Wedding of the Century Read online

  “It’s still there, Annette.”

  “It’s chemistry.” She didn’t try to deny it. “Chemistry without emotion is…” She shrugged, signifying nothing.

  Steve had a different view to propose. “Chemistry with emotion is love, right?”

  “Impossible.” She looked up at him, letting him see the certainty now in her eyes. “Love without trust is impossible. At least for me.”

  Would telling her the truth make her trust him more? Or less?

  But telling her, telling anyone… He was the one who took care of problems. He was the one who looked out for people. He was the one who accepted responsibility. He didn’t burden other people with it. Especially not her.

  Dear Reader,

  Love is in the air, but the days will certainly be sweeter if you snuggle up with this month’s Special Edition offerings—and a box of decadent chocolates. First up, award-winning author and this year’s President of Romance Writers of America®, Shirley Hailstock is a fresh new voice for Special Edition, but fans already know what a gifted storyteller she is. With numerous novels and novellas under her belt, Shirley debuts in Special Edition with A Father’s Fortune, which tells the story of a day-care-center owner and her foster child who teach a grumpy carpenter how to face his past and open his heart to love.

  Lindsay McKenna packs a punch in Her Healing Touch, a fast-paced read from beginning to end. The next in her widely acclaimed MORGAN’S MERCENARIES: DESTINY’S WOMEN series, this romance details the trials of a beautiful paramedic who teaches a handsome Special Forces officer the ways of her legendary healing. USA TODAY bestselling author Susan Mallery completely wins us over in Completely Smitten, next up in her beloved series HOMETOWN HEARTBREAKERS. Here, an adventurous preacher’s daughter seeks out a new life, but never expects to find a new love with a sexy U.S. marshal.

  The fourth installment in Crystal Green’s KANE’S CROSSING miniseries, There Goes the Bride oozes excitement when a runaway bride is spirited out of town by a reclusive pilot she once loved in high school. Patricia McLinn delights her readers with Wedding of the Century. Here, a heroine returns to her hometown seven years after running out of her wedding. When she faces her jilted groom, she realizes their feelings are stronger than ever! Finally, in Leigh Greenwood’s Family Merger, sparks fly when a workaholic businessman meets a good-hearted social worker, who teaches him the meaning of love.

  Don’t miss this array of novels that deliver an emotional charge and satisfying finish you’re sure to savor, no matter what the season!

  Happy Valentine’s Day!

  Karen Taylor Richman

  Senior Editor

  Wedding of the Century

  PATRICIA MCLINN

  With many thanks to Pamela Dalton, who has demonstrated Wisconsin’s warmth and graciousness all along. Cathy McDavid, who was so generous in trying to steer me clear of construction accidents. Lynda Sandoval Cooper—retroactively—who not only knows about broken hips, but really did e-mail the right person!

  Books by Patricia McLinn

  Silhouette Special Edition

  Hoops #587

  A New World #641

  *Prelude to a Wedding #712

  *Wedding Party #718

  *Grady’s Wedding #813

  Not a Family Man #864

  Rodeo Nights #904

  A Stranger in the Family #959

  A Stranger To Love #1098

  The Rancher Meets His Match #1164

  †Lost-and-Found Groom #1344

  †At the Heart’s Command #1350

  †Hidden in a Heartbeat #1355

  **Almost a Bride #1404

  **Match Made in Wyoming #1409

  **My Heart Remembers #1439

  The Runaway Bride #1469

  ††Wedding of the Century #1523

  Harlequin Historicals

  Widow Woman #417

  PATRICIA MCLINN

  finds great satisfaction in transferring the characters crowded in her head onto paper to be enjoyed by readers. “Writing,” she says, “is the hardest work I’d never give up.” Writing has brought her new experiences, places and friends—especially friends. After degrees from Northwestern University and newspaper jobs that have taken her from Illinois to North Carolina to Washington, D.C., Patricia now lives in Virginia, in a house that grows piles of paper, books and dog hair at an alarming rate. The paper and books are her own fault, but the dog hair comes from a charismatic collie who helps put things in perspective when neighborhood kids refer to Patricia as “the lady who lives in Riley’s house.” She would love to hear from readers at P.O. Box 7052, Arlington, VA 22207 or you can check out her Web site at www.PatriciaMcLinn.com.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Seven-and-a-half years ago

  “If anyone knows just cause why these two people…”

  Annette heard the side door of the First Church of Tobias, Wisconsin, emit a high-pitched protest at being opened, but didn’t turn.

  It was the day of her wedding to Steve Corbett, the man she loved. The man who had pledged to love and protect her.

  The man who’d withdrawn into abstraction and politeness in recent weeks.

  The man, so went the dark whispers that had filtered to her, who had been seen recently in intense conversation with his old girlfriend.

  Gossip. That’s all. From people who’d never believed the elder Corbett son would marry Annette Trevetti. She’d been among those nonbelievers at first. She’d insisted they were dating casually for a full year. He would give her that half smile and say, “Maybe you’re not serious….”

  But this was their wedding day. A day full of promise, hope and joy. The happiest day of her life. It had to be. It was, as she’d been told times past counting, the wedding of the century in Tobias. The music, flowers, dress and ceremony were all exquisitely tasteful. Even the bridal party had been chosen with an eye to balance and proportion, which was the reason, she had been told, that her brother couldn’t be in it—he didn’t fit.

  “That’s crazy!” she’d blurted in front of the wedding consultant. Lana Corbett had gone stiff at that violation of the Corbett code of never acknowledging the existence of anything as ordinary as laundry, much less washing the dirty stuff in public. And Steve had uttered that Corbett standard, “We’ll talk about it later.” How could she both admire how self-contained he was and hate it?

  When they had talked about it, Steve had said he would make sure Max was in the wedding—over his mother’s objections and Max’s refusal to wear a tux—if it was important to Annette. Annette had wanted to say there’d be no tuxes to worry about if the wedding had remained the simple, personal and small ceremony they had planned. She’d hoped Steve would stand up for that version without her demanding it. But he seemed so distracted that she wondered if he even noticed what the wedding had become.

  Then he’d held her and said that what mattered was the two of them spending the rest of their lives together. How could she argue with that? And how could she push him into another family fight when she knew—thanks to the Tobias rumor mill—he was already defying his mother by marrying her?

  So Lana Corbett decided every detail of their wedding, since everyone in Tobias knew that Annette, poor all her life and motherless the past seven years, didn’t have the faintest idea how to go about having a wedding worthy of a Corbett.
<
br />   But these past weeks she’d begun to wonder. What if the wedding said something about the rest of their lives together?

  “Why these two people should not be joined in holy matrimony—”

  “I do!”

  Despite the packed church gasping and the minister gaping, Annette didn’t turn toward the side door—pleased that Lana Corbett couldn’t blame this wrinkle in the master plan on her. The first real concern trickled up her spine when Max half rose from his seat behind her, his face set in his protective-brother mode.

  Then she felt Steve stiffen beside her.

  In that instant, the meaning of that all-wrong “I do” sank in like a blade into flesh.

  She turned and saw Lily Wilbanks with her hands spread across her notably rounded abdomen.

  “I’m the one who should be up there marrying him. Because this is Steve Corbett’s baby.”

  The gasps turned to outcries. Distantly, Annette was aware of Lana demanding that someone remove that woman.

  Lily had to be wrong. Mistaken. It couldn’t be Steve’s baby.

  The rumors. Steve and Lily, sitting in his car at Lake Tobias Park, with their heads close together and their faces intent.

  No. He hadn’t asked Lily from the oh-so-perfect family to marry him, he’d asked her. He wouldn’t betray her this way.

  “Annette…”

  It was Steve’s voice. The same soothing tone he’d used over losing control of the wedding—their wedding, the start of their marriage. It held calming sympathy, but it held even more of the stiff Corbett proceed-with-dignity credo. Not to make a scene. Not to get emotional.

  Not to be herself.

  Through the gloves his mother had insisted she wear, Annette felt Steve’s fingertips. They felt cold. Or maybe her skin was cold.

  She stepped away from his touch but couldn’t take her eyes off his hand, still extended in the gap between them, as she demanded, “Did you get Lily pregnant?”

  The gasp from the wedding guests was louder, more shocked. Focused on Steve’s face, she saw the stiffness come over him. Watched the life of the man she loved disappear behind the Corbett code.

  “Annette,” he said with a reasonableness that made her want to scream, “we’ll talk about that later. For now—”

  “No. We won’t talk about it later. Tell me now.”

  If she let this go until later, she would let him—and her love for him—explain it away. And now she knew why she’d never asked him about being seen with Lily, why she hadn’t pushed him about his mood these past weeks. She’d been afraid of the answers.

  “Annette—”

  “Now, Steve. Or never.”

  Something in his eyes flickered. “This isn’t—”

  “The time? The place? Well, I’m tired of having my feelings scheduled so they’re more convenient for the Corbetts to ignore. And a church is the perfect place to face the truth—that this isn’t going to work.”

  She turned, half kicking the full skirt out of her way, and escaped through a door to the minister’s office. She tried to pull her engagement ring off, forgetting the hated gloves for an instant. Yanking at the material, she heard a rip, and it released, pulling inside out as it came off her hand. She dropped the glove on the desk, pulled the ring off and dropped that atop the huddled glove.

  She had the outside door open when she turned at the sound of someone behind her.

  Steve stood at the far door as if frozen in midstride, his lips parted but no sound coming out. His gaze locked on the glove and ring on a corner of the desk.

  She kept going, hearing the door close behind her with a solid thud.

  Chapter One

  “I still don’t know why Juney called you, but as long as you’re here let’s get a move on.”

  “Because,” Annette explained to her older brother for the third time in twenty minutes, while ignoring his equally persistent effort to hurry their exit from the hospital, “she knew I’d track her down on her honeymoon on Maui and pulverize her if she hadn’t let me know that you’d been injured.”

  Annette had already talked to the doctor who had set Max’s wrist, which had eased her worst fears, although it was too soon to rule out nerve damage. The cut on his head was closed and expected to heal well. The next big hurdle was getting Max home. After that she would figure out how to hog-tie him so he’d obey the doctor’s instructions.

  And how to keep the small construction business he’d built over years of achingly hard work running, with him on the injured list and his office manager and aide-de-camp, Juney, just starting a month-long honeymoon, thanks to a contest her fiancé had won.

  “Somebody has a big mouth—calling Juney on her honeymoon in Hawaii, for Pete’s sake. And how’d you get here so fast? You shouldn’t drive so fast. If—”

  “I maintained a safe and reasonable speed.” Her wry imitation of a public service announcement’s tone drew a slight grimace from Max. Or maybe that was pain as he shifted to the edge of the examining table in the emergency room cubicle.

  She truly hadn’t broken the speed limit—at least not by much. But she might have set a land-speed record for throwing items into a suitcase. As Annette had headed out of the suburban Chicago town house that housed her, her business partner, Suz, and the headquarters of their company, Every Detail, Suz had grabbed her arm and reminded her that she would do Max no good by getting in a car accident. She’d repeated Suz’s warning to herself every time the urgency to get to Max had pushed her foot down on the pedal. Thank heavens the recent patch of balmy weather had cleared even the side roads of signs of the big snowstorm from three weeks ago. She didn’t care if March did go out as a lion, as long as it continued coming in like a lamb long enough for her to get Max safely situated.

  “So, I broke my wrist. Big deal. It’s not like I broke something serious. I can take care of myself.”

  “Right. You had surgery and now—”

  “Not surgery. Pins and plaster is what they called it—a procedure.”

  “Okay. A procedure. And after this procedure, you’re telling me you’ll be able to cook and clean and drive and do the company books with Juney gone and make the business calls, and generally run your life and business—all with your left hand and that covering your right arm?”

  She pointed to the brand-new cast that extended from the top of his fingers to halfway between his elbow and his shoulder. When she’d entered the cubicle and seen that irrefutable proof of his injury stark against his skin, plus the unfamiliar pallor of his face against the dark hair so like her own, she’d felt as if the floor under her feet had tilted.

  Max hurt. How could that be? He was invulnerable. For as long as she could remember, he’d been her rock, her stability, her champion. You and me against the world, kid. That’s even odds. How many times had he said that to her? From her earliest memories of him cleaning her skinned knees and drying her eyes when hurt feelings made her cry.

  The feelings had been so much deeper and the hurt so much bigger after the wedding when—no, she’d closed off that path years ago. No sense in opening it now, of all times. Leave Steve and their wedding-that-wasn’t in the past where it belonged.

  Taking care of Max had brought her to Tobias, and that’s what she would concentrate on.

  “You heard the doctor,” she added. “You can’t drive and you shouldn’t put any undue stress on the joint.”

  He ignored her points and continued with his own—some things never changed.

  “You’ve got enough on your plate right now.” He reached for his shirt on the back of the blue molded plastic chair she’d been too restless to sit on. “What with wrapping up selling your business and—”

  “Suz is thoroughly capable of taking care of that,” she said.

  She and Suz had found a niche by matching busy professionals with the perfect service provider, everything from car repairs to lawn work to putting on an addition. Clients could hire them for one project or pay a retainer for ongoing help, and sh
e and Suz did all the researching, finding, assessing, reviewing and overseeing. Terrific word of mouth about their service had grown the company even faster than they had hoped. An article in their alumni magazine had spawned local media and then national interviews.

  That drew the attention of a corporation preparing to open franchises offering a similar service. To obtain the company name of Every Detail and clear out the competition, the corporation had made them an offer that would set them each up for life. How could they say no? They couldn’t.

  It would be strange to no longer have the business to occupy most of her waking—and some of her sleeping—hours.

  She gestured for him to stay put and snagged his bloodstained green work shirt. But when she tried to hold it out to let him slip his left arm into the sleeve he scowled so fiercely that she handed it to him. The only way to make her point that he needed help was to let Maximilian Augusto Trevetti prove it himself.

  “Yeah, but you need to be deciding what you’re going to do next.” He continued his agenda in his big-brother voice, which ranked half a notch below Moses handing down the Ten Commandments. “Besides, I know you don’t want to be here.”

  As she watched him position the shirt with his left hand so he could put that arm in the sleeve, she had to admit that he had her there.

  Only one thing had gotten her back to Tobias in the past seven years—to see Max on those few holidays when she hadn’t finagled it so he came to see her.

  Only one thing had gotten her back to Tobias now— Max needed her.

  Nothing, not even her overprotective brother, would push her out of town until she knew he was all right. That didn’t mean she would enjoy this stay in her old hometown.

  “So let’s get out of here before…”