The Bridegroom's Secret. Melissa James
stared at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Callie shrugged just as Regina and Serena came out of their respective offices, and with conspiratorial smiles, each took one of Julie’s arms. “All work and no play has made Julie a very uptight girl lately. It’s time you had some fun.”
“And we know just the man you should be having fun with…” Regina said, with a mock- demure air.
Natalie and Audra joined the others. Since there were no arms left to take, Audra loosened Julie’s hair from its tight braid—her latest attempt to tame her wretched red curls—and Natalie put her hand firmly between Julie’s shoulder blades, pushing her toward the entryway.
“What have you done?” Julie asked, torn between laughter, dread and a sudden sense of gladness, a soaring hope.
Stupid woman. What are you expecting, hoping for?
Serena, another ecstatic newlywed, laughed. “We’re merely walking you out the door, darling. Welcome to your kidnapping. You’re off to the airport. He arranged everything, and you’d better go along with it!”
Matt had done this? What had he arranged…? Julie’s heartbeat fluttered as anticipation took wings. Was this what they needed? What had he arranged? Flowers perhaps, champagne, an island in the Caribbean? A week or two of the romance that had been stolen from them during the near collapse of McLachlan Industries, and the high- society, very public cancellation that had almost destroyed The Wedding Belles…?
Just an opportunity to talk—
What do we talk about? The secrets he’d been keeping? Elise?
Sudden panic gripped her. She didn’t know if she was ready to hear what he had to say. She tried to gather her thoughts, marshal arguments, but all she could think was time alone for the first time in a long time…with Matt. “But…my desk…”
“Is manned adequately and doin’ just fine, darlin’,” came the ladylike twang of the original Belle. “I haven’t done this in a long while. It’ll be fun. You’ve been a rock here since things started going downhill with the Vandiver cancellation. It’s our turn to give to you. You officially have two weeks off.”
“I already have next month off for the wedding and honeymoon,” she protested, feeling her throat closing up in protest and her heart, her stupid heart doing double time, whispering, Matt, Matt…
“We know,” Regina said gently, and kissed her cheek. “Consider this our prewedding present to you. You’ve covered for us during the past few months while we’ve fallen in love, beaten you to the altar or reconciled.” She smiled with quiet happiness, and Julie tried hard not to feel eaten up with envy, knowing each of the Belles deserved what they had. “And you never once complained.”
“So go.” Belle waved a hand with the Southern grace that allowed no room for dissent. “Get out that door, feel the sunshine and wind on your face and enjoy some time with that good-looking young man of yours.”
“It was your love story that helped us all find ours,” Callie said softly as they all marched her down the front passageway to the outside door. “We owe you, girl, big-time. Nobody deserves some happy time more than you and Matt. Now go.”
They pushed her gently through to the front of the building that housed The Wedding Belles. And beside the simple sedan he’d bought when he’d sold his beloved Jaguar to pay for her engagement ring, stood a tall, dark- haired man with touches of grey threaded through it, eyes like Antarctic ice, and a mouth so beautifully formed, so male, she ached to kiss him, long, slow and hot, until the fire blasted to life and she forgot the world existed.
Just as always.
The man of her daydreams, and more recently, her day-nightmares. Matt.
And, just like her daydream, he had flowers in one hand—but though he grinned and winked at the Belles, it was the expression hiding in his eyes that caught her breath in her throat. Bleak. Haunted. Resolute.
Nothing had changed.
It was time…and she definitely wasn’t ready to hear what he had to say.
After Matt handed Julie into the car with his customary courtesy, the remaining Belles sighed and looked at each other with a mixture of uneasiness and determination.
“I hope we did the right thing,” Natalie said quietly.
All of the Belles nodded. Not one of them had been truly fooled by Matt’s “kidnap” plan. Things had been strained between Julie and Matt for too long to be fixed with a quick romantic getaway, and Matt was far from stupid.
And they, too, had seen the look in his eyes.
Callie bit her lip. “I know how it feels to be with the wrong man. What if we just helped push Julie the wrong way?”
Audra sighed and looked bleak. Serena frowned, shading her eyes as she gazed after the departing car. “No. She loves Matt. I know she does…”
But her voice lacked its customary briskness and confidence.
Oddly enough, it was Regina, the least confident Belle unless she was behind her camera, who ended the indecision. “If Julie’s lost her faith, girls, we have to have it for her. No fears shown. No hesitation or uncertainty. I nearly lost Dell because of a lack of faith. I kept everything a secret, from him more so than from you, but all of you as well.”
“Me, too, with Kane,” Serena added soberly.
“Pride, fear and embarrassment can be a recipe for disaster,” Audra sighed.
“I believe we all met for a reason, and that Julie came to us for a reason. And I believe it’s partly because of Julie and Matt that we’re all so happy now. It’s our turn to give.” Regina looked around at each of her dearest friends. “I think Belle’s right. If Julie won’t share her worries with us, then we’ll keep throwing her together with Matt and see what happens. And believe the best will happen for them both, because we love them. Now, I don’t know about you girls, but I have a four-thirty about to come in and I have to turn the studio into a Carnivale in fourteen and a half minutes.”
The others smiled at Regina, still with the same uneasiness, but turned and walked into the building.
He was about to lose the entire contents of his stomach. Or maybe it was his heart that was coming up. It sure felt as if it was in his mouth about now.
Despite his plans to win her over, all the things he’d worked out to say, he barely spoke until he took the turnoff to the airport. He couldn’t make the words form. All he could think to say was, Do you still love me? But how could he, when he was almost sure he knew the answer and there was no way in hell he was prepared to hear it?
The clock was ticking. He had less than ninety minutes left to tell her, and trust that she’d be the strong, understanding woman he’d fallen in love with. The woman he’d relied on through the worst time of his life. His beautiful Julie…
“So,” she said, holding her flowers with fingers about to snap the stems, her voice over-bright. “The girls said we’re going to the airport. I hope you had things packed for me? Where are we heading—skiing? The Caribbean islands?” The final two words bordered on sarcastic. Obviously, his silence had given away that this wasn’t the kind of surprise it seemed.
She’d given him the opening he needed, but he refused to jump in and say it, to shock her that way. “Jules, you know I’ve been trying to get you alone since the day after our engagement party. I need to tell you something important, but you’ve been—” he paused so she’d get the full sense of his meaning “—very busy. But I knew you wouldn’t say no to