Read the book: «A Walk Down the Aisle»
Speak now…or forever keep your secrets?
Colton McCray’s an “I do” away from the perfect life. He’s got a prosperous farm and he’s lucky enough to have fallen in love with a good woman like Sophie Johnston. What more could a man who loves the simple life want?
Certainly not a wedding-crasher who’s only one of Sophie’s secrets!
Marry a woman he doesn’t really know—or take a chance and trust her? No way! Though the harder Colton tries to cut Sophie out of his life, the more he wants her…complications and all. When he finds out she’s pregnant with their baby, it’s impossible for him to stay away. But first, he must forgive her past in order to rebuild the future they were meant for….
I object.
Those two little words had changed everything.
Colton thought he knew everything there was to know about Sophie, but, as it turned out, she wasn’t an orphan with a past that was too painful to talk about. She had family. In fact, she had a daughter.
A daughter she’d given away.
Colton knew he’d lived an even-keel sort of life. But right now his life was anything but.
He stood in front of the Valley Ridge community and announced, “I’m so sorry for the inconvenience, but the wedding’s canceled. I talked to the caterer and all the food’s being moved to the diner. Please feel free to stop by and help yourself. And please, those who’ve brought gifts, be sure to take them on your way out.”
With that, he marched down the aisle and took off toward the farm. He was a simple man—too simple perhaps to know how to handle something this decidedly unsimple.
Dear Reader,
I know when you think wine, you think the shores of Lake Erie, right? Well, if you don’t, then maybe you should. The hero of this book, Colton, runs a small winery and loves to extol the wonders of our grape-growing region…and he’s right. And while I loved introducing Lake Erie’s very real wineries in this final book of my trilogy, A Valley Ridge Wedding, this is a love story. It’s a different love story.
When we left Colton and Sophie at the end of April Showers, their wedding had been called off because a mysterious young girl objected. Tori’s trying to figure out who she is, where she came from and where she belongs. That’s a journey we all take in one way or another. My particular journey echoed Tori’s. I grew up not knowing part of my family—part of my history. I went looking for answers and found not only closure, but a new part of my family who I love and treasure.
My heroine, Sophie, has her past arrive at her wedding, and it ripples through her present. It threatens her relationship with Colton. But maybe with some time, some tears and some of that Valley Ridge magic, they can come out stronger because of it.
I hope you enjoy this last addition to A Valley Ridge Wedding miniseries! I’ve enjoyed my time in Valley Ridge so much that I’m heading back this holiday season with A Valley Ridge Christmas. I hope you’ll come visit with me!
Happy reading!
Holly Jacobs
A Walk Down the Aisle
Holly Jacobs
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In 2000, Holly Jacobs sold her first book to Harlequin Books. She’s since sold more than twenty-five novels to the publisher. Her romances have won numerous awards and made the Waldenbooks bestseller list. In 2005, Holly won a prestigious Career Achievement Award from RT Book Reviews. In her nonwriting life, Holly is married to a police captain, and together they have four children. Visit Holly at www.hollyjacobs.com, or you can snail-mail her at P.O. Box 11102, Erie, PA 16514-1102.
To George and Marilyn. I might not have found you until later in my life, but don’t ever doubt that you are loved.
And to Ben, our own “Cletus.” You arrived as I started writing this trilogy, and you’ve already enriched my life more than I ever imagined possible. Always remember, you are loved…and as far as I’m concerned, you are perfect!
A special thank-you to Julie Pfadt of the Lake Erie Wine Country and to all our local wineries. And to Jeff Ore and everyone at Penn Shore Winery for showing me the ropes…or vines, as the case may be!
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
Excerpt
PROLOGUE
VICTORIA ALLEN PARKED her father’s black SUV next to the library. She purposefully backed it into the parking space so the plates weren’t visible. She felt a guilty sense of dread knowing what was going to happen when her parents got hold of her, but she pushed the feeling aside. She checked the GPS on her phone and headed across the bridge and into town.
Her parents would eventually have to admit that she’d taken their car for a good reason, and it wasn’t as if she didn’t know how to drive. Besides, she’d followed the speed limits much better than most of the drivers on I-90.
Thinking about her parents made her feel a sense of homesickness, though she’d only been gone a couple of hours. She couldn’t help but admit how much her mother would love this small town. As Tori walked down the quiet street, she thought that Valley Ridge, New York, looked like Mayberry. When Tori was younger, her mom had watched episodes of Andy Griffith every day at five o’clock. It struck her as ironic that her college president mother, Gloria Allen, who wore power suits and used her BlackBerry as if it was another appendage, loved such a sentimental show.
Of course, her academic, power-suited mom was a woman of unexpected contrasts. She had married Freedom Jay Allen. Though her mom called her dad Dom, it didn’t change the fact he had been born on a commune. And though he’d now joined the rest of the world, her dad was still a vegetarian, and wouldn’t know a high-flying job if it bit him. He worked from home as a painter. An honest-to-goodness, brush-on-canvas artist.
When Tori was little, her mom went to work and her dad had been a househusband.
Her mother might be conventional in many ways, but she had an unconventional streak in her nonetheless.
Actually, both her parents would love this town. Now she felt even more guilty for taking their car and driving it without a license. They were going to be so pissed.
Well, her mom would be pissed, but her dad would be disappointed in her.
Disappointed was worse.
Tori glanced in a coffee-shop window and caught the reflection of a girl with blue hair. It took a split second for her to register the girl was her. Every time she noticed it, it shocked her. But she guessed that had been the point of her minirebellion. Her mother had been mad at that, too. But rather than being disappointed, her father had smiled and said, “Way to express yourself, Tori.”
She wondered what her father was saying now.
They were going to be so worried once they realized she was gone.
Tori decided that maybe a coffee would calm her nerves, but the lights were off in the small shop. There was a sign on the door that read At the Wedding.
She went to the diner, which also had a Closed for Family Wedding sign on its door.
She looked up and down the street and saw that every business on it was dark.
The whole town shut down for a wedding?
It was a Saturday at the end of June. You’d think that a small town like this would get a lot of touristy people during a weekend in the summer.
Weird. Forget Mayberry. This place was Twilight Zone-ish. Her mom loved that show, too. And her mother liked really bad disaster films. The kind they showed on cable late at night. Her mom used the DVR for them all. Tori couldn’t count how many times she’d seen the world almost hit by asteroids or the moon, or overrun by a zombie apocalypse or some killer virus. But thankfully, some B actor or actress always saved the day at the last minute.
Guilt ate at her. She knew she could head back right now and there was a chance her parents would never know what she’d done. Her mom had some all-day college thing that she’d dragged her dad to.
But Tori also knew she couldn’t do that. She had to get answers. She’d tried to explain her need to her mom, but her mom hadn’t understood. Tori had always gotten along with her mom and dad, even though most of her friends didn’t understand it. She still loved them, but she was so freakin’ angry. She couldn’t seem to get a handle on her emotions. Not that it was the first time she’d felt confused. Her dad said it was normal to be moody in your teens. If that was the case, Tori couldn’t wait to be in her twenties.
She checked her phone’s GPS again and left the ghost town’s main street, heading into a residential neighborhood. Five blocks later, she arrived in front of a house that would have made Hansel and Gretel go all gingerbread.
It was a tan one-story house. Its shutters and window boxes were bright yellow, as were the zillion flowers planted all around the tiny yard, with its picket fence and wooden arch, which had flowery vines hanging off it.
Maybe Hansel and Gretel was the wrong fairy tale. This was more about contrary Mary and her growing garden.
Looking at the cheery little house that seemed to scream happy made Tori feel pissed. Really pissed.
The anger was a deep burning in the pit of her stomach. It had been there ever since she’d seen the letter on her mother’s desk. It had been addressed to Sophie Johnston in care of the New Day Adoption Agency. Her mom had been lecturing her on her blue hair, about how people’s perceptions are shaped by first impressions, and what was it she hoped to say with blue hair? Tori had rolled her eyes and spotted the envelope. She’d picked it up, seen the name and then held it out to her mom, who stopped midlecture and turned pale.
That’s when Tori had known the truth. Her parents weren’t hers. Somewhere out there, two other people were her real mom and dad.
Fighting about hair dye had seemed like a very minor thing as she had gotten into it with her mom over the fact she’d kept such a big secret. “I planned on telling you when you were eighteen,” her mom had said. Her mom had wanted her to be mature enough to handle the news.
Tori had almost doubled over from the pain of knowing that she wasn’t Victoria Peace Allen, the only daughter of Gloria and Dom Allen. She wasn’t sure who she was, but she needed to know.
Her mother wouldn’t tell her anything. She kept saying, “When you’re eighteen...” As if eighteen were some magic number. Like all of a sudden, Tori would decide no, she didn’t need to know who she was and where she came from. Like in four years she wouldn’t wonder what kind of woman could give away her baby.
Tori opened the stupid gate of the stupid fairy-tale house, and her anger grew. This was where her biological mother lived? In a pretty little house in a freakin’ nice little town. Not a care in the world, and certainly no worries about some baby she gave away fourteen years ago.
No. This woman had just handed over her child and gone on with her life. Her very happy, gingerbread house life.
Tori stormed up to the door and pounded on it.
When there was no answer, she pounded on the door again, and gave it a quick kick. A black mark from her boot marred its cheery yellowness. For some reason, that made her feel better. Here was the tangible evidence that she existed. Something her biological mother couldn’t deny.
Tori was about to kick the door a second time when she heard someone say, “Pardon me.”
Tori turned and saw a cop car, with a young blond guy who didn’t look very coplike despite his uniform. “Sophie’s already gone to the wedding.”
“Oh.” Oh, so Sophie had joined the Twilight Zone masses at this wedding of the century?
“Did you miss the bus to the wedding?” the cop asked.
“Yeah,” she lied. And walked over to the cop car. It had VRPD stenciled on the doors, and a bar of lights on the roof.
“Well, come on and get in.” He leaned over and opened the passenger door. “I’ll give you a lift. I’m heading out there myself.”
Tori had listened to her parents lecture her on stranger-danger since she was old enough to speak. Getting in a car with a person you didn’t know was never a good idea. That’s why she’d stolen her father’s car. It seemed like a better idea than hitchhiking. But this was a cop. There was a box in the backseat that was wrapped in wedding paper, so his story seemed plausible. Tori opted to get in the car. A wedding would give her a perfect opportunity to observe her biological mother without being noticed.
She climbed into the passenger seat and asked, “Don’t you have to protect the town from...whatever criminals do in towns like this?”
The cop didn’t take offense; instead, he smiled. “I think the entire town is at the wedding. I’m predicting things will be fine if I take a wedding break.” He paused, and said, “Buckle up.”
Tori complied, and tried not to think about how much that sounded like her dad, and how scared her dad was going to be when he found out she was gone.
“I’m Dylan, by the way,” the cop said as he pulled away from the gingerbread house.
“Tori,” she said.
“Bride’s side or groom’s?”
“I’m here to see Sophie.”
“Bride’s side it is then,” he said with a grin. “It’s a beautiful day for her wedding, isn’t it? Her and Colton...”
The cop kept on talking, but Tori wasn’t really listening as she tried to digest the fact that Sophie hadn’t simply gone to this wedding that shut down Mayberry—she was the bride, the reason the entire place was closed.
Tori had just found her mother, and here she was getting married.
The anger that had burned in her belly since she’d seen that envelope blazed with new heat.
Fourteen years ago, this Sophie had handed her baby over to strangers then had carried on with her life without a second thought. She’d thrown Tori out like some unread, unwanted newspaper.
And now she was getting married to someone. Getting ready to start a new life and probably have scads of kids with him.
Kids she’d keep.
Tori didn’t know what to do. She wished her mom and dad were here.
She’d found her birth mother and was going to crash her wedding.
CHAPTER ONE
Dear Baby Girl,
I know I usually write your letter on your birthday, but I wanted to share today with you. Today I marry the man of my dreams. My friends keep saying we’re perfect together, and while you and I both know I’m anything but perfect, he is. And I feel as if he makes me a better person. And I’m hoping if we ever meet that’s what you find...a better person.
SOPHIE JOHNSTON ROUNDED the corner of the barn, getting her first glimpse of her fiancé’s surprise for her. It was a large white arbor, practically dripping with white flowers. Colton had wanted to do something special for their wedding, and she was willing to let him do whatever made him happy because there was only one thing she needed at this wedding—him.
Her two bridesmaids and best friends, Lily and Mattie, walked up the aisle, their slow step-pause gait making her crazy because, frankly, all she wanted to do was bolt down the aisle to Colton’s side.
As Lily and Mattie continued their slow walk, Colton stepped into view and the sight of him in his tux took her breath away. He was not a tall man, but his five feet eight inches seemed more than ample considering she was five-two on a good-heel day. His dark hair was always cropped short, but he’d let it grow out a bit for the wedding, and had tamed it with gel or something, because it seemed to be staying in place.
As she waited for her friends to finish their laborious walk, moments with Colton flashed before her eyes.
Colton in his cowboy hat, walking by the plate-glass window at the diner. She’d been blatantly staring, and when he had turned and looked inside, their eyes had locked. He’d come in, strode over to her table and asked her out.
Colton taking her to the ridge on his farm. He’d made a picnic and they had sat in the Adirondack chairs he’d bought and placed up there for them. One blue, one yellow. They’d watched the sunset on Lake Erie. He’d told her that he loved her that night. She’d said, “Thank you.”
He’d told her he loved her every day for weeks, and finally one night she’d admitted, “I love you, too.” He’d said, “I know.”
He’d known. He seemed to understand her in so many ways. Sometimes he understood her better than she understood herself. And there he was, waiting for her.
Mattie and Lily finally stood to the left of the altar. The guitarist nodded at Sophie, started to play the bridal march, and she finally began her own walk down the aisle.
Sophie tried to force herself to maintain the same sedate gait as her bridesmaids had, but she wasn’t sure she was managing it. She was able to stop herself from running, but barely.
She was almost at Colton’s side when he reached down and picked up...a cowboy hat. He slipped it on his head. A white hat.
He’d told her he wore the hat to protect himself from the sun while he was in the fields or the vineyard. She’d teased him, saying he was a closet cowboy. All heart, honor and passion for the land.
He’d told her that his greatest passion was her.
Sophie stopped her headlong race down the aisle for a moment because she was laughing so hard. Colton adjusted the obviously new hat on his head and grinned at her.
This was the man she was about to vow to spend the rest of her life with.
The perfect man for her.
He laughed with ease, but more than that, he made her laugh, as well. He accepted her as she was, and had never tried to make her be something she wasn’t.
He loved her.
He wasn’t a talkative man, but his every action told her he loved her.
She took the last two steps and was at his side...where she belonged.
Where she planned to spend the rest of her life.
She grasped the hand of the man she loved.
It was a perfect day. The sky was a brilliant June blue. The field next to the arbor was dotted with new green stalks that would be tasseled corn by the end of the summer. Behind her there were rows of borrowed chairs, all festooned with white ribbons and lace and occupied by most of the occupants of Valley Ridge, New York—her friends and surrogate family. The air was awash with the scent of flowers.
But none of that mattered to Sophie. It could be stormy and cold. The entire town could have ignored their invitations. The chairs could be old and ratty, and the arbor could blow down in the gale.
As long as Colton was next to her, it would still have been a perfect day.
All she needed was him.
He gave her hand a quick but solid squeeze, and Sophie knew a sense of rightness. Of wholeness.
Of love.
“Dearly beloved,” the minister said as tiny wind chimes, which hung from the corner of the arbor, tinkled in the light breeze.
The minister inhaled, and Sophie could scarcely contain her joy. She wanted to scream yes right now. Yes, she’d take this man for better or worse. Yes, she’d take this man for richer or poorer. Yes, she’d take this man for the rest of her life.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
She looked at Colton and whispered “yes” to herself at the same moment that someone from behind her shouted, “I object.”
Sophie turned, as did Colton. As did everyone gathered in her beribboned chairs in Colton’s field. A young girl with vivid blue hair stood in the back row of the chairs. “You can’t get married yet. Not when I’ve worked so hard to find you. No. It’s not fair.”
“Do you know her?” Colton whispered.
Sophie shook her head. She had no idea what to do. When she was thinking about her wedding day, she had tried to make plans for every contingency. If it rained, they’d move the ceremony into the barn, where they had held their engagement party and where their casual reception would take place.
If the minister got ill, she knew a man at one of the wineries who’d become ordained online in order to perform weddings for his winery’s new reception hall. She’d call him.
If the caterer’s trucks broke down, she’d call in her friends and ask them to supply a quick potluck.
If her parents showed up and caused a scene, she had Valley Ridge’s local police officer as one of her guests, and he could cart them off to jail, or out of town. She knew Dylan would take them somewhere. Anywhere that wasn’t here.
Yes, Sophie was sure she’d thought of everything, considered every possibility. But she hadn’t ever imagined someone objecting to her marrying Colton.
He took her hand again, and together they walked down the aisle to the girl—at a pace much faster than the one she’d used walking toward Colton. Of all the catastrophes Sophie had imagined, having a blue-haired girl object to her wedding hadn’t been one of them.
Colton motioned the girl away from the rows of chairs. “Who are you?”
“Tori.” The name came out like a curse, filled with anger that vibrated on those two syllables. “Her daughter.” She nodded at Sophie.
Daughter? Sophie started to shake. She felt as if there wasn’t enough air to draw a breath. She felt light-headed and clung to Colton’s arm for support.
“That’s right, Mom,” the girl continued. “The baby you threw away has found you. Sorry to interrupt your day. Hell, sorry to interrupt your life.”
Sophie studied the features of the tiny, blue-haired girl, and realized that the girl was older than she looked. Just about Sophie’s five foot two inches. The girl—Tori—her features were her own. Tori’s very blue eyes sparked with pent-up anger.
Then she searched her upper lip. There. The tiniest, faintest of scars. Something no one would notice unless they were looking for it. There was the scar.
Tori. Her daughter’s name was Tori. The annual letters Tori’s parents sent via the adoption agency never mentioned her name. They simply included a few pictures, and a page or two of their daughter’s accomplishments and highlights of her year.
“Tori,” Sophie whispered. It was the first time she’d ever said her daughter’s name. Until now, she’d simply been Baby Girl, even though Sophie knew she was no longer a baby.
She gulped in air, trying to fill her lungs.
Colton said, “Sophie?” and she looked at him. She saw the moment that he realized this girl had spoken the truth. Tori was her daughter, and Sophie knew exactly three things about her. She was fourteen. She’d dyed her probably blond hair blue. And she was angry.
She was very, very angry.
“She’s mine,” she whispered, sure for more reasons than the girl’s looks, scar or height. Something in her yearned to take this girl into her arms and hold her in a way she hadn’t ever been permitted to. Something in her recognized the angry woman-child as her daughter.
“I don’t know what to say,” she admitted to both Colton and Tori.
Colton took charge. He led the two of them into the barn and away from the prying eyes of the wedding guests. The barn was strung with white lights, and there were makeshift tables covered in elegant white tablecloths set up with white china and linen napkins. Sophie loved the juxtaposition of the rustic setting and the formal place settings. The same contrast could be seen in the humble daisy and more formal white rose centerpieces.
The girl looked around the barn, and her anger seemed to grow. It radiated from her every pore like some hot, red aura.
Sophie wanted to say something to comfort her, but didn’t know where to begin. “Tori, I—”
The girl turned away. Sophie wasn’t sure if she was crying or simply too angry to speak. But Colton obviously had a lot to say. He started with, “You had a daughter and you never thought to mention it?”
Sophie wasn’t sure how to explain things to Colton or Tori. She didn’t know anything about the girl’s parents, but she knew that Colton’s family was a loving, supportive one. They filled the first two rows of seats in the field. How could she make him understand what it had been like for her at that time?
And how could she explain to this girl why she’d given her up? What words could a mother use to make Tori understand something like that?
Sophie swallowed. “Fourteen years ago, I was little more than a child myself when I gave birth to a baby girl. I never held her, and caught only the barest glimpse of her as they whisked her away.”
Tori whirled around and, rather than speaking to Sophie, she looked at Colton. “Yeah, she got rid of me. I was a burden. A mistake.” She faced Sophie, and practically screamed at her, “Did you ever even meet my parents or did you just hand me over to the agency and let them pick? Did you worry that they might beat me? Maybe they’d be crazy. Maybe they would go on and have a bunch of their own biological children and remind me every day that I’m not really theirs.”
Sophie knew that the girl had thrown those things out to hurt her, and even if none of them were true, Tori had succeeded. “I didn’t meet your parents, but I picked them.” She remembered that battle. She’d lost so many other fights then, but that had been one she’d been adamant about winning. If only the girl knew how hard Sophie had fought for at least that much—the ability to pick the couple who would raise her daughter.
“And I know that your mother had a hysterectomy, so she couldn’t have had any other children. Maybe they adopted more, but they didn’t have any biological kids. That’s one of the reasons I chose them. I wanted to be sure you were with people who would treasure you.”
Her answer didn’t mollify the girl. “Yeah, well, maybe they beat me.”
“Did they? Do they?” Sophie asked. She couldn’t begin to count the number of times she’d had a dream like that—a nightmare. Her daughter was hungry. Her daughter was lost. Her daughter was hurt. And knowing that there was nothing she could do to help this child made it worse.
Tori was silent and finally shook her head. “No one beats me. My dad’s a pacifist. He won’t even kill flies.”
“Oh.” Sophie had so many questions. Fourteen years’ worth of questions, but she sensed that the girl wasn’t here to answer them. Tori wanted answers of her own.
And behind Tori, Sophie could see Colton. She could read him well enough to know that he was asking himself, if she could keep something that big from him, what else was she hiding?
She needed to explain why she hadn’t told him. She hadn’t lied, but she’d never told him. “Colton, I—”
“I asked you,” he said softly. “I asked if you had any family. It was our second month of dating and we’d gone to my parents’, and I asked if you had a family. And you said, ‘not anymore.’” He paused. “It was a lie.”
“Not in the way you think.” She didn’t know how to make him understand. “My family is complicated. And when you asked, we’d only been dating a couple months, and I’d just met your very wonderful family. I didn’t owe you answers about my less-than-wonderful one. Not then. And later...?” After that, he’d never asked again. And Sophie had been happy that she didn’t have to explain.
He removed the new cowboy hat from his head and ran his fingers through his hair. She’d been right—he’d used some sort of gel in it. Sophie wasn’t sure why that fact registered, but it did.
“Do you have family other than a daughter?” he barked.
“In a strictly biological way? Yes.”
She waited, anxious to hear what he would say. He simply nodded. “I’m going to go talk to the caterer and we’ll have them set up the meal at the diner. Then I’ll tell everyone the wedding’s off. You take Tori and go talk. It’s obvious you two have a lot to say to each other.”
He’d said the wedding was off. For today, or forever? “What about us?”
Normally she could read Colton like an open book. But now, the book had slammed shut, and all he said was, “We’ll talk later. In the morning. Right now, you need to deal with Tori. I’ll send everyone home. Why don’t you take your...daughter, and slip out before someone corners you.”
She’d hoped he’d say, Talk to Tori, then meet me in front of the minister, we’ll work it all out. But he was calling off the wedding. They’d “talk” about it tomorrow.
Sophie had planned for any number of emergencies with the wedding, but not this. Not a returning long-lost daughter.
And not the man who was supposed to love her leaving.
There was nothing to do but nod at Colton and watch him stride back to their guests, her heart breaking into a million little pieces. She waited, silently pleading for him to stop and come back to her, but he didn’t.
“Let’s go to my house where we can talk,” she said to Tori. Her daughter.
* * *
COLTON LIKED TO THINK of himself as a simple man.
He knew he was a man of few words, but he tried to make the words he did utter count.
He tried to tell Sophie daily that he loved her. He tried to show her in his every action.
He tried to be there for his friends. For Finn, who’d suffered so much when he lost his sister Bridget last winter, and for Sebastian, who’d come home physically damaged and emotionally battered.
Yes, Colton had been content with his straightforward bachelor farmer’s life, and then Sophie Johnston had breezed into Valley Ridge. Meeting her had changed everything. His dreams expanded to include her at his side, and raising a family here together on his grandfather’s farm.
When she’d come down the aisle toward him, she’d been walking toward that simple future, as well.
The free excerpt has ended.
