Wisconsin Wedding (Welcome To Tyler, No. 3) by Carla Neggers Page B

waiting for him back in Providence? Another smarmy phone call from another author who actually wanted to make a living at his writing? More dubious looks from Mrs. Redbacker? More mornings tossing darts? No, he thought. He wanted this time with his brother. He wanted to get to know Cliff Forrester all over again.
    And Nora Gates.
    He wanted this time with her, too. God help him, but he wanted to get to know her all over again, just to find out if what he was feeling right now was real. If what he’d done three years ago had been right for her, too.
    He sighed, skimming a rock out onto the lake. What he was feeling right now was regret. For the lies, the choices he’d made, the time lost. And desire. There was no questionhe was feeling a good dose of desire for the gray-eyed woman he’d loved so many, many months ago.
    He was also damned hungry, he thought, climbing stiffly to his feet.
    By the time he joined Cliff and Liza on the veranda, Nora was long gone and they had put together a simple but fabulous lunch. There was ham and Wisconsin cheese on locally made sourdough rye bread, sliced fresh tomatoes—the last vine-ripened tomatoes of the season, which Liza herself had tucked away—and leftover cranberry-apple crisp, made, of course with Wisconsin cranberries and apples.
    It was almost—but not quite—too cold to eat outside.
    “Nora left?” Liza asked.
    Byron shrugged, trying to seem neutral on the subject of Nora Gates. “Apparently.”
    “You two chitchatted quite a while. She knows you?”
    “Me?”
    “Yeah. She thought she recognized you.”
    “Did she?” He stabbed a slice of tomato with a fork. “She didn’t say anything. Mostly we talked about the geese.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    Liza didn’t sound convinced. Cliff eyed his brother, then looked away. “I’ve got a few things I need to get done.” Without another word, he took off with his sandwich and a cup of coffee.
    If Liza was annoyed by her fiancé’s abrupt departure or her future brother-in-law’s sidestepping her questions, she gave no indication. She did not, Byron decided, have a suspicious, devious mind. He already found himself admiring her energy and optimistic nature, and it was easy to see how much she was in love with his older brother.
    Unfolding her long legs from under her on her wickerchair, she planted her feet on the newly painted veranda floor. “So, Byron,” she said, “do you think your brother’s going to string me up for sending you and your mother that invitation?”
    “Did he say he would?”
    She grinned. “No, but I got the drift.”
    “I’d have warned you I was coming, but you didn’t include an address or number—”
    “Intentionally. I figured I’d just strike the match and see if I could start a fire. You want some more coffee?”
    She was, obviously, a woman who didn’t look back. “No, thanks, this is fine.”
    “Cliff didn’t tell me he saw you last night.”
    She spoke without defensiveness or anger. She was a confident woman, too, and sure of Cliff’s love for her. Whatever Cliff’s reasons for ducking out, they had nothing to do with his relationship with Liza Baron. That was rock solid. Byron had been concerned his brother might have fallen for a woman who’d pity him and indulge his isolation, who’d coddle him and exacerbate his problems. Liza Baron, however, was clearly not that kind of woman.
    “We needed to talk first,” Byron said.
    “Have you?”
    “Some. Not enough.”
    Liza nodded. “I guess you two seeing each other for the first time in so many years must be about as unsettling as my coming back to Tyler to live and all. And it’s gotta be a lot tougher.”
    Byron didn’t speak. It was tough to see Cliff—and Nora—and not know how it would turn out.
    “How come you’re here so early?” Liza asked baldly.
    “Let’s just say I’m on an advance scouting mission.”
    Liza slapped what must have been another tablespoon ofspicy mustard onto her sandwich. “In case