Page 57 of Kiss the Bride

“You said, ‘Hit the road, toad.’”

“Oh. My. Gosh.” Laughter rumbled through her chest. She tried to smother it. She even held her hand over her mouth, but she was powerless against it. It bubbled out of her. She bent over, hiding her face in her hands. “That’s … That’s a line … That’s a line from … from High School Sweethearts,” she gasped.

Looking for all the world like a guy who needed to give his head a good scratch, Ryan stared straight ahead. “I don’t get it,” he said when her laughter died.

“It was a dreadful little script written by …” She stared past Ryan’s nose to the stacked stone fences that lined this section of the road. “That doesn’t matter. Sweethearts is about a day in the life of a couple of high school students. There’s this scene where the heroine and her boyfriend have had a big fight. She’s hanging out with her girlfriends when he tries to win her back. She really loves him, but she’s just been telling all her girlfriends how awful he is, so she says, ‘You’re no frog. My kisses won’t turn you into Prince Charming. Hit the road, toad.’” She shrugged. “Like I said, it was a terrible play.”

“You turned me down with a line you stole from a bad play?” Ryan’s voice dropped into a lower register.

Hearing his confusion, she sobered. “You’re missing the point. Or I’m doing my usual bad job of explaining,” she quickly corrected. “We had to perform that dreck in drama class. I played Suzie, the heroine. I must’ve been running my lines with a couple of the other actors—the girlfriends. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

She could practically see the wheels turning in his head. She crossed her fingers, praying he’d reach the same conclusion. There really was no other explanation. Hurting Ryan was the last thing she’d ever want to do.

He lifted one hand from the wheel and plowed his hair with his fingers. “You’re saying it was all a big misunderstanding?”

“It had to be. I’d never say something like that to you on purpose.”

His head tilted. A sly grin formed on his lips. “So you’d have gone to the dance with me?”

“Oh, goodness, no.” Her voice softened. “I might’ve dreamed of us going steady, of wearing your ring or your favorite sweatshirt. But you were a junior. I was a freshman. My parents would never have let us date. Not even if we’d been friends since we were little. Maybe especially not.”

He mulled that over for a few seconds before he nodded, more to himself than to her. “Yeah. I guess you’re right.”

“But if I’d known …” She put one hand to her chest and fluttered her fingers. “If I’d known Ryan Court, captain of the baseball team, the guy every girl in school wanted to date, if I’d known you wanted to take me to the homecoming dance?” She pressed the back of her other hand to her forehead and pretended to swoon. “I’d have climbed out my window and shimmied down the rose trellis in my party dress.”

“And broken your neck in the process.” His face registering shock at the mere suggestion, Ryan stared at her for a long second. “Maybe it’s a good thing we had that misunderstanding after all.” His attention returned to the road. Almost as an afterthought, he added, “We can see each other now if we want.”

“If you’re asking me to go on a real date with you, I want you to know ahead of time, I’ll say yes.” Her pulse hammered in her ears. She was taking a huge leap, and she knew it. Going as his plus-one to a wedding they both had to attend anyway was a far cry from driving into the city for dinner and a movie.

Ryan gave her a grin so wide she could only call it goofy. “Well, in that case, I have a question—”

“What took you so long?” she asked before he could finish, and they both laughed.

Warm tingles rushed through her when Ryan reached for her hand. They rode in comfortable silence for another mile or so before the GPS warned of an upcoming turn. She’d made this trip often enough to know this was the first of several merges that would put them on the Jamestown and then the Newport Bridges. Reluctantly, she withdrew her fingers.

Traffic had backed up at the toll plaza before the Newport Bridge. Letting the pickup inch forward, Ryan said, “So you never told me exactly why we’re making this trip. Not that I mind. I’m enjoying the company.”

“Right. I promised details, didn’t I? It’s such a sweet story.” She shifted on the leather seat, angling for a better view of Ryan’s face. “Sheila Stevens—that’s Brianna’s aunt—she called from her hospital bed. Can you imagine? She said she was heartbroken at not being able to attend the wedding, but her doctor had given strict orders. No flying for at least ten days.”

“Bad timing.” Ryan tightened the gap between his vehicle and the next one in line.

“Yeah. To make matters worse, Sheila had some pearls that’ve been in their family for a couple of generations. Two strands. She said she and her sister Debbie—Brianna’s mom—pinkie-swore they’d each give one to their oldest girls on the day their daughters got married. I don’t know how Sheila ended up with both sets of pearls, but she’d planned to keep the promise and give her sister’s to Brianna before the wedding. Until then, she kept them in her safe deposit box. Only Sheila discovered the catch was broken when she went to the bank as soon as she found out about Wedding-in-a-Week.”

“Ouch,” Ryan commiserated.

“I guess Geneva’s pretty small. There’s just one jewelry store close by, and when Sheila took the pearls there for repair, the owner was backed up for a month. She found a jeweler here in Newport who could handle the job for her and had them sent here.”

Ryan nodded. “I see where this is going.” He braked to let a family in an older van cut in front of him. “She was going to stop and pick them up on her way to Heart’s Landing.”

“Yeah. But the surgery threw everything out of whack.”

“So our job today is to get the pearls and give them to Brianna on Sunday.”

“They’ll be her ‘something old.’ Sheila got all choked up when I told her I’d take care of it for her. She said she could rest easy knowing Brianna would have a little piece of her mom at her wedding.” Her eyes had grown misty. She fanned her face.

Ryan tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “Do you know what time the jewelry store in Newport closes?”

“Five o’clock. I checked the website.” She noted the concern in his tone and frowned. “What are you thinking?”

---