The Fairy Tale Bride
A Montana Born Brides Novella
Scarlet Wilson
The Fairy Tale Bride
Copyright © 2015 Scarlet Wilson
EPUB Edition
The Tule Publishing Group, LLC
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-1-942240-45-7
Every girl wants to be a Fairy Tale Bride so this book is dedicated to all brides, all over the world.
The Montana Born Brides Series
Dear Reader,
I was really delighted to be asked to take part in the new bride series for Tule Publishing and even more excited to be the first book introducing you to our characters in Married in Marietta.
You’ll learn more about our celebrity bride and groom Nancy Parsons – a local girl and Jared Lovell – a Hollywood superstar as our series continues. My story focuses on Lisa Renee, the owner of the local bridal salon and Adam Brady, the new doc in town. Lisa has to deal with some badly-behaved Hollywood superstars and Adam has to deal with the threat of some unwelcome publicity. It seems that both my hero and heroine have secrets to hide!
I’ve had a great time working with the other Tule Publishing authors on this series and I hope that you’ll love it just as much as we do!
I love to hear from readers, please feel free to contact me at my website
www.scarlet-wilson.com
Happy Reading!
Scarlet Wilson
‡
L
isa Renee pushed
the last dress into place. Her rails were definitely cramped – a result of her buying spree in Great Falls last week. The stockroom was also bursting at the seams. For a small-town bridal store she was doing well. It was strange, Marietta seemed to attract brides.
She gave a little smile. There must be something in the air around here and, as far as she was concerned, the more the merrier. This last year had seen her newly opened store flourish.
The row of glittering sequined dresses sparkled in the sun streaming through the store window. Satin, lace, tulle, duchesse silk – she had it all, along with bridesmaid dresses in every style and color of the rainbow.
She was renowned in town for her style and good customer service. She’d never recommend a style to a potential bride that didn’t flatter and suit her. Even if they had their heart set on something else. That was the thing about her bridal store. As soon as any woman walked in here she became Lisa’s project. All she wanted was to help fulfil their dreams.
As she turned around, a ripple of pink from the stock room caught her eye and made her shudder. Ugh. The nightmare dresses. The shade of pink was just wrong. Or was it really orange? It all depended on the light. Truth was, there wasn’t a single skin tone it actually suited and the style? She didn’t know what she’d been thinking. Then again, that had been the day she’d just heard her sister had married her runaway ex-fiancé –so maybe she did have an excuse for having a mini meltdown. Sometime soon she’d have to surreptitiously dispose of those dresses and deny they’d ever existed.
The shrill of the phone interrupted her thoughts. “Married in Marietta, can I help you?”
“Hi there, this is the PA for Nancy Parsons, I’d like to book some time in your salon.”
The caller had a strange twang to their voice and Lisa couldn’t quite place the accent. “Who?” It probably wasn’t the greatest reply, but she’d been stung by so many cold callers trying to sell her something that she liked to establish who she was talking to.
The caller didn’t hide their annoyance. “Nancy Parsons? The Hollywood superstar? You must have heard about her upcoming wedding to Jared Lovell in a few weeks?”
It took a few seconds for recognition to seep in. “Oh, Nancylynn Pruitt. Yes, I know her. What can I do for you?” It was automatic. Lisa Renee couldn’t think of Nancylynn as a Hollywood superstar – and she wasn’t quite sure it was an appropriate description. Nancy had been a few years younger than her at Marietta high school and used to live on one of the local ranches. Her parents now owned the ranch thanks to Nancylynn. To be fair to Nancylynn, she probably was the most famous person ever to have come from Marietta. She’d got her break as an actress as a good-girl high schooler in a teen drama, then gone onto a primetime drama called
Sultry Suburbs
where she’d met her husband-to-be, Jared Lovell. The son of Hollywood royalty, his father was a superstar. Nancy probably thought she’d hit the big time – but Lisa wasn’t so sure that Jared ‘Love ’em and love ’em again’ Lovell was really a husband to dream about.
Something in her stomach curled over. A wedding like this in Marietta would bring big business for the town. And who was she to judge a potential bridegroom? She hadn’t exactly picked well herself. At least Nancylynn’s husband-to-be hadn’t run off with someone else – not yet anyway.
She took a deep breath. “No problem. When’s the wedding?”
“June 20
th
. Jared and Nancy will be making the official announcement tomorrow.”
“June 20
th
?” Lisa couldn’t hide her surprise. “That’s just over three weeks away.” She glanced around her shop. She stocked gorgeous and exclusive designs – but surely a ‘Hollywood superstar’ would have a million dress designers wanting her to wear their wedding dresses?
She licked her dry lips. “Is Nancylynn looking for a wedding gown?”
The PA let out a peal of laughter. “What? Oh no. She’s got that all arranged. Her wedding dress is being made exclusively. It’s bridesmaid dresses we need.” There was a sound of rustling paper. “We need your shop for the final wedding dress fittings. That won’t be a problem, will it?”
Part of her was relieved. Part of her fleetingly annoyed by the laughter and instant dismissal. But she didn’t care. Bridesmaid dresses she could do. She had them in abundance.
A quick thought flashed through her mind. “Any particular issues I should know about the bridesmaids?” She was thinking purely professionally.
“What do you mean?” snapped the PA, automatically defensive. A whole pile of early warning lights started to go off in her brain. This wedding could easily turn into a PR nightmare.
Even though she couldn’t be seen, Lisa kept her professional face in place. “I just wondered why they haven’t found anything suitable yet? I want to make sure I’ll have something perfect for them. I’m afraid I don’t know any of the details of Nancylynn’s wedding. Can you tell me who the bridesmaids are? I want to make sure I have appropriate sizes and colors that will suit them.”
She could hear the PA sucking in a breath of frustration. She was obviously used to snapping her fingers and everyone falling into line. Lisa gave a little smile.
Good luck in Marietta
. “It’s Nancy. She doesn’t like to be known by her former name. The bridesmaids are Polly Parker and Ruby Cole.”
“Oh, I see,” said Lisa politely. Great. Two notorious bitchy actresses. Both blonde, both with big boobs, who would probably look better wearing red swimsuits than bridesmaid dresses. She made a few scribbles on her notebook. They probably lied about their dress sizes too; she’d need to cut the labels from all her dresses.
“Eh…they haven’t exactly been able to agree on the style or color of bridesmaid dresses yet.” There was a little sigh at the end of the phone. “We’ve had seventeen appointments so far.”
Lisa got the unspoken message. Married in Marietta was last chance saloon. She didn’t know whether to be mortally offended or secretly delighted. “I’ll do my absolute best to try and keep both Polly and Ruby happy.”
There was a sigh of relief. “Thank you. Nancy needs things to be settled. We’re trying to do so much in a short space of time. If you could deal with Polly and Ruby that would be great.”
Lisa scribbled some notes. “When are they arriving?”
“Tomorrow. Can you see them then?”
Lisa blinked. Tomorrow. She’d have to shuffle a few things around. “No problem. Tell them I’ll see them at 10:00 am.”
She glanced at her watch and grabbed her coat, bag and change of clothes. She was almost late for her volunteering shift at the hospital. She pulled the shutter down in the main window and locked the door behind her before hurrying along the street.
The one thing Lisa Renee hated above all else was lateness.
*
Adam Brady’s pager
sounded as he walked along the darkened corridors and he steered off towards the nearest phone. “Adam Brady.”
“Hi Adam, sorry, it’s Dan King. I hate to tell you this but–”
“Don’t,” cut in Adam, “You’ve got the bug too and want me to take over your on-call.” He stifled a sigh. It was his second call like this in the last hour.
Dan gave a grateful moan. “Thanks, Adam. I owe you.” The phone clicked quickly.
“You sure do.” Adam looked at the telephone receiver with another sigh.