Love Rising: Spring (Mandrake Falls Series Romance Book 4) (2 page)

“I’ll tell you want she wants to do.” Paula had to drop her
voice to a whisper because people were glaring at them even though Mrs. Gurney
on the organ drowned out every word. Mrs. Gurney played one tune for every
bridal processional in Mandrake Falls—
Here
Comes the Bride
. No substitutions. “Jocelyn Tate wants to marry a rich man
and think about Jocelyn Tate for the rest of her life. She’s read too many of
those billionaire romances. She thinks that happens in real life. Sure, like
billionaires are hanging out in Mandrake
Falls
.”

Jeremy turned to examine Jocelyn. She was hunched forward
and twisting her hair, a sign she was uncomfortable. She wasn’t as confident as
Paula thought she was. At least, that’s not the girl Jeremy saw when he looked
at her. Deep down, Jocelyn Tate was as insecure as he was and that’s why he loved
her. Jeremy was twenty-three and he’d never have the confidence of a guy like
Ryan McIntyre if he lived to be a hundred.

He turned back to the ceremony. Hudson and Michael were
reciting their vows. Like everyone else in town, he wondered how long their
marriage would last. Michael Shannon was a celebrity even though she’d settled
in Mandrake Falls. The invasion of media people had been a nice bump for the
local economy but it was wearying to be asked the same questions over and over
again about Michael Shannon. Most of the town would be glad to get the Wedding
of the Year over with so they could all get back to their regular lives.

The greatest benefit Jeremy got out of the Grace-Shannon Romance
was that his part-time job as stage manager for the Mandrake Theater Company
became full-time. Mrs. Murdoch sat him down after Christmas to offer him a
contract. The pay was lousy but he was given the apartment over the theater
when Miss Shannon moved out. He only had to pay the heat, lights and water on a
separate meter for the one bedroom, kitchen, and living room with a
working
fireplace! Miss Shannon had
fixed it up in the few months she’d lived there. Jeremy jumped at the offer.

“Well, this is it,” Paula whispered as Hudson Grace recited
his vows. “Another one bites the dust. He was the bachelor to end all bachelors
and look at him now. Sort of gives the rest of us hope don’t you think? There is
someone out there for everyone.”

Jeremy gazed at Paula, a slow smile spreading across his
face. “You’re right. You are absolutely right.” He had a great job, a cool
apartment, a few good friends and a cute date for the second most exciting
wedding in the history of Mandrake Falls. Jocelyn Tate wasn’t attracted to him
but there was no reason why another girl wouldn’t be. He’d never given another
girl a chance because he’d been too preoccupied chasing Jocelyn.

Paula slipped her hand into his and squeezed it as Michael
Shannon and Hudson Grace were pronounced husband and wife. Hudson lifted Simon
in his arms and they turned to the assembly, beaming widely. There wasn’t a dry
eye in the house.

On impulse, Jeremy bent over Paula and kissed her on the
cheek. She looked up startled and then laughed.

Sitting two pews behind them on the groom’s side of the
church, Jocelyn witnessed the exchange between Paula and Jeremy. He’s obviously
moved on, she thought
. Good
. She had
more or less made up her mind that Ryan McIntyre was the love of her life
seeing as he invited her to the wedding when no one else would. She wanted to take
Ryan’s hand but he was nine years older than she was and Jocelyn worried he’d think
she was immature. It was too soon for that kind of move anyway. She didn’t want
to seem pushy. This was only their first date. First dates rules didn’t stop
Paula from holding Jeremy’s hand but she wouldn’t sink to Paula Dunlop’s level
of desperation.

Hudson leaned over to kiss Michael. They held Simon between
them. Jocelyn closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to see.

Then abruptly from across the aisle there was a shout of
alarm. Jocelyn’s eyes flew open and she saw that everyone had leaped to their
feet and turned in the direction of Scout Rutherford’s pew. Her water had broken
and was draining like a bust pipe all over the floor. Everyone crowded around,
shouting instructions while Ryan Dean ordered everyone to get back so he could
help his wife into the aisle.

No way—not a chance.
Scout clutched
the pew in front of her and hung on, panting and hollering that there was no
time—the babies were coming right then and there. Scout’s mom, Lydia
Rutherford, stood on a pew in her pink Chanel suit and bellowed for a doctor.

The doctor was in the church of course—the whole town had
turned out for the wedding. The media dudes had the cameras trained on Michael
Shannon who tried in vain to look concerned when in fact she was totally irked
that her wedding had been upstaged.

No one in Mandrake Falls was overly surprised. Scout
Rutherford and weddings were a bad mix. Something was bound to happen. The town
would’ve been disappointed if it hadn’t.

Less than forty minutes later, the tiny population of
Mandrake Falls had increased by two.

MANDRAKE FALLS woke on Monday morning with a hangover from
two days of celebrating. The wedding, followed by the birth of two new
citizens, coupled with a lively media scrum infused Main Street with a glamour
that was too exciting to miss. One thing led to another and Sheriff McIntyre
had to break up the party at four in the morning but no one held it against
him.

Shelby Porter from the
Mandrake
Falls
Gazette
had climbed over three
pews to get photographs of the Ryder Dean’s twin boys being brought into the
world. Being five months pregnant herself, this was quite an accomplishment. She
was proud of her staff, Andrea, Trevor and Jason for scooping the big city
reporters by hustling Michael Shannon and Hudson Grace off for comments before
anyone else could get to them. Michael was such a pro, Shelby was sure she’d never
say anything on record but she gave Andrea a stunning interview.

Shelby cracked open the paper, hot off the press and still
inky, thinking this was the best edition they’d put out in a long time. She
read it over intently, glasses pushed up on her nose, her feet on her desk,
laughing at the funny bits, frowning over the typos that had escaped the
proofreader’s notice and then flipped to the classified ads, a source of gossip
and community information that she regularly mined for story ideas.

And there it was at the top of the page in the first column
under Announcements—

Holy
shit.

Shelby swung her legs off the desk and sat up, heart
pounding. She read the lines again just to make sure:

ENGAGEMENT NOTICES

Mr. and Mrs. Marks are pleased to announce the

engagement
of their son, Jeremy to
Jocelyn Tate,

daughter
of Norman and Josephine
Tate.

Marriage to take place on April 1st of this year at

All Souls Church, Mandrake Falls.

“Jason! Andrea! Trevor! Get in here!”

The reporters crowded into the office thinking the boss was
either going into labor or about to fire all three of them. Either scenario was
entirely possible. Jason, the managing editor and the hardiest of the three,
spoke first.

“What’s wrong?”

“This! This! This!” Shelby shouted, shoving the paper at
them. “You have about two minutes to explain how this announcement wound up in
my paper before Jocelyn Tate barges in here demanding answers!”

♥

NOT EVERYONE in town was convinced the ad was bogus. In
fact, most of Mandrake Falls thought they had another wedding to prepare for
and they still hadn’t recovered from the last one.

The ladies at the Beauty Box were not so gullible and it made
for some intriguing discussion during
Letitia
Murdoch’s
hair appointment. Who had placed the ad and for what reason? What was the point
in announcing an engagement they knew would never come off?

“I think the goal was to humiliate Jocelyn as payback for
telling everyone she was going out with Hudson when in fact Hudson was already
involved with Michael Shannon. It’s pretty hard to get those wires crossed. A
man either says he wants to go out with you or he doesn’t.” Darlene teased
Letitia
Murdoch’s hair into a nice back-do that had gone out
of style forty years ago. A flattering look was a flattering look in the
beautician’s opinion. Why tamper with success?

“
Omigod
, Darlene, if anyone is
humiliated by this announcement it’s Jeremy. The perpetrator must be someone
who wants to get back at him and publicly embarrassing him is the best way to
do it because you know how reserved he is. He’d hate this.” Paula twirled in
the seat waiting for her one o’clock to arrive while poring over the paper for
clues.

“Who would want to get back at Jeremy? The guy doesn’t have
any enemies. In fact, I can’t imagine Jeremy attracting an enemy because he’s
not the type. What do you think Mrs. Murdoch?”

“Jeremy Marks is a dark horse. I would not be surprised if
he had enemies. It’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for. He could have
placed this ad himself in an attempt to win Jocelyn Tate over. I wouldn’t put
anything past him where that girl is concerned.”

“I thought you liked Jeremy,” Paula huffed, red in the face.

“I do.” Mrs. Murdoch looked at Paula with surprise. “I can
like him and still think him capable of trickery to win a woman. Men are fools
where women are concerned. My own poor father succumbed to stupidity to win the
heart of a woman. That’s how I got stuck with that behemoth of theater. My
father bought it for an actress he’d fallen in love with. The affair lasted
about five minutes and I inherited a lifetime of building maintenance and
county taxes.”

“Paula, you’re taking this engagement notice rather
personally if you don’t mind me saying.” Darlene smiled slyly. “You were Jeremy’s
date for the wedding. Didn’t he give you any hint of the impending nuptials?”

“Hah, very funny.”
Paula flipped
the pages of the
Gazette
. “That just
proves how bogus this announcement is.
I
was
his date, not Jocelyn. He barely looked at her all night. Where did anyone get
the idea they were going to be married? Somebody has it in for him. Hey, if I
called Shelby do you think she’d tell me who placed the ad?”

“Nope.
No way. You know what freak
she is about protecting her sources and confidentiality even though you’d think
she’d trust us after the way we stuck up for her last year. Nope, she won’t
tell us a thing. I’ll bet she’s taking heat for it right now from Jocelyn Tate.
That’s a girl who’ll cry lawsuit before she’ll engage her brain.”

“What does Jocelyn have to complain about? The whole town
saw her throwing herself at Ryan McIntyre at the wedding! I’m telling you, this
makes Jeremy look like a fool and he already made a fool of himself at
Christmas over her. Then she knocked him back for Hudson and we all know how
that went.” Paula sat up. “Let’s run down the list of suspects. Who knew Jeremy
had a thing for Jocelyn?”

The hairdressers turned in unison to look at
Letitia
Murdoch.

“You’re the prime suspect,
Letitia
.
Well?”

“Well, in my opinion Jeremy should run a mile,”
Letitia
said, choosing her words carefully. “But if Jocelyn
is the girl he wants, who am I to stand in the way of love?”

Which was no answer at all and
Letitia
Murdoch knew it.

♥

THE PHONE rang. Shelby glanced at the caller ID screen. Sawyer’s
name scrolled across the window. He was probably calling to tell her there was
a rogue classified ad in the paper. Her husband took great delight in combing
each edition of the
Gazette
for typos.
It was a good thing she loved him or she’d hit him with a bat right about now.
Shelby let the call go to voicemail.

She turned back to her alarmed and yet rebellious staff.

“Think. Where did it come from?” Shelby stabbed the
offending text with her index finger. “Who placed it? Jocelyn Tate will be
walking through that door any minute and I have to have an explanation.
Or someone to blame.
I’ll blame one of you if I have to. And
then fire you.”

Andrea spoke up. Red in the face, nervously twisting the
pencil she held in her hand. “I remember now. I found it in my camera bag on
Sunday night after filing my copy. I typed it up fast and popped it into the
template. I didn’t even read it.”

“You found it in your camera bag? What was it doing in your
camera bag?”

“I don’t know. I thought maybe someone had given it to me
when I was on a story and I forgot to file it in the Classifieds. I honestly
can’t remember. It’s been a hell of a week with Michael Shannon’s wedding and
the out-of-town press and then Scout’s babies being born. I wrote five stories
for this week’s edition and I manage the Classifieds and I answer the phones. I
found the paper, thought I’d screwed up and that I’d better get it in for this
edition seeing as the wedding is in a couple of weeks. So I dumped it in there
without thinking.”

“April first,” said Trevor, pondering the advertisement.
“Get it?
April Fools’ Day.
Someone was playing a joke
on us.”

“Am I fired?” Andrea asked tearfully.

“No, you’re not fired! Good grief. No one will work for the
money I pay you.” Shelby pushed her glasses up on her nose and blew out a
stream of air. “Okay.
Damage control.
We tell Jocelyn
and Jeremy the truth—the
Gazette
was
the victim of a practical joke. We offer to print a retraction—”

“Provided they can prove they aren’t getting married on
April first.” Jason raised his eyebrows. Her managing editor did not like
printing retractions.

“Are you trying to be funny? Of course they’re not getting
married on April first! Jocelyn was my brother-in-law’s date for the wedding.
Whoever put this in Andrea’s bag must have done it recently.”

“That’s totally possible.” Andrea nodded her head
vigorously. “I had my bag with me when Scout Rutherford-Dean went into labor
but I set it down on one of the pews to get shots of Michael Shannon and the
groom. In all the confusion, anyone could have slipped it inside my bag. I went
to the reception later but I kept my bag over my shoulder because I needed
fresh batteries. Sunday, I came to the office to write up my copy and that’s
when I found the notepaper.”

“Do you still have the original?”

“Yes, it’s in my Billing file. I have to make up an invoice
for it.”

“Who in the blazes are you going to invoice?” Shelby was
trying very hard these days to curb her swearing for the sake of a mellow
pregnancy and she hoped, a mellow baby.

“Jeremy Marks, who else?”

“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Jason said impatiently.
“What proof do we have that Jeremy didn’t put the note in Andrea’s camera case?
I know the guy. He’s got a thing for Jocelyn. He told me so himself; I’m not
blowing smoke. Before we do anything in terms of damage control—or even offer it
up—we’ve got to find out if this engagement is real or not. I know Jocelyn was
Ryan’s date. Paula Dunlop was with Jeremy. What does that prove? Something
could’ve been in the works between Jocelyn and Jeremy for months and Jeremy
finally pulled the trigger.”

“True,” Trevor said affably. “The boss here is an example of
that very thing. You couldn’t stand Sheriff McIntyre in September and by the
end of October you were married to the guy. So yep—zero-to-sixty can happen. We
don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes.”

Shelby flushed and looked down at her rounded stomach. She
and Sawyer had planned to get married
eventually
.
That’s the trouble with planning. Five months ago, she and Sawyer were sitting
on the edge of the bathtub holding the damning evidence of an unplanned
pregnancy. They agreed this was Dolly’s shove from beyond the grave to marry
pronto and were wed in a small ceremony on Halloween. Everyone laughs but
Halloween has to be less hilarious than April Fools’ Day.

She sat up.

“Hold the phone. Look at the date. Jeremy didn’t put this in
Andrea’s camera case. He wouldn’t pick April Fools’ for a wedding date, not if
he really liked her and
Jase
you say he likes her?”

“Oh yeah.
He likes her.”

“So it was not Jeremy. Andrea, get the note. Maybe there’s a
clue in the handwriting.”

♥

THE DOOR to his apartment rattled on its hinges under the
pounding. Jeremy pulled a sweatshirt on over his head and padded to the living
room.

“Just a minute.
I’m coming.”

Jeremy fumbled his glasses to his nose and unlocked the
deadbolt. Almost no one locked their doors in Mandrake Falls but the theater
was on the outskirts of town and being empty at odd hours, it was prone to
break-ins. He always locked up just in case.

Jocelyn pushed her way into the room. She was carrying a
copy of the
Gazette
which she flung
at him. “I hope this made you happy. As if my life didn’t suck enough, I find
this in the paper!”

He looked at her, bewildered. “How did you get in here? I
locked the stage door last night before I went to bed.”

“I’m in the company, stupid! I have a key, remember? Stop
trying to avoid the question!”

“I’m not. You haven’t asked a question. What’s going on?”
Jeremy glanced at the front page to see what she was upset about. It was a full
page photo of Miss Shannon’s face with the heading:
Star Upstaged!

Risky choice of words given that Michael Shannon’s star
power drew a lot of business to Mandrake Falls. If she was pissed off enough,
she could withdraw the exclusive access she had been granting the
Gazette
to her story. But Shelby Porter
was notorious for stirring the pot, generating headlines out of headlines. It
must be working, Jeremy thought, because she’d kept this little county paper
going for—

“Did you hear what I said?” Jocelyn bellowed. “Are you
listening to me
at all
or is this
just one big joke to you?” She had crossed her arms over her chest and was
glaring at him. She looked like she was trying not to cry.

“Calm down,
Joce
. I don’t know
what you’re upset about. I just woke up. I haven’t even had any coffee yet. It’s
Monday. This is my day off. Let me make us some coffee and you can tell me what’s
going on.”

Jocelyn flounced to the large curved window and stared at
the spring morning beyond. The apartment was tucked into the attic of the
theater, impracticably designed to be a rich man’s love nest for his mistress. Mrs.
Murdoch had told him the whole story. When Miss Shannon had the place, she hired
a cleaning company to wash seventy years of grime from the woodwork and get the
squirrel’s nest out of the chimney. The living room was too big for Jeremy’s
meager furnishings. There was a couch in front of the fireplace, another chair
for reading and a small table that he dragged around as needed. No television
or rug but the floor was hardwood, old and highly polished. He had one lamp. No
curtains. Spartan digs for a guy who mostly worked and rarely entertained
females.