The Surprise Christmas Bride. Maureen Child

question. Lord knew she would probably be hearing it from everyone for the next several months.

      “Yes,” she finally said, “he was there. Long enough to give one of the ushers a note for me.”

      “A note?” Jake’s voice was hard and disbelieving.

      She held her breath when he walked to her side and sat down next to her. He made no move to touch her, though, and she didn’t know whether she was relieved or disappointed.

      “Yeah.” She glanced at him and smiled halfheartedly. “It seems Steven suddenly had an urge to visit Mexico.”

      “Bastard.”

      “My thoughts exactly,” she said, and unconsciously patted his hand. “At least at the time.” But now that she thought about it, she was amazed to discover that the anger that had burst into life so swiftly had disappeared again almost as swiftly. Strange. All she felt now was relief—tinged with lingering traces of humiliation.

      She hadn’t been madly in love with Steven. Now she wasn’t sure if she had even loved him at all. She had certainly liked him. Well, at least until today. He was a nice man, from what her mother liked to call a good family. Translation, Casey thought, rich.

      Their parents had wanted the match and she and Steven had simply drifted into it. She couldn’t even recall her ex-fiancé actually proposing. It had simply been taken for granted.

      She scowled, lifted one hand and rubbed at her forehead. The mother of all headaches was just beginning to throb.

      “I’m sorry, Casey.”

      “Why?” she asked. “You weren’t the one rejecting me this time.”

      “Let’s not go there, all right?”

      “Why not?” She turned her head and looked directly into his eyes. The eyes she used to dream about. “This is my wedding night, after all. What better thing to at least talk about than sex? Or the lack thereof.”

      “I left the kettle on,” he said, and moved to get up. “Why don’t we go and get you some hot tea?”

      “I turned it off when the water boiled,” she told him, and waved him back down to the mattress.

      “Casey,” he said, and shifted a bit farther from her, “you’ve had a bad day. Why not just get some sleep, huh?”

      “I don’t want to sleep, Jake.” In fact, she’d never been more awake. Ordinarily she wouldn’t have considered seeking him out and asking him about that night—but now that the fates had provided her with the opportunity, she really wanted to know just why he’d turned her away.