His Brother's Bride

“You ever going to?”

“I hope so.” She didn’t sound sure.

Driving back up to Twin Oaks for afternoon tea and to make some calls, Scott forced himself to face facts.

Laurel was still in love with Paul.

And Scott was still a sick son of a bitch—in love with his older brother’s woman.

* * *

THAT EVENING, FRUSTRATED and verging on terse, Scott moved with Laurel from table to table at Tubb’s Café, showing William Byrd’s picture to everyone there.

No one had seen Byrd.

As impossible as it seemed, the man had simply vanished. He sure as hell hoped that the fact that Owen Nevil was also absent was a complete coincidence.

“Isn’t that Seth Castleman?” Laurel whispered, pointing to a lone figure in a booth in the back of the café.

Scott followed the direction of her finger. Seth was only six years younger than he was, yet Scott barely recognized the man as the person he’d grown up with. Nowadays the electrician seemed afflicted with a terrible, terminal sadness. “Yep, that’s him,” he said quietly. The life might have gone out of Seth, but there was no mistaking Castleman’s muscular build, not in these parts.

“He had the most unusual eyes,” Laurel said, walking slowly toward the booth. “Almost amber.”

Scott wouldn’t know about that.

He just knew he didn’t like the way Laurel seemed to gravitate to the other man. Didn’t like knowing full well that Castleman was free to pursue Laurel if he ever chose to.

Not like Scott, who could only love her from far, too far away. Who really couldn’t love her at all.

One kiss. If he could only have one taste of those lips...

He was crossing a line he should not cross. One he swore he’d never cross.

“Is he still single?” Laurel asked.

“Yes.” Scott was no longer just verging on terseness.

“It’s such a shame,” she said softly. “Has anyone heard anything from Wendy?”

Wendy Monroe was one of Cooper’s Corner’s claims to fame. A skier of champion status, she’d left town to fly to Europe to participate in her first Olympics—left her fiancé, Seth Castleman, at home to watch her on national television. But she’d never made it to the television screen. At least not on the slopes. The week before the Olympics, in a practice run, she’d had an accident, hit a tree and ended up paralyzed. The doctors thought she’d have to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

Seth had flown to Europe immediately, and two weeks later he’d come back. Alone. He’d been alone ever since.

“Bonnie was telling me a few months ago that Wendy’s walking again,” Scott said now.

Bonnie and Seth and Wendy had all gone to school together. They’d been good friends.

“You’re kidding!” Laurel said, stopping Scott with a hand on his forearm. She stared at him. “They said she’d never get out of that chair.”

“Wendy’s one determined lady.”

“Is she skiing?” Laurel asked, glancing back at Seth.

Scott shook his head. “I don’t think so. Apparently she has quite a limp.”

“You think he still loves her?”

“I don’t know,” Scott answered honestly. “I hope not.”