In the Line of Fire (5 page)

“Colton—” Andi pointed toward him “—he's Colton and I'm Andi—was supposed to give me away.” Andi ran through the situation with Rion's denied leave and how Colton wound up in the position of escorting her down the aisle on behalf of her family. “Anyway, Colton didn't come in and sweep me away. I climbed out of a bathroom window. When I hit the ground, he was there.”

“What were you doing outside the bathroom window?” Rochelle said to Colton.

That almost made him sound like some pervert. “I'd stepped outside for a minute before the ceremony,” he said.

“Ah,” Rochelle said, nodding with understanding. “A matter of being in the right place at the right time.”

Or wrong place at the wrong time. “Something like that,” Colton said.

“I see,” Rochelle said, looking closely from him to Andi and back to him. For all that she'd gotten so much supposition wrong, Colton had the weirdest sense that Rochelle did, in fact, see more than he'd like. She finally looked back at Andi. “So, why'd you climb out the window?”

“Rochelle, order up!” the guy behind the grill yelled.

She held up a staying finger. “Hold that thought and I'll be right back with your food.”

As Rochelle headed to the kitchen to pick up their order, Andi scrutinized him across the table. She'd always been quick and a sharp intelligence gleamed in her eyes. “Why weren't you inside? The wedding was about to start and I thought you were reviewing your part with Sonya.”

Because I needed a minute outside—because I was about to do something that was even harder than going into combat. “I told you both, I was heading that way.”

“Yeah, but—”

Rochelle returned with their plates, shutting Andi's interrogation down. “Here ya go. I know you're hungry, hon, so I don't mind if you talk and eat at the same time,” she said to Andi. “You were about to tell me why you climbed out that window.” She settled next to their table, one hand on her hip.

While they ate, Andi relayed the same thing she'd essentially told him in the car. Rochelle crossed her arms over her chest, shaking her head. “Nope, you can't marry a man you don't love. It's hard enough to live with 'em when you love 'em. Isn't that right, Vern?” She yelled the last part to the cook.

“Whatever you say, Rochelle, darlin',” Vern returned with an indulgent eye roll.

“He's my old man,” she said to them with a wink. “We've been together thirty years now. He's the best thing that ever happened to me.” She eyeballed the two of them. “I don't believe in coincidence. You were supposed to climb out that window,” she said to Andi. “And you were supposed to be there.” She directed the last part to Colton. “Now the rest is up to you to figure out.” She winked. “Guess I better get back to work, huh? Y'all need anything else right now?”

Colton looked at Andi, who shook her head. “We're fine,” he said.

“She's nice,” Andi said, just before she shoved a forkful of pecan waffle into her lovely mouth.

He was like a man who'd been stumbling through the desert for years and had finally found an oasis.
He couldn't seem to get enough of looking at her—the sweep of her lashes, the curve of her cheek, the graceful lines of her neck, the slope of her breasts. The urge to touch her was a physical ache inside him. It was one thing to deny himself when she was half a world away. He was discovering it wasn't nearly as damn easy when there was just a table between them.

Colton cut into his eggs. “I don't know that I particularly buy into her lack of coincidence theory, but yeah, she was nice.”

Andi pointed her fork at him as she finished chewing. She swallowed. “Maybe she's on to something. If you had been anyone else, I'd have been stuck but your car was in a good place and you were willing to help me out.” She smiled and there was a gleam in her eyes that told him loud and clear she was very much aware he was a man and she was a woman. The room suddenly felt ten degrees warmer. “I think you
were
meant to be there. We were obviously meant to be here,” she said, grinning, “because I'm finally feeling human again with some food in me.” She rounded up a forkful of hash browns.

“Oh, is that the barometer?”

“It's as good as any.” She grew serious. “Thank you, Colton. I don't know what I would've done without you. And I know your mom isn't happy with you.”

True enough, Martha Anne wouldn't be happy but she'd get over it. “I'm a big boy. I can handle it.”

“Well, you're my hero.”

The look in her eyes made him hot. It was a damn good thing the table was between them and there were other people around because otherwise he wasn't so sure he could've stopped himself from pulling her tight and hard against him and kissing her. They were wandering into territory where they didn't belong. “Thanks.”

Her smile knotted his gut. “I've got an idea.”

“That sounds dangerous.” She was dangerous.

“Ha, ha. Very funny. You know we're both going to be in trouble—me for taking off and you for taking me.”

“Yes?”

“Well, I'm going to hear about it from my family and you're going to hear about it from yours…”

She had all of that right so far, but self-preservation made him wary of where she was taking this. “Uhhuh. Nonstop, until I head back.”

“Let's don't go back yet. I planned for the week off and you're on leave. Let's have a Grand Adventure.”

He was shaking his head before she finished talking. “Bad idea.”

“Why?”

Because how the hell was he supposed to spend nearly a week with her and continue to resist temp
tation? He'd jumped on every reasonable excuse to touch her earlier. “Because…well, it just is.”

“Did you have any plans for the week? If you were going to look up Diane Lassiter, she got married last year.”

Where had Andi come up with the notion he'd look up this old Senior Prom date? “I know Diane got married last year. She friended me on Facebook. No, I don't have any particular plans.” He found he couldn't lie to her about it. “But taking off on a Grand Adventure isn't a good idea.” And that was an under-statement. It had
disaster
written all over it.

“You're right, it's not a good idea.” Thank God she was going to be reasonable about this. “It's a
great
idea. You're the one who said you might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb. It'll be fun.” She gave him that beseeching look that had always worked when they were younger. “C'mon. Pretty please.”

He wasn't going to be swayed by her. “No.”

“Suit yourself, but I am not going back and I'm going to have my adventure. I've got a credit card.” She looked at him across the table with cool defiance. “Just drop me off at a rental-car company and I'll take it from there.”

Dammit to hell. “You're serious?”

“One hundred percent. You and Rion have been off doing what you wanted to do, where you wanted to do it.” He leveled a let's-get-real look at her. “Okay, so maybe Afghanistan isn't your first choice of places
to be, but you're not sitting around in Savannah being the dutiful daughter.” She leaned across the table and reached for him, placing her hand on top of his, her fingers warm and smooth against his. He quite literally couldn't think straight when she touched him, even just her hand on his. “You know how my mother is. She's going to be livid.” No shit. “So I might as well have some fun before I go back since I've already sunk my ship, so to speak.” She moved her hand to rim her tea glass with her index finger.

Colton knew that obstinate set of her chin. She was serious. She wasn't going back…at least not today. She was hell bent for leather that she'd have her—how'd she put it—Grand Adventure. He couldn't stop her, he knew Andi well enough to know that, but he could make sure she didn't get into trouble and that she was okay. And there was only one way to do that. “Okay. Fine.”

“Fine what? I wasn't asking your permission to go.”

“I didn't think you were.” He knew her better than that.

She paused in toying with her glass. “Then what's fine?”

He was so going to regret this. Hell, he already regretted it. “I'll go with you.”

“For real?” A huge smile blossomed on her face and lit her eyes.

He was sunk, he was in way too deep because just
the idea that he'd been the one to light up her eyes like that made him feel ten feet tall, made him want to scale mountains and whatever else was necessary to get that response. “For real.”

She rubbed her hands together like a kid anticipating Christmas. “This is going to be so much fun.”

That's not exactly how he would categorize it. This had trouble written all over it.

“I
AM NEVER GOING TO
live this humiliation down,” Daisy Mitchell wailed from the depths of the overstuffed black-and-cream-toile armchair in Martha Anne Sawyer's family room.

Martha Anne didn't know what to say to her best friend. People would talk for some time to come. She simply patted Daisy's shoulder, made a soothing noise and passed a tissue.

Sonya, the wedding planner, had sent Daisy home with Martha Anne. It wasn't the first jilted-at-the-altar situation Sonya had handled and she'd stayed behind to work with the caterer and explain to the guests. According to Sonya it was best if the parents of the bride and groom were kept separated at this point. Martha Anne agreed. She'd always thought Blanton's father was a pompous ass and Beverly Pritchard didn't acknowledge anyone outside her circle of Junior League
and Garden Club cronies. Neither one would have been gracious to Daisy.

“I don't know what Andi was thinking,” Daisy went on. “Blanton will never marry her now.” Yeah, she could pretty much take
that
to the bank, no pun intended. “In fact, no one is going to want to marry her now because they'll all be afraid she'll do the same thing to them.” Martha Anne caught her lower lip between her teeth and worried it. She couldn't dispute that either. “She's ruined her prospects. And as if it wasn't bad enough Lola spotted her leaving with Colton in his car. What was
he
thinking? Do you think they planned this, Martha Anne?”

Martha Anne might not be pleased with her firstborn child—well, there was no might to it, she flat out wasn't happy with Colton—but she didn't care for Daisy's tone or implication. “It was a real stroke of bad luck that Lola was the one to spot them.” It'd be all over Savannah by nightfall. “But I can assure you it wasn't planned. I don't think Colton and Andi have had any contact with one another for years.”

“Well, why'd he have to do something stupid like drive away with her?”

Martha Anne mentally counted to ten. She and Daisy had both been young brides when they'd moved in next to one another more years ago than she cared to remember. Martha Anne had grown up as an army brat who'd spent her whole childhood moving from base to base and she'd learned early on to make
friends. Daisy had never been anywhere outside of Savannah. Savannah was her world and she liked it that way. However, they'd discovered they each had a passion for history and homemaking and had become close, fast friends. Both women had said the other was the sister they'd never had. Over the years they'd had their arguments but their friendship ran deep.

Nonetheless, Martha Anne wouldn't tolerate anyone unfairly maligning her child, even if her child was thirty-two, when Andi had clearly been the one to ditch the wedding.

“Daisy, I'm going to give you some leeway because I understand your circumstances, but this is not Colton's fault. He didn't drag Andi out of that window.”

Daisy passed her hand over her face. “I know. I'm just distraught.”

Martha Anne settled on the love seat opposite her best friend. “He's probably just calming her down and he'll have her back here in no time. You know how responsible my son is.” Colton had always done them proud.

“I know. I'm sorry. And if she'd been driving herself she might've wrecked, so if she had to run away, I suppose it's best he's with her. I don't know how I'm even going to talk to that girl when she gets here I'm so upset with her.”

Martha Anne suspected Daisy hadn't eaten since breakfast. She pushed up from the love seat and headed toward the kitchen. “I'm going to make us a
little plate of cheese and crackers and pour each of us a glass of wine to take the edge off.”

The wine would either relax Daisy or put her to sleep, and either way it would be an improvement.

“How about a gin and tonic instead?”

“That would definitely take the edge off,” Martha Anne said as she rounded up the cheese and crackers. “But we're going to stick with the wine.”

“I've got a lot of edge that needs taking off.” Daisy stood and followed Martha Anne into the kitchen. “I called Rion in Afghanistan—”

“Good grief, it would've been around midnight there.”

“It was. You know what he said? He said he was glad because Andi needed more of a man than Blanton and then he said he was glad Andi had finally grown a backbone. Can you believe it?” She put her face in her hands and shook her head. “Where did I go wrong? What's happened to my children? I've always been a good mother.”

They moved back into the den and Martha Anne placed the cheese and crackers on the coffee table. “Have some,” she instructed. “You need to eat,” she said as she returned to the kitchen for two glasses and a bottle of previously opened Chablis in the fridge.

Daisy sank back into the chair she'd vacated earlier and munched on the snack. “These are good. What kind of cheese is it?”

“Havarti with horseradish.”

“It's got a little kick. I like it.” Daisy already sounded better, more normal. Food was the ultimate Southern panacea.

“Eat as much as you want. I have more.” She poured each of them a glass of wine and sat back down on the love seat.

Daisy kicked off her pink satin pumps, which had been custom-dyed to match her mother-of-the-bride ensemble. “I swear, I'm just in shock. Shock, I tell you.”

“Did you have any inkling this might happen?” Martha Anne sipped at the cool, pale wine.

“No. Andi did come to me with some prewedding jitters. She wasn't sure how she felt about him. I told her it'd be fine. Every bride goes through that.” Daisy's
sip
polished off half of her glass. “What's not to love? He's from a good family, he has a good job, a nice house and they'd have beautiful children together.” Daisy dropped her head to the back of the overstuffed armchair. “And now she's totally ruined her prospects.”

Martha Anne slipped off her own shoes and propped her stockinged feet on the coffee table.

“Daisy, you know if Andi decides she doesn't want to get married, it's not the end of the world. It's different now than when we were her age. No marriage is better than a bad marriage.” That's why Mattie had moved back in. Her marriage and subsequent divorce had nearly bankrupted Martha Anne's daughter.

“But Blanton—”

Martha Anne had held her tongue far too long. It was time to speak her mind. “Is boring as dirt.”

Daisy's head whipped around. “What?”

Martha Anne sipped her drink. “You heard me. He's boring. Gerald was weird with all of his astronomy stuff.” Daisy wouldn't be offended by that assessment of her deceased husband, even Gerald had known he was weird. “But he was never boring, for God's sake. Allen was predictable.” Had her husband really been gone five years now? There wasn't a day that she didn't miss that man. “You could set your clock by him, but by George he was interesting. Spending time with Blanton is like watching paint dry.”

She plopped her feet down and leaned forward to top off her glass and refill Daisy's. “He probably thought I had early dementia last year at that Labor Day picnic because he nearly put me to sleep when I was talking to him.” And if a conversation with him was that boring she certainly didn't want to think about what it must've been like between the sheets. “Andi told me once he irons his boxers.”

“You're making that up, Martha Anne, just to prove he's a stodge.”

“May God strike me dead with a lightning bolt as I sit here. Your daughter told me he irons his underwear…and uses spray-on starch.”

“Sweet mercy.”

Martha Anne nodded. “Seriously.”

“She still didn't have to climb out of a window.”

Andi had joie de vivre about her but she wasn't capricious. She had a responsible streak a mile wide so she must've truly felt cornered to walk out on her wedding. Actually, Martha Anne thought she knew where Andi was coming from, as the young set liked to say. “What was she going to do? Come in front of all of those people and have a rational discussion? I don't think she was left with a whole lot of choice, Daisy.”

Daisy stubbornly tightened her lips into a thin line of disapproval. “She should've just married him. They would've worked it out.”

That
was why she climbed out the window. She'd tried to talk to Daisy, and Daisy simply wasn't hearing her. And she certainly wouldn't have heard her at the wedding. “Did you love Gerald when you married him?”

“Yes, I did. You're right. He was weird and I'm not, and we didn't go together but he was unlike anyone I'd ever met before.” An indulgent yet sad smile bloomed on her face and the pain of losing Allen stirred once again deep inside Martha Anne. She'd loved like that once…and lost…but at least she'd loved.

“Then how can you possibly expect your daughter to marry a man she doesn't love? That's asking too much.”

 

A
NDI ADDED ANOTHER
measure of syrup to her pecan waffle but put her fork down. She was full and far too excited to eat any more. She'd denied how she felt about Colton the past several years but there was no denying how alive and on fire she felt now because she was going to have him, and she fully intended to
have
him, all to herself for the next several days…and nights.

“This is going to be fun,” she said to him. That blinding moment of actualization at the window when she realized she loved him, that she'd never really gotten over him, had clarified so much about her life and her decisions. “I'm more excited at the prospect of going on a Grand Adventure with you than I ever was at the notion of honeymooning at Sea Island with Blanton.” She felt almost guilty for saying it, but she would've felt guiltier still had she gone through with marrying Blanton. He deserved better than a woman who was hung up on another man. And Andi was most definitely hung up on the handsome soldier sitting across the booth from her.

“Then I'd say not marrying him was definitely a good choice,” he said with a smile.

“So,” she said, pushing her plate to the side. “Where should we go?”

Colton shook his head. “This is
your
great adventure. You decide.”

“If you signed on it's your great adventure, as well.”

“Look, honey…I mean, Andi.” Her heart skipped a beat when that initial term of endearment rolled off his tongue. “I'm just damn glad to be somewhere other than Afghanistan, and after today, it'll be nice to be somewhere other than Mom's for a couple of days. You mentioned Jekyll Island. If that's where you want to go, we'll head that way.” He didn't sound particularly sold on the idea. “The last time we were there was the summer before your dad died. Do you remember that trip?”

She did. Colton and Rion had been fifteen and she'd been nine. Mattie, Colton's sister, had taken along a friend. Andi had been the odd man out and she'd been something of a pain in the butt. She definitely didn't want to go anywhere that had those kind of memories. She didn't want him thinking of her as Rion's younger sister with braces. No, she might've blurted it out earlier when Rochelle had asked about a honeymoon but it wouldn't do.

She did, however, have a place she'd always wanted to go that was within reasonable driving distance, and romantic to boot. “What about Gatlinburg, Tennessee? Have you ever been?”

“Never have but I always thought it sounded interesting tucked up at the edge of the Smoky Mountains.” He smiled at her across the table and her heart felt as if it flip-flopped in her chest.

Tonight she'd be sharing a room with Colton Sawyer. The very idea made her tingle.

 

C
OLTON SLID HIS WALLET
back into his pocket after settling the bill, dead-ass certain he was making one hell of a mistake. He was equally dead-ass certain he simply didn't have the willpower to give up the opportunity to spend time with a woman he wanted more than his next breath.

Andi stood at his elbow and it was as if every nerve in his body was tuned in to her—her scent, the cadence of her breath, the healthy glow of her skin, the sparkle in her eyes. Longing rippled through him. No doubt, going with her was foolish, but walking away from the opportunity was impossible.

Colton finished settling the bill and Rochelle rounded the counter. “I just want to wish you both the best of luck. Y'all sure have brightened my day. Heck, I'm gonna give you a hug.” The waitress enveloped both of them in a group embrace. “I think you're going to love Gatlinburg. Look, honey,” she said to Andi, “you just relax and have a good time before he has to go back to Afghanistan.” She winked at Colton. “And you get in a little R & R. Trust me, all the rest of it will work itself out. This ole gal has got a whole lot of living behind her and the one thing I've figured out that's true—don't sweat the small stuff…and it's all small stuff.”

Rochelle insisted on treating them as a couple, even though they weren't, but Colton figured that was definitely the small stuff so he let it slide.

Andi offered Rochelle a sunny smile. His
Andi—
whoa, dangerous thinking there, correction—
Andi was a charmer. “It was so nice to meet you. How far is it to the nearest Walmart or Target?”

Rochelle eyed her sympathetically, “I guess you're about ready to get out of that getup, huh?”

Andi nodded. “I can't wait to change.”

Colton really, really wished he hadn't heard that. Immediately it brought to mind the image of her standing next to a bed clad only in bra, panties and hose. The idea was enough to damn near break him out in a sweat. Thinking of Andi undressing and/or undressed was someplace he didn't need to go.

According to Rochelle, they were within ten miles of a store where they could do one-stop shopping. After another round of goodbyes and well-wishes they were on their way.