By Proxy (Heart of Montana)

by Katy Regnery

4.5 stars – 79 Reviews

Sometimes love finds you.

Stubbornly small-town Jenny Lindstrom has misgivings when she promises to stand proxy in her best friend’s wedding – misgivings that are fulfilled when tall, handsome Sam Kelley walks into the courthouse an hour late. In order to keep her promise, an afternoon favor turns into a weekend of startling but undeniable attraction, threatening the well-ordered world that keeps her heart at arm’s length from any more pain.

Sam’s plan is to fly to Livingston, Montana, take vows for his favorite cousin, and return to Chicago as quickly as possible. But his plan is turned upside-down when he must spend a weekend with Jenny in Gardiner to keep his word. He doesn’t want to fall for the prim, proper schoolteacher whose small-town life seems to him like selling out, but the more time he spends with her, the harder it is to say good-bye.

When city and country come together for Christmas, the unexpected gift is true love.

*  *  *

  And here, for your reading pleasure, is our free romance excerpt:

Chapter 1

There are some things you should never agree to do, even for your best friend.

Jenny Lindstrom drummed her fingers on her knee and glanced, for the hundredth time, toward the double doors at the entrance to the county courthouse. From the bench where she sat in the back of the small lobby, she had a good view of incoming traffic.

The doors opened and she gulped with anticipation, but instead of the young man she expected, an older man rushed in, followed by a whoosh of snowy Montana wind. He brushed off his snow-covered sleeves and stomped his boots on the large black mat in front of the doors.

She heard him mutter, “Getting bad out there,” to no one in particular.

            Jenny checked her watch. He should be here by now, for heaven’s sake!

Maybe the snow was slowing him down. After all, it had taken her over an hour to drive up to Livingston from Gardiner. But didn’t Ingrid write that he would arrive yesterday? If so, hadn’t that left him ample time to be punctual for their appointment?

Jenny took the printed e-mail out of her purse and re-read Ingrid’s instructions:

            …so if you meet there at 2:00 p.m. on December 1, Judge Hanlon should be ready. Kristian’s cousin Sam is tall, blond and hot, Jen. He’s going to stick out like a sore thumb in Livingston—you shouldn’t have any trouble finding him. He promised he would fly in on Thursday night, so he should be able meet you at the courthouse on Friday afternoon.

We can’t thank you enough for what you are doing for us. Baby Svenson thanks you too, Aunt Jenny. We know it’s inconvenient, and you’ll have to skip a day of school. We just couldn’t bear the thought of strangers…

The door whooshed open again, and Jenny looked up to see a young couple enter the courthouse, holding mittened hands. They wiped their boots without a word, taking off their mittens. The man used his hands to sign something to the woman, an expectant look on his face. She smiled at him and nodded, signing something back. He kissed her cheek and took a folded piece of paper out of his pocket, lacing his hands through hers and pulling her toward the stairs. As they passed the bench where Jenny sat, she could just make out the bold-type words on the top of the form he held: Marriage License.

Jenny watched them go up the steps, tears stinging the backs of her eyes. She thought of Ingrid and Kris—so far away, so very much in love—and shook off the sudden loneliness that made a thick lump form in her throat. Silly sentiment. You have a good life, Jenny Lindstrom.

She glanced at her watch again and sighed. An hour late! The courthouse would close at four. She had quizzes to grade at home and Monday’s lesson yet to plan. As it was, her nerves were in shreds. She started to wish she hadn’t agreed to do this in the first place. Having to wait for him as the seconds ticked by was just making matters worse.

She craned her neck to look through the windows that flanked the double doors. The thickness of the falling snow had doubled in the last hour. Maybe tripled. It was only dusting when she had arrived, and now she could see it coming down in thick white flakes. She tried not to think about the drive home later when the sun would be setting and the roads would be slick.

If only Ingrid had given her a cell phone contact number so she could call this Sam and give him a piece of her mind for leaving her waiting like this. But everything was thrown together so last-minute, she’d barely had a chance to ask her principal for an emergency day off.

It never occurred to her to say no to Ingrid. She was raised, like the rest of her kin, to honor servicemen and women…and anyway, Ingrid was like a sister to Jenny, and Jenny would have done just about anything for her. She ran her palms flat against her lap and smoothed out the skirt of her simple gray dress: she bought it on mail order from Sears last winter to wear to her cousin Linnea’s wedding. The irony of wearing the dress again today for its second time wasn’t lost on her.

The doors opened again, and she sat up straighter. A disheveled, older woman entered, her arm held by a younger man who looked to be in his mid-thirties. The woman brushed off her snow-covered skirt, thanking him profusely for his assistance, and he smiled at her solicitously, asking her again and again if she was sure she was all right.

Jenny hadn’t seen another single, young man enter the courthouse all afternoon. This must be him. He had a kind face, rather more filled out than Ingrid led her to believe, but perhaps he’d changed in the years since Ing was deployed. He was about 5’5”, with a protruding round belly, and while his hair may have been blond at one time, there was so little of it left it was hard to tell. Jenny’s heart thumped uncomfortably as she walked briskly to where he stood in front of the double doors, stomping his boots.

Her feet lost traction and she slipped on a wet patch of marble floor at the same time the double doors whipped open again. Jenny couldn’t stop the forward motion of her body once it started falling, and the short, stout man leapt out of her way just in time. She cried out, slamming into the broad, hard chest of the tall, blond man entering the courthouse. His hands caught her around the waist to keep her from falling and she hung there against his snowy coat like a limp doll, resting her cheek against his chest for a dazed moment. Finally finding her footing, she stepped back from the stranger, staring down at the floor, cheeks blazing crimson. She smoothed out her dress, tossed her hair over her shoulder and readjusted her purse before looking up to meet his eyes.

She gasped, beholding the handsomest man she had ever seen. There was no doubt in her mind:

Finally, here was Sam—the man she was going to marry.

***

Sam Kelley blinked back at her in shock. One minute he’d been rushing to open the doors of the old courthouse, anxious about arriving so late, and the next minute, a cute blonde was barreling into his arms. He took off his gloves and ran his fingers through his cold, wet hair, checking her out.

She had her hands on her hips, long blonde hair framing her face. A simple grey sweater-dress accentuated her small waist. She was taller than the average woman, and he guessed she was in her mid-20s but it was hard to tell with the agitated expression that was souring her otherwise pretty face.

Wait a second. Tall, blonde and 20s.

“You’re Jenny!” he said, beaming at her.

“Sam?” she asked, bright blue eyes trained on him, cheeks flaming red.

He nodded. For no good reason in particular, he had been expecting some thick-waisted, Brunhilde-type, big-boned Scandinavian country gal. Jenny’s cheeks had the fresh color of a country girl, all right, but that’s where the similarities ended. She wasn’t a conventional knockout, but there was certainly something about her.

Cute girl. Huh. Kristian hadn’t mentioned that…

“You’re very late,” she said. She turned sharply and crossed the lobby with hurried steps, stopping at a bench beside the stairs to pick up her coat.

He had no choice but to follow behind her and rushed to keep up. “Yes. I’m late. Sorry about that. But, wow, that was – uh – quite a welcome!”

“I didn’t mean to bump into you. I slipped.” Click, clack, click, clack. Her shoes echoed up the stairs. “I’ve been waiting over an hour.”

            Huh. You’re welcome, Miss Snippy. Maybe I should have just let you fall out the door into a snow bank. “Sorry about that…again. There was a mountain pass, and a plow—” He stopped, realizing how adolescent and ridiculous he sounded. His next excuse would be about how the dog ate his homework.

“Mmm,” she murmured, still marching straight ahead. “It’s Mon-tan-a. Mountains and plows are standard.” She overarticulated her words as if speaking to a child.

“I see.” His voice took on a very slight edge. He wasn’t accustomed to this sort of dressing-down. Were snippy blondes standard too?

“You’re Kristian’s cousin, but not from around here?”

“My folks left Montana before I was born. I’m from Chicago.”

“Ah-ha. The big city.” She said this like she had his number and knew him inside out.

Stopping at the end of the corridor before a door that read Clerk, she turned to face him, inhaled and exhaled audibly through her nose, then closed and re-opened her eyes like she was practicing a Buddhist relaxation ritual. He just stared at her. What cutting remark would she throw at him next?

“Let’s start over, okay?” She smiled woodenly and put out her hand. “I’m Jenny Lindstrom. I’m Ingrid’s best friend. Sorry I fell into you.”

A mulligan. Okay. Her manners amused him. He offered his most charming smile as he enveloped her smaller hand in his, looking into her eyes. “Sam. Kristian’s cousin. And you can fall for me anytime.”

She stared at him stone-faced, then swallowed and looked down at their joined hands for a moment before pulling hers away. An unmistakable flush of pink suffused her cheeks.

Just from shaking hands? Whoa. He tried not to grin. So, Miss Snippy isn’t quite as cool and confident as she seems.

“It’s nice to meet you, Sam,” she finished crisply.

He couldn’t resist needling her again. “Ready to get married, Jenny?”

Her eyes flew open again, and her pink cheeks turned an appealing shade of scarlet. “Proxies!” She blurted out. “We’re just proxies! We’re not actually—”

Sam chuckled and winked at her. He couldn’t remember the last time he met someone so ripe for teasing. It wasn’t as easy to rattle the girls in Chicago. “Oh, well, thank heavens. It would have been pretty forward of you to ask me to marry you. We barely know each other, and you may have fallen for me already, but I’m not that kind of guy…”

Her expression was positively glacial.

Sam cringed for her benefit, trying not to grin at her discomfiture. “Oh, come on! I’m just trying to lighten up the mood—”

She blinked at him and appeared about to say something, then must have decided against it because she turned sharply and opened the door in front of her. Again, he found himself trailing behind, not something he was used to.

She stood at the counter speaking to the secretary. “…for the Svenson-Nordstrom wedding. Ummm, we’re late.” She glanced in annoyance at Sam and then back at the secretary meaningfully.

The secretary straightened her glasses to give Sam a cross look, then sighed loudly and gave Jenny a sympathetic nod. Sam rolled his eyes. Leave it to two women to gang up on the only guy in the room.

“Well, now. Well, now. That’s a problem.” The secretary squinted at the computer screen in front of her and typed on a few keys. A loud, angry beep answered back. “Yup. Just as I thought. Sorry, Miss. Judge Hanlon left at 2:45 sharp and won’t be back until Monday morning.”

Jenny’s hands clutched the counter between her and the secretary. “No! He can’t! No! We—we’re proxies for the Svenson-Nordstrom…they’re counting on us…” She looked at Sam, her face a mixture of anger and panic.

He cleared his throat and stepped up smoothly beside her. “Surely there must be an alternative.” Pushing aside his cashmere coat, he reached into his back pocket and took out an expensive crocodile wallet. “Perhaps we could call Judge Hanlon and explain the situation? I would make it worth his while to come back in. I’m more than happy to pay a surcharge.”

Jenny looked down sharply, staring her shoes, the flush in her face spreading to her neck. He furrowed his brows, turning back to the secretary who glanced at Jenny and then stood up, directing her full attention to Sam.

“Put your wallet away,” she stated.

He grimaced at her tone, then closed his wallet, realizing his blunder. Oh, no.

“I only wanted—”

“You only wanted to fix things by offering money to a public servant? Well, that’s just not our way, son.” She straightened up to her whole five feet and placed fleshy fingers on beefy hips, lowering her glasses to take a hard look at his face from across the counter. “I don’t think you’re from around here, so I’ll explain this as fair as I can. Judge Hanlon is gone for the weekend, deep into Yeller, and he’s only coming back in time for the 9:30 Sunday morning service at All Saints in Big Sky. So if you two want to step in for your friends and make sure they get married, you’ll come back Monday morning on time and we’ll forget this silly wallet business even happened.” She nodded once and set her glasses back up on her nose.

Rarely had he felt so foolish and young in his adult life. His cheeks tingled with an uncomfortable flush.

The secretary plunked back down on her stool and returned her attention to the computer screen in front of her. “Monday. 10:25 a.m. That’s the earliest I can do.”

Jenny nodded quickly beside him. “Yes. Thank you. Yes, ma’am. We’re grateful.”

Grateful? Monday? Is this a joke? Stuck here for the weekend? Oh man, are you going to owe me one, Kris! One look back at the secretary’s dour face made him swallow his thoughts.

“Yes, ma’am. Monday it is.”

The secretary glanced up again and pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes at Sam with disapproval. “Wouldn’t hurt you a bit to stick around for a day or so, son. I imagine it might even do you some good.”

            Oh, enough of this, already. I was a little late – geez, you’d think I killed someone! He smirked at her and mumbled, “I can’t wait.”

She handed Jenny the appointment card, and they turned to leave.

“On time!” boomed the secretary from her stool behind the counter.

They turned in unison and cowered. “Yes, ma’am,” they said, backing out of the room, shutting the door carefully behind them.

***

Jenny was not happy.

She click-clacked back down the corridor in her uncomfortable high-heeled shoes. What next? She thought of him taking out his expensive-looking wallet and shuddered in embarrassment at the high-handed way he’d treated that helpful secretary. Ugh! Big-city ways.

They reached the stairs leading to the lobby and she struggled into her parka. He took the shoulders of the coat to hold it for her and she paused for a beat, staring straight ahead, before she accepted his help wordlessly. His hands lifted her hair off her neck, where it was trapped under the collar.

“Hey!” She whipped around, surprised by such an intimate gesture.

He put his palms up in the universal sign of surrender and swallowed a grin, his eyes flicking briefly to her chest. “Sorry, ma’am…” he drawled. “Just trying to help.”

Oooo! He was full of himself! He was doing that charming thing again and didn’t seem sorry one bit. She zipped up and crossed her arms over her chest, her brows knitted in consternation.

 “I think you’ve done enough to help today.”

“Wow. You’re something! Without me, you would have been sprawled out on the lobby floor twenty minutes ago. I don’t remember a ‘thank you,’ come to think of it…”

“Well! Maybe if you’d been on time, I wouldn’t have slipped on the floor which got progressively worse while I waited for you for over an hour. Thank you for that.”

“Ohhhhh. I see. It’s my fault you fell into me.”

“You were late!”

“You’re a real piece of work, lady. I said I was sorry for being late.”

“Well, that and a dollar’ll buy me a pop.” She swung her purse up on her shoulder.

“Have you even noticed how bad the weather is outside?”

“Yes. Yes, I have. In fact, I was watching it get worse while I sat on a bench waiting for you, and now I’m real excited to drive home in it. So, thanks for that too.”

He whistled low, shaking his head back and forth. “Okay. For the last time, I am sorry for being so late. Last thing I’d want to do is let Kris down.”

“Well, I’d hate to know what the first thing you want to do is!”

“Wow, you’re—” He ran a hand through his hair, his face finally as irritated as hers. “You’re snippy. And bitter. You are snippy and bitter!”

Snippy. Bitter. Ouch. Her shoulders drooped down like a sail losing its wind, and she took a step back as though she’d been slapped, staring at her shoes and trying not to cry, which was hard because of the rising lump in her throat. “I missed a day of school. My students missed an important review for their midterms. We missed the appointment for Kris and Ing. It was hard enough to come up here and do this in the first place, and now it’s just going to hang over me all weekend. I’ll have to miss another day of school on Monday doing it all again. And I–I’m embarrassed that I fell on you, and I don’t like driving in bad weather if I can avoid it. I’m not bitter. I’m just…I’m upset.”

She looked up and he was staring like he didn’t know what in the world to do with her. He raised his eyebrows, about to say something, then shook his head. She braced herself for another snappy retort.

“Okay. Let’s start over. Again.” She was surprised to see him offer a gentle smile. “How about I take you to dinner? To make up for everything? Looks like I’m staying the weekend.”

Jenny eyed him warily but was grateful that the lump in her throat hadn’t grown, staving off tears. “I don’t think so—”

“Come on,” he cajoled. “I’m Kristian’s cousin. I can’t be that bad. Just unaccustomed to your aggressive Montana weather patterns.”

She stared at him and felt a brief, unexpected flash of pleasure as she recalled his hands on her waist, her body pressed against his. Why did he have to be so good looking? Her resistance faded, and she sighed in resignation. “Okay. I guess. We do have some e-mails to send. Ingrid and Kris probably think they’re already married.”

“Great. We can find somewhere around here to have dinner and send them an e-mail. I have my iPad with me—”

She interrupted him, shaking her head. “Oh, I can’t stay here. I have to get home. I can’t stay in Livingston all night. I have a puppy, and she’s been home alone too long. She needs a walk.”

He stared at her for a moment, digesting this information with a barely concealed smile. “Well, I checked out of my hotel in Bozeman this morning. I could come stay in—”

“Gardiner.”

“—Gardiner…for the weekend, I guess.”

She cocked her head to the side, and really looked at his face for the first time. When he wasn’t trying to be so cool and sarcastic, his eyes were kind. He was several inches taller than she, as tall as her brothers even, but his hair was a redder blond than theirs. Long lashes gave his brown eyes a softer look than the rest of his face, which was angular and chiseled. Handsome. Ingrid had been right about that. She felt that tingling sensation on her waist again, the imprint of his strong hands holding her.

She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes and opening them as she exhaled, resetting herself again.

“Okay,” she said. “It’s not far. You can follow me. I’ll pull up in front. Light blue Rav-4. I’ll take you to the Lone Wolf Lodge on the way home. It’s the…nicest.”

“Sure. And we can meet up after you walk…”

“Casey,” she said.

He was confusing her: She would expect someone from the city to complain about how staying the weekend in Montana was inconvenient or cramped his style. But here he was, asking to take her out to dinner, not raising any objection to following her to Gardiner. Maybe she didn’t have his number, after all. She smiled at him for the first time—really smiled at him like he was worth smiling at—then turned and started down the stairs.

***

Sam’s pulse quickened and he started breathing faster. That was unexpected. He was totally caught off guard by the impact of Jenny’s smile. From the top of the stairs, he watched her bottom sway back and forth gently with each step and suppressed a groan. Come on, man! She’s a prickly, uptight schoolmarm with a puppy. Not your type! But the combination was unexpectedly charming and ridiculously homespun all at once, and he grinned.

Her long blond hair fell halfway down her back, and his hands tingled, remembering the silky softness when he lifted it off her neck. Why did I do that? He hadn’t even realized what he was doing until she whipped around. While he freely admitted it was totally inappropriate, it had somehow seemed like the most natural gesture in the world at the time.

He started down the stairs after her, but by the time he stepped outside, she was nowhere to be found. What was with that? How come he always felt twenty paces behind her? Sophisticated she was not, but she sure had a knack for making him feel like a naughty schoolboy.

Once in his rental car, he made a mental note to call the rental company in Bozeman and extend the contract for another few days, then pulled up behind her in front of the courthouse. She waved to him in the rearview mirror and they started the trip to Gardiner.

He shook his head. The situation certainly had not turned out as he expected. He had expected to meet some meek country gal, stand politely next to her, say whatever words were required of him, shake her hand good-bye, then drive the two hours back to Billings to catch his flight home to Chicago, feeling satisfied about the good deed he had successfully completed for his favorite cousin. Instead, Jenny Lindstrom had literally fallen into his life, and here he was bound for someplace called Gardiner with a woman who was – in her own fresh-faced way that, frankly, made his heart pound – one of the prettiest girls he’d ever met.

Prickly and pretty. Well, it’s only for a weekend. Maybe she’ll chill out a little. Anyway, it’s for Kris. Be nice. Maybe the – what was it? – the Lone Wolf Lodge will have wi-fi.

In vain, he tried to find some music other than country-western but finally had to choose between Carrie Underwood and Patsy Cline. Patsy won the draw with ease. His parents had often played her music on long car trips when he was little, and he loved her husky voice. A local station was having a retrospective on her life, so he’d be covered for the hour-long drive south. While Patsy sang about falling to pieces, he thought about what he would say in his e-mail to Kris.

When he’d received Kristian’s e-mail last week, there was no way he could have said no. He had a ton of vacation time piled up anyway and it was a slower time of year at the investment firm where he had worked since graduating from college seven years before. People rarely made significant financial investments before the holidays, so it was one of the better times to take a day off.

After he read Kristian’s e-mail, he had consulted Wikipedia to confirm “Double Proxy Marriage” actually existed. It sounded like the implausible plot of a bad movie: two people who couldn’t be at the same place at the same time could be married legally if they designated two other people – proxies – to take their vows for them.

Sure enough, all-knowing Wikipedia had confirmed it was true, and Sam re-read the article twice to understand. Apparently it was a completely legitimate, little-known legal loophole that existed only in Montana, almost exclusively utilized by servicemen and women – like Kristian and his fiancé Ingrid – deployed to different parts of the world. With Kristian in active service in Afghanistan and Ingrid serving at an army hospital in Germany, their only option for an expedited marriage would be a double proxy ceremony in Montana.

For the young couple it was a welcome solution to a growing problem: a short, passionate weekend leave two months ago in Germany had resulted in the happy, but unexpected, news that a baby was on the way, which meant a wedding. Immediately. Kristian’s family wasn’t exactly the modern, understanding prototype when it came to matters of propriety: right is right, and if you’re having a baby, then you’d best be married.

Kristian had explained that generally the lawyer expediting the marriage would “supply” proxies, but Ingrid was beside herself with the thought of strangers taking their vows. He asked if Sam would stand in for him and said Ingrid would find someone to stand in for her. Sam had replied immediately that he would be happy to go to Montana to help out. Aside from the fact that he loved his cousin, Sam was living it up in Chicago while Kristian was putting his life on the line in Afghanistan. Without calculating the cost, making travel plans, asking for the time off or figuring out any other details, he said yes right away. Refusing to help simply never occurred to him.

Of course, that was before meeting Jenny Lindstrom.

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