Free The Best Man's Bride by LISA CHILDS Page A

school. As a welder, his dad had barely made ends meet for his family. He hadn’t been able to help Nick. “But I have always lived in cities. In fact, Grand Rapids seems small to me. Josh and I grew up in Detroit.”
    “Detroit?” Clayton whistled. “Yeah, Cloverville must seem like not much more than a dot on a map to you.”
    “It has a dot?” he teased.
    Clayton grinned. “I think if you really look you’ll find that it has a lot to offer.”
    Again Colleen’s image sprang to Nick’s mind, her face alive with warmth and humor as she laughed at TJ. He closed his eyes, but then he could hear her, reading the silly story, her voice soft but vibrant.
    Clayton’s knuckles, rapping against the wooden cover of the basket, drew Nick’s attention back. “Or maybe you’ve already figured that out.”
    The only thing Nick had figured out was that he was in trouble. For the first time since he was a teenager, he’d lost his focus. “No, there’s nothing here for me.”
    “You’re opening an office here,” Clayton pointed out.
    “Maybe that’ll change.” He hoped like hell it would. “Josh needs to talk to your sister.”
    “She’ll come home,” her older brother assured him. “There’s a lot in Cloverville for Molly. Her friends. Her family.”
    Nick nodded. “I know family and friends are important. So you’re not worried about her?”
    Clayton shook his head. “No. Molly’s smart and real levelheaded.”
    Nick lifted a brow. He hadn’t seen much to support Clayton’s opinion of Molly McClintock. But Nick understood seeing a sibling as you wanted them to be, instead of how they really were. He’d always idolized his older brother. But Clayton was the older brother; he should have a little more objectivity than Colleen might.
    Clayton laughed. “You might find that hard to believe right now, but Molly’s quite responsible. She’d never…”
    “Back out on a promise?”
    “She has a good reason,” her loyal brother insisted.
    “You’ll see.”
    Nick bit his tongue, holding back a rant about how she’d hurt and humiliated the man she’d promised to marry. Siblings might insult each other, but they didn’t let outsiders talk that way. Despite their friendship, Nick had once blackened Josh’s eye over his brother. It was a wonder they were still friends.
    Nick owed Josh so much. If he hadn’t been there for Nick, helping him focus after the grief and guilt over how he’d lost his brother, he shuddered to think what he might have become. He’d started drinking and picking fights—he would have probably wound up like Bruce, dead too young—if Josh hadn’t pulled him back from the depths of his grief and guilt.
    “You’re sure Molly’s okay?” Nick asked. He figured Clayton, who’d taken on so much responsibility when his dad died, would never forgive himself if something happened to Molly.
    Clayton nodded. “She would never do anything crazy.”
    She went out a window on her wedding day, but maybe that was a smart thing. Running instead of committing. Nick glanced down at the picnic basket. If he were smart, he’d run, too. Far away from Colleen McClintock.
     
    C OLLEEN PULLED OPEN THE screen door and walked into the Kellys’ house. They would have been offended if she’d knocked. She’d spent so much time at the Kellys’ when she’d been growing up—especially after her dad died. Even though Brenna had been away at college in central Michigan, her parents had continued to welcome Colleen’s visits. They’d always wanted lots of children, but they hadn’t had Brenna until they were in their forties.
    Colleen thought that her mother put too much pressure on Clayton and her for grandchildren. She couldn’t imagine how much pressure the Kellys must exert on Brenna.
    “Hey, Brenna!” she called into the quiet house. Too quiet, really, if the boys were still staying with the Kellys.
    And if they weren’t, that meant that Josh had changed his mind about staying in