The Surprise Christmas Bride. Maureen Child

lined up in front of her and realized she didn’t really know any of them.

      Oh, they went to the same functions. Told the same stories. Laughed at the same jokes. But not one of those ten women would she have considered a friend. Then it had struck her that the one real friend she had wasn’t even attending her wedding. Annie had refused to watch her friend make what she called a “giant mistake.”

      The doubts she’d been battling for months had risen in her again. But then the organ music had started, swelling out into the church and stealing away her breath. The first bridesmaid had been about to start her staggered walk down the aisle when an usher had brought Casey the note from Steven.

      During the next few interminably long minutes, she’d endured curious stares, hushed whispers and even a muffled laugh or two. She hadn’t been able to find a friendly face anywhere in the crowd of surprised disappointed guests.

      Even her parents had been too stunned to offer comfort to her. Her father, grim-faced and tight-lipped, stood awkwardly patting her mother’s shoulder as she wept quietly into her hanky. The twins, Casey’s older brothers, looked as though they just wanted to find someone to punch.

      Naturally, when she ran out of the church a few minutes later and jumped into her sports car—which one of her brothers had thoughtfully driven to the church—she’d instinctively headed for her one real friend.

      The only person she could count on to listen to her. To tell her that she wasn’t crazy. That she was right to feel as though she’d just escaped from prison.

      Annie Parrish.

      Casey yanked her full skirt a little higher over the animal’s back and told herself that all she had to do now was find the Parrish ranch. Hopefully before she froze to death. It had been only five years since her family had moved out of Simpson. Why did everything look so different?

      The rain, she thought. She was only disoriented because of the rain. When the storm passed, she would find the ranch. If the storm passed, her mind added silently. She glanced up at the black clouds overhead, noted the wind-whipped trees surrounding the meadow and fought down her first thread of worry. For all she knew, it could start snowing any minute. By morning she would be nothing more than the ice statue of a haggard-looking bride.

      The Irish lace and ivory silk dress she wore felt as though it weighed five hundred pounds. The fabric had soaked up the rain like a dime-store sponge, and the heavy mud along the hemline wasn’t helping the situation any. Idly she wondered what the gown’s designer would say if she could see her creation now.

      The world’s most expensive tent for water-logged calves.

      And what, Casey asked herself, would her father say?

      She groaned quietly and closed her eyes for a second or two. Henderson Oakes wasn’t going to be a happy man for quite a while. No doubt he would take Casey’s being jilted as a personal affront. Though basically good people, her parents were far more concerned about how things looked than with how things really were.

      Better not to even think about them yet.

      The rain came down harder and began to feel like a thousand cold knives stabbing her body. Her back ached from hunching over the calf. Her arms were scratched from clawing her way through barbed wire to rescue the little beast. She’d lost one shoe to the muck and she definitely felt a cold coming on.

      With any luck it would develop into pneumonia.

      “Here comes the bride,” she sang softly, then stopped abruptly. If she wasn’t so blasted tired and if she wasn’t afraid she’d sink neck deep in mud, Casey would have plopped right down on the ground and had a good cry.

      “What in hell are you doing, lady?”

      The deep gravelly voice seemed to come out of nowhere. She jumped, staggered and fell across the calf’s sturdy little body. Throwing one hand down onto the muddy ground, Casey broke her fall and ignored the tiny twinge of pain that shot through her wrist. She cocked her head to one side and looked through her veil’s saturated netting at a man on a horse.

      Finally. Help.

      At least she hoped it was help.

      She really had to start paying more attention to her surroundings. She’d been so wrapped up in her own thoughts she hadn’t even heard the horse and rider approach.

      Pushing herself upright, Casey kept one hand on the calf and looked at the man carefully. His hat was pulled down low on his forehead, and an olive green rain slicker covered the rest of him, except for his lower legs and the worn boots shoved into stirrups.

      The rain continued to pound relentlessly around them and Casey lifted one hand to shield her eyes, hoping for a better look at the cowboy.

      “Cassandra Oakes,” he muttered. “I don’t believe it.”

      The obvious displeasure in his tone struck a chord of memory within Casey. How many times had she heard that same raspy voice say, “Get the hell away from me!”? And how many of her dreams had that same raspy voice invaded?

      Goosebumps that had nothing to do with the rain and the cold suddenly leaped up on Casey’s arms, then raced across her shoulders and down her spine.

      Only one man could have such an effect on her.

      Even if it had been five years since she’d seen him.

      Five years since he’d broken her heart.

      “Hello, Jake.”

      Two

      Hello, Jake?

      That was all she could say? Standing in the middle of his field in a soaking-wet wedding gown, hovering over a mewling calf, and she says, “Hello, Jake”?

      A groan rattled through him. When Jake had spotted that convertible on the side of the road, he’d figured someone was in trouble. That road only led to his and Don Wilson’s ranches, so there never was much traffic on it. Jake had expected to find some tourist lost in the storm or someone on their way to Don’s place.

      He sure hadn’t expected a bride.

      Let alone this particular bride.

      Man, a day could really go to crap in a hurry, he told himself. Not twenty minutes ago he’d been feeling great. He should have known it wouldn’t last. But dammit, he never would have guessed that it would be Casey showing up out of nowhere just in time to ruin his good mood.

      Ruefully, though, he admitted that her appearance did make a sort of karmic sense. He mentally bowed to the inevitable and asked, “What the hell are you doing here, Casey?” His gaze swept over her ruined bridal gown quickly. “Looking for a church, are we?”

      “Running from a church, actually.”

      “Uh-huh.” He leaned forward in the saddle. “And where’d you bury the groom?”

      “It’s a long story.” Her face paled a bit.

      “Naturally.”

      Tipping her head back, she managed to swing her soggy veil out of her face long enough to look at him. Those green eyes of hers locked onto him, and Jake felt his insides tighten into knots.

      “I’ll tell you all about it later,” she said stiffly. “But right now, would you mind helping me?”

      No one should be able to look that good covered in mud, he thought absently. Then when desire began to rear its ugly head, he heard himself ask gruffly, “Help you what?”

      “Save him.” She wagged her head at the calf still cradled in her arms.

      No animal had looked less in need of saving. In fact, Jake admitted silently, he wouldn’t mind trading places with the damn thing. But he remembered clearly that even years ago, she’d had a soft heart for animals. He chuckled slightly as he recalled the year she’d realized hamburgers actually came from cows. She’d been horrified. Probably came from