Callie's Wedding: Rock Creek Ranch, #2.5

By Maddie James

A Rock Creek Ranch Short Story

 

It's the day before Callie Rankin's wedding to Murphy Reynolds, and he, for one, cannot wait to get a ring on Callie's finger.

Murphy has loved Callie since she was a teenager. The plans are in place—venue, minister, flowers, photographer, caterer and more. Murphy waited a decade for Callie to come home, and he never really thought she would come around to loving him—but she did.

Callie can't believe how everything fell together so quickly. After the horror of her father's accident and his death, and her rush home to be with family, she never expected to fall in love with the cowboy she left behind years earlier.

But here they are, getting married tomorrow. And while she and her best friend Kris have seen to every detail, outside circumstances suddenly toss stumbling blocks in their way from every direction. Will Callie and Murphy get past these hurdles and finally get married, after all? Or will they have to post-pone their happily-ever-after?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sand Dune Books
• Release date: Apr 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781622375325

Maddie James

Maddie James writes to silence the people in her head. They finally quiet down when their stories are told. Author of 50+ romantic novels, novellas, and short stories, Maddie writes romantic fiction in contemporary, paranormal, and romantic suspense worlds. She’s mighty partial to her cowboys. Maddie began her romance writing career as a traditionally published author in 1997 and has published with several traditional and small press publishers. Currently, she works as an independent author publishing through her own imprint. Besides writing romance fiction, Maddie writes non-fiction under another name. Winner of the Calico Trails Cameo Award (Roses & Rawhide) and the Romance Book Scene’s Best Novella Award (Red: A Cajun Seduction Tale), Maddie has been listed as a Top 100 Contemporary Romance author at Amazon, and a Rising Star of Western Romance at iBooks. Affaire de Coeur says, “James shows a special talent for traditional romance,” and RT Book Reviews claims, “James deftly combines romance and suspense, so hop on for an exhilarating ride.”

Book preview

Callie’s Wedding

CALLIE’S WEDDING

MADDIE JAMES

Sand Dune Books

Contents

Callie’s Wedding

Callie’s Wedding

The Invitation

1. The Day Before

2. The Photo Album

3. The Attic

4. The Dress

5. The Lodge

The Re-Invite

6. Pre-Wedding

7. The Groom

8. The Wedding Ceremony

The Honeymoon

Parker

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About Maddie James

Callie’s Wedding

A Rock Creek Ranch Short Story

Maddie James

Copyright © 2022 Maddie James

ISBN: 978-1622375325

Callie’s Wedding

Digital release: April 2022

Cover and editorial by Jacobs Ink, LLC.

All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work, in whole or part, by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, is illegal and forbidden.

This is a work of fiction. Characters, settings, names, and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination and bear no resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, places or settings, and/or occurrences. Any incidences of resemblance are purely coincidental.

This edition is published by Maddie James, Turquoise Morning, LLC, DBA Jacobs Ink, LLC, PO Box 20, New Holland, OH, 43145.

Callie’s Wedding

It’s the day before Callie Rankin’s wedding to Murphy Reynolds, and he, for one, cannot wait to get a ring on Callie’s finger.

Murphy has loved Callie since she was a teenager. The plans are in place—venue, minister, flowers, photographer, caterer and more. Murphy waited a decade for Callie to come home, and he never really thought she would come around to loving him—but she did.

Callie can’t believe how everything fell together so quickly. After the horror of her father’s accident and his death, and her rush home to be with family, she never expected to fall in love with the cowboy she left behind years earlier.

But here they are, getting married tomorrow. And while she and her best friend Kris have seen to every detail, outside circumstances suddenly toss stumbling blocks in their way from every direction. Will Callie and Murphy get past these hurdles and finally get married, after all? Or will they have to post-pone their happily-ever-after?

The Invitation

wedding invitation

ONE

The Day Before

C allie? You coming?

Be right down, Finn.

Callie Rankin sat in the middle of her bed at her brother’s house, staring at the knot on the pine wall. That knot had been there forever. Likely since the wood-paneled walls went in when her great-great-grandfather built the old log home. She’d examined it every way to Sunday for the first eighteen years of her life when she’d taken up residence in this room.

Sometimes it looked like a face. Other times a bison head. Occasionally, it morphed into the shape of a cottonwood leaf. Today, it looked like a knot in a tree.

Who else had stared at that knot?

Who had occupied this room before she came along? If she remembered correctly, this was her mother’s room growing up. And before that, her grandmother, Cora’s, she thought. Who before then? Did she know?

The thought piqued her curiosity, and she wanted to know more about the people who had lived in this home before her immediate family. Why, suddenly, was her ancestry of interest?

Perhaps