Aphrodite's Garden (A Fast Break Romance) Read Online Free PDF Page B

alone until we—”
    “Get together?”
    “Probably.”
    “So what does this mean? Are we a couple?”
    “Why don’t we start with dinner and see where that leads?”
    “Thanks be to the gods. Oh, that’s me.” Venus laughed at her pun as she brought in the next bunch of roses. “Now kiss and get to work. There are two-dozen people in that stack of orders who will find their true loves at the Rose Day Celebration tomorrow. But not if you don’t do your thing with these magical roses.”
    Aimee laughed. “I guess dinner will have to wait.” Venus winked at them and left. Somehow, Aimee knew that was the last they’d see of her for a while. Mission accomplished, she’d move on to the next couple that needed her help.
    Aimee linked her hands behind Ken’s neck. “This could be a challenging.”
    “What?”
    “The two of us having a relationship. I’ve been alone for a long time.”
    “Me, too. Too long.”
    “I have a son.”
    “I’m a pediatrician, I love children.”
    “He’s eighteen. It’ll be an adjustment for him. And then there’s the distance between Macon and here. And our careers are time-consuming.”
    When he touched her face, she closed her eyes and had a vision of their future. The two of them cuddled on the sofa in his parlor in front of a cozy fire, and a feeling of love and contentment settled over her.
    “We’ll make it work,” he whispered against her lips.
    He kissed her again, and Amy felt her knees weaken. Ken must have felt it, too, because he moved some of the roses out of the way and lifted her onto the edge of the worktable.
    “The roses,” she breathed as he trailed hot kisses down her neck.
    “Those are for you,” he whispered against her ear. “There are more in buckets of water in my truck.” Aimee smiled. “A man after my heart.”
    “Absolutely. I love you.”
    “I love you, too. Any rational person would say it’s impossible, but it feels like the most natural thing in the world.”
    “Part of the soul mates package, I’m sure.”
    “You seem to be accepting this with ease.”
    “Hey, I’m just happy the visions have stopped. Happy you’re real. Now,” he kissed her again, “I can touch you and kiss you and hold you.”
    Like a miracle, they’d found each other in the Year of the Rose. Aimee looked at the flowers surrounding her. Hundreds of the most perfect roses, given to her by the perfect man for her. She had a feeling that this year, and all those to come, would be just as perfect. How could they not be when they had the goddess of love on their side?
    *
    Deborah Grace Staley is the author of the #1 Bestselling Angel Ridge Novels. Her novel, What the Heart Wants, won the 2011 Holt Medallion for Excellence in Single Title/Mainstream Fiction. She makes her home in East Tennessee in a circa 1867 farmhouse on five acres with her husband, son, and three dogs.
    She loves to hear from readers. Contact her via her website at
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    Hey, y’all, Dixie Ferguson here. I run Ferguson’s Diner in Angel Ridge, Tennessee. Population three hundred forty-five.
    It’s a picturesque town in the valley of the Little Tennessee River, established in 1785. In the early days, its first families—the McKays, the Wallaces, the Houstons, the Joneses, and the Craigs—
    staked their claims on hundreds of acres of the richest bottom land anyone had ever seen.
    After all the years I’ve spent behind the counter at Ferguson’s, I could probably tell y’all a story about near everyone in town, But we only have so much time, so I’ll narrow it down to just two for now.
    This is a story about acceptin’ folks for who they are. You could say it’s a story