Proxy Bride (The Lindstroms Book 1) Read online

  “A little while. I didn’t want to disturb you and Principal Paul.”

  “Disturb us?” She made a face. “We were just collating newsletters.”

  “Mmm,” Sam demurred.

  “Sam!” She elbowed him lightly, and he looked at her face, her lovely face that had him all turned around in such a short amount of time. “Paul’s my boss. He’s just a friend.”

  Sam nodded vaguely and looked at the bison with fascination. “Yup. He seems very friendly.”

  “Stop. He’s my brother’s best friend. Folks around here call him the ‘fourth Lindstrom.’ He may as well be, as far as I’m concerned.”

  “I overheard you two talking.”

  “Oh.” Her shoulders slumped, and she sighed. “What did you hear?”

  “That there’s nothing between you and me.”

  “Well, there…isn’t. Is there?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, facing her. He shook his head, then shrugged. “I just know how I feel. I hated the way he took you away from me to go upstairs. I wanted to punch him in the nose, Jenny. I don’t know where that came from.”

  She smiled at him, cocking her head to the side. “Sam? I don’t want to be with Paul. I told him so.”

  Sam’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, Mr. Eavesdropper, I guess you missed the part where he confessed he had feelings for me, and I told him I didn’t see him like that.” She paused for a second, still grinning at him. “You had nothing to be jealous about.”

  He wanted to deny he’d ever been jealous, but it would have been a lie. Instead, he reached for her hand and took it in his, lacing his fingers through hers before she could pull away. And sitting there in the wintery sunshine, the tension he’d been holding onto for the past hour slowly left his muscles, and he relaxed with Jenny beside him.

  It was a peaceful few minutes too…until Sam’s stomach gurgled with hunger, which make them both laugh with surprise.

  “Want to get some lunch?” he asked.

  She glanced at her watch. “It’s only eleven.”

  He dropped her hand and stood up. “So says the person who dawdled in the principal’s office with a stapler while someone else lifted twenty heavy pieces of plywood across the length of a high school basement.”

  “If only you hadn’t teased me,” she taunted in a singsong voice.

  He beamed at her. “Brash words from the woman who cooked…what was it? Cheap pig for breakfast this morning?”

  She half cringed, half smiled up at him from her seat on the bench. “That was pretty bad, eh?”

  “You’re pretty cute when you’re mad, Jen.”

  “You think so?”

  “I do.”

  Sam offered her his hands, which she took so he could pull her up. He might have stood there holding her hands all day if he hadn’t heard an approaching voice ask, “Since when can’t you stand up by yourself, little sister?”

  “Oh, Nils!” Jenny leaned her head around Sam and stuck out her tongue toward the sound of the voice.

  Sam looked over his shoulder to find three blond giants heading over to them from the nearby parking lot, eyes trained on Sam.

  ***

  It should have surprised Sam to be having lunch alone with three hulking Swedes, but he was becoming accustomed to a different rhythm of life with Jenny around. And it didn’t include a ho-hum, predictable sort of sequence of events.

  Turns out Paul had called Lars, Lars had called Erik, and Erik had called Nils. And all three of Jenny’s brothers had decided it was time to meet this Sam, kin of Ingrid or not, before he spent too much more time with Jenny.

  Jenny invited her brothers to join them for lunch but insisted on the Prairie Dawn so she could run upstairs and grab Casey for a quick walk, leaving Sam alone with “the boys,” a moniker so singularly ridiculous, he wondered how she’d gotten away with it for so long. Then again, judging from the protective way the boys felt about Jenny, he imagined she could get away with just about anything.

  They could almost have been triplets, they looked so alike. All were taller than six feet, surpassing Sam’s six foot one easily. All had light-blond hair and ice-blue eyes. Their chests were broad and filled out from hard work or active lives, and they all had the rugged coloring of men who spent a good portion of their lives outdoors.

  Erik, the youngest and closest to Jenny in age, had a rounder face than his older brothers and was the shortest of the three by a hair.

  The middle brother, Lars, was the tallest and most built of the three. Sam guessed from looking at him that free weights were part of his regular routine; no way he looked like that just from bartending and hiking.

  And Nils, the oldest, had a cleft in his chin and looked the most like he wanted to punch Sam in the nose.

  When they all sat down in the small booth, Jenny had taken the seat beside Sam, leaving Erik, Nils, and Lars to squish together onto the bench across from them, which essentially left Nils facing Sam head-on and his brothers bookending him with their backs, their legs hanging over the sides of the small bench.

  Since Jenny had left with a promise to return—a promise Sam was frankly clinging to—the Lindstrom brothers effectively sat in judgment of Sam across a picnic table, with interest in him anchored somewhere between curiosity and whoop-ass. Protective actually seemed a hopelessly weak word as he smiled engagingly at them across the table. He tried the smile he used with especially difficult clients, but the Lindstroms weren’t a real smiley bunch in return.

  “So, Sam,” Nils began, putting his paws flat on the table, “what are you doing here?”

  “Didn’t Jenny tell you?” He didn’t know how much she’d told her brothers about Ingrid and Kristian’s unconventional nuptials.

  “She said he’s giving some kind of legal help to Ingrid,” Lars piped up, speaking to Erik.

  “We like Ingrid,” Erik offered.

  “Yep. Ingrid and Kristian needed help with some legal work and asked me and Jenny to lend a hand.”

  “Where you from? Up north? Billings? Missoula?” Nils named the two largest cities in Montana.

  “Chicago,” Sam answered.

  Erik whistled low. “The city.”

  Lars’s brow furrowed much like Jenny’s. “Chicago!”

  Now Erik again: “Awful long way to come for legal work. Hard to get here from there.”

  “That’s true,” Sam agreed. “I flew into Billings and had a long drive after that.”

  Nils nodded. “Must be a serious legal issue to make a trip like that.”

  Sam was getting sick and tired of the cat-and-mouse-style questions and comments. He folded his hands in front of him on the table and spoke directly, adding some steel to his tone.

  “You know what, guys? It’s this simple: Kristian’s my cousin. He’s like a brother to me. If he asked me to jump out of a plane, I wouldn’t ask too many questions before jumping. That’s just how it is. So, yes, when he and his fiancée asked for my help, I flew here from Chicago, and yes, I’m going to handle his legal business for him because he’s in Afghanistan and he can’t handle it for himself.” He paused for a second, then asked, “Any more questions about Kristian, or are we good now?”

  Nils eyed him back, then nodded in approval, suddenly showing a mouthful of the whitest teeth Sam had ever seen. “You sure you’re not from Montana?”

  “Spent a good bit of time north of Great Falls growing up.”

  “Jenny-girl loved it up there in Great Falls,” Erik stated.

  This was new information to Sam, and it surprised him. “Jenny lived in Great Falls?”

  “Went to college there,” said Erik.

  Nils nudged his middle brother. “Couldn’t get her to come home, remember, Lars?”

  Lars nodded. “Me and Nils didn’t like her living alone up there, so far away from us. We tried to get her to come home, but she wouldn’t budge. Loved it there. Took that job and everything.”

  “What
job?” Sam asked, fascinated that small-town Jenny had once settled down in Great Falls, a small city with more than fifty thousand residents, an international airport, a symphony orchestra, and several semiprofessional sports teams.

  “Teaching. At one of the schools there. Private one,” said Erik.

  “She was teaching science to the little kids,” Nils clarified. “Jenny always loved the little ones. She didn’t really want to work with the teenagers.”

  “But the little kids didn’t need a science teacher here,” Lars finished.

  Sam leaned forward. “Why didn’t it work out? What made her—”

  “Come home?” Nils cocked his head to the side as Sam had seen Jenny do many times. “Because our mamma got sick.”

  “Jenny came home to tend to her,” added Erik.

  Sam didn’t realize he had been holding his breath until it came out in a sudden rush of sympathy. “Sh-she came home to take care of your mother? I’m sorry. Jenny only mentioned her once, and I—”

  “Mamma got sick three years back, and it went quick after. Jenny came home to be with Mamma, and then she stayed on even after she passed. To be near Pappa. And us, I think.” Nils finished and folded his hands on the table.

  “Had to be hard for her to come back here after liking it so much up there in Great Falls,” Erik said, frowning. “Maybe you two should have left things alone like Mamma wanted.”

  Nils elbowed his younger brother in the side. “What’s right is right. Jenny would agree with me and Lars if you asked her, little brother. She needed to come home.”

  Erik pursed his lips but said no more.

  “I’m sorry about your mother,” said Sam.

  Lars nodded. “She was a good lady. Jenny-girl’s a lot like her.”

  “Jen got back here and found the apartment upstairs there and got the job at the high school. She has a good life,” said Nils. “Never talked much about Great Falls again.”

  They were all silent for a moment. Sam couldn’t stop thinking about Jenny living in Great Falls. She seemed so at home in Gardiner, he just assumed returning home after college had been her first choice. What a revelation that she would have made a different choice if fate hadn’t intervened.

  He thought of young Jenny losing her mother and her dream at the same time. Life was incredibly unfair.

  A petite redheaded waitress stopped by their table and smiled at all four of them, her warm brown eyes finally resting on Nils. “Jenny comin’ back?”

  Erik and Lars suddenly busied themselves with the menus. Nils cleared his throat and nodded at the young woman, his voice suddenly deeper than it had been a moment ago. “She’ll be back, Maggie.”

  Sam glanced up at Maggie and smiled politely, then caught a glimpse of Nils’s face and did a double take, realizing the telltale scarlet flush was not singular to Jenny. It must be a Lindstrom thing because Nils was turning an interesting shade of salmon as he faced Maggie.

  Now that Sam was clued in, he realized Maggie had offered a polite greeting to the rest of them, but the way she looked at Nils was eons away from mere politeness.

  When she spoke again, Sam noticed her soft Scottish burr. “Then I’ll hold yer food ’til she gets back.”

  Sam watched her go, then turned back to Nils, grinning at Jenny’s oldest brother. “Maggie, huh?”

  Jenny plopped back down next to Sam, winking at Lars. “It’s always been Maggie for Nils, right Lars? Not that he’s done much about it.”

  “Gode Gud. Shut up, Jen,” Nils snarled, frowning at her and elbowing Lars in the side roughly. Erik tried to hide a grin behind a menu.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Nils. Ask her out already. Everyone in town knows you’re sweet on her.” Jenny whispered this across the table, and Sam sensed she was enjoying herself immensely.

  “When I want to ask someone out, Jen, I’ll good and darn well ask them out. Until then, it’s exactly none of your business, lillesøster.”

  Jenny burst into barely stifled giggles and was quickly joined by Erik and Lars, whose shuddering shoulders gave away their amusement. Nils crossed his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes at his younger siblings, no doubt wishing he was anywhere but trapped on a bench between them.

  The lady of the moment returned with their sandwiches and asked if she could bring them anything else. Four sets of eyes turned to Nils, but he stammered out that they had everything they needed.

  “Thanks, Mags,” said Jenny. From the way Maggie smiled back at Jenny, Sam got the feeling the two women were pretty good friends.

  Erik pushed the salt and pepper to the center of the table. “Salt, pepper, Sam?”

  “Sam’s had enough pepper for today,” said Jenny, winking at Sam.

  Erik nodded in understanding. “Allergic?”

  “Umm.” Sam could feel Jenny’s shoulders shaking with mirth beside him. “Something like that.” Finally, he shrugged, letting the Lindstrom brothers in on the joke. “My ex-girlfriend’s name was Pepper.”

  “How’s that?” Erik furrowed his brows in the Lindstrom family trademark way. “Pepper’s a condiment.”

  Already giddy, Jenny lost it, laughing until tears slid down her cheeks.

  “Long weekend ahead for you, Sam,” offered Erik with feeling, gesturing toward Jenny by jerking his head and cringing. Lars and Nils nodded earnestly, full of sympathy for Sam. “He broke the mold after He made Jenny.”

  Yes, He did, thought Sam, looking at her, feeling his heart fill. Indeed He did.

  Chapter 7

  What a day.

  Jenny flopped down on the loveseat in her living room, leaning her head back and closing her eyes.

  Lars and Erik would pick up the booth pieces and assemble them at the high school’s designated spot in front of the Tackle Shop, and Sam left Jenny at her apartment with a promise to pick her up at five that afternoon. She glanced at her watch; she had a few hours.

  Her head ached from all the developments of the day: so much to think about and process. Sam, Pepper, Paul. She turned her mind to Paul first and thought about writing him a quick email to clear the air but then thought better of it. His feelings were bound to be tender, and she didn’t want to pour salt on the wound. She was still flustered by his near declaration; for as much of her life she had spent in the company of men, she still didn’t understand them.

  Paul had been like a brother to her for years, for as long as she had known him, comforting her after her mother’s passing, joining her family for Sunday supper more times than she could count, leading the PTA meetings that she attended faithfully. For heaven’s sake, how long had he harbored romantic feelings for her?

  She pictured him in her mind. He was handsome, yes, but not her type at all. Kissing Paul would be like kissing my brothers. Now, kissing Sam would be a different thing—

  Whoa, Jenny! Her eyes flew opened as she halted her thoughts midstream. Where did that come from? Kissing Sam? That is not something that should be on your mind.

  She walked into her bedroom, determined to distract herself from such bold ideas, but she couldn’t banish the fantasy of Sam’s mouth lightly touching hers, feather soft, searching. Her pulse sped up, and she gave up the fight, sitting on her bed, touching her lips softly with her fingers, succumbing to the dream in her head. What would it feel like to kiss Sam?

  The boy she had kissed in college was eager but impatient. He had pressed his lips to hers gently several times on their third and fourth dates, which felt exciting and interesting. On their fifth date, however, out of nowhere, he had shoved his tongue between her lips and snatched one of her breasts in a way that had frightened her. She’d pushed him away and told him to cut it out, but he’d moved in on her, meaning to touch her again. So Jenny had done what her brothers taught her: she’d placed her hands firmly on his shoulders and brought her knee up sharply to his groin with a swift, incapacitating thrust. He’d fallen to the floor, clutching at his man-parts, cursing her every which way from last Sunday.

  Th
at had been quite enough for Jenny. She was only too glad not to pursue another romance and had kept men at a careful distance ever since.

  Yet here was Sam, making her mind whirl unexpectedly with ideas of romance.

  The heart wants what the heart wants. Beyond common sense. Beyond higher reason. Beyond all material and emotional considerations that should make the heart give up its longing. The heart still wants what the heart wants, in spite of everything.

  And Jenny’s heart wanted Sam.

  ***

  Jenny checked herself out in the mirror and grinned.

  Yep. She was ready.

  Sam asked her to be his “date” for the Stroll, and that’s exactly what Jenny intended to be. Not a companion or a tour guide, but a date.

  She decided to leave her practical jeans and boots at home and put on her black velvet jeans, a luxury she had purchased at the mall in Great Falls long ago. She paired these pants with a cream-colored silk blouse she had worn on her job interviews three years ago and a cream-colored angora cardigan sweater with tiny cubic zirconia buttons. She dug through her closet until she found the pair of black velvet ballet flats she had purchased to wear with the pants. Dusty from years of neglect, she swatted them against each other until the dust settled elsewhere. She knew they were a silly choice for cold, possibly icy streets. But she didn’t care. It was only one night, and she wanted it to be special.

  In her modest jewelry box, she found her mother’s crystal earbobs and decided to wear them. She had never worn them before, but the crystal in the earrings would match the crystal buttons on the sweater. Besides, it was Christmastime. Why not sparkle a little?

  She laid her clothes out on her bed, smiling at them with anticipation, and took a long, hot shower. She washed and blow-dried her hair until it was straight and shiny, then searched her bathroom cupboard for her makeup case. Once she had blown off two years of dust from the zipper, she opened it up and applied a bit of mascara, a hint of eye shadow, and some pale-pink lip gloss. She put on her clothes, brushed her hair, and added the earrings last. Then she looked in the mirror.