His Heartbroken Bride (The Brides of Paradise Ranch - Spicy Version Book 4) by Merry Farmer

my wife,” he insisted.
    “I’ll understand if you want to tear up the certificate we signed before Rev. Pickering can file it.”
    “No.” Mason silenced her. “I don’t want to do any such thing. All I want to do is get to the bottom of what’s troubling you and make it better.”
    Libby shook her head. “You can’t make it better. I’m carrying Hector Sterling’s child. You can’t fix this.”
    “Are…are you certain it’s his?” Wendy asked, then chewed her lip as if she wasn’t certain she had the right to ask.
    Libby sent her a mournful glance and nodded. “The timing…” She swallowed, leaving it there.
    Their befuddled group continued to stand in uncomfortable silence until Josephine said, “Well, lunch isn’t going to eat itself, and I’d hate to see it go to waste. Besides, we did just have a wedding, no matter how eventful.”
    “Right you are, Jo.” Pete smiled, taking his wife’s hand and kissing it to reward her for taking charge.
    Conversation and renewed pledges of support rose up around them as they continued out the back of the church and across town to Josephine and Pete’s house. Everyone was doing their best to make light of things or to cheer Libby up. It was her wedding day, after all. She even managed a weak smile by the time they made it to the house.
    Mason held tight to her hand the whole time. Libby may not have been blameless, but there were a thousand different things that could have happened between the day Teddy died and the day Libby stepped down from the train in Haskell and back into his life. And Mason intended to find out what they were.

Chapter Six
     
    Libby said little all through the lunch that was intended to be a celebration of her marriage to Mason. She hardly touched the magnificent feast Josephine had prepared either. Every bite turned to ash in her mouth and twisted her already roiling stomach.
    “You need to keep your strength up, sweetheart,” Pete told her at one point with all the affection of a natural father. “That baby will need its mother to be strong when it gets here.”
    He winked and squeezed her shoulder. Libby managed a watery smile of thanks. She didn’t fully understand why these people who fancied themselves her family hadn’t turned their noses up at her aside in disgust when Hector blurted out what she’d done. It didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel stable. She kept waiting for one of them to stand up, bang their fist on the table, and demand how a woman who had prided herself on being a good wife to Teddy and mother to the boys could turn around and give in to another man’s advances so quickly.
    “You can wear that beautiful dress Wendy made to church on Sundays,” Muriel said from the other end of the table. Libby’s younger sister sat stiffer than was normal, and her voice was pitched higher, but she was trying her best to act like nothing was wrong. “Wendy is so talented, don’t you think? I’m going to be sixteen next month, and I wouldn’t mind having a Wendy dress for my birthday party.” She sent a covert glance to Josephine.
    Josephine pretended not to notice, though she cleared her throat and shot a look across the table to Wendy.
    It was all so normal. So painstakingly brittle and normal.
    “I can’t do this.” Libby blew out a breath and stood, turning away from the table.
    Mason, Travis, Pete, and Josephine jumped to their feet as well.
    “There’s nothing wrong, honey. Sit and eat,” Josephine implored her.
    “No one here is listening to anything a stranger in town says,” Travis seconded.
    Mason—who stood so close due to the proximity of their chairs that he was pressed against her—merely asked, “Do you want me to take you home?”
    Libby held her breath, staring up at him. Where was her home now anyhow? The logging camp had stopped feeling like home the moment Teddy’s body was carried out of their cabin to the makeshift cemetery at the edge of the woods. Josephine’s house was just