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CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
Jed Forrester couldn’t help watching the entrance to the wedding tent, which was marked with tied-back flaps. Flowers adorned the twine, and he could see all the details that had gone into making this wedding beautiful.
He wasn’t incredibly close with Travis Cooper, the man getting married today, but he knew Will and Lee better. Especially Lee, as they were the same age and had graduated from high school in the same year.
They’d been friends for decades, and the Forresters and the Coopers had neighboring farms and shared holiday customs on this lonely stretch of highway thirty minutes outside of the town of Sweet Water Falls.
He looked down the row at his brother and his wife, then his parents. He’d reserved the chair on the end of the row for Cherry, though he wasn’t entirely sure she’d take it. She probably had to walk in the wedding party with that oaf who’d tried to kiss her when she hadn’t wanted him to.
Jed could relate to the man, because one look at the gorgeous Cherry Cooper, and any man would start to think about kissing her. She was a flawless woman, and while Jed had never considered her as a potential date, he’d certainly reacted to her touch in a way he hadn’t to anyone else. At least anyone in a while.
The cowboys who lived and worked out on these farms knew how hard it was to meet women, but Jed told himself that all of the Cooper men had done it now. Chris had found Deb, and they’d driven their twins into her mother’s so they could attend the wedding without incident.
Jed should probably try a little harder to meet someone.Get Cherry’s number, he thought, though he had no idea how to do that. He didn’t know where she lived or what she did, other than he didn’t think it was around here.
The light chatter quieted and ceased, and Jed whipped his attention back to the entrance. Travis Cooper ducked into the tent first, paused, and waited for his parents to join him. He linked his arm through his mother’s, and anyone with eyes could see that Chrissy Cooper wasn’t the healthiest human being. She’d been fighting cancer for five years at least, and Jed admired her greatly.
He got to his feet along with everyone else, and something tender and somber touched him as Travis linked his hand in his father’s too.
Wayne Cooper was a tough old man, and Jed had plenty of experience with him too. He respected Wayne as well, and he swept his cowboy hat off his head as the trio started down the aisle to the altar. Travis beamed like the stars in heaven, and Chrissy stopped to say hello and kiss several women’s cheeks.
Jed, as close to the aisle as he was, shook Wayne’s hand on behalf of the Forrester’s, and once the groom stood at the altar, his parents took the front two seats on the right-hand side of the aisle.
The rest of the family started to file in then, and to Jed’s surprise, there was no wedding party procession. He shook Will’s hand, then Lee’s, the two of them grinning and man-hugging before Lee went to the front row with a pretty dark-haired woman Jed hadn’t met yet.
Cherry Cooper stole his breath the moment she entered the tent with her younger sister and Rissa’s husband. Jed had been out of town for that wedding, and he wondered if his body, mind, and hormones would’ve reacted to Cherry then.
She wore a flowing, pretty purple dress that fit in with what the other women in the family were wearing. Her shoes added a couple of inches to her height, but they weren’t extravagant. She’d put on makeup that accented her dark eyes, and they pulled at him and pulled at him until he couldn’t look anywhere but at her, even when he tried.
She nodded at him, and he barely dropped his chin to the end seat. They didn’t have the front row but only sat a few back, and she’d have the aisle seat for a good view.
She let Rissa and her husband continue forward, and Cherry detoured to Jed’s side. Relief punched him in the chest, and he wasn’t even sure why. He wanted to take her hand in his and lean toward her, whisper in her ear that he’d make sure she didn’t have to deal with a Sheriff’s troll today, and ask her to dinner for tomorrow night.
He did none of the above. He wanted to sling his arm around the back of her chair and see if she’d snuggle into his chest. He didn’t dare move at all. He held his cowboy hat in one hand and watched the back of the aisle, barely breathing so he wouldn’t get too much of Cherry’s perfume.
He’d already been intoxicated by the peach and vanilla scent as she’d passed him while leaving the other tent earlier. His shoulder burned as hotly now as it had then, and he cleared his throat for a reason he couldn’t name. It wasn’t like he was going to speak to her mere moments before her brother’s bride appeared for the wedding.
She faced away from him too, giving him a few moments to drink in the darkness of her hair, which had threads of the fiery red that all of her siblings possessed in some form or another. Lee was the darkest of the redheads—except for Cherry. He wondered if she dyed her hair, and he leaned forward to ask her.
She glanced at him, and Jed grinned at her. “Do you dye your hair?” he asked.
She blinked at him, clearly surprised. “What?”
Before he could repeat the question, music began to play and the bride entered the tent. Jed told himself he’d have time to talk to Cherry later, and he employed the little patience he had as the bride danced—yes, danced—down the aisle.
* * *
A couple of hours later,Jed tipped his head back and laughed. “I was just wondering,” he said to Cherry. “I thought Lee had the darkest hair in your family.”
“I beat Lee in a lot of things,” Cherry said. The two of them had been inseparable since she’d sat beside him during the ceremony, and Jed had even sent his brother back to the farm without him. Cherry had said she could give him a ride the five miles down the road to Forrester Farms, and Jed wanted to spend as much time with her as he could.
He’d learned that she lived in San Antonio and worked as an academic advisor for a college there. She wasn’t married, had no kids, and didn’t have a boyfriend either.
Jed had no idea what he was thinking, but he picked up his fork and took another bite of the wedding cake that had been cut and served twenty minutes ago.
“So,” he said. “What does a man have to do to get your phone number?”
Cherry lifted her eyes from her own slice of cake, of which she’d eaten very little, and looked at him with surprise again. “My phone number?”
