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

Cloverville. And if he wasn’t staying, neither would Nick. She told herself she should feel relief, but it wasn’t relief that was pressing hard on her chest, making her breathing difficult.
    Nick must be gone.
    Sure, she could see him at the hospital. But he wouldn’t see her there. He never had. She swallowed hard, then called out again. “Hello?”
    A clatter rang out from the kitchen, as if pans were dropping on the hardwood floor. A smile formed on her lips; everyone was always in the kitchen at the Kellys’. It was usually that way at her house, too. She walked through the parlor, with its polished antiques, down the hall to the kitchen. “Hey!”
    Joshua Towers stood by the center island of the gourmet kitchen, its state-of-the-art appliances were totally at odds with the rest of the Victorian house. Josh leaned forward, his palms pressed flat against the granite counter. His black hair rose up in tufts, as if he’d been running his hands through it.
    “Are you okay?” Guilt swirled through Colleen. She recognized the feeling instantly because she’d lived with it for so long. Sure, she hadn’t stood him up—but her sister had. Maybe she was a little like Clayton after all, assuming responsibility for other people’s actions.
    Josh sighed. “Yeah, sure.”
    Colleen stepped forward, her foot sending a frying pan spinning into the side of the island. She leaned over and picked it up.
    “It must have fallen,” Josh murmured, gesturing toward the pot rack, which hung over the island, swaying slightly on its chains.
    She placed the pan in the industrial-size stainless-steel sink. “Where is everyone?” she asked.
    “Mr. and Mrs. Kelly took the boys into town.”
    Probably to protect their antiques. But actually the Kellys weren’t like that. People meant more to them than possessions did. Still, the house had made some of their group of friends uncomfortable. Eric and Abby always had preferred the McClintock house to the Kellys’. They’d said it was because they hadn’t had to worry about breaking things there.
    But everything Colleen had ever cared about had broken in that house. Her family. Her heart.
    “And Brenna, where is she?” she asked. She needed to talk to someone.
    Colleen would have talked to Abby, but when she’d gone home after the park, the house had been empty. She’d checked her bedroom to see if Molly had returned. Despite Clayton’s room usually being empty—when Abby wasn’t staying in it—Molly still shared their old bedroom when she wasn’t away at school. But her sister still hadn’t come home, and a note held with a magnet on the refrigerator door explained that her mom had taken Rory, Abby and Lara out for Sunday brunch. They would have waited for her, but Rory had been starving. As usual.
    “Uh, Brenna had to…Brenna went upstairs, I think,” Josh stammered.
    She narrowed her eyes and studied the doctor’s handsome face. Tension held his jaw taut and clouded his blue eyes. “Is everything okay here? ”
    Josh’s gaze slid away from hers. “Uh…”
    “Because if it’s not, you and the boys can stay with us,” she offered. “Rory can sleep in the family room.” He wouldn’t be happy about it, but her brother deserved some sort of punishment for spiking the punch at the wedding. Their mom spoiled her “baby” entirely too much. “It’s really not a problem. If not for the superstition, my mother would have had you stay with us anyway.”
    “Maybe she was right to be superstitious.”
    “So you saw Molly before the wedding?” Colleen had wondered if Josh hadn’t had some inkling that Molly might flee. He hadn’t seemed entirely surprised—or upset—that she’d abandoned him at the altar. And during their slumber party the night before the wedding, Molly had disappeared for a while. When she returned, she claimed she’d just gone outside for some air. But she’d been gone long enough to walk over to the Kellys’.
    His face flushed with