Page 37 of Perfectly Matched: Harbor Falls Romance Collection

Nash strummed his guitar for the last time and hung his head as the lights went out and the music silenced. His gut clutched and panic sliced through his chest. Every nerve in his body ached for something he couldn’t have. Had walked away from. Had lost.

The phone call earlier from Suzie—just before he went on stage—had soured his mood but somehow, he had pushed on. Until now. He couldn’t ignore it any longer.

He shouldn’t be here. Needed to be somewhere else. Dammit!

The crowd roared and stomped their feet, begging for more, but one encore was all he had in him. Tonight’s gig was over. Six-hundred-and-four miles and a lifetime away from Harbor Falls, he stood in the middle of a crowd of adoring fans in Jackson, Mississippi.

And was alone.

“Shit.”

His guitar swung over his back now, he stalked off toward the dark depths of the backstage and gave his lead guitar player a signal that he needed a minute. His band was poised and ready for the second encore—their usual plan—while the crowd upped their chanting.

Nash kept walking, hell-bent on getting a moment away from the crowd. The conversation with Suzie rang in his ear. Preyed on his heart. She’s getting married, Nash. Tomorrow. You must stop her. We’ve tried. She won’t listen to us.

“Where do you think you are going?”

The voice came from his right. Nash didn’t look up. Didn’t need to.

“I need a minute.”

“Like hell.”

Rick grasped his bicep and Nash simultaneously swung around and cocked him across the jaw with his fist. Rick stumbled backward and landed on his ass. The anger had been boiling in Nash for a while and, right or wrong, he finally let it go. Shouldn’t have, but did.

He stood over his manager, shaking his fist.

“Don’t push me, Rick.”

Rick bounded up.

“You goddamned sonofabitch!”

He swiped at his jaw.

“What the fuck has gotten into you?”

He knew what had gotten into him. Mary. Music or no music, he wasn’t going to let her get away.

“There’s something I gotta do, man.”

He backed up.

“There is something I gotta do right now. Give me a minute.”

He pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket.

Rick cut him off.

“Why don’t you just shoot yourself in the ass while you’re at it? Your fans want their last encore. With the CMAs coming up…”

Nash crowded him.

“They’ll forgive me,”

he said matter of fact.

“And if they don’t, get on Twitter or Facebook and goddamn tell them I had a personal issue to deal with.”

He brushed past Rick and out the door. His head spun with the lingering shouts of the crowd and the fact that he’d just punched his manager. Not good but it happened. Nothing he could do about it now.

Stopping outside the door and in front of his bus, he scrolled to find his brother’s name in his phone and hit the call button. After two rings, Kaulin answered.

“Hey Nash.”

“How fast can you get to Jackson?”

“Under four hours. Three if there are no cops.”

“Make it two.”

Nash chuckled.

“Get in that big damn truck of yours and come get me. We’re going to North Carolina.”

“Woohee! I’m on my way!”

Nash shoved the phone back in his pocket and turned around, headed back for the stage. No one was going to tell him how run his life, or his career. He passed Rick without looking at him and headed back up on the stage. He signaled to the band, approached the mic and started singing.

I’m a hard man to love, girl

But keep your faith in me.

He could do this. He could balance his life—music and Mary.

If she would have him. Come hell or high water, he had to see her before she got married. He had to stop her from making a big mistake.

He had to win her back.

****

I will get through this. I will get through this. I will get through this.

The processional music had started. Mary Lou’s father stood at the entrance to the church sanctuary. He looked stoic and a little sad, like he wanted to have a long, heart-to-heart talk with his daughter. Mary Lou knew he wasn’t too keen on her marrying Barry Phillips, but she had convinced him it was the right thing to do.

Still, when she stepped closer to him, he looked to be on the verge of saying something—like he was holding himself back. Quietly and slowly, he took her hand and tucked it into his elbow, and then he carefully leaned close and whispered in her ear.

“Follow your heart, not your brain, for one time in your life, Mary Lou Picketts.”

She pulled back and studied her father’s face. What did he know.

“What do you mean, Dad?”

He let out a breath and leaned in again.

“Your mother’s on Facebook.”

Mary felt her eyes grow wide. “She is?”

He nodded.

“But she didn’t want to say anything. Didn’t want to interfere. I told her I’d take care of it.”

Just like he’d always done, taken care of the two of them. She sighed and lowered her voice.

“I don’t know what to do, Daddy.”

“Yes, you do. Follow your heart.”

The music changed and her lone attendant sauntered toward the entrance and down the aisle. Mary Lou watched and lost sight of her as she rounded the corner and moved toward the waiting groomsmen. The flower girl was next, her cousin’s little girl. “Go slow,”

she whispered, hoping to prolong the inevitable.

Her father gripped her hand and moved her toward the opening at the back of the sanctuary.

Closing her eyes, she imagined the child walking between the pews and tossing the rose petals. The music stopped and an eerie silence crept over the old church. Somewhere outside an engine rumbled. Birds chirped from the bell tower above. Then at once, the organist stabbed the keys and The Wedding March pealed through the sanctuary.

Her stomach bolted in protest. Her eyes flew open.

“It’s time, Mary Lou,”

her father prodded.

She stood approximately ten feet away from the guests sitting in the back. That ten feet felt like ten miles. She squeezed her father’s arm and took a step forward. They faced the guests, who were now standing and looking at them, waiting. The groom, groomsmen, bridesmaid, flower girl, and the minister all stood in the vestibule. Mary Lou’s gaze skimmed the crowd, her family and friends on the left; Barry’s on the right.

Suzie stood about halfway down the aisle on the left. Frowning.

“Are you going to do this, or not,”

her father whispered out the corner of his mouth.

“Because, honey, it’s now or never.”

She bit her lip.

Now or never.

Don’t give up on me. Never forget.

“Never,”

she whispered.

She looked to her dad and smiled. He grinned back for the first time that day. Then without thought and with reckless abandon, she dropped his arm, lifted her skirts in both hands, and briskly walked up to the vestibule where Barry stood.

“We need to talk,”

she told him quietly, then glanced to the preacher.

“I’m sorry, Reverend Peters.”

****

Twenty minutes later, the church empty and Barry having left in a huff, Mary stood in the vestibule alone. A strange sense of serenity came over her, and she knew she had done the right thing.

Her father had hugged her tight and told her he would see her later. Her mother was tired and needed to get home. It had been an emotional day for all of them on numerous levels.

Of course, Barry was quite upset and demanded the ring back. She was happy to oblige. He ranted on about the cost of the honeymoon, and she told him to take his mother, since she loved Niagara Falls so much. He was a mama’s boy anyway. She’d probably worship him to the ends of the earth if he took her.

Plopping down in a pew, she was so glad to be rid of all that.

Now, life could move forward and somehow, she would figure it all out. Oddly, she was at peace with everything.

In moving-on mode, her brain ticked off a few to do’s.

See if she could sell the dress.

Return the wedding presents.

Go shopping for new, sexier clothes.

Check on Nash’s schedule….

She was so lost in thought she barely registered the creak in the old church door or the footsteps making their way down the aisle. But when the lone voice penetrated her musing, she turned.

“I’m a hard man to love, girl. But keep your faith in me.”

Nash?

Jumping to her feet, she whirled at the sound of his voice. Her heart leapt and skidded to a halt against her breastbone. Tears stinging her eyes, she met him halfway up the aisle.

“Oh, Nash…”

she whispered.

He took her hands and tugged her toward him.

“Looks like someone was getting married here today.”

“Yes. Was.”

“But not now?”

Mary shook her head.

“No, no. The bride had a change of heart, it seems.”

Nash studied her face.

“Was it sudden?”

“It had been coming on for a while,”

she whispered.

“The bride was just a little afraid to face the truth.”

Nash crowded closer.

“I see. I can relate.”

“You can?”

“Um hm. My mama says I need to figure out how to balance my life. I think I know how to do that now.”

“Really?”

Mary arched a brow.

He nodded.

“Yes, I just need the right woman who believes in me. A woman who knows I can love her and love music at the same time.”

Mary sighed.

“I see? And this woman is?”

“My perfect match,”

he told her.

“Hell, I was afraid I was too late, Mary,”

he whispered, tugging at a tendril of her hair.

“It snowed in Georgia and the roads were a mess, but me and my brother, we kept moving on.”

He looked at her then with such love in his eyes that Mary couldn’t help but shudder with hope.

“I needed to stop you.”

“Turns out I stopped myself.”

“Thank God for that.”

“Nash, how did you know…?”

Then she realized. “Suzie.”

No wonder she was frowning earlier.

“I couldn’t go through with it. I just couldn’t. Nash, I… I love you.”

He lifted her chin with his fingertips and smiled.

“Don’t look away from me, Mary Lou Picketts. Don’t ever stop looking into my eyes.”

She sucked in a shaking breath.

“I’m sorry Nash. I know you can’t promise anything. But I can’t help being in love with you.”

Groaning, he pulled her into his chest.

“You’re not listening to me.”

His breath tickled her ear.

“I love you. I don’t want another day to go by that you are not by my side.”

She pulled away and connected again with his gaze.

“But your music…”

“Without you,”

he said.

“there is no music.”

“And without music,”

she returned.

“there is no you. I love you, Nash Rhodes. Take me somewhere and make me yours.”

He captured her lips in a kiss that was full of promise and love and a future.

“Ah, my sweet, sweet Mary…”

he whispered.

“Think you can put up with me for a week? My crazy brother is with me too. Then when Australia is over, we’ll build a house here in Harbor Falls. We’ll spend some of our time here, and some on my grandfather’s ranch in Louisiana. He gave it to me last week while I was there.”

Mary pulled back and looked into Nash’s eyes.

“Nash Rhodes, are you asking me to marry you?”

“Damned straight,”

he replied.

Smiling, Mary eased up into his embrace.

“Then you better damned pop the question, sir.”

He got down on one knee.

“I can do better than that.”

He pulled a ring box out of his pocket and popped it open.

“Mary Lou Picketts, will you marry me?”

“Well, I do have the dress…”

Nash growled, picked her up and headed for the door.

“That better be a yes, woman.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Yes, Nash. Oh yes, I will marry you.”

“Good. But I’m afraid we’ll have to get you another dress because as soon as I get you to a hotel room, I’m about to rip that one off your body and have my way with you.”

Giggling, Mary nibbled at his lips.

“Rip away, cowboy. Rip away.”

****

Suzie Hart Matthews silently observed the contrast in the two scenarios presenting themselves in front of the Harbor Falls Methodist Church.

A smug and satisfied feeling passed over her as Nash Rhodes, tall, handsome, and wearing tight wranglers, ostrich boots, and a tauntingly sexy, black Resistol cowboy hat, strode down the concrete walk leading from the church while carrying his smiling and radiant Mary Lou Picketts, dragging the train of her wedding dress behind them.

A wedding dress she didn’t get married in because she’d called off her wedding. Not to Nash, but to Barry Phillips. Thank God, the girl had seen the light in time.

Anyway, Suzie couldn’t help but smile knowing she’d done good work. A matchmaker she was becoming and a good one at that. Yes. Perfect. She had perfectly matched two more hearts and was quite proud of that fact, if she did say so herself.

As Nash disappeared with his bride into a late model pickup truck, her gaze swung to the other scenario.

She knew the young man standing on the porch steps of the cottage across the street. He’d not lived in Harbor Falls long but she’d seen him around town. The woman he was talking, um, arguing with, was familiar enough. Suzie had known Katie Long since they were kids. The couple was making enough of a ruckus, however, for half of Harbor Falls to get to know them both darned quick.

Katie seemed mad as heck about something. Suzie watched her stride quickly toward a small red sports car parked in the drive while giving the man a piece of her mind with every step. He followed, arguing back and flailing his arms. Suzie found it difficult to hear the actual conversation over the engine of the pickup truck.

Nash and Mary pulled away from the curb and Suzie ambled toward her own car, trying not to eavesdrop.

Much.

What she did hear, however, sounded like a whole lot of trouble for the young man across the street. Chris Marks. One of Harbor Falls’ finest young new police officers.

Katie got in the car and drove away. Fast. Suzie lingered only a moment and watched as Chris stood in the driveway looking after her, then finally hung his head and shuffled toward the house.

**The heat level of this story is very steamy but just shy of erotic. Some graphic and candid sexual language is used.**

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