Charlie wondered if Rayleen was now regretting her earlier speech about not needing anyone to give her away because she’d been supporting her own damn self for years. But she visibly steeled herself, set her mouth in a serious line and started down the aisle to the sweet notes of “Here Comes the Bride.”
Charlie squeezed Walker’s hand and smiled when he pulled her a little closer to his side. “She looks beautiful,” he whispered, just as Charlie was thinking it.
Rayleen did look beautiful, and when Charlie turned to peek at Easy standing just in front of the dais, she caught the wistfulness of his smile as he watched his bride approach.
Rayleen stared straight ahead, as if she were afraid to meet anyone’s eyes, and Charlie noticed that the bouquet in her hands trembled slightly as she passed.
“Miss Rayleen,” Easy said softly, holding out his arm as she reached him.
The bride murmured something that ended with “...foolishness,” but she took Easy’s arm all the same. In fact, her knuckles turned white where she gripped him as she stepped onto the dais.
Grace, Rayleen’s only attendant, took the small bouquet of white lilies from the bride’s hand and gave her a kiss on the cheek. The audience seemed to hold its collective breath for a moment, waiting for Rayleen to either bolt or loudly declare that she’d changed her mind and wasn’t letting some half-dead old cowboy take over her life. But Rayleen only drew a deep breath and faced the pastor.
The ceremony went off smoothly, though when the pastor accidentally uttered the word “obey,” Rayleen shot him a look of such promised violence that he choked on the sentence and immediately corrected himself. Easy snorted, and then Cole tried to swallow a laugh and failed so miserably that he had to duck his head for a long moment.
But Rayleen held her tongue up until the moment the man intoned, “You may now kiss the bride.”
“Pah,” she scoffed. “I’m not going to let Easy show off in front of half the town, just because some old—”
Her words ended in a squeak when Easy swept her close, bent her over his arm and kissed her senseless. When Easy finally stood her straight again, he only smiled. Rayleen smiled back.
The crowd cheered, filling the room with a happy roar as Rayleen patted the back of her hair and pretended she wasn’t blushing. Easy held her hand and kissed her on the cheek for good measure.
“Well, all right,” she grouched when the cheers finally died down. “Let’s have the damn party, then.”
The fiddle sang out the wedding recessional march, but instead of exiting down the aisle with her groom, Rayleen tugged him toward the bar on the other side of the room. “I need a damn whiskey,” Charlie heard her mutter as they passed.
Walker pulled Charlie into his arms as the crowd began to drift toward the tables set up for the reception. Charlie didn’t feel any compulsion to move.
“God, you look delicious,” she groaned, tilting her head up for a kiss. She’d made the same complaint three times on the drive over, manhandling him until he’d been groaning, too. If they hadn’t been running late, she would’ve made him pull the truck over for a quickie, but she’d have to be satisfied with molesting him on the way back to town. As it was, she slipped her fingers into his recently cropped hair and pulled it.
“Stop it,” he growled, tugging her hand down.
“Why?”
“You know why. You’re too good at getting me...interested.”
He stepped a few inches back.
“But you look so hot,” she whined, giving his shoulder an insolent shove. He did look hot. She’d never seen him in a suit before, and combined with the short hair and newly close-cut facial hair, he looked like a damn movie star. The rugged kind of star who just got hotter and hotter the older he got.
“You look pretty hot yourself, Charlie.” His eyes swept down her tight blue cocktail dress. “But I’m still managing to restrain myself.” When she shot him a doubtful look, he answered with an innocent smile, as if he hadn’t slipped his hand into her panties on the way over.
“I am going to ruin you on the drive home,” she promised. His innocent smile faltered. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go congratulate the happy couple.”
She thought she heard him moan in frustration, and that made her smile all the brighter as she approached the large crowd that had assembled around Easy and Rayleen. Easy was shaking hands. Rayleen had her back turned and was instructing the bartender on how to serve whiskey properly.
Walker shook Easy’s hand and added a slap on his shoulder. “Congratulations on snatching her up before I could,” he said.
Easy laughed. “Thank you, but—”
Before he could finish his sentence, Rayleen swung around with drink in hand. “As if I’d have given you the time of day, Walker Pearce. I like a man who hasn’t put all of his business on the internet.”
Charlie nearly fell over laughing. “My God, Ms. Rayleen, I think I love you,” she said, before she pulled the old woman in for a tight hug. “Congratulations. Easy is such a good man.”
“Aw. He’s all right,” Rayleen answered, blushing again.
“So all right you decided to pen him in for good?”