Sandra Steffen - Wyatt's Most Wanted Wife

He hadn’t realized he wasn’t alone until Cletus’s crotchety voice cut into his thoughts. “So, things didn’t quite come off without a hitch, eh, boy?”

With Lisa’s reply sitting on his ego like a box of rocks, Wyatt shot his grandfather a penetrating look. “Whatever gives you that idea?”

Cletus hooked his thumbs through his suspenders and slowly shook his head. “It could have something to do with the fact that you look like a stallion with a sore—”

Wyatt heard Isabell’s and Opal’s dramatic gasps, so he wasn’t surprised when Cletus said, “Hoof,” instead of what he’d probably intended to say. “Well?” his grandfather asked, turning his back on the two eavesdroppers and lowering his voice. “Did you ask her?”

“I asked her.”

“And?”

“She turned me down.”

Cletus snapped his suspenders and shook his head. “Jumpin’ catfish, she ain’t makin’ it easy on ya, that’s for sure.”

Wyatt didn’t reply. Cletus had raised him, and if there was one thing he was used to, it was his grandfather’s huge understatements. Besides, Cletus was right. Lisa wasn’t making it easy on him. In fact, she was making it next to impossible.

A spoon jangled on a glass, drawing everyone’s attention to the front of the room where Lisa and her best friend were standing. “Can I have your attention, please?” Lisa called.

At least twenty people said, “Shh.” Twenty more yelled, “Quiet,” but it took a two-fingered whistle from Wyatt’s sister, Mel, to silence everyone enough for Lisa to be heard.

“Before Luke whisks Jillian out of here tonight—to make wedding plans, of course—I’d like to propose a toast.”

The room echoed with resounding chuckles from the local bachelors. Everybody knew Luke Carson, and nobody believed for a minute that he had wedding plans on his mind tonight. Luke was Wyatt’s best friend. Judging from the glowing expression on Jillian’s face, he was also a lucky man. Wyatt had a sudden, burning desire to arrest somebody. If there wasn’t a law against that kind of happiness, there ought to be.

Raising her pot of coffee, Lisa said, “To Luke and Jillian, the first couple to become engaged in Jasper Gulch in more than five years.”

One of the local boys shouted, “The first but not the last.”

“I’m plannin’ on being next,” someone else called.

“Right after me.”

“In your dreams.”

“If I’m dreaming these days, it ain’t about you.”

When the ensuing argument died down, Jillian Daniels pushed her wavy red hair behind her shoulders and raised her own glass. “I’d like to propose a toast, too. To Lisa Markman, the best sport in the world. After all, it was her idea to move to a town that advertised for women, her idea to actively search for Mr. Right. She’s systematically dated every man who’s asked her, yet, like the true friend she is, she’s genuinely happy for Luke and me.”

Hearty chuckles and guffaws nearly raised the roof. Wyatt glanced at Lisa, and he couldn’t join in. His heart beat a steady rhythm that had nothing to do with laughter. Just when he was convinced she wasn’t going to look his way, her gaze met his. She went perfectly still, and so did he. Awareness flickered in her eyes, sending a flush to Wyatt’s face and chest that had nothing to do with the August temperatures. Something incredible made its way through him. Before he could put a name to it, Luke’s brother, Clayt, said something to Jillian and Lisa, and the moment broke.

Tipping his hat back with one finger, Clayt raised his voice so that it could be heard from one end of the diner to the other. “I just want to remind everybody to keep the first Saturday in September open. The town council is hosting a barbecue in Luke and Jillian’s honor, and everyone’s invited.”

Jillian beamed, and Lisa didn’t look at Wyatt again. He knew, because he watched her for a long time. Wondering if he could have been mistaken about what he thought had passed between them, he finally turned away. Nursing a sore ego, he headed for his quiet corner in the back of the room.

“Lisa, are you okay?”

Lisa peered through wispy bangs that were on the verge of being too long, and found Jillian Daniels watching her closely from the other side of the breakfast table. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

Seemingly lost in thought, Jillian rose to her feet and carried her cereal bowl to the sink. “I don’t know,” she said after she turned the water off and placed the bowl upside down in the drainer. “Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you’ve sighed three times in the past five minutes.”

“I have not.”

“Yes, you have.”

“Jillian, I couldn’t possibly have sighed three times in the past five minutes.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

Lisa started to smile, thinking this was more like it.

“Maybe it was four times.”

Shaking her head, Lisa carried her own cereal bowl to the sink. When she glanced at her friend again, Jillian was leaning against the counter, in the house they’d shared since moving from Wisconsin earlier in the summer. Jillian’s arms were crossed, her gaze unwavering. It was a stance Lisa knew well. Jillian Daniels had long red hair, soft blue eyes and a stubborn streak a mile wide. Although she rarely admitted it out loud, it was one of the things Lisa had always been the most thankful for. Without it, Jillian never would have been able to talk her into going to live with Ivy Pennington all those years ago, and Lisa might never have stopped running.

“Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?” Jillian asked in a quiet voice.

Tucking a wayward strand of hair behind her ear, Lisa shifted her weight to one hip and said, “Does Luke know how persistent you can be?”

“Believe me, he knows. Luke is so incredible. Love is so incredible. No wonder you wanted to move out here and experience this.”

“Yes, well, you’re just lucky you’re my best friend. Otherwise, I’d be mad at you for nabbing the most eligible bachelor in Jasper Gulch.”

“Are you mad at me?”

“Pu-lease.”

“Then my engagement to Luke doesn’t have anything to do with those sighs of yours and the fact that you were so quiet last night and again this morning?”

The reason for Lisa’s quietude and her sighs shimmered across her mind. She didn’t want to think about Wyatt McCully, but she couldn’t seem to get the expression deep in his eyes and the clear-cut lines in his face out of her head.

She glanced at her friend and found Jillian watching her closely. She’d been on the receiving end of Jillian’s treasured smiles a thousand times, which was just about how many whispered secrets they’d shared over the years. Their friendship went back a long time, through petty misunder-standings, life-altering heartaches and far-reaching dreams. Lisa knew she could tell Jillian anything. She even knew that Jillian would probably say that whatever had taken place between her and Wyatt last night had been fate. Lisa might have believed in fate, but she certainly didn’t rely on it. Determination was ten times more powerful, and Lisa was determined to put Wyatt McCully out of her mind, once and for all. It shouldn’t be too difficult. Of the sixty-two bachelors in Jasper Gulch, there were still forty-nine she hadn’t dated. As far as she could tell, only one of them wore a white cowboy hat and had a reputation just as pure. That left forty-eight men to choose from and only one to steer clear of.

“Well?”

Her friend’s voice drew Lisa from her thoughts. Jillian looked as if she was waiting for an answer, which would have been okay if Lisa could have remembered the question. Ducking her head slightly, she said, “What were we talking about again?”