Page 1 of A Complicated Bride

Chapter 1

Lily

Istood in the driveway of the Stillwater Inn prevaricating. It seemed to be my specialty of late. Should I go in the back door, like I was visiting my cousin Julie and Aunt Nora? That’s what they’d expect, but they’d be surprised and I’d have to explain somehow. Or should I knock on the front door like a paying guest and pretend I’m on vacation? That would only make them suspicious that something was not quite right.

Either way, I’d have to explain my visit. If I only could. I decided on the front door because it was closer. I wasn’t sure if my mother, or someone else might have called ahead. But maybe someone they hired, someone I didn’t know would answer the door and I get a small reprieve, enough time to think of an explanation about what on earth I was doing here out of the bue.

It’s not that I was running away from home. Although I had packed my bags and left in a hurry without telling anyone. But in my defense, I left a note. Okay, so it was a short note. It said:

Mom & Dad,

I’m going to Aunt Nora’s Inn. I don’t know when I’ll be back. Tell Teddy Never mind. I’ll call him.

Love and hugs,

Lily

Heat crawledup my chest thinking about it and suffused my face. It wasn’t shame. It was horror and fear.

I rolled my fancy honeymoon luggage along behind me up the winding brick pat to the front door.

That wasn’t running away from home. It was more like I was running away from … everything else.

Heck, face it Lily, you have no idea what you’re doing.

I didn’t. All I knew was that I couldn’t go through with that marriage. No matter how perfect a couple Teddy and I made. I rang the doorbell and listened to the classic melody sound inside the door. I’d always loved this doorbell as a kid. I needed to hear something comforting. At this rate, I’ll take what I can get—even a doorbell.

Tiny beads of sweat annoyed me and my hair as they formed on my temples. But the perspiration that formed on my chest to form a skinny rivulet, squeezing through my cleavage and heaven forbid, dampen my dress, was the most annoying. It shouldn’t take more than a minute to answer the door and I wondered why I bothered with the charade.

Nerves discouraged me from standing there on the front step a second longer. It was time to let myself inside so I reached for the door handle and turned it.

The door swung in as if my touch were magic and I stumbled forward into the relative dark of the hallway.

And smacked head first into the hard, hot body of a man.

Looking up, my eyes grazing over the wall of his well clad chest, I realized this wasn’t just any man. This was a man in an expensive Italian suit and unless Aunt Nora and her new husband Uncle Billy recently hired an over-dressed butler, he must be a guest.

“Hello there. I mean, welcome to the Stillwater Inn.” His voice vibrated through me like a loud fast race car roaring past and leaving everything fluttering in its wake. My heart was certainly fluttering for no reason I could figure. Must be the excitement of the day coming to a head.

Presently Mr. Fast and Hot looked over my shoulder.

“Can I help you with your bags?”

Say something.

“I… do you work here?”

He grinned and winked. “Not exactly, but I’m glad to help out a pretty young lady such as yourself free of charge.”

“Magnanimous of you.”

Then he said with hand over heart, “It was beauty killed the beast.”

“King Kong, 1933.”

Automatic reflex, as if I were on a quiz show made me answer. Horrified and feeling the heat creep up at my movie nerdiness showing through as quick as that, imagine my surprise when he nodded in appreciation.

“You complete me.” He looked sincere, but Mr. Fast and Hot sounded like he might be fast & loose. I’d run into a few of them before. None of them left me as breathless, but that didn’t change anything. I couldn’t be less interested, could I? This was a get-away-from-men trip as much as it was anything, wasn’t it?