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Chapter Fourteen
Hannah had kissed a lot of cowboys in the past twenty years, and not one of them came close to Luke Holt. He existed on an entirely different planet. A whole new universe, probably.
She breathed in through her nose and enjoyed every stroke of his mouth against hers, sparks and popping sensations erupting in every skin cell he touched. Her internal temperature felt near to boiling, and it wasn’t until she heard someone say, “We have to find them. Jill will be devastated if they’re not in the wedding,” that she thought she should pull away.
Luke actually broke the kiss, his breathing heavy and shallow at the same time. Hannah knew the feeling, because he’d stolen her breath with such an amazing kiss, and she couldn’t breathe in deeply enough to replace the oxygen she needed.
“Come on, angel,” he said quietly. “I don’t need any more attention on me today, and I think they’re looking for us.”
Hannah opened her eyes and looked at the glorious handsomeness of Luke’s face. They smiled shyly at one another, and Hannah went as far as giggling. Luke took her hand in his and stepped back inside. She hadn’t known why she’d come toward this door, only that she’d arrived here to find someone bent over as if in distress.
One step outside and one breath in had identified the man as Luke. She’d know his cool, clean scent anywhere.
Luke rounded a corner and lifted his free hand to signal to Ted. Pure relief poured across the other man’s face, and he waved at them to hurry up. They ducked into the stable house and took their place in the line. Hannah noticed that Luke didn’t look at anyone, even when Dallas turned to look at him, and Ted bent forward to say something to Nate.
Nate also turned and looked behind him, but Luke stood still and straight, his eyes boring into something only he could see.
Something had definitely happened, as the tension between the four men rode on the air like a scent. In front of her, Jess shifted her feet and whispered to Dallas, who shook his head. So she didn’t know what had gone on in the past twenty minutes either.
“Here we go,” the wedding venue coordinator called from the front of the room. “All the way to the altar, wedding party. Circle around to the sides, where there’s then a row for you to sit. All the way to the end, even across the aisle, if you will.”
The music started as she said the last few words, and the line moved forward. Hannah tried to shrug off the awkwardness surrounding her, and she linked her arm through Luke’s. He kept her close to his side, and they marched together to the beat of the music.
She noted the relief on Slate’s face as Luke approached, and Slate even reached out to touch Luke’s arm as they went by.
They had a bit of a struggle getting to their seats, as Nate and Ginger had to go all the way down two rows.
“She said across the aisle,” Ted said in a not-so-whisper, and they finally all got where they needed to go. Hannah stayed standing, the heat of Luke’s body behind her as they faced the stable house again,
A mechanical whirring sound filled the air, and Hannah watched in awe as the aisle got raised three feet into the air, grass and all. A murmur and a low “wow” ran through the crowd. Hannah stared, because Jill had not mentioned an elevated aisle. Not even one time.
She appeared at the end of the raised aisle and beamed at her father. They linked arms and came slowly down the aisle. Jill kept her gaze fixed on Slate, and Hannah looked back and forth between the two of them. They both wore identical looks of love and joy, and Hannah’s emotions tightened in her chest. Tears popped into her eyes, and she decided not to hold back at this wedding the way she had the others.
Jill was her best friend, and she deserved every good thing in the whole world. That was the reason she’d told Luke about Sabrina Kyle’s desire to have a wig for the wedding, as well as all the family pictures.
She’d been beyond surprised when he’d said, “Let’s get her one, then. How much are they?”
Hannah had immediately contacted Sabrina and asked a lot of questions. She’d learned where Sabrina would buy from, and she had gone with Jill’s mother to get the process started. Luke had told her he had some money in his bank account from his boxing winnings, and they’d been able to pay for a rush on the wig to get it done and in Sabrina’s possession before the wedding.
Sabrina cried a few seats over in the row in front of Hannah, and she thought of her own mother. Hannah texted and called dutifully, but she hadn’t been up to Honeyfield since Christmas.
She and Luke were going to Beeville to see his family for his birthday, and Honeyfield lay directly east of that. It might add fifteen minutes to their drive, and she determined she should mention it to him, and see if they could extend their trip by just one day to stop and see her family.
It was the right thing to do, and she might as well get it over with. She could text both Bethany and Ruth and ask them for help with their mother. Maybe she’d be on her best behavior then.
The pastor said beautiful things about love and forgiveness, Slate and Jill read their vows, and Hannah cheered and clapped after they’d said “I do,” and as they kissed over the altar. Beside her, Luke whistled between his teeth, and Ted’s bellow had to reach all the way into outer space.
He frightened his baby daughter, who started to cry in the arms of Fran, who’d come down from San Antonio to sit with Emma and Ted’s kids so they could walk in the wedding.
He laughed as he took Frannie from her namesake and comforted her, and Hannah stole a look at Nate and Ginger on the end of the row. Ginger held Ward in her arms, her smile warm and genuine as she witnessed Jill and Slate lift their joined hands, their smiles as wide as the ocean.
* * *
“My grandmother lived in that house,”Luke said as they drove by one of the biggest homes Hannah had ever seen. Beeville was an old, Texas town that didn’t look like time had come in and run it over. The buildings sported their age well, like an old woman with plenty of money to keep her hair done and her clothes at the height of fashion.
“Your grandmother?” she asked.
“Mm.” Luke nodded. “My uncle rents it to the mayor now. It’s the mayoral house.”
