The Best Man. Linda Turner

little progress with him.

      Furious, Nick, in fact, wanted to string him up by his thumbs. “Dammit, man, this is just prewedding jitters!” he growled into the phone. “Calm down and think about what you’re doing. Think about Merry. I know you love her. You always have. And she loves you. The two of you belong together. Give yourself a chance and talk to her—”

      “There’s nothing to talk about,” Thomas retorted. “I thought I could do this, but I can’t. I can’t marry her. It would be the biggest mistake of my life.”

      “You don’t mean that. Talk to her—”

      “You talk to her. Tell her whatever you like. Tell her I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt her. But I can’t marry her. I can’t make her happy. I can’t be the person she needs me to be. So I’m going back to Chicago where I belong.”

      “No!”

      “Goodbye, Nick.”

      The phone went dead in his hands, and with a muttered curse, Nick quickly punched in the number to Thomas’s cell phone, but he’d turned it off and the call couldn’t be completed. Swearing, he slammed the receiver down on its base, and completely forgot he was in church. “Damn him, I can’t believe he’s doing this!”

      Her brown eyes wide in her pale face, Janey was the first to break the ominous silence that had fallen. “What exactly is he doing?”

      Nick hesitated, wondering how the hell he was supposed to tell Merry’s family that the man she loved with all her heart was going to leave her standing at the altar. What could he say that would possibly make sense of this? Nothing, dammit. Nothing at all.

      “He’s jilting her, isn’t he?” Zeke snarled as Nick struggled to find the words. “And he’s too much of a coward to come here and tell her to her face.”

      Nick winced. Like it or not, that pretty much summed it up. “He’s got it in his head that he can’t be the man Merry needs him to be, and getting married now would be nothing but a mistake. He’s going back to Chicago.”

      “The hell he is!” Joe growled, and headed for the door. “C’mon, Zeke. You and I are going to have a talk with Mr. Cooper about the proper way a man treats the woman he claims to love.”

      Nick wouldn’t have blamed them if they’d wanted to do a hell of a lot more than talk to Thomas. If it hadn’t been his responsibility as sheriff to enforce the law, he wouldn’t have minded popping his old friend a few times himself. It was no more than he deserved. But beating the tar out of him wouldn’t change anything, and at the moment, they had a much more serious problem to deal with. Merry still didn’t know she wasn’t getting married today.

      Quickly stepping in front of the door, he blocked Joe’s path and didn’t so much as blink when the oldest McBride gave him a look that could have blistered paint. “You’re forgetting Merry,” he said quietly. “Somebody has to tell her.”

      That stopped both brothers in their tracks. Swearing, Zeke tugged off the tie that threatened to choke him and threw it across the room. “This is going to kill her, Nick. She’s nuts about the bastard.”

      No one knew that better than Nick. Best friends with both Merry and Thomas since first grade, he’d watched them fall in love in high school, then again, just last November when Thomas came back to town to take care of his ailing mother. For as long as Nick could remember, Merry had never had eyes for anyone else but Thomas.

      “I’ll tell her,” Joe said grimly. “Something like this needs to come from family.”

      Nick knew he was probably right. When a woman heard this kind of news, she needed her loved ones around her to cushion the blow. But he loved her, too, dammit! And he’d never been so frustrated in his life. He’d have given his right arm to protect her from this kind of hurt, but it was too late for that. All he could do for her now was break the news as gently as possible and be there for her when she needed a friend.

      “I’d like to do it, if you don’t mind,” he said huskily. “I was the only one who talked to Thomas, and as the best man, I feel like it’s my responsibility. I should have seen this coming. I knew something was troubling him, but I thought it was something to do with work and having to reschedule everything so he and Merry could have a month for their honeymoon. If I’d just cornered him and made him talk to me, all of this could have been prevented.”

      Her brown eyes kind, Janey patted his arm in sympathy. “This isn’t your fault, Nick. None of us could have predicted this, so don’t beat yourself up over it.”

      “We all know who the bad guy is here,” Zeke added, “and it isn’t you.”

      “I’d still like to be the one to tell her,” he insisted. “She’s going to blame herself, and she’s not the one who did anything wrong. Thomas is the one with the hang-up, not her. I don’t know how I’m going to make her understand that, but I’d like all of you to be there. And your mother, too, of course. She’s going to take this hard.”

      The three McBrides exchanged glances and came to a decision without saying a word. “All right,” Joe said. “We’ll do it your way. Janey, where’s Mom?”

      “She and Angel and Lizzie were helping everyone get dressed, but Mom said something about talking to some of the guests. They’re getting restless.”

      “I don’t blame them,” he muttered, pulling open the door. “I’m a little testy myself. C’mon. Let’s go find everyone.”

      Pacing nervously, Merry glanced at her watch for the third time in a single minute, worry eating her stomach. What was taking Janey so long? She’d promised she’d be right back ten minutes ago, and she was nowhere in sight. Something was wrong with Thomas, she thought, swallowing a sob. He’d collapsed somewhere and was in the hospital and nobody wanted to tell her. That had to be it. Nothing else but some kind of horrible illness would keep him from her at a time like this. Dear God, what if instead of a stomach virus, he had appendicitis and his appendix had burst? Right this minute, he could be lying on the side of the road somewhere, dying. She had to go to him!

      Horrified, she whirled and headed for the door, determined to find her brothers and Nick and make one of them take her to Thomas. But she’d only taken two steps when there was a perfunctory knock at the dressing room door and Nick and her entire family walked in.

      At the sight of their somber faces, she paled, her worst fears realized. “Something’s happened, hasn’t it? He’s in the hospital, isn’t he?” When no one answered, tears welled in her eyes. “Oh, God! He’s not—”

      “He’s not dead,” Janey said quickly, reading her mind. “So don’t worry about that. He’s perfectly fine.”

      “Then he’s here? Thank God! I’ve been worried sick.”

      In spite of the fact that it went against tradition, she would have rushed to the men’s dressing room to see for herself that he was really all right, but the grim look that remained on everyone’s faces held her motionless where she was. “What is it?” she demanded when her heart started to pound in alarm. “What’s wrong?”

      For a moment, she didn’t think anyone was going to tell her. Then Nick stepped forward and took her hand. “He’s not here, Merry,” he told her gruffly. “He’s gone back to Chicago.”

      “He has not,” she retorted, chuckling in relief. For a second there, she’d thought something was seriously wrong! “We’re getting married, silly. Cut the joking. Where is he, really? The minister must be getting impatient. We’ve got to get this show on the road.”

      Her hand still in his, Nick tightened his fingers around hers. “I’m not joking, Mer. There isn’t going to be a wedding. Thomas had a panic attack and freaked out at the idea of getting married. I tried to talk him out of it, but there was no reasoning with him. He left for Chicago ten minutes ago.”

      Stella gasped, and somewhere behind her, Rose murmured,