhearts told you such a ridiculous story. I find it unbelievably insulting that you’d believe them.”

  Raising her voice was out of character, enough to garner her parents’ full attention. “What you heard doesn’t even faintly resemble the truth.”

  “Tell us your version, then,” her mother suggested, calmer now.

  “My version? What I’m going to tell you is the truth.” Gretchen didn’t leave room for any misunderstanding. “You’re both looking at Josh and me as if we did something terrible. I’ll have you know, if it hadn’t been for Josh, I don’t know what I would have done. I owe him more than I can ever possibly repay.”

  “What about the money we’ve sunk into this wedding, young lady?” her father asked.

  “While I realize you’ve gone to considerable expense, I’m not willing to throw away my life and marry the wrong man. If that concerns you so much, Dad, I’ll repay you myself.”

  “George, please,” her mother said softly, and pressed her hand over her husband’s. “Let Gretchen finish. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for everything.”

  “I don’t suppose Mrs. Lockheart told you that Roger was with…that Roger slept with another woman the night before our graduation?”

  Her mother gasped, and her father frowned.

  “That wasn’t the first time it’d happened, either,” Gretchen added. “It had been going on for six months.”

  “Who told you this?” her father wanted to know.

  “The other woman,” Gretchen said. “And when I confronted Roger, he admitted it. Later I learned that she’s pregnant.”

  “I thought there must be something more to this than what Stella Lockheart told us,” Gretchen’s mother said, sounding mollified. She tapped her index finger against the table, keeping time with the grandfather clock in the formal living room.

  “Why didn’t you fly home?” George Wise asked. He glanced toward Josh, and while he didn’t say anything, his look indicated his disapproval.

  “Because Roger’s mother had my airline ticket.”

  “She wouldn’t let you have it?”

  Gretchen hesitated. “I…I didn’t ask.”

  “Why in heaven’s name not?” her father barked. “Instead you impulsively took off with a member of the Hell’s Angels, and worried your mother and me half to death.”

  “I won’t have you talk about Josh that way,” Gretchen said angrily. She knew that her parents discounted Josh only because they didn’t like the way he looked and the fact that he rode a motorcycle. “I don’t know what I would have done without him.”

  Josh glanced at Gretchen and smiled apologetically, then scooted back his chair and stood. “Mr. and Mrs. Wise, it was a pleasure to meet you, but I don’t believe my presence here is necessary, nor am I particularly welcome.”

  For one wild moment Gretchen was struck dumb. “No!” she cried when she found her voice. “I won’t let you leave.”

  His eyes met hers. In that brief moment she realized that nothing she could say or do would change his mind. He’d seen and heard all he needed to be convinced he didn’t belong in her world and never would.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Wise,” he said, “forgive me. I don’t mean any disrespect.” Then he reached for Gretchen, catching her around the waist and hauling her into his arms. His kiss was almost primitive. “Goodbye, Gretchen,” he whispered when he’d finished.

  Her mother gasped, and her father’s mouth fell open in shock.

  Gretchen was left speechless, stunned when Josh hastily broke away and headed for the front door.

  “You aren’t going to let him walk out of here, are you?” Gretchen said to her parents, pointing at Josh’s retreating back.

  Looking uncomfortable, her father cleared his throat. “Frankly, yes, I think his decision to leave is very perceptive of him.”

  Gretchen stared at her father and said, “Then I’m leaving with him.”

  “Gretchen!” The panic in her mother’s voice almost stopped her.

  She placed her hand over her heart as she said the words aloud for the first time. “I love him.”

  Her mother gasped.

  “Gretchen, I forbid it,” her father said.

  “Oh, Daddy, I’m not a child. Please, trust my judgment. I know what I’m doing. I’m following my heart.” She offered them both a quick apologetic smile. “I’ll call you, I promise.” And with that she raced out the door.

  She heard her parents call after her, but she paid them no heed. She saw Josh already astride his Harley. She dashed down the steps and across the lawn to the curb.

  Josh scowled when she reached him. “What are you doing here?”

  She refused to be put off. “I’m coming with you.”

  His scowl deepened. “I don’t think so.”

  “Listen here, Josh Morrow. I’m tired of playing games, of pretending. You pay attention now, because I’m only going to say this once. You love me.”

  “I beg your pardon?” He made it sound as if it was all he could do to keep from laughing outright.

  “You heard me,” she returned sternly. “Furthermore, I love you. If you think I’m going to let you ride off into the sunset without me, you’ve got another think coming! We’re in this together.”

  “Hold on.” He held up his hand. “Don’t you think you’re taking a lot for granted?”

  “Not in the least. You’re going to marry me. My dad paid a fortune for that country-club membership, and we’ve already got the date reserved. I don’t believe anyone will mind that the groom has a different last name than the man I originally planned to marry.”

  Josh didn’t laugh at her joke. “Gretchen, there isn’t going to be a wedding. At least not between you and me.”

  She blinked, uncomfortable with the alternative. “You want to live in sin?”

  Pain flickered in his eyes. “I’d never do that to you.”

  Her relief was substantial. “Oh, good. I didn’t think you would.”

  “I’m going to do you a bigger favor. I’m going to get out of your life before I screw it up along with my own.”

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” she said. “I’ve already cast my lot with you.”

  “Goodbye, Gretchen.” He revved the engine.

  Where she found the nerve to leap in front of the Harley, she didn’t know.

  He looked stunned.

  “I have one more thing to say, and you’d better listen.” She’d never been more serious in her life.

  He turned off the ignition. Now he looked uncomfortable. “All right, say it, but I haven’t got all night.”

  “You’ve got the rest of your life. Our lives. It’s plain as day that you and I should be together.”

  “No, baby, we shouldn’t.”

  “Be quiet,” she said, her voice trembling. “I love you, and there’s never going to be anyone I’ll love more. If you leave without me, you’re going to regret it the rest of your life. You’ll look back to this time, this place, and wonder what would have happened if you’d let me come with you.”

  “You win some, you lose some,” he returned flippantly.

  “Don’t you dare talk to me like that. Don’t you dare treat my love as if it’s something you can toss away without a care. You aren’t fooling me. I know you. Do you think I could spend all this time with you and not know your heart?”

  “Are you finished?” he asked grimly.

  “No.”

  “Just how much longer is this going to take?”

  “Not long.” She swallowed tightly and began again. “You told me earlier today that you wouldn’t chase after me. Well, I won’t chase after you, either.”

  “Good. That relieves my mind.”

  She could see there was no cracking his stubborn pride. She stepped aside and watched helplessly as he restarted the engine.

  Her hand cove
red her mouth to hold back the words to beg him not to leave her. With tears streaming down her face, she watched Josh ride off into the night.

  Chapter 6

  “That’s not the end of the story, is it?” Carol Furness leaned back, bracing her palms against the concrete rim of the fountain, her eyes wide with dismay. A soft breeze rustled the leaves of the trees, and sunlight cut a pathway through the shade, splashing across the lush green lawn.

  “He left you and rode off just like that?” This time the question came from Maddie Coolidge.

  “Yes, just like that,” Gretchen whispered in a futile attempt to keep the pain out of her voice. Even after fifteen years, she continued to feel that same crushing sense of defeat. On a starlit night one June fifteen years ago, Josh Morrow had left her standing alone at the curb, the sound of his retreating Harley drowning out her sobs.

  Eventually her mother had come out of the house and joined her, gently placing her arms around her shoulders.

  “He didn’t come back?” Carol asked, breaking into the flood of disturbing memories.

  “No,” Gretchen replied, staring unseeingly across the deserted campus. “He didn’t come back.”

  “But that’s terrible,” Maddie said.

  Gretchen was aware that she was sitting in the very spot where her heartbreaking adventure had begun. Now Maddie’s words brought her forward in time, and she turned to her two friends. “I loved Josh Morrow more after traveling with him for three days than I ever loved Roger Lockheart.”

  “Perhaps it was for the best,” Carol suggested, squeezing Gretchen’s hand. “Josh always did have a chip on his shoulder.”

  “One about the size of Alaska,” Gretchen said wryly.

  “What happened next?” Maddie asked.

  “Next?” Gretchen murmured, pulling herself away from her memories. “Well,” she said, unsure where to start, “when it became clear I wasn’t going to get over Josh as easily as my parents had hoped, my mother took me to Europe.”

  “Do you ever wonder what happened to Josh?” Maddie wanted to know.

  “Of course,” Gretchen answered.

  “And what about Roger?” Carol asked.

  Gretchen leaned back on her hands. “I imagine the reunion will answer that question. I saw his name on the list of attendees.”

  “Did you see Eddie Shapiro’s name on that list?” Carol asked tightly.

  “As a matter of fact, I did.”

  “That’s right,” Maddie said, straightening enough to meet Carol’s look. “You were engaged to Eddie.”

  Anger flashed in Carol’s eyes. “I was. He got rid of me soon enough.”

  “I’ve told you what happened to me with Roger,” Gretchen reminded her former sorority sister. “Now it’s your turn.”

  Carol laughed ruefully. “If you think Roger was a jerk, just wait until you hear what Eddie did to me.”

  “I’m all ears,” Gretchen said.

  “I’ve got the afternoon to kill,” Maddie seconded.

  Carol’s Story

  Chapter 1

  Carol Furness fell in love with Eddie Shapiro the first time she saw him throw a football. It had been September of her freshman year at Queen Anne University. Standing on the sidelines of the football field, she’d watched the pigskin ball sail effortlessly and gracefully thirty yards into the arms of the tight end. Eddie had made it look easy, his timing perfect, his throw masterful. In that moment she recognized that, with proper training and guidance, he was headed for the pros.

  And she’d been right.

  Growing up the youngest child and only daughter in a family of five, with two older athletic brothers, she knew more about football than some coaches’ wives. She’d started cheerleading in junior high and had set her sights on making the cheerleading squad at Queen Anne the minute she was accepted.

  That first day on campus she’d set two goals for herself. Being head cheerleader by the time she graduated—and marrying Eddie Shapiro.

  She took over the head cheerleading position her junior year and accepted Eddie’s engagement ring the Christmas they were both seniors. They planned a July wedding, and while she was occupied with finishing the last of her credits for her education degree, something wonderful happened.

  Eddie was drafted by the pros, chosen in the thirteenth round by the Denver Broncos.

  “I never doubted,” she reminded him as they hugged each other wildly and danced around the room. “Not once.”

  Little did she realize that was the beginning of the end.

  * * *

  “What do you mean, you want to delay the wedding?” Carol cried, hardly able to believe what she was hearing.

  Eddie lowered his gaze to the lawn outside her sorority house. He butted the toe of his shoe against a dandelion, breaking off the bright yellow blossom, crushing it. Crushing her. He apparently had nothing more to say.

  “The wedding’s less than six weeks away.” Someone needed to remind him of that. Her parents had already spent a lot of money, not to mention the mental and emotional commitment she herself had made to their plans these past several weeks. Finishing her classes, studying for finals and getting ready for graduation had been more than enough for one person, but she’d taken on organizing their wedding on top of everything else. Now Eddie was telling her he thought they should wait. Carol hadn’t slept more than four uninterrupted hours in a row in over two weeks. She was exhausted and cranky, and the last thing she needed was this.

  “I can’t help it, honey,” Eddie said contritely. “I’ve got to start training early.”

  “Surely you can take one day for the wedding.” She was willing to forgo the honeymoon. And it wasn’t as if the wedding date came as any surprise to Eddie. He’d been the one to choose July.

  “I wish I could, but coach won’t allow it.” He sounded flustered and apologetic, but she wasn’t buying it. She recognized that hurt-little-boy act of his, the one he used whenever it suited his purpose. He had a way of getting what he wanted by playing the misunderstood and abused hero. She’d seen him do it any number of times, enough to recognize the tactic when he attempted to work it on her. Well, he could manipulate others, but not her.

  “Everything’s different now,” he insisted, his voice gaining strength. He looked up, and Carol watched the resolve strengthen in his face. In that instant she knew the truth. There was more to this announcement than met the eye.

  The fact that Eddie had waited until after the graduation ceremony to tell her didn’t sit well with her, either. He must have known his practice schedule with the Broncos weeks earlier. His agent had worked out the details of the contract, and although Carol was soon to be his wife, Eddie had kept the particulars to himself.

  That wasn’t all. She had noticed that he had been less than attentive of late, but she’d attributed that to the commotion of the final weeks of school, exams, graduation, their wedding plans—everything that was happening in both their lives. His schedule was crammed as he prepared for his induction into professional sports. As crammed as her own.

  As graduation approached, it had become increasingly difficult to get him to make decisions regarding the wedding. For weeks she’d been offering her mother excuses, and she’d finally been forced to go ahead without his input. She’d wanted his opinion, but it had been impossible to catch him for so much as five minutes. When she did, his mind was on other matters, and so she’d given up.

  Her list of excuses regarding Eddie’s behavior had begun to sound hollow even to her own ears.

  “Is there something you’re not telling me?” she asked point-blank. She would rather get things out in the open now and be done with them.

  Eddie shifted his weight and avoided eye contact. “No. Mark warned me I was going to be exceptionally busy for the next several months with practice and the games and all.”

  Carol had never been keen on Eddie’s agent, but her fiancé had argued that he was fortunate to have someone like Mark Raferty on his side. He’d
continually discounted her objections, and blindly allowed someone else to make business and now personal decisions for him.

  “How long?” she asked, keeping her voice firm and strong.

  “Long?” Eddie repeated. A confused I’m-not-sure-how-to-tell-you-this gleam was in his eyes.

  “Before we can reschedule the wedding?”

  He hesitated, and in that millisecond, in that half a heartbeat, the truth reared its ugly head like a sea monster rising from the waves. All at once what Eddie was saying became clear. As clear as clean glass. Now she understood and wanted to kick herself for being so obtuse, so blind to what should have been obvious all along.

  “You want to call off the wedding.” She said it for him. Without emotion. Without censure. Just hearing the words was a relief in its own right.

  “Honey, sweetheart, don’t be angry,” he pleaded, sounding as if he was about to burst into tears.

  Amazingly, Carol wasn’t upset. It was almost as if she was standing offstage and watching a scene play out between two strangers. Almost as if she was a nonparticipant. What she should be doing was ranting and raving, giving in to hysteria and dissolving in tears. Instead, a calm settled over her, a sense that this wasn’t really happening, that everything would soon be set right. Eddie loved her and needed her. He’d always loved her, as she had loved him.

  It took her a moment longer to realize that he was still speaking. “Mark suggested it wasn’t a good idea for us to marry now, and I have to say that I agree with him. I’m starting a new life.”

  She blinked as the words came at her like sharp needle points. “A new life without me?”

  “There’s no need to take it personally. I’m a professional athlete, and I have certain obligations to my career and my team,” he said—echoing the words of his agent, Carol was sure. “Certain…sacrifices.” He appeared to have trouble remembering the next line of his speech. She strongly suspected he’d memorized and repeated it for Mark before confronting her. That sounded like something Mark would have him do.

  Flustered, Eddie shook his head and asked, “Are you OK?”