The Magnolia Sisters (Magnolia Sisters #1) - Michelle Major Page 0,116

“You have the name backward,” a deep voice announced and they all turned to see a tall, muscular, sandy-haired man standing in the doorway that led to the back of the building. “It’s Dylan Scott.”

“No,” Carrie whispered on a frantic puff of air.

“Wait.” Avery’s brain went into overdrive, trying to figure out why this man—or at least his name—seemed familiar, certain she’d never met Dylan Scott before.

He was a man who a woman wouldn’t easily forget. Well over six feet, with broad shoulders, lean hips and an intricate tattoo peeking out from under the sleeve of his fitted black T-shirt, Dylan looked more like a leader of some dangerous biker gang than the head of a prominent real estate development company. “Do we know you?” Avery asked.

“Not you,” Meredith said, poking her from around the back of Carrie’s stiff frame. “But Carrie did back in high school. Remember when we talked about how long it’s been since she had great—”

“Shut up, Meredith,” Carrie said in a hiss of breath.

Dylan only chuckled. “It’s been a while,” he announced in that gravelly voice that sounded like whiskey and sin. “But it’s good to be home. I missed this town.”

Avery’s breath caught at the intensity of this man’s focus on her sister. Obviously Magnolia wasn’t the only thing Dylan Scott had missed.

* * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from Wyoming Special Delivery by Melissa Senate.

Wyoming Special Delivery

by Melissa Senate

CHAPTER ONE

Daisy Dawson’s wedding ceremony was supposed to start any minute, and there was no sign of the groom. At nine months pregnant, in a pretty but scratchy white lace maternity dress and peau de soie heels that pinched, standing around wasn’t exactly easy.

She poked her head out the door of the small room where she was getting ready. The special events hall of the Dawson Family Guest Ranch lodge had been beautifully decorated, thanks to her sister-in-law, Sara, who’d gone all out with pink and red roses, white tulle, and a red satin carpet runner to create an aisle. Thirty-six chairs were set up on both sides of the carpet. On the bride’s side, she saw her five brothers in the first row, all decked out in suits and Stetsons and cowboy boots. She saw her colleagues from the ranch. She saw old friends and newer ones.

But the other side of the aisle was still conspicuously empty of guests. No relatives or friends of the groom had arrived. That was really weird. Jacob was late and so were all the people he’d invited to their wedding?

Sure, Daisy. Right.

She poked her head back in and looked in the mirror, reality hitting her right in the nose. Jacob wasn’t coming to his own wedding. And since none of his guests had turned up, it was obvious that he’d let them know in advance that he was calling it off. How kind of him to tell everyone in his life but her.

Everyone who meant something special to her was waiting for her to walk down the aisle. And there wasn’t going to be a wedding. She shook her head, calling herself all kinds of a fool for ever thinking this was going to happen.

Ping!

Daisy eyed her phone on the vanity table with all her cosmetics and the curling iron she’d painstakingly used to get beachy waves in her straight light brown hair. The text was either from one of her brothers asking if everything was okay—since the ceremony was supposed to start at 5:00 p.m.—or it was her fiancé, Jacob, the cowardly fink, not facing her in person.

She grabbed her phone. It was Jacob.

I’m really sorry. But it hit me hard this morning that we don’t love each other and we’ve been forcing it. And I’ve been forcing that I can be a dad. I’m heading back to Cheyenne and might move east. Wish you and the baby all the best. J.

A burst of sadness got her in the heart at the same time that red-hot anger seized her. She stared at herself in the mirror, through her late mother’s beautiful lace veil, which she should have known would be bad luck.