The Outlaw Bride Page 24
“Lubina said so, and you know I never contradict Lubina.”
“You always contradict Lubina. You just don’t let her hear you do it.” He put his arm across the back of Josie’s seat. He was never comfortable unless he was touching her. When his fingertips cupped her shoulder, she glanced at him with the stormy look he’d come to love.
“When does this shindig get started? I want to get you back to our room and … Ah, hell! When can we—?”
“Any minute now the celebration will begin,” she said, deliberately ignoring his question. She remembered the first time he’d “loved” her, and she shivered. That had never changed. “There’ll be speeches. Governor Warren will raise the state flag. But first Laura is going to sing that patriotic song Francis Scott Key wrote.”
Callahan grinned. “I know. I know. We have to wait. Look,” he said, giving her a pained smile. “They’ve raised the curtain. There’s Laura.”
“I told you the dress would be perfect, Sinclair,” Teddy Miller said in his normal P.T. Barnum voice.
Sinclair shook his head in disagreement. “I still think all those stars and stripes are gaudy. Statehood for Wyoming is a serious affair. She should be wearing something more … more stately. Next time we’ll hire the best fashion consultants in New York for our Laura.”
“Hush,” Dr. Annie said. “I knew better than to turn her over to the two of you. Now she wants to study opera. That is not what I have in mind for my youngest daughter.”
Teddy cleared his throat. “But she’s not—”
“Quiet, Miller,” Roylston Sinclair said with a scowl. “They’ll find out soon enough she’s going on the stage.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the elderly Judge McSparren said. “Please rise as we hear our national anthem being sung by our very own Laura Miller.”
Annie caught her husband’s hand and squeezed it. “How are we going to stop her, Dan? A performer? I wanted so much more for her.”
“She’s our daughter, Annie. She’ll be the kind of woman she chooses to be.”
On the stage, Laura Miller looked at the grandfathers, gave them a big wink, and started to sing.
At the end of the row, Josie felt a stirring, almost as if the child inside her was impatient, knowing she was about to become another independent woman of Wyoming. “Callahan,” Josie whispered, “maybe I was wrong about coming here tonight.”
“Judge Josie Callahan, wrong? That must be a first. Darlin’, you want to skip all this and get back to the hotel? We don’t need to see Wyoming celebrate becoming a state; we’ve lived it.”
Josie laid her head on her husband’s shoulder and touched her stomach with her hand. “Yes, we have.”
THIS BOOK IS FOR ELLEN TABOR
AND THE SISTERS OF CATHEDRAL SCHOOL
OF SAVANNAH, GEORGIA,
WHOSE DIVINE INSPIRATION HELPED
MAKE THIS BOOK POSSIBLE.
AND FOR ANNE BOHNER AND KARA CESARE,
EDITORS EXTRAORDINAIRE
The Editor’s Corner
Welcome to Loveswept!
April might bring showers, but over at Loveswept, we’re more than happy to fill your days with sunshine and romance with this month’s irresistible original stories.
If you’re looking for a new small-town contemporary romance, look no further than Plain Jayne, a funny, heartfelt story about best friends who reunite—only to realize that being “just friends” isn’t good enough anymore. Juliet Rosetti keeps readers swooning—and laughing—with Mazie Maguire and her hot boy toy, Ben Labeck, in the delightfully fun Tangled Thing Called Love. And Bronwen Evans delivers another scorching story in A Promise of More, the second Disgraced Lords book where a marriage rooted in convenience and revenge turns into something so much more.
And sure to brighten any gloomy days are classic romances like Sandra Chastain’s richly sensuous tales from the Wild West: The Outlaw Bride, The Mail Order Groom and Shotgun Groom. Also deeply satisfying is Iris Johansen’s unforgettable story Man From Half Moon Bay and Karen Leabo’s sexy and thrilling The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. Linda Cajio’s Me and Mrs. Jones is another wonderful tale of passion you can’t miss. And you can never go wrong with Andrienne Staff and Sally Goldenbaum: check out the beautifully rendered Banjo Man by these two superstar writers.
∼Happy Romance!
Gina Wachtel
Associate Publisher
Love stories you’ll never forget
by authors you’ll always remember
eOriginal Romance from Random House
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