Daring Brides Read Online Free PDF

“And look through keyholes if you need to.”
    She laughed. That was one of the journalistic rules he’d taught her growing up. Some of them he’d meant. Others had been for fun. Through it all, he’d opened up the world for her by feeding the passion they both shared.
    “I love you, Grandpa,” she said, inhaling his familiar scent of Old Spice and red hots.
    He stopped dancing, and they came to a halt.
    “I love you too, Mermaid. Now go find your husband so you can dance the last dance together. If he feels anything like I did on my wedding day to your grandmother, he can’t wait to get the hell out of here.”
    Even though she knew he’d bluster, she pinched his cheek. “You are the dearest man I know.”
    He looked up, as if asking heaven for help. “Go on with you.”
    With a little nudge, she set off to find Tanner, who was still talking to Asher.
    “Are you finally ready for the last dance?” she asked with the slight tilt of her head, which she hoped looked seductive.
    “You have to ask?” He was so eager to get onto the dance floor, she had to run to keep up.
    The DJ cued up “It Had To Be You,” and Tanner pulled her close, so close she could feel his body heat pouring through his suit.
    “You are anxious to leave.”
    “I’ve been trying to tell you that for hours,” he said in a huskier voice than usual.
    “I asked Grandpa to tell me the keys to a happy marriage.” Tanner’s dark eyes never left her face as she relayed what he’d said.
    When she finished, he said, “I’m not worried about it.”
    Even though she wasn’t either, she asked, “You’re not?”
    His smile was devilish and charming at the same time. “No. If marriage is anything like running a newspaper, I plan on winning a Pulitzer.”
    And as he swept her up into his arms, she whispered in his ear, “Me too.”
     
     
     
     
     

Jill & Brian
     
    When Jill Hale had imagined her wedding as a child, she’d envisioned hundreds of friends and families seated in purple velvet chairs under a pink circus tent, the smell of lemonade ices perfuming the air as she married her best friend, Brian McConnell. The morning of her wedding would be magical and straight out of a storybook, just as it should be for a princess.
    As she entered her teenage years, her vision changed, and her dream wedding took on an earthier feel. The large gathering would take place in one of the mountainous valleys surrounding her hometown, just as the wildflowers popped open. Then she and Brian had a picnic in just such a bucolic valley with their best friends, Jemma and Pete, and were swarmed by an avalanche of bugs, which put an early end to that notion.
    After Brian McConnell broke her heart and took off to New York City after high school to become a chef, her big day changed yet again, turning edgier. She would marry an artist with shaggy long hair who liked to write her poetry. A love priestess would bless their union with wild sage incense and ribbons the same colors of each chakra energy center in her and her partner’s bodies.
    Now, at twenty-six, she was finally getting married, and her plans didn’t match any of her earlier visions.
    Truth be told, she wasn’t having a large wedding, and though she’d looked into the pink circus tent out of curiosity, it turned out they were nearly impossible to rent, least of all to assemble. She wasn’t having it in a valley dotted with wildflowers—even if they could have sprayed for bugs, it was too cold on this early May day. And she wasn’t marrying a hippie artist to match her own creative self.
    But she was marrying Brian McConnell, her best friend from childhood and the love of her life, and when it came down to it, nothing was more important.
    They were getting married on a Friday, which was the only day they could book their local pastor on short notice. Speed was a must because she and Brian had accidentally made a bun in the oven way before they were ready. But they were finally in love.