Page 26 of Kari

“You look like a fairy princess, Mrs. Davis!”

Kari leaned down so she could reply to the child eye-to-eye. “So do you, sweetheart. Would you like a rose from my bouquet?”

The quick nod made Kari laugh as she plucked a bloom and handed it to the little girl, who gasped with delight and spun around to her father.

“Papa, look!”

Straightening, Kari realized the sweet child belonged to Sheriff Joshua Logan, the widower whom she’d been introduced to when she first came to Walker Creek. A man of few words, Caleb had also told her, but an able protector of their community. Even at a wedding Joshua appeared the serious lawman as he shook Seth’s hand, but his expression softened as he spoke gently to his daughter.

“Emily, how about we let the fairy princess say hello to some other folks.”

With that, Joshua took his daughter’s hand, his gaze moving to someone standing directly behind Kari. She glanced over her shoulder to see Ingrid blushing to her roots, but Kari didn’t have another moment to wonder about it as Seth swept her with him down the aisle.

She knew a flower-bedecked phaeton awaited them outside the church to take them to their wedding luncheon at the Frederick Hotel. As more felicitations came from left and right, Seth warmly shaking hands though he kept Kari close to his side, she nearly stopped in her tracks at the sight of a tiny woman smiling at them from a back corner.

“Seth, wait, there’s someone I want to greet,” Kari said even as he followed her startled gaze.

“You know her? That’s the same woman who came up to me on the train platform and said you might need my help.”

“She did? She was on the train with me, but I never saw her get off. Oh, yes, let’s go speak with her—Seth, where did she go?”

Now Kari did stop no matter the crush of people around them, and she stood on tiptoes to look around her, but the woman was nowhere in sight. It was then she heard the kindliest laughter and the featherlight pressure of what she felt certain was a kiss pressed to her cheek, though Seth was once again drawing her toward the church door.

Only when he had helped her into the carriage and took his seat beside her, everyone rushing outside to wave them on their way to the hotel, did Seth draw her close to say, “I didn’t see her, either, as if she just disappeared. Did you ever think that you might have a guardian angel after all?”

She gazed at him in astonishment, pressing her fingertips to her cheek. “She told me on the train that her name was Kari…just like mine.”

Seth grew suddenly serious, looking into her eyes. “Now that I think about it, you resemble her, too, but all I know for sure is that she helped to bring us together. That’s angel enough for me.”

Kari didn’t have a chance to say another word as he lifted her chin and kissed her, though her heart was singing that she couldn’t have agreed more.