The Sassy Bride: Gone with the Brides Read online

  Sassy Bride

  Ciara Knight

  Contents

  Foreword

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Magnolias and Moonshine List

  About the Author

  Also by Ciara Knight

  Sassy Bride

  Book I

  Gone With The Brides Series

  Copyright ©2017 by Ciara Knight

  All rights reserved.

  First edition published 2017

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Edited by Cora Artz

  Copy Edit by E. Sewell

  ISBN: 978-1-939081-65-0

  Created with Vellum

  Foreword

  Welcome to the Magnolias and Moonshine series, where you’ll fall in love with the South.

  Twenty New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon bestselling authors joined together to bring you a taste of Southern charm in this brand-new Magnolias & Moonshine series.

  There is something for everyone with these ten sweet and ten sizzle contemporary romance novellas. You’ll enjoy stories with cowboys, weddings, county fairs, lovers reunited, and much more.

  Step into the world of the South and hear the cicadas, taste the mint juleps, see the stars, and smell the magnolias.

  Authors in novella release order:

  Ciara Knight (Sweet)

  Hildie McQueen (Sizzle)

  Beth Williamson (Sizzle)

  Susan Hatler (Sweet)

  Lindi Peterson (Sweet)

  Kymber Morgan (Sizzle)

  Amanda McIntyre (Sizzle)

  Lucy McConnell (Sweet)

  Sharon Hamilton (Sizzle)

  Lisa Kessler (Sizzle)

  Kirsten Osbourne (Sweet)

  Susan Carlisle (Sizzle)

  Tina DeSalvo (Sizzle)

  Raine English (Sweet)

  Amelia C. Adams (Sweet)

  E. E. Burke (Sizzle)

  Melinda Curtis (Sweet)

  Merry Farmer (Sizzle)

  Shanna Hatfield (Sweet)

  Jennifer Peel (Sweet)

  One

  Too bad I’m southern. Southern meant I had to be polite. So, I couldn’t run the band off stage. Lord knew they’d never hit the Bubba-billboard-band chart. But if volume alone could get them there, the way that lead singer belted it out, they’d have already hit number one.

  My sister Avery leaned into my side. “Think Arsenal Assembly is Magnolia and Moonshine Fair material?”

  I lifted the clipboard to cover my mouth so I could at least pretend to be a proper southern girl—and talk behind their backs. “They sound more like a cow getting a prostate exam than a county fair band.”

  Avery rolled her blue eyes, dipped her narrow shoulders, and laughed her barge-sized attitude back to her seat.

  The drummer pummeled the snare drum for the final off-beat time, pounding my head into a heavy-metal migraine. “Remind me to poison Zoey’s lasagna tonight for sticking us with her job.”

  “At least our darling sister gave us a lunch break. Too bad she didn’t send food.” Avery patted her flat stomach and stuck out her bottom lip in the signature pout she’d inherited from our long-gone father—the Great Houdini of parental responsibilities and child support.

  The lead singer held the mic to his lips. “How’d we do, Ms. Sadie?”

  I stood, faced the stage, lowered the clipboard, and did my best to smile. But based on my sister’s snicker I’d probably just plastered on my best impression of a bad botox smile. “Great. Just great. Thanks for coming out. We’ll let you know by Friday.”

  I headed to the office with Avery by my side. “I’m spent. Between my early morning shift at the bakery and all-afternoon audition duty, I need a break.”

  “Speaking of the fair, whatcha making for the bake-off this year?” Avery asked, in the prying sister tone she’d perfected over the years.

  “Don’t know yet. I’m still working on it.” We entered the recreation center’s small office. The florescent lights drilled into my eyes, compounding my headache. My phone buzzed, so I slipped it out of my pocket. One glance at Ashton’s message and every ache disappeared.

  See you in five.

  “Guess I know who that is.” Avery lifted a teasing brow at me.

  “He’ll be here soon, so behave.” I knew he’d ask me about my college applications, which I hadn’t finished, so I set the clipboard down and slid into the chrome and vinyl chair in front of my laptop. I logged in and eyed the tabs across the top of the screen indicating various empty forms. My fingers rested on the keys, but I stuttered over typing my own middle name.

  Cathrine…right, it’s Cathrine.

  How could I forget my middle name? I’d been named after Aunt Cathy. The woman that taught me how to bake cookies, how to flip a pancake, how to whisk an egg. The once idol of my life who I thought would always be there, but I was wrong. She was gone. Played the disappearing family act. It was apparently a dominant genetic trait.

  I moved to the line where it asked why I chose this college. I hated that line. Why did I? Heck, why did I want to go to college at all? I was too old to do the freshman thing. Besides, the minute I left, Avery would turn into an extra on Southern Girls Gone Wild.

  Avery plopped into the chair next to me. “Who you fooling? You’ll never do college.”

  “Pay attention to your own school work. You got a C in Freshman English.”

  Avery fluffed her Dixon wheat-colored hair. “You’re not my mom. Besides, I’m the one in college.”

  I fluffed my own Dixon hair. It was like a mini hair-drama each time the Dixon sisters tried to outdo each other. “I supported you and Zoey. Mortgage, car insurance, tuition, food, and every other bill that kept us together the past eight years. There wasn’t any money left for my college, so don’t you sass me.”

  “Please. You’re the queen of sass.” Avery flung her feet up onto the cracked, Formica desk. “But that’s the past anyway. You don’t have to worry about money now. You’ll be a Dumont.”

  I narrowed my gaze with motherly precision. “I don’t need taking care of. I can pay for my own school.” I faced my laptop once more.

  “And you’re so excited about going back?” Avery’s tone threw down the gauntlet for a sarcasm showdown.

  I straightened in the chair, forcing my voice to be Sound of Music cheerful. “Of course. Education’s important.”

  “Right. So important it’s been two months and those applications are still blank.”

  “Guess I took a page from the Avery Dixon multi-slacking book.” I rubbed my forehead and closed my eyes. “My wedding’s in a few months. Ashton graduates in a week. I have to handle all the food for the county fair. I think I deserve a little forgiveness for putting off one little thing.”

  “More like the one little thing you don’t want to do in a big way. Tell you what. I’ll help.”

  I opened my eyes in mock surprise. “You? Help?”

  “Sure. I’d sacrifice anything for you. In fact, I know how all the Dumonts’ money makes you uneasy, so I’ll marry the dashing, rich Ashton Dumont for you.” Avery liked to mix her teases with a dash of jealousy and a pinch of love.

&nbsp
; “Such a sacrifice.” I clasped my hands together and shook my head as if amazed at her thoughtfulness. Meanwhile, a frenzy of fluttery, itchy, stinging emotions nibbled at my self-esteem. Every girl in metro Atlanta wanted to land Ashton Dumont. “But are you sure? You haven’t even looked at another man since the boyfriend-who-shall-be-shot-on-sight ran away.”

  Avery’s lip, eye, and nose twitched. Was that her I-dare-you face, or it’s-too-soon face? I wasn’t sure, So I went for it’s too soon, and gave her my real sympathetic smile. But I wasn’t sure if to hug it out, or tug each other’s hair to cheer her up.

  Knock. Knock. Knock.

  “Ashton’s here,” Avery said in a k-i-s-s-i-n-g tone.

  I closed my laptop and faced the door. “Come in.”

  Ashton strutted in, soaked in an air of confidence only certain men could pull off. “Hi, gorgeous. I brought you some lunch.” He tossed a gargantuan sandwich from my favorite sub shop on the desk and kissed the top of my head. The tip of my ears warmed.

  He patted Avery on the shoulder. “Sorry, didn’t know you’d be here or I would’ve brought some for you, too.”

  “Honestly I think you did, this is gigantic.” I held the sandwich up with both hands. “Unless you’re trying to fatten me up so I can’t run away.”

  “I have to keep hold of you somehow.” His grin was award winning.

  Gravel crunched outside, and a car pulled up. Another band would be setting up soon. I could always hope they’d be good. Someone had to be, eventually. I crossed my fingers.

  “She won’t have time to finish it anyway, an afternoon of auditions and all.” Avery pushed out her chest, her lips curving into her cheerleader-on-happy-pills smile. “But no worries. Sisters share.” She snagged the sandwich and ripped into the bag. “Besides, we want our bride to fit into her dress.”

  I knew she didn’t mean it, only payback for bringing up her ex. I’d give her this one.

  Ashton played with the ends of my hair, toying with it between his fingers. I relaxed into his familiar touch, savoring the contact. “No worries about that. She’s perfect.”

  Avery’s eyes lit up like a neon sign flashing “Gotcha.” “Are we all still on for tonight? That whole shindig with your parents and grandparents and kings and queens?”

  “Avery.” She was just trying to protect me, but she wasn’t wrong. My minute of bliss shattered into tiny slivers of anxiety and splinters of hope. Hope that his parents wouldn’t judge me. Hope that his grandparents wouldn’t hate me. Hope that his family finally accepted me.

  “I think you’re exaggerating,” Ashton said, “but yes, we’ll be eating at the club tonight for the first annual Dumont-Dixon dinner.”

  “Wait, you drove forty minutes out of your way to see me when we’re going to be together tonight?” I shook my head.

  “Yeah. It gave me thirty more minutes with my other girl.” Ashton tilted his head toward the small window, indicating his new Audi R8 in the parking lot. His graduation present. A present that could’ve paid our bills for a decade.

  Avery made a wrap-you-around-her-little-finger gesture. “How a-dork-able.”

  His smile for the car could have made me jealous. “Well I think it’s sweet that we’re spending lunch together. Even if my fiancé did have to drive all the way down to Magnolia Corners, the southern-est of southern towns, just to take his mistress for a spin and bring lunch.”

  “Dinner. Wait…” Avery rubbed her temples trying to bring back a memory. “Oh, I forgot to give you a message. Aunt Cathy is coming tonight.”

  I bolted from my seat, fear of embarrassing family behavior taking my breath and stomping it from my lungs. “What? But the club dinner requires reservations…” Thank the Lord.

  Ashton rubbed my arms, an instant, soothing ointment. “She can come with you. No worries.”

  “No worries? Are those finals draining your brain cells? We’re talking about the epitome of all country women, Cathy West. She doesn’t know fine dining manners, or how to make sweet small talk. She’s even louder than Avery.”

  “Hey,” Avery started to protest, stopped, thought, and nodded. “True.”

  “Relax.” Ashton pulled me into his make-everything-right arms. “You’re going to end up in the back kitchen with an apron and fast pass to a mental breakdown if you don’t take a breath.”

  My anxiety revved from zero to sixty faster than his new R8. “Your mother is going to faint. No, we have to keep Cathy home, or cancel tonight.”

  “It’ll all be okay. I’ll be at your side the entire time. We’ll do this together.”

  I rested my head against his chest for a minute, wishing the world would stop pounding against my skull. Two breaths and then I managed to face him and the rest of our drama. “We’re talking about your mother meeting a woman three times more backwoods than me. Remember when she overheard you ask me out at the club when I was waiting tables? She did a southern belle swoon that put Scarlett O’Hara to shame. I’m surprised she didn’t have you carry her to a fainting couch on the spot.”

  Ashton kissed my cheek, my neck, my shoulder. “I don’t care if my mother has an issue with your family. Your family is my family. I love you, and I will love your Aunt Cathy. You worry too much.”

  “Can you teach me how you do that?” Avery said, reminding me she was still in the room.

  “Do what?” he asked.

  “Calm Sadie into submission?”

  “Tame it, sis.” I gave her a glare. Ashton could talk me into just about anything, a dangerous trait in a man. But Avery was wrong, I had some control around Ashton. Some.

  “Relax, Sadie. It’ll be fine.”

  I shook my head. “How can you be so calm?”

  Ashton swooped me into his arms and dipped me like a tango dancer trying to impress the judges at a competition. “Because frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” His Rhett Butler accent was as perfect as his eyes.

  I just shook my head and smiled. Maybe he was right.

  Avery chuckled. “As I said, a-dork-able.”

  Two

  The massive red brick building with imposing white columns dared me to step closer, reminding me of how I didn’t belong. I thought about running, but that was my mother’s thing, not mine. I eyed my outlet mall dress. I loved it, and I looked good in it. But it wouldn’t live up to the expectations of a rich, designer-clad family like the Dumonts.

  Avery angled in the passenger seat to face me. “You look beautiful, and you deserve to be here. You’re as good as anyone else in that place. No, better.”

  I waited for her usual sarcasm, but Avery only fussed with my hair for a second then got out of the car. With a hard shove on the door of my 1987 Honda Accord, I snagged my keys, my purse, and my strength to deal with Cathy Mitchell West, Mrs. Dumont, and the entire Eagles Landing Country Club that would insist on meeting and judging me.

  I walked through the parking lot, trying not to make eye contact with the valets. “Told you not to park,” Avery whispered into my ear. “And stop shaking.”

  “I’m not. And those valets cost twenty dollars plus tip.”

  She laughed. “You’re trembling like a sunbather on top of the Rocky Mountains in January.”

  Avery meant well, but nothing could calm my nerves. Two employees opened the front doors and we entered the large atrium. After all these years of dating Ashton, I was finally entering the club for dinner. To eat, not to serve. I’d only worked at the club for a few months before I was let go after our first date. I’d never said anything, but I suspected his mother had made a call. I’d come with him for lunch a few times, but never in the evening with the lights twinkling and china clinking, and never with his family.

  I stepped inside the atrium. Before I could take it all in, a woman exiting a restroom clapped her hands together, drawing my attention. It looked like Aunt Cathy, yet nothing like her. It had been eight years, could she have changed that much? No cat sweatshirts, grey hair, or round body.

  She flung
her arms around me with the same rib-crushing hug I remembered. “My dear sweet niece. How are you? I’m so happy for you. I hope it’s okay that I came. Zoey called to tell me all the news.” She released me and a handsome older man walked over from the restaurant entrance. “This is my husband, Devon West,” Aunt Cathy said, gesturing to him. “He drove me down, so I didn’t have to make the trip alone.”

  The man had a distinguished look, thin, runner frame, and tall.

  My mouth opened and shut, then opened and shut again, but I still couldn’t find the words. It had been eight years, seven Christmas cards, three forced phone calls between in-person meetings.

  Cathy brushed my hair from my forehead and analyzed my face. “You must be exhausted after such a long day. Zoey told me that you went to the bakery at four this morning, and then you had to fill in for her at some audition thingy after that. How will you ever stay awake through dinner?”

  “It sounds like Zoey has had plenty of time to fill you in. Too bad she didn’t have time to help.” I grinned. My mind skimmed the surface from the funeral of Uncle Sam, skipped over the unanswered letters I wrote, and plopped into the pool of sorrow the night my mother told me Aunt Cathy didn’t want me to go stay with her over the summer. That was eight summers ago.

  Avery nudged into my side. “Sorry. My dear sister is hangry. She needs some sustenance.”

  Devon offered his arm to Cathy and his hand to shake ours. “Pleasure to meet you both.”

  Avery took his hand with enthusiasm. “Nice to meet you, too. Zoey told me that you remarried. It looks like he’s good for you.”

  “Ah, yes, the weight loss. That was for me, but the smile on my face is from him.” Cathy snuggled into his side. “Well, we shouldn’t keep the Dumonts waiting.”

  “If you want to skip this, I understand,” I said, still searching for a way out of this. Country folk and country club members mixed about as well as oil and gasoline.