The Accidental Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

live?”
    Won’t be long for you, anyway . She unlocked her jaw and squeezed the words out. “I will.”
    â€œJoseph, take your bride’s right hand.”
    Travis took her hand. The grin had slipped from his mouth and wariness had crept into his eyes.
    â€œSay after me the followeth: I, Joseph Edward Adams, take thee, Prudence Jane Wilcott, to be my wedded wife.”
    â€œI, Joseph Edward Adams . . .”
    She had to pull it together. Her profile was in full view of the crowd. She lifted her chin. Don’t let them see how riled you are. Do not dig your nails into his palm .
    Pastor Blevins fed the next lines, and Travis continued. Shay forced herself to look him in the eye.
    â€œTo have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.”
    The steadiness of his gaze, the words, spoken softly and firmly, reached deep into her core. Despite her best efforts, the knot of anger began to loosen.
    She remembered their times down by the creek, just the two of them, when they had a lifetime of love stretching ahead. Remembered the first time he’d kissed her, at sixteen, in her parents’ barn, on a dare.
    â€œTo love and to cherish,” Travis continued. “Till death us do part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my love.”
    How could graceful words sound so masculine? How could she be so angry with him one minute and want to fall into his gray eyes the next?
    He’s only acting, Shay Brandenberger, and don’t you forget it . The man had a future in Hollywood.
    But the real problem was plain to her now. The hold he’d had on her way-back-when hadn’t gone away. Not after a painful desertion, and not after a fourteen-year separation. It was like he’d never left. Like her emotions had picked up right—A squeeze on her hand pulled her to the present. Pastor Blevins and Travis stared expectantly. “Oh, uh . . .”
    Words! A trail of sweat trickled down the center of her back.
    â€œI—” she began. “Prudence Jane Wilcott, take thee, Joseph Edward Adams, to be my wedded husband.”
    The pastor fed her the remaining lines, and she repeated them, taking care to steady her voice.
    As she spoke, Travis’s face softened, his eyes taking on a sadness she hadn’t seen in forever. Not since his dog Sparky had been trampled by a horse when he was sixteen. He’d shed actual tears as he’d told her, then she’d cradled his head in her lap and had run her fingers through his hair.
    There were no tears now, but she wondered if that wasn’t regret mingling with the sadness in his eyes.
    â€œLet us pray.”
    She closed her eyes. Wished she could keep them closed until her neighbors were gone. Until Travis was back in Texas where he belonged. How could his parents have asked this of him?
    â€œ. . . through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Joseph, take the ring and repeat after me. With this ring, I thee wed, and with all my worldly possessions, I thee endow.”
    Travis placed the cheap gold band on her finger and repeated the words. The ring. That’s where all this had started. Or rather, where it all had ended.
    Pastor Blevins handed her a band and instructed her to do the same. She placed the ring on Travis’s thick, squared ring finger, then wetted her parched lips and repeated the vow.
    As she finished, a gust of wind blew, and a paper on the pedestal sailed off. They both reached for it, but Travis caught it and replaced it.
    â€œForasmuch as Joseph and Prudence hath consented together . . .”
    The ring on her finger felt cool and alien. She thought back fourteen years and wondered if Travis had ever gotten her that ring at all. If he had, he’d probably sold it at the nearest pawnshop on his way to fame and fortune.
    Had he even wondered how she’d get home from Cody, or had she disappeared from his mind the