The Best Man. Linda Turner

      

      “What’s this all about, Nick?”

      Merry asked. “Have you changed your mind about moving? Is that it?”

      He should have shrugged off her questions, but dammit, she had him cornered, and he was tired of hiding his feelings. If Merry wanted answers, then by God he’d give them to her!

      “And what if I have?” Nick tossed back at her. “What do you think would keep me here? Or maybe I should ask who, dammit! Think about it, Merry. Who could possibly be keeping me in Liberty Hill?”

      Caught off guard, Merry just stood there, sure she must have heard wrong. But there was something in his eyes, a frustrated hurt directed solely at her, that set her heart slamming against her ribs and the ground dissolving beneath her feet. Stunned, she shook her head. No. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t be saying what she thought he was saying. There had to be some kind of mistake.

      He couldn’t mean…

      Dear Reader,

      Once again, Silhouette Intimate Moments has rounded up six top-notch romances for your reading pleasure, starting with the finale of Ruth Langan’s fabulous new trilogy. The Wildes of Wyoming—Ace takes the last of the Wilde men and matches him with a pool-playing spitfire who turns out to be just the right woman to fill his bed—and his heart.

      Linda Turner, a perennial reader favorite, continues THOSE MARRYING MCBRIDES! with The Best Man, the story of sister Merry McBride’s discovery that love is not always found where you expect it. Award-winning Ruth Wind’s Beautiful Stranger features a heroine who was once an ugly duckling but is now the swan who wins the heart of a rugged “prince.” Readers have been enjoying Sally Tyler Hayes’ suspenseful tales of the men and women of DIVISION ONE, and Her Secret Guardian will not disappoint in its complex plot and emotional power. Christine Michels takes readers Undercover with the Enemy, and Vickie Taylor presents The Lawman’s Last Stand, to round out this month’s wonderful reading choices.

      And don’t miss a single Intimate Moments novel for the next three months, when the line takes center stage as part of the Silhouette 20^th Anniversary celebration. Sharon Sala leads off A YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY, a new in-line continuity, in July; August brings the long-awaited reappearance of Linda Howard—and hero Chance Mackenzie—in A Game of Chance; and in September we reprise 36 HOURS, our successful freestanding continuity, in the Intimate Moments line. And that’s only a small taste of what lies ahead, so be here this month and every month, when Silhouette Intimate Moments proves that love and excitement go best when they’re hand in hand.

      Leslie J. Wainger

      Executive Senior Editor

      The Best Man

      Linda Turner

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      LINDA TURNER

      began reading romances in high school and began writing them one night when she had nothing else to read. She’s been writing ever since. Single and living in Texas, she travels every chance she gets, scouting locales for her books.

      Contents

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Chapter 1

      The church dressing room was in chaos. Street clothes were tossed aside and lavender bridesmaid dresses pulled on as the clock on the wall steadily marked off the time. The wedding should have started fifteen minutes ago, but no one was worried about that. They just all wanted to look their best when they finally got the chance to walk down the aisle.

      “Has anyone seen my makeup bag? I would have sworn I put it right here with my dress.”

      “It’s on the table with the purses. Lord, these shoes are tight! I knew I should have broken them in but I never could find the time. Now I’m going to have blisters. How am I going to dance? Has anyone got any Band-Aids?”

      “Oh, God, I can’t believe this! I’ve got a run in my hose! I’ve got to get to the store!”

      “You’ll never make it,” Janey McBride told her sister’s old school friend, Rose. “The second Thomas gets here, the minister said we could start the ceremony.”

      “Can you believe Thomas had a flat on his wedding day?” her too-talkative cousin, Stella, said unthinkingly. “Talk about bad timing! It’s almost as if fate was trying to tell him something.”

      Wincing, Janey shot her a reproving look and hoped her words didn’t carry to the adjoining room, where her mother and sisters-in-law were helping her sister, Merry, dress. “Since it was fate that brought Thomas back to town in the first place, I don’t think we have to look for any hidden messages,” she told her cousin quietly, frowning at her before turning back to Rose, who was staring in dismay at her ruined hose. “We can’t take a chance on holding things up a second time. You’ll just have to wear what you’ve got.”

      “But—”

      From across the room, a package of hose came sailing right at Rose, who caught it with a laugh. “If you ruin those, I’ve got six other pairs,” Merry said with a grin, her sapphire eyes dancing with happiness as she and her mother and two sisters-in-law, Lizzie and Angel, joined the crowd of bridesmaids. “Plus aspirin, Midol tablets, hive medicine, and every shade of lipstick known to man—and woman.”

      Already dressed in her wedding dress, her dark hair swept up off her neck to reveal their grandmother’s pearls, she was beautiful. With her oval face, fine, delicate features, and elegant looks, everyone had always said she was the prettiest girl in town, but as a bride, she was absolutely breathtaking.

      Just looking at her brought the sting of tears to Janey’s eyes. Quickly, she blinked them away, but not before Merry saw and frowned in concern. “I’m okay,” she assured her thickly, a crooked smile tilting her mouth. “I’m just getting sentimental. You look so pretty, and I don’t want anything to ruin this day for you.”

      Understanding, Merry smiled and hugged her. “It’s not. It’s going to be perfect. You’ll see.”

      Confident, she wasn’t the least bit nervous. After all, what was there to be nervous about? She’d been a bridesmaid so many times, she’d lost count of the number of weddings she’d been in. But at every one, she’d watched and learned the ins and outs, what not to do, how to avoid a disaster. Today was her day. She’d been waiting for it for years, and she had everything planned right down to the smallest detail. Nothing was going to go wrong. She wouldn’t let it. Not now that she had found Thomas again.

      She and Thomas Cooper had been friends in grade school, sweethearts in high school, then drifted apart when she’d gone to college and veterinary school in Texas and he’d headed east to Harvard for his undergraduate and law degrees. When she’d eventually returned to the family ranch in Liberty Hill, Colorado, to open her own clinic, she’d thought she’d never see Thomas again. He’d settled in Chicago and joined an old, established law firm there, which was just what he’d always wanted. She’d been happy for him, but deep inside, a part of her had longed to see him. Then, unexpectedly, his mother fell and broke her hip. His father had died years before, and he had no brothers or sisters, so it had been left to Thomas to come home to take care of her.

      Merry hadn’t even known he was back until she ran into him in town. A