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Somebody at his door? In this storm?
    Brandy leaped up and started barking. Marc grabbed the remote, hit the “pause” button, and went to the entry hall. He opened the door. He blinked. Blinked again. And he still couldn’t believe what he saw.
    A woman stood on his porch. Her hair was hanging in a dripping wad on one side of her head, and rain trickled off her nose. Raindrops clung to her eyelashes, shimmering in the dim porch light. Considering the storm, all that made sense. But what was that monstrosity she was wearing? She looked like Glinda the Good Witch after a bout of mud wrestling.
    But as he looked her up and down, light slowly dawned, and he had the feeling the first day of his new life had just gone straight to hell. She was dripping wet. She was dirty from head to toe. She looked lost and lonely and helpless.
    And she was wearing a wedding dress.

Chapter 2
    B randy must have been equally stunned by the woman standing on the porch, because she stopped barking and stood motionless, looking up at Marc with a whimper of confusion. But I’m ready, boss. If whatever that thing is steps out of line, I’m on it.
    But the woman wasn’t stepping out of line. In fact, she wasn’t saying anything. She just stood there staring up at Marc, her eyes wide. He looked past her to the driveway and didn’t see a car. How the hell had she gotten there?
    “Can I help you?” he asked.
    A smile flickered on her face, then died. “I-I kinda had an accident down the road, and I was wondering…”
    Marc came to attention. “Accident? What happened?”
    She teetered a little. “I was driving, and there was this deer…I didn’t want to hit him…”
    “You swerved to miss a deer?”
    She nodded. “And now my car is wrecked.”
    “Forget about that. Are you all right?”
    “Uh…yeah. I think so.”
    All at once, lightning crashed. The woman’s eyes flew wide open. She came to life, bounding across his threshold, dragging approximately two tons of wet, muddy dress behind her. She spun around, her hand at her throat and her eyes still wide with surprise, acting as if she’d just cheated death. Given how lightning was exploding all around his house, maybe she had.
    “Aren’t you going to shut the door?” she said, her voice shaky.
    Marc closed the door, then turned to face her. There were mascara rings under her eyes. Her hair was dangling in a wet blob, and he couldn’t tell what color it was. Maybe a little bit red?
    Brandy walked back and forth nervously, still trying to make sense of this woman. But if Marc couldn’t figure it out, what chance did his poor dog have?
    “What happened to your shoes?” he asked.
    She looked down. “I don’t know. I think the mud sucked them off my feet about a quarter mile ago.” She held her hands out helplessly, looking down at herself. “Look at me. I’m a mess. This dress…oh, God. Hilda would just die if she saw me now!”
    “Who’s Hilda?”
    “My wedding planner. She freaked out when a pearl fell off the train. What would she do if she saw this?”
    “What’s your name?” he asked.
    “Kari Worthington,” she said. “You must be somebody…Cordero. I saw the sign.”
    “Marc Cordero. Now tell me why you were driving around in the country after dark in the middle of a storm wearing a wedding dress.”
    She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Then her eyes slowly filled with tears. Marc felt a glimmer of panic. No! No crying! There was no crisis on earth that couldn’t be made worse if a woman started to cry.
    “Why are you crying?” he asked, afraid she was going to tell him.
    “I couldn’t do it,” she said. “I couldn’t marry Greg. So I ran.”
    “Ran?”
    “There were only twenty-two minutes left. Twenty-two minutes before I was going to be a married woman. And I just couldn’t do it.”
    “You left your own wedding?”
    Her face crumpled, but she kept the tears at bay. “Yes.”
    “Let me get this straight. You got into a car