Something about Josie’s engaging smile and innocently widened eyes put Alexis instantly on alert. “What?”
“Ted has a really cute friend. Single. Makes good money. A great guy, and not bad-looking, either.”
“Josie—”
“Anyway,” the bride hurried on, “he’s coming to the wedding, and I told him all about you. He’s really looking forward to meeting you.”
“Josie, really. I’m going to be very busy during the wedding and the reception. You’ve entrusted me to make sure everything behind the scenes goes smoothly, which involves a lot of supervision and coordination. I’ll be too busy to spend much time with any one guest—even if I were interested in a fix-up. Which I’m not, by the way,” she added firmly, wondering why everyone suddenly seemed so determined to match her up with someone.
Josie winked impishly. “Well, I’m going to introduce you, anyway. Who knows, it could be love at first sight.”
Alexis didn’t even believe in love at first sight, though as a wedding planner it was probably best that she not mention her romantic cynicism. “I’ll be much too busy for that today,” she said instead, with an airy laugh. “And speaking of which, you should be getting ready while I take care of a few last-minute details.”
“Okay, I’m going.” Josie waved to her mother and bridesmaids, who were also urging her to start getting ready. Never the type to hurry when ambling was so much more fun, she headed toward the dressing room, though Alexis noted she stopped several times along the way to exchange hugs and greetings with arriving friends.
With a little sigh, Alexis pulled out her tablet computer to go over her checklist one last time before the start of the wedding. She hoped Josie would be too distracted by the festivities to go through with her matchmaking threat.
She found herself glancing in the direction of Logan’s cottage, realized what she was doing, then sternly turned her attention back to her responsibilities.
* * *
Logan generally stayed out of sight during a wedding or other event, emerging again afterward to start cleaning up. Usually he and Ninja sat in his living room with a seasonal sporting event on the TV while he worked on his computer. Kinley had asked him to make a few upgrades to the inn’s website, and he had another project looming for his part-time consulting work. Today, however, he found himself unable to concentrate fully on software. Even Ninja paced the floor, looking out the windows and sighing occasionally.
Finally conceding to their mutual restlessness, he snapped a sturdy leash on Ninja’s collar. “Let’s go for a walk,” he said, reaching for his jacket. “But behave yourself.”
The dog grinned up at him with a deceptively innocent expression.
Surrounded by woods, with a creek rushing just beyond the roomy fenced yard, Logan’s two-bedroom cottage was downhill on the east side of the inn. His one-car garage was accessed by a narrow private drive leading off the main road. A rough path through the woods connected with the six-mile hiking trail that started at the back of the inn’s grounds. Weather permitting, Logan and Ninja walked that trail nearly every day, usually early mornings before he started working around the grounds.
Though he tended to be an early riser and woke ready to get going, he tried to make himself and his crew wait until nine to tackle any noisy projects out of consideration for later-sleeping inn guests. He hadn’t had time for a long walk this morning, so he figured they might as well stretch their legs now while the wedding and reception were under way.
Pleased to be outside with him, Ninja trotted beside him, sniffing the air and ground, policing this land he considered his own. The black-and-brown dog had shown up on Logan’s doorstep one winter morning more than a year ago, cold, wet and hungry. He’d been little more than an overgrown pup then, maybe a year old, a few pounds shy of the large size he’d attained since. There hadn’t been a collar or an ID chip, but Logan had dutifully searched for an owner, anyway. By the time he’d concluded that no one seemed to be looking for the stray, Logan had bonded with the mutt.
He hadn’t even known he wanted a dog at the time, probably would have declined if anyone had tried to give him one, but now he couldn’t imagine making these walks alone again. “Quirky sense of humor” and all, Ninja belonged with him. The dog made it clear he felt the same way, seemingly content to stay in the fenced yard—most of the time—while Logan worked, and happily by his side before and afterward.
From a clearing at a high point on the path from his house to the main hiking trail, Logan could see the grounds of the inn spread below him, especially this time of year before the trees completely filled with leaves. He liked to pause here on his walks to survey his property—well, a third his, anyway.
He’d always known he and his sisters would inherit this place someday. Their mother’s uncle Leo had told them so from the time they were just kids, since they were the only heirs to the Finley family legacy. Logan and his sisters had spent nearly every holiday and most summers here at the inn growing up, especially after his mom’s parents in Tennessee died, and Uncle Leo had always put them to work around the place—not that they had minded, since he’d always made it fun.
Still, Logan had never thought he’d end up as caretaker here. He’d trained in computer sciences, started his own business—with a partner he’d trusted implicitly at the time—and figured that when the inn eventually became his, he’d either sell his third to his sisters or remain a silent partner. There had never been any question that Bonnie would run the inn someday. It had been her goal since childhood, and something she’d worked and trained for since. Kinley was a natural-born saleswoman, a trait that had served her well in the real estate business and now came in handy as she hustled business for the inn.
As for himself, he had a talent for computers, was good with his hands and had always been mechanically minded. Bonnie teased him about being a “Renaissance man.” With his previous business ending painfully not long before Uncle Leo died, he’d thrown all his skills and talents into renovations and maintenance, surprisingly finding refuge in his cottage and solace in the hard work and challenges of the inn. He had his family, his dog, his health, his truck. All in all, he was a lucky man. Wouldn’t change a thing.
Standing there high among the shadows, he hadn’t realized he was searching for Alexis among the milling crowd below until he spotted her. Dressed in her favorite bold red, with her dark hair gleaming in the afternoon sun, she stood out from the pastel-clad wedding guests—at least to his eyes.
The wedding ceremony had ended, and everyone had moved to the side lawn for the reception. The guests mingled around the food tables, sat in the folding chairs that had been carried up from the wedding rows, gathered around the happy bride and groom. A few hovered close to the area heaters, though Logan found the cool temperature comfortable enough in his jacket. The cheery bluegrass music being played by the quartet on the farm-wagon stage drifted up to where he stood, making his boot tap in time. This was the kind of wedding he could endorse. Low-key, comfortable, not overly decorated, but making good use of the beautiful setting provided by nature and Bride Mountain Inn.
He spotted Kinley working the crowd and Bonnie bustling near the food tables, but his attention turned almost immediately back to Alexis. She looked really good. Maybe before the weekend was over, he could tell her so. And he hoped his hands were on her when he did.
Ninja whined a little and moved toward the party, causing Logan to tighten his grip on the leash. “We’ll see her later,” he promised, as much to himself as the dog.
He was just about to turn away and continue his walk when something made him stop. He watched with a scowl as the bride—Alexis’s old school friend Josie—all but dragged a tall, somewhat lanky man over to Alexis and waved her expressive hands as if to indicate introductions. Even from this distance, it seemed obvious to Logan that an attempted fix-up was under way. Josie was doing everything but linking their hands together. He was grimly pleased when Alexis moved away only a few short minutes later. She walked toward the makeshift stage and he lingered to see if she was going to make some sort of announcement. He could just hear her voice from where he stood.
“Josie and Ted have asked me to perform one of their favorite songs as we celebrate their marriage today,” she announced. “It’s from Josie’s favorite animated movie and Broadway show, The Lion King.”
Alexis had mentioned a couple of times that she’d studied music. That she’d performed occasionally since college, though she’d always been deliberately vague about when or where. He knew she’d lived in New York. She’d told him she supported herself primarily by working for florists, where she’d added to her experience in wedding planning begun in her mother’s flower shop. Now, listening to her sing, he suspected she had deliberately downplayed the role music had played in her life before he’d met her.
She was good. Damn it, she was better than good, he thought with a hard swallow. She was amazing. Her clear, beautifully modulated voice wafted on the air to where he stood, and he could feel the power of it rippling through him. He stood transfixed, Ninja very still at his side, until the last note faded. The guests on the lawn applauded loudly, almost mobbing Alexis when she turned the program back over to the bluegrass band and stepped down from the wagon-stage, hiding her almost entirely from his view. He saw the tall, lanky man slip into the throng and make his way toward the center and the crowd parted just enough for Logan to see him reach Alexis’s side, place a hand on her shoulder and smile down at her.