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Dear God! Ivy exclaimed, feeling sick.
That wasn t necessary, Hayes said curtly.
It was, Cash disagreed. Mean people don t usually change, Ivy, he added. If anything, they get
meaner. She put you in the line of fire deliberately by telling Jerry Smith she d given you the
evidence.
I m not surprised, she said sadly. She always hated me, from the time I was old enough to know
who she was. My life was hell when I was a child.
Hayes pursed his lips. Not anymore, he mused. I noticed that Merrie York was at the engravers
ordering wedding invitations this morning for you and Stuart.
She burst out laughing. There s no such thing as a secret in Jacobsville.
Damned straight, Cash agreed. Are we getting invited?
Everybody s getting invited, Ivy replied with a smile. I would have liked to elope, but Stuart says
we re going to have all the trimmings.
I love weddings, Hayes said. It s the only time I get decent cake.
No fair, Ivy protested. Barbara makes wonderful cakes at her café.
I eat on the run, mostly, Hayes said.
Are Jerry s friends going to come after me, when they know about Rachel s confession? she
worried.
Not likely, Cash said with a grin. Jerry survived his fall, against all the odds, and he s turning
state s evidence. He pointed out his management-level supplier, who was picked up in New York City
this morning and charged with drug trafficking. It seems this supplier had enough methamphetamine
and crack cocaine in a rented, vacant apartment to qualify him for superdealer status. Federal
charges, he continued, and they carry long prison sentences. Cobb and the DEA had already picked
up the ex-state senator s daughter in San Antonio, and we hear that the two ex-councilmen implicated
in the scheme are trying to make it to Mexico.
If they do, Rodrigo will push them back across the border and yell for the police, Hayes chuckled.
I m just glad it s over, Ivy said quietly. It s been a long week.
It certainly has, Hayes agreed.
Ivy wondered how he d taken the news that Minette had never given his little brother the drugs that
cost him his life. He might not believe it just yet. His vendetta against the woman had gone on for
some time. Maybe he liked hating her.
They left a few minutes later, and she went back to her list.
The wedding, predictably, was the social event of the season. The church was decorated in white and
red poinsettias, because it was only a few weeks before Christmas. Ivy wore a white gown with a train
and a trailing veil that Stuart had bought for her at Neiman Marcus. She looked in the mirror and
couldn t believe that this was her. She d never dreamed that Stuart would want to marry her one day,
when she was cocooned in her daydreams. She smiled at her reflection, flushing a little with
happiness.
She walked down the aisle alone. She d had offers from townspeople to give her away, but it seemed
right to make the walk all by herself. You couldn t really give people away in these enlightened times,
she d told Stuart. If anything, she was giving herself.
Stuart stood at the beautiful arbor of poinsettias where the minister was waiting. He looked down the
aisle as Ivy walked toward him and the look on his face was fascinating to her. This worldly,
experienced man looked very much like a young boy on his first date. His eyes were eloquent.
She stopped beside him with her bouquet of white roses and lily of the valley and faced him shyly,
with her veil draped delicately over her face, while the minister read the vows.
Finally the ring was on her finger, and on his. He lifted the beautiful lacy veil to look upon her for the
first time as a bride.
Beautiful, he whispered, as he bent to kiss her with exquisite tenderness. Mrs. York, he added,
smiling.
She beamed. She could have walked on air. She was the happiest woman in Texas, and she looked it.
Everyone in town was there. The big families, the little families, friends and acquaintances filled the
church and flowed out into the yard.
At least, she whispered to him at the reception, nobody started a mixer, like they did at Blake
Kemp s wedding to his Violet.
It s early, yet, he cautioned, nodding toward a fuming Minette Raynor glaring up at a taciturn Hayes
Carson.
He doesn t believe she wasn t responsible, does he? she mused.
He doesn t want to believe it, he corrected. Here, precious, take a bite of the cake so the
photographer can make us immortal.
She flushed at the endearment and nibbled the white cake as the flash enveloped them. The camera
captured similar exquisite moments until the happy couple finally climbed into a waiting white
limousine and sped away toward the airport.
Jamaica, Ivy thought as she lay exhausted in Stuart s strong arms, was a dreamy place for a
honeymoon.
Not that they d seen much of it yet. The minute the bellboy had deposited their luggage, received his
tip and left the room, they d ended up in the bed.
Ivy knew the mechanics of it, from her romantic novels and blunt articles in women s magazines.
But reading about it and doing it were two very different things.
The sensations Stuart drew from her untried body were so powerful that they frightened her. She lost
control of herself almost at once. His mouth and his hands coaxed a response out of her that would
make her blush afterward. He teased her, encouraged her, praised her as he drew her with him from
one peak to an even higher one.
There was one tiny flash of pain, and then nothing except sheer heat and passion that built on itself
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