Unexpected Bride by LISA CHILDS Page B

asked as she silently read his sister's message. He should have opened the note himself the minute he'd found it. But then his parents had raised him to respect his siblings' privacy. Even so, he curled his hand into a fist so that he wouldn't reach for the paper now and tear it from Abby's hand. "Come on. I'm worried about her. I want to know what it says!"
    "It's a good thing that she ran off," Abby said. "Before making the biggest mistake of her life."
    Behind them, someone gasped. Clayton turned to face the rest of the wedding party, which had apparently followed them back down the aisle.
    "Josh, I'm sorry," he said to Molly's abandoned fiance.
    Color flooded Abby's face and her eyes closed with regret. Then her daughter came closer, chastising her mother. "Mommy, you're not s'posed to run in church. Or talk loud." She cast a disapproving gaze on her mother— and on the ring bearers, too.
    "Mommy was bad," Clayton murmured for Abby's ears only. Very bad, since he knew she was responsible for Molly's disappearance. Was this her plan all along—to come back to Cloverville and cause as much trouble as she could? Was this her revenge for the way the town—and Clayton —had treated her?
    Talking Molly out of getting married was far more serious than the tattoos she'd talked her into when they were all a lot younger.
    "I'm sorry," Abby said, both to Josh and her daughter. She offered Clayton no apology, however. "She doesn't say that... In the note...about making a mistake. She's just really confused right now."
    "What's going on?" Rory asked, tugging loose the knot on his bow tie. "Did Molly really skip out?"
    Clayton shrugged his tense shoulders. "Ask Abby. She's the one with the explanation."
    Abby's heart filled with mixed emotions. At first she'd simply been relieved that Molly had acknowledged her feelings and changed her mind. Now she contemplated the emotional fallout as she faced the groom and his two young sons.
    "Is she all right?" Josh asked, his eyes shining with concern. Any other jilted groom probably would be furious over being left at the altar, but Josh appeared more worried about his runaway bride than his pride.
    Abby thought she understood why her friend had accepted his proposal. It was so hard to find a genuinely nice guy. But if Molly didn't absolutely love the man and his sons, she'd done them a favor by leaving before saying "I do."
    "She's okay," Abby assured him. "She's just confused right now. She needs some time alone to figure out what she really wants."
    "Maybe she should have figured that out before she accepted Josh's proposal. It's pretty damned flaky to back out at the altar," the best man grumbled, pushing a hand through his blond hair and then massaging the back of his neck.
    "Molly is not flaky." Colleen defended her sister.
    Abby saved her breath. She would need it later, to defend herself when Clayton launched his attack. She looked at the open window, tempted to climb over the sill herself. But Lara wouldn't approve of that any more than she had approved of Abby running in church. Sometimes she wondered which of them was the child and which the parent.
    The groom probably didn't have that problem with his boys, who were now amusing themselves plucking the petals off each other's boutonnieres. Carnation petals dropped to the carpet like red confetti.
    "It's my fault," Josh offered. "I rushed her into this, even though I knew she wasn't ready."
    Nick gripped his friend's shoulder. "Don't blame yourself. She could have told you no. This just goes to show you they can't be trusted."
    Instead of being offended like Colleen, who gasped at the comment, Abby smiled. Obviously, Nick Jameson had dated women the same caliber as the men she'd dated. She understood his bitterness.
    "What are we going to do with all the food?" Mrs. McClintock asked as she joined the rest of the wedding party. "Mrs. George and the Kellys have been cooking for days. We can't let all that food and hard work go to