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Ross felt his heart surge into his throat when he saw the figure lying on the ground. Gemma looked so still, so lifeless, that he was afraid to move.
Then all of a sudden he was running towards her, slipping and sliding in his haste to reach her. He felt her breath on his skin. She was alive, and that was a miracle in itself.
‘Gemma, can you hear me? Sweetheart, it’s Ross. Can you open your eyes?’
There was no response at first, and then her lids slowly rose a fraction. ‘Ross? How did you find me?’ she whispered. She bit her lip and he saw her eyes fill with tears. ‘I didn’t think anyone would even notice I was missing, let alone come and look for me.’
‘I noticed you were missing.’ He smiled at her, uncaring what she might see in his eyes at that moment. He’d been through hell, and just to have her here, safe and sound, was the best thing that had ever happened to him.
He kissed her lightly on the forehead, hoping she understood what he was trying to say. Maybe it was too soon to tell her how he felt, but there was no point denying it. The thought that he might have lost her today was more than he could bear. Now all he had to do was convince her that it was her he loved…
Jennifer Taylor lives in the north-west of England, in a small village surrounded by some really beautiful countryside. She has written for several different M&B series in the past, but it wasn’t until she read her first Medical™ Romance that she truly found her niche. She was so captivated by these heart-warming stories that she set out to write them herself!
When she’s not writing, or doing research for her latest book, Jennifer’s hobbies include reading, gardening, travel, and chatting to friends both on and off-line. She is always delighted to hear from readers, so do visit her website at www.jennifer-taylor.com
Recent titles by the same author:
MARRYING THE RUNAWAY BRIDE*
THE SURGEON’S FATHERHOOD SURPRISE†
THEIR LITTLE CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
*Dalverston Weddings
†Brides of Penhally Bay
Dear Reader
This is the second book in my Dalverston Weddings series, and it tells the bridegroom’s story. The book begins the morning after Ross has learned that his wedding will no longer be taking place. Naturally, Ross is stunned by what has happened but, if he is honest, he is also relieved. Deep down he knows that he was getting married for the wrong reasons—although convincing his friends and family that he isn’t about to fall apart seems like an impossible task! The only person he can talk to is bridesmaid and practice nurse Gemma Craven. As the days pass Ross finds himself increasingly drawn to Gemma, but is he in danger of making another mistake? Can he really be falling in love with Gemma so soon?
Both Ross and Gemma have a lot of issues to work through before they can find true happiness, and it was a fascinating process bringing them together. I really enjoyed their story and hope you do too. The next book in the series features the best man, Ben Nicholls, who makes a brief appearance in this book, too. It’s one of the joys of writing a series like this—you really get to know your characters. I shall miss them all when the last book has been written.
If you would like to learn more about the background to this series then do visit my website: www.jennifer-taylor.com
Happy reading!
Love
Jennifer
BY
JENNIFER TAYLOR
For The Wedding Party: Vicky and Jamie,
Kathy, Carl, Pauline, John, Nigel, Neil, Mark, Mel.
And last but never least, Bill.
Thank you all for an unforgettable day.
CHAPTER ONE
TODAY should have been his wedding day.
Ross Mackenzie sighed as he stared out of the bedroom window. Dawn was starting to break now, the first pale streaks of wintry light sliding over the top of the surrounding hills. He hadn’t slept. He’d lain awake all night long, working out the best way to proceed. There were a lot of things he needed to do that morning. First and foremost on the list he would have to tell his mother that the wedding wouldn’t be taking place. He wasn’t looking forward to breaking the news to her because she was bound to be upset, but he would try to do it as gently as possible.
Next he would have to inform all the guests that the wedding had been called off. Some were travelling quite a distance so he would have to phone them as early as possible. Then there was the vicar—he would need to be informed, and the cars and the flowers would have to be cancelled, as well as the reception. The list seemed endless but Ross knew that he would work his way through it in his usual meticulous fashion. If he was honest, it wasn’t the practicalities that worried him, but how he felt. Surely he should feel more than this sense of relief that Heather had decided not to marry him?
He swung round, impatient with himself. He should be glad that he wasn’t standing here, feeling as though the world had caved in around him! Walking through to the en suite bathroom, he turned on the shower. Once he was dressed, he would set everything in motion. Granted, it would cause a stir once word got out and he wasn’t looking forward to being the focus of so much gossip. However, he wasn’t going to let it deter him. He would deal with what had happened the same way he dealt with everything else—calmly and rationally.
He grimaced as he stepped under the hot water because he knew that his reaction wasn’t normal. He was merely burying his feelings so he didn’t have to face up to them. Losing Heather should have been the worst thing that had ever happened to him, but he couldn’t pretend that he felt devastated by her decision. Thinking back, perhaps he’d sensed for a while that there’d been something missing from their relationship, but he had dismissed his fears as a last-minute attack of nerves. Now he was glad that Heather had saved them both from making a terrible mistake, although it was going to be difficult to convince everyone else that was how he felt.
His friends and family would think he was putting on a brave face if he told them the truth and that would make the situation worse. He was already in line for a lot of well-meaning sympathy and he didn’t intend to portray himself as the victim when he was sure that Heather had done the right thing. It might be easier if he didn’t say too much and simply let people believe what they liked.
Ross felt a little easier once he had decided how to proceed. As soon as he was dressed, he went downstairs and made himself a pot of coffee. He telephoned his mother while it was brewing, but there was no reply. She’d told him that she was going to have her hair done that morning and he could only assume that she wasn’t back yet.
He phoned the vicar instead and explained what had happened, politely refusing the man’s well-meaning offer of counselling. There was no danger of him falling apart—that just wasn’t his way. He would cope perfectly well with what had happened so long as the people around him let him do it his way. He knew what he wanted from life and he refused to let this setback alter his plans. He had worked too hard to prove himself to give up his dreams now.
Fired up by the same determination that had driven him all his adult life, Ross carried on making calls. He had just finished speaking to the florist when the doorbell rang and he went to answer it, unsurprised when he found Ben Nicholls, his best man, on the step. Ben grinned as he followed him inside.
‘So how do you feel this morning? Ready to face your fate, I hope.’
Ross shrugged as he headed back to the kitchen and poured Ben a cup of coffee. ‘There’s been a change of plans. The wedding has been called off.’
‘Oh, ha-ha, very funny. If you think I’m going to fall for that, you can think again.’ Ben plonked himself on a chair and gulped down a mouthful of coffee. ‘Oh boy, I needed that! Would you believe that I got called into work last night? Some idiot on a motorbike decided to play chase with a police car and hit a bollard in the process. He was in a right mess, I can tell you.’
Ross didn’t interrupt as Ben regaled him with the tale of the injured motorcyclist. They often exchanged stories about their working lives. As a GP in a busy town-centre practice, Ross was used to dealing with all kinds of medical matters ranging from the mundane to the life-threatening. He enjoyed the orderliness of general practice work, though, and wouldn’t have traded it for the adrenaline rush that Ben got from working in the emergency department at the local hospital.
He waited until Ben ran out of steam then returned the conversation to the subject uppermost on his mind. ‘Actually, I wasn’t joking. Heather sent me a letter last night to say that she’d changed her mind. The wedding has been called off.’
‘You’re not serious, are you?’ Ben demanded, gaping at him.
‘’Fraid so.’ Ross gave his friend a tight smile, hoping the news wouldn’t trigger a sudden outpouring of sympathy. He neither deserved nor wanted to be on the receiving end, quite frankly. ‘It means that I’m going to need your help to sort things out.’
‘Of course. It goes without saying that I’ll do anything I can,’ Ben said quickly. He sat up and stared at Ross. ‘Did Heather say why she’d changed her mind? I mean, there isn’t someone else involved, is there…?’
Ben tailed off, obviously unsure what to say now that he had voiced the question, and Ross sighed. He suspected it was a question he would have to get used to answering in the coming days.
‘Not as far as I’m aware. Heather simply wrote that she’d realised it would be a mistake if we got married.’
‘And that was it? You didn’t go to see her and talk it all through?’
‘No. She’d made her position perfectly clear in her letter.’
‘Fair enough.’
It was obvious that Ben thought he’d been wrong to have left it there. Ross frowned, wondering if he should have gone to see Heather and pressed her for an explanation. Had she met someone else, as Ben had suggested, someone she loved more than him?
He tested out that theory, unsure what his reaction would be if it proved to be true, but he felt very little. He certainly didn’t feel jealous at the thought of her seeing another man and that was something else he needed to think about later. If he didn’t feel jealous or even very upset then why had he asked Heather to marry him in the first place? Because she had ticked all the right boxes and fitted his ideal of the perfect wife?
It was alarming to realise how calculating he’d been. Ross cleared his throat, not sure that he liked discovering something so negative about himself. ‘Anyhow, I’ve phoned the vicar and told him. I’ve also been on to the florist and cancelled the flowers. I still need to contact the car-hire firm and the hotel where the reception was being held. Fortunately, we decided not to go away on honeymoon until the spring, so that’s one less job to deal with. But I did book the bridal suite, if you remember, so that will need to be cancelled too.’
‘I can do all that for you,’ Ben offered immediately.
‘Thanks.’ Ross gave him the phone numbers then found the guest list that Heather had tacked to the bulletin board next to the fridge. ‘I need to go and see my mother, and let her know what’s happened, so if you could make a start on phoning the guests as well, I’d be really grateful.’
‘No problemo.’ Ben took the list from him, grimacing when he saw the number of people who had been invited. ‘I don’t imagine we’ll be able to get hold of everyone before they set off, so d’you want me to go to the church and meet them there?’
‘I’m not sure. It might be better coming from me.’ He shrugged when Ben looked at him in surprise. ‘Some of those people are travelling quite a distance and it seems a bit rich to turn them away at the door. I’d feel better if I did it myself.’
‘Well, if you’re sure you’re up to it…’
‘It isn’t a problem,’ Ross assured him briskly, not wanting to admit how indifferent he felt about the idea. This should have been his worst nightmare, yet he felt unmoved by the prospect of cancelling all the arrangements. How odd.
Once again he shied away from examining his feelings too deeply. Standing up, he reached for his car keys. ‘I’ll leave it with you, then. I’ll get over to Mum’s and break the news to her before the grapevine gets to work. Give me a call if you have any problems. I’ve got my phone with me.’
‘Will do. And, Ross, I’m really sorry about what’s happened.’
‘Thanks. Although it’s probably better that it happened now rather than later,’ Ross said bluntly, heading for the door.
He left the house and got into his car. It was the second week of December and the weather was very cold. The forecast had predicted a dry sunny day—perfect for a wedding at this time of year. As he drove through the town, Ross tried to imagine how the day might have gone, but it was impossible to picture it. It was as though all the months of preparation had never happened, as though there never had been a wedding about to take place that day, his wedding.
In a sudden rush of insight he realised that he had merely gone through the motions, done what had been expected of him, but he had never connected emotionally with the event. Getting married had been just another step on his life plan, another box that had needed ticking. Was it any wonder that Heather had changed her mind about marrying him?
There was an envelope lying on the mat when Gemma Craven went downstairs on Saturday morning. She frowned as she picked it up. The post usually didn’t arrive until lunchtime, so it was a surprise to see it lying there at this hour of the day.
Her frown deepened when she turned the envelope over and discovered that there was no stamp or address on it, just her name. Ripping open the flap, she took out the single sheet of paper it contained, feeling her heart leap into her throat as she tried to make sense of what it said. It was from Heather, telling her that the wedding had been called off.
Gemma sank down onto the stairs in a state of shock. Was it true? Had Heather really decided not to marry Ross? She couldn’t imagine why her friend would have done such a thing, but there was no doubt that the signature on the bottom of the letter was Heather’s. What on earth had happened to make Heather do such a thing?
Scrambling to her feet, she hurried to the phone and dialled Heather’s home number, but there was no answer even though she let it ring a dozen times. She tried her friend’s mobile phone next but the call went straight through to voice mail. She left a brief message, letting Heather know she was worried about her and asking her to call back, and hung up. She wasn’t sure what she should do now. The arrangement had been that she would go round to Heather’s home to help her get ready. As the chief and only bridesmaid, Gemma’s job was to attend to the bride, but if there was no wedding then her services were no longer needed. However, she couldn’t sit at home, wondering what had happened. She had to find out what had gone on, and why Heather had decided not to marry Ross.
Gemma’s heart lurched as a picture of Ross Mackenzie suddenly appeared in her mind’s eye. The saying about tall, dark and handsome could have been coined for him. At a little over six feet in height, Ross was tall enough to stand out in a crowd and that was before you added in all the rest. With his black hair and cobalt-blue eyes, he drew admiring glances wherever he went. His features were both attractive and very masculine—a strong chin, chiselled lips, a straight nose. He played tennis in the summer and skied in the winter and his body definitely bore testament to the benefits of all that exercise. His whole bearing was that of a man in command of his life. Ross knew what he wanted and he got it, too. He’d wanted Heather to be his wife so what had gone wrong?
Gemma ran back upstairs to her bedroom. Scooping up the armful of clean clothes she’d left over the back of a chair the night before, she hurried into the bathroom. She couldn’t explain the urgency she felt to see Heather. All she knew was that she had to make her friend understand what a mistake she was making. Most women would give their right arm to marry Ross, yet Heather had thrown away her chance of happiness.
Ten minutes later Gemma left the house, shivering as the chill of a frosty December morning hit her. She hurried to her car, groaning when she discovered the windscreen was covered with ice. She wasted another couple of minutes clearing it away and her fingers were frozen solid by then, the tips of them turning pink with cold.
She slid into the driving seat, cranking up the heater to its highest setting, not that there was much hope of any warmth just yet. Still, at least it provided her with the illusion that she might soon start to defrost, although maybe the chill she felt didn’t stem solely from the weather. It was the thought of how upset Ross must be that was making her feel so cold. He must be devastated—completely devastated!
Gemma’s breath caught on a sob but she forced it down as she headed towards the centre of Dalverston. Heather lived with her father on the far side of the town and Gemma had to brave the traffic to get there. Normally, at this time on a Saturday morning the roads would have been fairly clear, but with Christmas a couple of weeks away, there was already a build-up of cars and that delayed her. By the time she reached the house, she was so tense that she was trembling. She parked in the drive then hurried to the front door and rang the bell. Matthew Thompson, Heather’s father, greeted her with a weary smile.
‘I take it that Heather’s told you she’s called off the wedding?’
‘She pushed a note through my door. I found it on the mat this morning when I got up.’
Gemma followed him into the house, shivering appreciatively as a blast of warm air hit her. Matthew led the way to the kitchen, obviously expecting her to follow him. Picking up the teapot, he offered it to her and she nodded.
‘Please.’
He poured them both a cup of tea and placed them on the table by the window. Gemma frowned when she saw that his hands were shaking. Heather’s decision to cancel her wedding must have been a shock for her father too.
‘Did Heather say why she’s decided not to marry Ross?’ Gemma asked as they sat down.
‘No. She just said that she’d realised it would be a mistake.’
Matt’s whole bearing seemed to have altered overnight; he appeared years older that morning. It was upsetting to see him looking this way when Gemma had always thought how full of life he usually was. He ran the busy general practice where she worked as one of the practice nurses with the vigour of a man half his age, but he looked grey and gaunt as he sat there, sipping his tea.
‘Is Heather here?’ she asked gently, not wanting to add to his distress by pressing him for answers.
‘No. She left last night, caught the last train to London, in fact.’ Pain darkened his eyes. ‘I should have realised she had doubts about getting married and made sure it was what she really wanted instead of adding to the pressure she felt to go along with it.’
Gemma looked at him in surprise. ‘It was Heather’s decision to marry Ross. Nobody pushed her into it.’
‘Maybe.’ Matthew gave her a grim smile then looked round when the doorbell rang. ‘Excuse me. I’d better see who that is.’
Gemma drank some of her tea after he left the kitchen. It seemed her trip had been a waste of time if Heather wasn’t here. She had no idea what she should do now, or if there was anything she could do. Going to see Ross was out of the question, of course. He would be far too upset to see her.
The sound of voices made her glance round and she felt her heart leap when she saw the two men coming along the hall. Matthew was tall but the man with him topped him by a couple of inches. In the wintry light filtering through the kitchen window, his skin gleamed like burnished gold, the perfect foil for his startling bluer-than-blue eyes.
Gemma felt a shudder run down her spine, then another until it felt as though her whole body was quaking. She had tried so hard to ignore these feelings, tried and, to some extent, succeeded too. Every time she’d found herself reacting to the sight of him, she’d reminded herself of all the reasons why it was wrong: he was her best friend’s fiancé; he wasn’t interested in her; he definitely wouldn’t find her attractive—especially if he saw her naked.
All those points still held good. Maybe the first one was in doubt but weddings had been called off and rescheduled before, and there was no saying this one wouldn’t be either. However, the second two points were as valid now as they had always been. Ross wasn’t interested in her and he most definitely wouldn’t find her attractive in bed. No man in his right mind would.
Gemma knew there was no hope wishing she could have a chance to win Ross’s love, but that didn’t stop the tingles, the shivers, the mini-earthquakes that were assailing her as he came into the room. Her head understood the truth, but her heart was deaf, dumb and blind to it, steadfastly believing that if she loved Ross enough from afar, one day he might learn to love her in return.
CHAPTER TWO
ROSS ground to a halt when he spotted Gemma sitting at the table. He hadn’t realised there was anyone else in the house and for a moment he was tempted to beat a hasty retreat. However, he would have to face people at some point and there was no time like the present.
‘Gemma.’
He nodded politely to her, seeing the wash of colour that ran up her face. With that silver-blonde hair and flawless porcelain skin, she must find it difficult to hide her feelings, he thought, then wondered why the idea had occurred to him now of all times. He had worked with Gemma for almost three years, ever since she had moved to Dalverston to take up the post of senior practice nurse at the surgery. She and Heather had soon struck up a friendship, so there had been many occasions when they had met outside work, too. However, he had never even noticed her hair or her skin before. How strange.
He turned away, uncomfortable with the way he was behaving. Maybe it had been a shock to be dumped if not literally at the altar but pretty close to it, but did that really explain why his mind seemed to be whizzing off at tangents all of a sudden?
‘Ross, I don’t know what to say apart from the fact that I’m really and truly sorry.’
Ross cleared his mind of all extraneous thoughts when he heard the pain in Matthew’s voice. ‘If Heather had any doubts then she was right to call off the wedding,’ he said quietly, not wanting to add to the older man’s distress. ‘It would have been much worse if she’d gone ahead and regretted it later.’
‘That’s what Heather said.’ Matt sank down onto a chair as though he was too weary to remain standing. He waved Ross to a seat. ‘Sit down. Would you like some tea? There’s some made…’
He went to get up again but Gemma quickly intervened. ‘I’ll get it.’
She stood up, easing around Ross with a murmured ‘Excuse me’. Ross felt a ripple of awareness run through him as she brushed against him in passing, and frowned. How many times had that happened over the last three years? There must have been dozens of occasions when he and Gemma had touched and he’d barely registered it, yet all of a sudden his brain was flashing signals along his nerves, alerting all the muscles and sinews to the fact that there was a young and attractive female in close proximity. And when he thought all his muscles, he meant all too.