Page 1 of A Matter of Time
~Tonia~
The big Texas sky stretched out in front of me, as beautiful as ever, but my eyes were fixed firmly on the road as I barreled down the highway. I should have been at the ranch an hour ago already, and if I took much longer to get there, my brother would kill me. For someone who made a living teaching other people how to manage their time, running late didn’t look good on me.
Not that it had been my choice to be late. First, my alarm didn’t go off that morning. Next, I broke the heel off one of my shoes when I went to throw it in my truck so I had to make an emergency run to the shoe store, and finally, an accident closed my usual route out of Houston. If it were any other day, I’d have said the universe wanted to tell me something and just stayed home instead, but on that particular day, not showing up wasn’t an option.
My big brother, Dex, would be marrying the love of his life in less than twenty minutes, and I was supposed to be in the bridal party, as long as I could make it to the ceremony on time.
My phone rang again, no doubt with someone from my family on the other end wondering where in the hell I’d gotten to, but I couldn’t stop to answer it. That would only make me later.
With a huge sigh of relief, I finally reached the exit for Sandy Creek, the small town where I grew up. My family’s ranch sat on the outskirts of town on the way in, but I drove right past it. The wedding would be taking place at the Armstrong ranch on the other side of town, the family home of Dex’s fiancée, Shawna.
Shawna’s daddy and my daddy had been rivals as long as any of us could remember, but once Dex and Shawna got together, they agreed to put the past behind them… for the most part. The battle over which ranch would get to host the wedding had been epic, but eventually Shawna’s daddy won out, mostly because Dex seemed incapable of saying no to his bride-to-be. Since my daddy behaved just the same way with his wife, Dex could hardly be blamed for that.
Now I just needed to find me a sweet Texas gentleman who would bend over backwards to give me whatever my heart desired; surely, that wouldn’t be too much to ask.
At last, I pulled into the long drive past the Armstrong Ranch sign, past the fields and the barns and up to the main house. Built around the same time as most houses in town, the two-storey farmhouse had a wide wrap-around porch and a welcoming, well-kept yard. Guests had already gathered beneath the trees where the chairs had been set up for the ceremony, the aisle strewn with flower petals leading to Italian-style columns holding up an arch in front of a painted backdrop of the Tuscan countryside. Swearing beneath my breath, I quickly threw the truck into park and grabbed my bags from the seat next to me, including my new shoes.
“You’re late!” my 18-year-old sister Billie exclaimed as soon as I walked through the front door. The phone in her hand made me guess she’d been the one trying to reach me. “Dex is going to kill you.”
I knew that, and dwelling on it wouldn’t get me ready any faster. “Where’s the bathroom? I’ve got five minutes to get changed.”
She pointed me down the hall before calling out after me: “Three minutes, actually!”
Ignoring her, I raced towards the bathroom door and twisted the doorknob, only to find it locked. With a groan, I banged on the door. “Unless the bride’s in there, I’m going to need you to come out right now. Bridesmaid emergency!”
“Hold your horses, I’m almost ready.” A male voice answered me, low and rather sexy, and also vaguely familiar.
I wouldn’t be put off. “Unless you’ve got something I ain’t never seen before, open up and we can share the space. This is urgent.”
The lock clicked, and a second later, the door opened to reveal the last person I expected or wanted to see: my ex-boyfriend, Cameron Bailey. Once upon a time, my stomach would flutter at the sight of him, but even though he’d only gotten better-looking with age, my feelings had definitely changed.
His deep brown eyes looked down at me with their usual smug expression and a teasing smirk pulled at his lips. “Oh, I guarantee you’ve seen it before, Sugar.”
I hardly needed to be reminded of that. Losing her virginity wasn’t the kind of thing a woman forgot, and Cam had been my first. Normally, I would have made a smartass response straight back at him, but given my current situation, I didn’t have time to trade barbs. “Shove over.”
Pushing my way into the bathroom next to him, I pulled my dress out of its bag, glancing at Cam out of the corner of my eye.
“Aren’t you a little fancy for sitting in the back row? I didn’t even know Dex invited you.”
Along with his slicked-back dark hair, he had just finished pulling on the jacket of a tux that could easily pass for one of the groomsmen’s suits. It seemed like overkill for a guest, no matter how good it looked on him.
Never in a million years would I admit to anyone that I thought it looked good.
Cam adjusted the sleeves of his jacket as he inspected himself in the mirror. “Shawna invited me, actually, and Dex just heard from Chris Weston about twenty minutes ago to say he got called in and can’t make it. They asked me to step in.”
Damn it.Besides being a doctor, Chris was one of Dex and Shawna’s best friends. They met two years earlier when Shawna first got her cancer diagnosis and he guided them through the chemotherapy and radiation treatment that got her into remission and healthy enough to be marrying my brother that day. It would have meant a lot to them both for him to be there, but they could hardly complain if other patients needed him at the hospital.
“So, you got called off the bench? Were they that desperate?” As I asked the question, I pulled my shirt up over my head, leaving my long, blonde hair a staticky mess. Time was ticking and I needed to get outside as soon as possible. I couldn’t wait any longer for him to leave.
He didn’t immediately answer me, and when I looked over to see why not, I could have sworn he’d been staring at me in the mirror, though he quickly looked away when he saw me looking. “Guess I’m the right size for this suit,” he said in what he must have meant to be a charming way. I used to find him charming. “Fits me pretty good, don’t you think?”
He did a catwalk pose in front of the mirror, and if I were being truthful, he did look damn good, his toned, lean body making the suit look better than it had any right to. I had no intention of complimenting him, though, so I simply glared at him, unimpressed, as I pulled my jeans down. “Nobody’s going to be looking at you.”
His jaw clenched, just for a moment, before he put his usual smirk back on. “No, I s’pose not, but I will be in the wedding photos now, which means you and me together on Dex and Shawn’s mantle, for the rest of time.”
I didn’t dignify that with a response. “Are you finished yet? I’m kind of in a hurry here.”
I bent down to step into my dress, and that time, when I glanced into the mirror, there could be no doubt he’d been watching me, his eyes on my ass.
