disheveled than she had been when they arrived.
Somehow her slight disarray only managed to make her look even more glorious.
“Everything okay?” he asked in an undertone.
“It is now. I had to sew like the wind to make some major repairs on the mother of the groom’s dress. I hope I never have to do that again,” she said vehemently.
He spotted the woman in question walking in on Josh’s arm. She looked lovely in a rose-colored dress that perfectly matched some of the flowers in the garlands draped on the rows of chair.
Even looking at her dress closely, he couldn’t see any evidence of Samantha’s handiwork.
“I’ll assume she didn’t buy that dress from you,” he said.
“No. She ordered it online apparently, without even trying it on. First they sent the wrong size. Then, because of a shipping delay, this one didn’t arrive until yesterday. It needed a slight alteration in the bodice but the person who worked on it last-minute did a slipshod job of it. I think she should be good now. It should hold together, as long as she doesn’t go crazy on the dance floor later.”
“Once again, you save the day.”
She gave him a grateful look, but before she could answer, Josh and the woman who would be marrying them whom Ian had met the evening before at the rehearsal dinner, the reverend at the church Gemma attended in town, moved to the front. A moment later, the quartet began playing the music his sister had chosen for her bridal processional.
Ian held his breath as Gemma came gliding down the aisle on his father’s arm, alight with happiness and stunning in the dress Samantha had made. It was perfect for her, as if the dressmaker had somehow managed to bottle her personality and weave it into cloth.
He heard a sigh coming from Amelia and looked down to find her hands clasped together, pressed tightly to her chest, as she watched her aunt make her way down the aisle, her arm tucked through their father’s.
Hardly showing any sign of her limp, Gemma glided toward her groom, who stood with eyes suspiciously moist as he watched her.
The moment was profoundly perfect, as lovely and romantic as he could ever imagine a wedding.
Beside him, he saw Samantha wipe away happy tears. He reached for her hand and held it in his, not caring who might see.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
SAMANTHA ALWAYS SHED a tear or two at weddings, caught up in the romance and the beauty of two separate lives combining to become one. This one, though, seemed to hit her particularly hard.
She found a sweet tenderness in watching the stunned joy on Josh Bailey’s handsome face as he watched his beautiful bride make her way down the flower-strewn aisle toward him.
Gemma must have been crying a little, too, though Samantha couldn’t see it. She only guessed it when Josh pulled a handkerchief out of the inside pocket of his tuxedo jacket and pressed it with heartbreakingly gentle care to one of Gemma’s eyes and then the other.
The gesture was so tender and emotional it stole her breath.
Sam didn’t have anyone to wipe her tears away. That was suddenly, starkly apparent. If she wanted to see the world clearly, it was up to her to wipe her own blasted eyes.
She reached into her trusty bag for the lace hanky she had brought along. She sniffled a little, dabbing at her eyes, when she suddenly felt a hand on hers.
Ian.
He didn’t look at her, his gaze focused on his sister and her groom, but his fingers curled around Samantha’s, warm and comforting.
Her breath caught, her heart pounding, and she wanted this moment to continue forever, frozen in her memory. A beautiful bride and groom, many of her friends and neighbors filling the seats around her and Ian and his children next to her.
She loved him. The undeniable truth of it poured through her like that fading sunlight on the water.
She had suspected as much for a long time, probably since that first kiss that had left her so shaken.
There was no denying it now, when he held her hand with such gentleness that she felt more tears spill out.
This wasn’t like anything she had felt before. It was raw and painful, as if her heart had been flayed open.
She loved him more than she imagined it possible to love another person. He was a good, kind, honorable, wonderful man who treated her with respect and concern and who cared deeply about his children and his