Blossom Street Brides (Blossom Street #10)(79)

It wouldn’t do any good to explain. “You and Garry were busy with Katie,” she explained, hoping that would suffice.

“But to hit me with it now …”

“I’ll be away today and Saturday,” Lauren repeated, growing impatient. “I still have several days available to use as vacation days.”

“Oh sure … the time off is no problem.”

“Thank you.” She reached for her cell and sent Rooster a quick text. She would be ready to leave in a few minutes, and he could pick her up at the jewelry shop.

“Before you leave, would you do me a favor first?” Elisa asked.

“Of course.” They’d been good friends for a long time, and Lauren was willing to help in any way she could.

“I don’t mean to offend you.”

“I know.”

“It’s just that I’d feel better if you read that background check your father had done on Rooster. Oh, for the love of heaven, doesn’t he have another name? I refuse to believe his parents named him after a chicken.”

“It’s John. John Jerome Wayne. His father’s name was Jerome.”

“John Wayne,” Elisa repeated.

“I believe he picked up the name Rooster after one of the characters John Wayne played in the movies. Rooster Cogburn.” In fact, Lauren and Rooster had watched the western featuring John Wayne along with Katharine Hepburn earlier that week. Lauren had loved every minute and made Rooster promise they would never argue the way these two characters had.

“Okay, just promise me one thing.”

“I said I would.”

“Read that report. Please, Lauren.”

“What could it possibly say that would come as a surprise?” she demanded.

“I don’t know,” Elisa cried. “Do you know how many times he’s been married?”

“Yes, once. To me.”

“And this story about his family. Isn’t that a tad convenient? Everyone is dead and he has no siblings. Doesn’t he keep in touch with his aunts and uncles? Surely there’s someone?”

“None that he’s mentioned.”

“That doesn’t tell you anything?”

“No. You’re starting to sound paranoid. Don’t you trust my judgment?” Lauren asked her friend.

“Yes, of course I do, but you know Dateline and 48 Hours are my favorite television shows. It always starts out well in these quick marriages, and then some shocking revelation comes out later.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll read the report.”

“Do it now.”

“Now?”

“Yes, before you go away, please.”

“Elisa!”

Perhaps her friend was right and she was being foolish and blinded by love. Her father had sent her the file, but if he hadn’t seen anything in Rooster’s background that alarmed him, then she sincerely doubted that she would, either.

While Elisa opened the store for business, Lauren sat in the back office with her cellphone. It took only a minute or so to bring up the forwarded email from her father.

Lauren breezed through the first few pages of the report. It showed nothing out of the ordinary. Rooster had gotten a number of speeding tickets in his twenties, she noticed. He seemed to have a need to drive fast even now, a habit he was working hard to break.

It wasn’t until she reached the second-to-last page that she saw it. Her eyes widened as shock rippled through her.

She needed a few minutes to digest what she’d read.

How was this possible?

How could Rooster not have mentioned something this important? Surely this was information she should know.

In an instant, everything that had felt so beautiful and so wonderfully right seemed terribly, terribly wrong.

“Lauren.” Elisa came into the back room.

Lauren looked up and blinked, trying desperately to hide her shock and distress.

“There’s a man out front asking for you.”

“A man?”

“He looks like he might be a biker or something.”

Lauren slid off the chair and stood. It took a couple of minutes before she felt she could speak normally. “I think that might be Rooster … my husband.”

“Your husband? That’s … Rooster?” Elisa shook her head several times as if she found the news too shocking for words. “Lauren, no. It can’t possibly be. Not him.”

Lauren nodded. “Yes, him.”

“But … the two of you. Lauren, you can’t be serious. Can’t you see how different the two of you are?” she asked in a pleading tone.

Then Elisa, her closest friend, closed her eyes as if she couldn’t bear to watch this train wreck happening right in front of her.

Chapter Twenty-nine

“What’s wrong?” Rooster asked, as soon as Lauren was outside John Michael Jewelers.

In order to avoid answering him, she started walking toward the car he’d parked on Blossom Street. “I want to go back to my condo,” she said emphatically.

“Did you forget something?”

“No.”

“Then why are we going back?” He looked at his watch as if to remind her the ferry to Victoria that he’d booked left within the hour.