With a sinking feeling, he heard the bridal march begin, signaling that it was time. He drew a deep breath, hoping everything would go well. This was his sister’s wedding day. He would hate for anything to spoil it—especially anything having to do with him.
“I love you, Lucas,” Emily said, smiling up at him with stars in her beautiful blue eyes.
He bent his head to kiss her cheek. “I love you, too, little sister. Now, let’s go get you married.”
He shouldn’t have worried. Emily was so radiantly beautiful in her wedding finery that all eyes turned immediately to her when he walked with her into the church. He knew there were those who were eagerly watching him, as well. But the gawking wasn’t nearly as bad as he’d expected.
He delivered Emily safely to her groom, then, with a sigh of relief, took his seat on the pew beside Rachel.
She reached out to take his hand, probably fueling the gossip that would surely follow the wedding. Lucas didn’t care. He squeezed her fingers, anticipating his own upcoming wedding. He and Rachel would be married quietly, with only their families around them. Her mother would be there, as well—dressed in black, perhaps, he thought wryly, but there.
Now that Sam Jennings had finally confessed to everything—the murders of Al and Nadine, as well as the death of his nephew, Roger—which, he continued to insist, had been an accident and ultimately Lucas’s fault—and the break-in at Emily’s house, Jane had conceded that Lucas was innocent and had daringly saved her daughter’s life. She didn’t have to like it that Rachel planned to marry a McBride, but she wasn’t going to cause trouble.
Lucas would be taking his bride to California, where her expertise with business accounting would be a valuable asset to Rebel Software.
“Now,” Rachel whispered. “Aren’t you glad you stayed?”
He looked at the altar, where Emily and Wade repeated their vows while Clay stood beaming at his father’s side and newlyweds Savannah and Tara looked on in misty-eyed approval. And then he looked at Rachel, who smiled at him with such acceptance and contentment that his heart swelled.
“Yeah,” he muttered. “I’m very glad I stayed.”
Oblivious to the onlookers, and no longer concerned with the gossip, Lucas leaned over to kiss Rachel. Their lips met at the same time his little sister kissed her new husband at the front of the church.
The scandalous McBrides had found everything they’d been looking for, right here in their little hometown.