Elizabeth Lane - Hometown Wedding

He chuckled under his breath. “Wake up, Miss Harper. You’re home.”

“Oh…” She struggled upright as the truck’s dim interior swam into focus, including Nicole, sound asleep on her right.

“For what it’s worth, I came into town by the back road,” Travis whispered. “Nobody saw us. Our reputations remain unsullied.”

“Oh, shush!” Eden was too groggy and uncomfortable for pleasantries. The jab she gave his ribs was only half in jest. “Just get out of my way, and I’ll see if I can slide under the steering wheel and make my exit without disturbing your daughter.”

“Right.” With the engine still idling, he eased open the door of the pickup and dropped lightly to the ground. Eden forced her sleep-numbed body to stir. Sweat had plastered her clothes to her skin. The fabric shifted itchily as she slid across the seat. She did not even want to imagine what her face and hair must look like.

The driver’s seat was warmly indented with the imprint of Travis’s lean buttocks. He stood watching, eyes glinting sardonically as she slid beneath the steering wheel. Outside, it was almost fully dark—about nine-thirty, Eden calculated. She was grateful for the lateness of the hour and the quietness of the street. No one, not even her mother, seemed to have heard the truck pull into the driveway.

“Careful, it’s a long drop to the ground.” His hands reached up to help her out the door. In her groggy disheveled state, Eden wanted no part of him.

“It’s all right, I can make it by myself!” she snapped. And she might have done just that, except for the fact that her leg had gone to sleep somewhere past Yuba Lake. The benumbed foot that groped for a toehold missed the edge entirely. Eden tumbled backward into Travis’s waiting arms.

He caught her deftly by the waist, his strong hands supporting her from behind as he lowered her to the ground. “Easy now.” His voice, husky with amusement, droned in her ear like a big fuzzy bumblebee. “You’d better watch your step, Miss Harper. What will the neighbors think?”

For Eden, it was the last straw.

“Oh, leave me alone!” she muttered, twisting loose and turning to glower up at him. “All right, I admit it. From the first second I saw you at the airport, I’ve done nothing but make a fool of myself. But you don’t have to rub it in. The least you can do is leave me with some…dignity!”

Her voice cracked on the last word as she struggled for self-control. She might have wheeled and stormed into the house, but her luggage, she realized, was still in the back of the pickup.

“You’ve been laughing at me all afternoon!” she fumed. “Klutzy little Edna Rae, always stumbling over her own feet! Well, I’m not Edna Rae anymore! In fact, Edna Rae doesn’t even—”

“May I tell you something?” Travis’s grin had faded, but a hint of cockiness still flickered in the depths of his mahogany eyes.

“Get my suitcases down, please,” Eden retorted icily. “After that I’ll listen to whatever you have to say.”

“Anything to please a lady!” He swung toward the back of the truck, caught up Eden’s bags and briefcase, and piled them in the driveway. That done, he stood facing her, his broad-shouldered presence blocking out the almond moon where it floated above the jagged mountain skyline.

“And now will you hear me out?”

“As long as it’s not a lecture.” Eden braced her emotional barricades against his charm. One thing hadn’t changed since high school, she realized with a sinking heart. Travis Conroy still had the power to reduce her to a quivering lump of jelly.

But this time she would not let him do it. She wasn’t a palpitating teenager anymore. She was a grown woman with an independent life. And Travis was no longer her idol. He was a man, nothing more.

“I’m ready,” she said. “So, what was it you wanted to tell me?”

“Just this.” He caught her hand, trapping it like a bird in the curl of his hard-callused palm. “I know I sort of railroaded you into coming along, but I truly can’t say that I’m sorry. Thanks for being such a good sport. You’re a breath of fresh air, Eden Harper.”

Thrown off balance by his evident sincerity, Eden groped for a fitting reply. But before she could speak, he raised her hand to his lips and skimmed a courtly kiss across her knuckles.

“Good night, sweet princess,” he murmured, his eyes twinkling with rapier-edged humor, “and farewell.”

“Oh…” Eden sputtered, stung by the subtle mockery of his gesture. “Oh, you…”

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