Love Rising: Spring (Mandrake Falls Series Romance Book 4) Read online

  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.

  Chapter 2: April Fools

  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 dre
w 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.

  From her unusually straight posture, Jeremy could see Jocelyn was upset but he wasn’t going to be rushed. “Please. Joce—sit down. Relax. I’ll be right back.”

  His hands shook a little as he spooned coffee into the basket. She’s in the living room. He examined his sweatshirt, remembering there was a spaghetti sauce stain on it when he pulled it out of the laundry hamper. There it was. A blob of reddish-orange. He whipped the sweatshirt off, turned it inside out and pulled it back on. Better.