A Bride for Keeps Read Online Free PDF

distance, Everett did indeed look a lot like Theodore, except he didn’t
     have the same arrogant, self-assured posture—more like stiff and agitated. He chewed
     candy and stared out the window as if he had all day to watch the clouds go by. Or
     was that just his way of reacting to how she’d treated him at the depot? She’d never
     been so rude to someone in all her life. Had she ruined all chances with him? If her
     mother had been alive, she’d be mortified.
    “I can get his attention.” Rachel slipped a bolt of mauve fabric out from the bottom
     of the pile.
    Whose attention? Oh! “I don’t think we need to—”
    ———
    “Everett!” Rachel’s call snapped him away from staring at his reflection.
    With everyone looking at him, he left his sad image behind and kept his focus on Rachel
     as he snaked through the crowd. “Yes?”
    “We were discussing whether or not Julia should buy this rose-colored calico. I think
     she should since it brings out the color in her cheeks.”
    His mouth dried into crumbles as the crowd turned to stare at him. His quick peek
     at Julia showed that her cheeks were indeed blooming with color.
    Rachel grabbed the fabric and placed it next to Julia’s jawline. “It’ll be gorgeous
     on her, don’t you think?”
    Julia’s gaze dropped to the floor. Whispers sounded behind him. . . . “Another one?” . . .
     “Can’t be that lucky” . . . “Surely she didn’t come out here for him.”
    They were right. He couldn’t be this lucky, being that he’d never had any luck at
     all.
    Julia’s dark brown eyes met his with a halfhearted smile.
    Did she actually smile at him? “Yes,” Everett’s voice squeaked, “looks just fine.”
     He cleared his throat. “I think you ladies have a better opinion of what one should
     or shouldn’t wear.” He looked toward the back of the store. “My stuff is gathered.
     If you don’t mind.” He strode toward the pile Carl had stacked on the counter and
     grabbed his first crate.
    Of course she’d look gorgeous in the dark pink fabric. She’d look gorgeous in a feed
     sack. That image caused heat to rush from his head to his toes, so he pushed it away.
    “Carl, would you mind helping me with these? I have to get over to the mill.” He was
     very afraid he’d prove the town right. If he followed her around like a goose and
     she chose one of the men in the store making moony eyes at her, he might as well abandon
     his farm and move farther west—so far west no mail-order bride would answer his advertisement
     if he were daft enough to write another.
    ———
    Julia paid a few dollars for the rose calico and hugged the soft package as she walked
     outside with Rachel.
    Dex and his boys loaded the Stantons’ goods around her trunks. He played with his
     sons as they threw things into the back of the wagon, and Rachel absentmindedly covered
     Emma’s head in kisses as she barked orders for packing the supplies so nothing would
     break. A lump throbbed in Julia’s throat. The Stantons seemed wonderful, too good
     to be true.
    But these were not the people she’d be living with forever. As nice as they were,
     the brooding Everett held her fate in his hands. She didn’t want the man physically
     interested in her, so why did she care that he stayed as far away from her as possible?
     Because he had to need her. At least for work;otherwise she’d have to go with another plan to support herself. And she had no other
     plan.
    She chewed on her lower lip and looked around the small, dusty town. She didn’t see
     him. Where was he? Had he left? Maybe that would be best. Marrying a stranger wasn’t
     a good idea at all. At the Stantons’ place, she would have time to think of another
     option.
    Everett exited the sawmill’s large front doors at the end of the road, his hands tucked
     in his pockets as he strode her way. Besides the roguish shock of dirty-blond hair
     falling across his forehead, he seemed to grow