Convincing Cara (Wishing Well, Texas Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

not a newsflash to the matriarch of the Briggs family. And, because this could go on for hours, I decided to play my bluff.
    “I’m not seeing anyone. It’s not a girl.”
    “All right, then.” She grinned a grin that told me she knew I was full of it. “Well, whoever she is, I’m glad to see that she’s giving you a run for your money.”
    Thanks, Mom.
    With that she turned her attention back to the three-thousand-piece Noah’s Ark landscape that was this month’s project. Last month’s was Notre Dame Cathedral of Montreal, and the month before that was Manhattan Sunset. Every time she finished her puzzle, she’d take a Polaroid, and then she dismantled all of her hard work and donated the puzzle to the hospital over in Parish Creek, the church, or the senior’s home. On more than one occasion, my siblings and I had asked her why she’d work so hard on something just to destroy it. She’d always smile her wise, all-knowing smile and say, “The real reward of the puzzle is the same as life. It’s the things you learned along the way, not what you had when you finally got there.”
    When I was younger, I had no idea what she was talking about. As an adult, I knew she was saying that it’s about the journey, not the destination. That happiness is found on the way, not at the end of the road, and all the other things people turned into memes to post on Instagram.
    As I made my way out the back of my parents’ house, I still wasn’t sure I agreed with it, but I did know what she was talking about. The journey to me getting where I wanted to be with Cara was taking forever , and I sure as hell wasn’t enjoying it.
    It had been a week since my encounter in the truck with Cara. And I wasn’t being paranoid when I said that she’d been avoiding me like I had the plague. This week it was as if just laying eyes on me would infect her with Ebola. Not only had she made herself so scarce around Circle M that I hadn’t even caught a glimpse of her, but she’d run— literally run —in the opposite direction when she’d seen me after service this morning.
    I was walking down the aisle and she was in the foyer. When our eyes met, she spun around so fast that she knocked into the head deacon. That didn’t slow her down though. She took off at a sprint and almost tripped over a small child leaving the Sunday school room. In a move that would have made Jackie Joyner-Kersee proud, she leapt over the kid. He was only one of many obstacles in the real-life video game where she had to exit the church without talking to me. Unfortunately for me, she passed the level with flying colors. By the time I made my way out to the parking lot, there was neither hide nor hair of her.
    Not even my sister knew where she’d run off to.
    If it hadn’t been so comical, I might have actually taken it personally. Thankfully, the looks on the deacon’s and the little boy’s faces were enough to ease the blow to my healthy ego.
    As I opened the back screen door, I heard hushed voices. In a house with eight siblings, you learn at a very young age that, whenever someone’s whispering, you become quiet as a church mouse and get as close as you can to hear the conversation. It was practically in our Briggs DNA.
    On instinct, instead of letting the screen door slam, I rested it against the doorjamb and took two ninja-like steps towards the end of the wraparound porch, where Harmony and Destiny were huddled together.
    I could only hear every other word. But a few definitely caught my attention. Cara. Dates. Setup.
    Just like the puzzle my mom was working on in the kitchen, pieces started falling into place. Flashes of what Cara had told me the night I’d brought her home from the Tipsy Cow. The conversation I’d eavesdropped on after church last Sunday. And now this. Cara was on a mission, and my sister and my new sister-in-law were assisting in the endeavor. I knew what was going on—now, I just needed details.
    Who were they setting her