Runaway Bridesmaid by Karen Templeton Page A

deep breath, corralling his thoughts. So…if he knew there was nothing between Sarah and Ed, and more important, there was also nothing between Sarah and Dean, what were all these jealous thoughts pinging around in his brain?
    â€œDean Parrish!” Vivian called. “Get your carcass over here. Someone wants to see you!”
    He glanced over in the direction of the summons to see Vivian escorting one very stunned—and tickled pink—elderly couple toward him, swarmed as they were by a horde of well-wishers, through which he caught Amanda Jenkins’s broad, partially toothless grin.
    â€œWouldja lookit there, Percy! Ha- ha! Come ’ere, boy!”
    Smiling, Dean worked his way through the crowd. “I thought that was you ridin’ around in that fancy truck!” The old woman wrapped Dean’s cheeks in her work-worn hands and drew his face down to hers, planting a noisy kiss on his forehead. “Vivian told us you was comin’ back for the wedding.” She let him go and chuckled, her hands on prodigious hips. “If I was forty years younger and didn’t have this old coot around—” her thumb jerked in the direction of her husband, a thin man with strings of black hair combed over a bald spot, a long-suffering smile plastered to his craggy face “— I’d be all over you like honey on a biscuit. Whoo- ee, if you’re not the best-lookin’ thing I’ve seen in a dog’s age. Ain’t that right, Katey?” she said with a hug for the little girl. “Don’t you think your sister’s gonna have the handsomest brother-in-law in all of Lee County?”
    While Katey said her “yes, ma’ams,” Dean wished he could drop into a hole somewhere. Amanda Jenkins had a voice that could be heard clear to Montgomery, and not all the females at this shindig were old and married. In fact, one particular blonde had put the bead on him before the engine had cooled in his truck. A few years ago, he might’ve sidled up to the pretty young thing and played along, seen just how far he could get.
    But that was a few years ago.
    So, today, when those violet eyes riveted to his, the small white teeth flashed their brightest, he just returned the smile out of politeness. Then he took Katey’s hand in his and moved to another part of the Jenkinses’ backyard, hoping Miss Congeniality would take the hint.
    Still, from the moment he’d arrived, the feeling of community, he reckoned it was, nearly knocked him for a loop. Maybe everybody knew everybody else’s business, sure, but everybody cared about everybody else, too. He’d missed that sense of belonging, more than he’d realized.
    Over his thwomping heartbeat, he turned his attention to the food. And my oh my, this was one impressive spread, even for this part of the world. The Jenkinses’ picnic table boasted the main courses—mountains of fried chicken, hams, barbecued ribs, tender shreds of pork barbecue, chicken and stuffing casserole—while a herd of wobbly card tables groaned under the weight of salads set in bowls of ice, more casseroles, breads, desserts. Something that passed for a breeze stirred the leaves overhead, the tablecloth hems, but there was no getting away from the heat. Not that anyone’s appetite seemed the least affected.
    Especially Ed Stillman’s.
    Towering over everyone in the food line, the vet grinned and nodded in reply as this or that person addressed him while he helped himself to a little of everything in sight. Dean quickly surveyed the crowd; Sarah was nowhere around. Guiding Katey by the shoulders, he sidled in beside the man. Ed looked up, saw them, smiled.
    â€œSorry…we didn’t get introduced back there in the kitchen.” He stuck out his hand, somehow balancing his precariously loaded plate. “Ed Stillman.”
    Dean carefully shifted his own plate to one hand and extended the other. “Yeah,