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“Evidently you don’t crawl into bed with the man you’re going to marry, either.”
She rounded on him. “That’s unfair and you know it, because we aren’t getting married under the usual circumstances. If you’re not going to do anything but snap at me and try to pressure me into bed, maybe we shouldn’t see each other until the wedding.”
His teeth came together with a snap. “That sounds like a damn fine idea to me.”
So she spent the last two days before her wedding alone, at least until Robert and Christine arrived the afternoon before. She hadn’t expected Reese to drive to Billings every day, and in fact he hadn’t, except to meet her at the airport and to go to the lawyer’s office, but it disturbed her that they had already quarreled. If their marriage survived, it looked like it would be a tempestuous one.
When she met Christine and Robert at the airport, Christine looked around impatiently. “Well, where is he?”
“At the ranch, working. He doesn’t have anyone to look after the animals, so he isn’t coming in tonight.”
Christine frowned, but to Madelyn’s surprise Robert took it in stride. It only took a moment’s thought to realize that if there was anything Robert understood, it was work coming before everything else.
She hooked her arms through theirs and hugged both of them. “I’m so glad you’re here. How was the flight?”
“Exciting,” Christine said. “I’ve never traveled with the boss before. He gets red-carpet treatment, did you know?”
“Exasperating,” Robert answered smoothly. “She makes smartmouth comments, just like you do. I kept hearing those sotto voce remarks in my ear every time a flight attendant came by.”
“They didn’t just come by,” Christine explained. “They stopped, they lingered, they swooned.”
Madelyn nodded. “Typical.” She was pleased that Christine wasn’t intimidated by Robert, as so many people were. Christine would never have been so familiar in the office, and in fact Madelyn doubted that the two had ever met before, but in this situation he was merely the bride’s brother and she was the bride’s best friend, and she had treated him as such. It also said something about Robert’s urbanity that Christine did feel at ease with him; when he chose, her stepbrother could turn people to stone with his icy manner.
Now if only her two favorite people in the world would like the man she loved. She hoped he’d recovered from his nicotine fit by the morning, or it could be an interesting occasion.
They took a cab to the motel where she was staying, and Robert got a room, but Madelyn insisted that Christine stay in the room with her. On this last night as a single woman, her nerves were frayed, and she wanted someone to talk to, someone she could keep up all night if she couldn’t sleep herself. After all, she reasoned, what were friends for if not to share misery?
They shared a pleasant meal and enjoyed themselves, though Madelyn wished Reese could have been there. By ten o’clock Christine was yawning openly and pointed out that it was midnight in New York. Robert signaled for the check; he looked as fresh as he had that morning, but he was used to working long hours and usually only slept four hours a night anyway.
“Will you sleep tonight?” he asked Madelyn when they got back to the motel, having noticed her shadowed eyes.
“Probably not, but I don’t think a bride is supposed to sleep the night before she gets married.”
“Honey, it’s the night she gets married that she isn’t supposed to sleep.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “Then either. I’m tired, but I’m too nervous and excited to sleep. It’s been that way since he called.”
“You aren’t having second thoughts?”
“Second, third and fourth thoughts, but it always comes back to the fact that I can’t let this chance pass.”
“You could always postpone it.”
She thought of how impatient Reese was and wryly shook her head. “No, I couldn’t, not one more day.”
He hugged her close, resting his cheek on her bright head. “Then give it all you’ve got, honey, and he’ll never know what hit him. But if it doesn’t work out, don’t punish yourself. Come home.”
“I’ve never heard such a bunch of doubting Thomases before,” she chided. “But thanks for the concern. I love you, too.”
By the time she went inside, Christine was already crawling into bed. Madelyn picked up the pillow and hit her with it. “You can’t sleep tonight. You have to hold my hand and keep me calm.”
Christine yawned. “Buy some beer, get wasted and go to sleep.”
“I’d have a hangover on my wedding day. I need sympathy, not alcohol.”
“The most I can offer you is two aspirin. I’m too tired to offer sympathy. Besides, why are you nervous? You want to marry him, don’t you?”
“Very much. Just wait until you see him, then you’ll know why.”
