Two Nights with His Bride by Kat Latham Page B

swallowed a mouthful of the Yellowstone. Gagging, she spat it back out and fought to free herself before realizingJared had her in his embrace. “Oh, my God. I was so worried.”
    His voice shook with emotion, and so did she.
    “I couldn’t find you,” he said, pressing his face against her neck. “I thought you might be caught under the raft.”
    She met Wyatt’s eyes over Jared’s shoulder, and fury blossomed in her agonized heart. You were wrong . He did try to find me.
    Wyatt shook his head, silently denying heraccusation before swimming away and grabbing the raft. Ruby doggy paddled toward them, looking like a drenched, pissed-off wild cat. Polly was floating down the river just as Wyatt had instructed, on her back, feet first, clutching her paddle.
    “I’m going to flip the raft. You guys back off a little way but stay out of the main current, okay?”
    He hoisted himself onto the overturned raft, watersluicing off him as he crawled across it. Nancy watched his every movement through blurry eyes as the shock of the past few minutes slowly dissipated. He unwrapped what looked to be a thin rope and a caribiner from his vest and hooked it onto a rope tied around the edge of the raft. Walking backward to the opposite edge, he dug his heels in and leaned his shoulders back, using his body weight topull the raft over. He fell back into the river and the raft landed in front of him, right side up.
    So calm. So quick. So sure-footed.
    Her heart beat as fast as a hummingbird’s wings, and the water’s chill raked her body with shivers despite her wetsuit.
    He lifted himself over the edge of the raft and waved her closer. “C’mere.”
    “I can pull her in,” Jared said, letting her go and climbinginto the raft.
    She blinked hard at the two men, both reaching out for her. She reached the raft, and they grabbed the back of her life vest, hauling her in. She landed face-first on the floor of the raft in an unladylike heap, her tangled legs in the air.
    Worst bachelorette party ever.

Chapter Seven
    ‡
    “Many people spend more time in planning the wedding than they do in planning the marriage.”
    —Zig Ziglar
    W yatt took a long sip of the brew Jason Grey kept on tap at his bar and tried not to look at the time. Austin and their dad should’ve been there by now for their weekly catch-up. He refused to think of it as a date,though one of his exes had called his relationship with Austin a bromance. He’d dumped her soon after. If a woman couldn’t figure out the difference between a bromance and an actual brother, he didn’t want his kids to inherit her genetic material.
    When his beer was half gone, the saloon’s door swung open and Austin strode in, still wearing his forest ranger uniform. Wyatt waved him over, and,when he slid into the booth across from him, said, “Didn’t have time to change?”
    “I meant to but we had a big group on a tour bus visit today. When they were getting ready to leave, they discovered one of their passengers had gone missing, so we called the sheriff, who called out SAR, and the whole bus tour got involved in searching…” Austin blew out a long breath. “Come to find out, the missingguy was there all along, searching for himself.”
    Wyatt hooted with laughter. “You’re making this up.”
    Holding up his right hand, Austin said, “Kid you not. He’d just spilled some wine on his horrible Hawaiian shirt so he changed it, and no one recognized him when he wasn’t wearing the eyesore. All day they’d been thinking of him as the guy in the tacky shirt, and he didn’t recognize that descriptionof himself. Tour leader didn’t remember his name or even have a full list of passengers. Total chaos. I know I should be glad the guy’s not stranded and bleeding somewhere—”
    “But a little part of you wishes he was.”
    “I’m not going to say that.”
    “But it’s true.”
    Humor sparked in Austin’s eyes. “Maybe. Anyway, how about you? Good trip this