Page 34 of Engaging the Deputy (Silver Stars of Montana #3)

Olivia refused to look out the window one more time. Jaden was right. This was what she had to look forward to being married to a deputy. Wondering if he was all right or if he was dead, killed by one of the bad guys he was so determined to capture. Was she sure she could do this?

“What do you want to do?” her mother whispered. They were seated at the large table in the café. “Alice is ready to serve the meal. Should we wait?”

Shaking her head, Olivia said, “No, we’ll go ahead and eat. He’ll be here soon.”

The sheriff’s wife, Molly, reached over and squeezed her hand. “He’ll be here. I’m sure he’s fine. I’ve been here before,” she said, glancing at her husband. “You just have to think positive.”

Olivia nodded. Unfortunately, she couldn’t right now.

It wasn’t even about the wedding. She wanted to see Jaden come through that door.

She couldn’t bear the thought that she might not see him alive again.

Her hand went to her stomach as she thought of the news she hadn’t yet told him.

She’d been saving it for their wedding night.

She was pregnant. They had started their family.

Her eyes burned with tears. She fought them back, lifting her chin. “Yes, let’s eat,” she said to the small gathering. “Jaden is out saving the world, but we don’t have to starve while he does it.” Her voice sounded much stronger than she felt.

* * *

Jaden slipped in the back of the café just as Alice started to serve the rehearsal-dinner meal.

He’d cut it close, all the way thinking of his beautiful bride-to-be.

He hated to let her down tonight. Not that he didn’t know there would be other nights.

He was an officer of the law. It wasn’t a nine-to-five job, especially in Fortune Creek with so much area of the state to cover.

If she didn’t realize that, he feared she had tonight as he slipped into the seat next to her.

A round of applause went up. He saw the relief on Livie’s face and knew he would see that a million times in the years ahead.

His job was dangerous and unpredictable and often ran overtime.

He’d found his calling after he’d lost her the first time.

He hoped the job wouldn’t cost him her now.

Her eyes filled with tears as he met her gaze. She smiled, her relief palpable. He smiled back. The group at the table began to clink a utensil against their glasses.

“Kiss! Kiss!” they chanted.

They didn’t have to tell him twice. He leaned in and kissed the woman he loved. She put her arm around his neck, drawing him closer. They lost themselves in the kiss for a moment, pulling back when the crowd at the table got rowdy and Alice announced, “Let’s eat. We have a rehearsal to get to!”

* * *

Olivia spent the night in her mother’s large two-bed hotel room across the street from the sheriff’s office and the apartment over it. It had been their plan to spend the night before their wedding apart, but after her fears yesterday, she wished she was curled up in his arms.

Her mother had already fallen asleep and Olivia found herself at loose ends. After the dinner and the rehearsal, Jaden had told her what he’d discovered.

“You think Dean killed her?”

He’d nodded. “I don’t think she ever left for Spokane.”

“But I thought you said she was caught on a surveillance camera?”

“I now believe it was Jenny Lee, pretending to be her. It made no sense that she would leave her car to be vandalized, her belongings stolen,” he said. “I think he either found her out at the barn or managed to get her out there.”

“And killed her.” Olivia had frowned. “You’re saying this happened when he was allegedly missing after the tornado.”

“Angie said he would turn up, and he did. But he must have come back sooner than when he was found walking down the road saying he didn’t remember anything.”

“Like Cody,” she’d said.

Now, as she looked out the hotel room window, she could see the light on in the sheriff’s office.

Her husband-to-be was busy the night before his wedding writing up his report.

Olivia sighed and told herself that Jaden had said there were hardly ever tornadoes, let alone murders, around Fortune Creek.

She could only hope, she thought as she crawled into bed. She was getting married tomorrow. Unless there was another murder.

* * *

Jaden hadn’t realized how long he’d been waiting for this moment as he stood at the altar in the church, his best man the sheriff beside him.

“Nervous?” Brandt asked. Jaden shook his head. “Liar.”

The music began. He stared down the aisle, waiting for that moment when he would see his bride.

Molly Parker came in first, and moments later, there Livie was.

He tried to swallow the lump in his throat at the sight of her.

She’d always been beautiful, but today she took his breath away as she walked toward him.

He tried to breathe, his heart racing. This was the moment. He looked into her eyes as she joined him. He thought he might see doubts or at least nervousness, but he saw none of it. This woman was going to marry him.

The weight of that didn’t help his breathing. Somehow, he got through the ceremony. They’d agreed to keep it short and sweet, and it was.

The next thing he knew, the pastor told him he could kiss his wife. He pulled her to him, their gazes locked, and he knew in his heart that this was the real thing. The kiss drew applause. People in this small town would applaud anything, he told himself as he stepped back, smiling.

Livie was smiling, too, her face aglow. He reached for her hand as the pastor announced them as husband and wife.

* * *

For Olivia, the wedding was a blur of people Jaden had often talked about from his hometown.

All of Fortune Creek had turned out for the wedding.

The sheriff’s department’s elderly dispatcher/receptionist, Helen Graves, had brought her knitting bag, working on a project as she waited in the pew.

There was Jaden’s good friend Ash Holland, from the hotel, and Cora Green, who owned the convenience mart and gas station, and, of course, Alice Weatherbee, who was catering the reception in the hotel lobby.

Even the local coroner, J. D. Brown, attended.

There was a huge wedding cake as well as Alice’s signature dessert, her famous huckleberry pie.

Olivia couldn’t believe what a warm welcome everyone gave her.

After the stories Jaden had told her, she’d felt as if she already knew them all.

But over the weeks preceding the wedding, they’d become like family.

Her mother had cried during the ceremony and again at the reception. “I’m so happy for you,” she’d said, hugging her. “Did you know Ash said there is a hotel room open for me, no charge, anytime I come up to visit?”

“You can also stay with us,” Olivia told her. “We have an extra room with your name on it.”

“That’s nice, but the two of you will be honeymooning for the first year,” Sharon Brooks said.

“Maybe for quite a few months,” she agreed. “After that, the baby might make it harder.”

“Baby?” Her mother’s face lit up. “Does Jaden know?”

“I’m telling him later tonight,” Olivia said and pretended to lock her lips and then her mother’s, since she looked as if she might burst with the news.

“I’m so happy for you,” her mother said, her voice breaking with emotion. “All I’ve ever wanted was for you to be happy.”

“I am happy,” she told her as Jaden approached and a familiar song began to play.

She’d planned to wait until they were alone to tell him about the baby, but the moment she looked at him, heard their song begin and stepped into his arms, she knew she couldn’t keep it to herself any longer.

“Having fun?” he asked, pulling her closer.

“It’s incredible, isn’t it?” she said of the love she felt in the room, saw in his eyes.

His gaze held hers. “Mrs. Montgomery, you’re glowing. I’ve never seen you look more beautiful.”

She smiled up at him, then moved closer to whisper, “We’re pregnant.” She hadn’t meant to just blurt it out, but she couldn’t stand it any longer.

Jaden jerked back, surprise and delight in his expression. “You’re sure?”

“It’s early, but yes. We’re going to be a family.”

“Oh, Livie,” he said, tugging her close. “We’re going to be a family.”

She shook her head and looked around the room at everyone who’d helped make this day so special before settling her gaze on his again. “We already are a family.”

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from Her Baby, Her Badge by Delores Fossen.