Double Wedding Ring Read Online Free PDF Page B

voice was different, too. Not a whiny little girl’s voice anymore. Soft, almost shy-sounding.
    â€œI’m not sneaking around. I just saw you sitting here and thought I’d say hi.”
    She stopped her work and looked down on him. She had pulled her hair back into a ponytail, even though almost nobody wore ponytails anymore. But it looked right on her. And it made her big, dark eyes easier to see.
    â€œSteve’s not here.”
    â€œI know.”
    She looked at him another moment, then lowered her eyes to the big sea of material in her lap. “I thought you were doubling?”
    â€œI don’t like Alta Fay.”
    She didn’t answer. He didn’t know what he’d expected. Had he thought she would ask him who he did like? Tell him she was glad he wasn’t squandering his attention on somebody like Alta Fay? It sank in that if he wanted this encounter to turn into something like a conversation, it was up to him to get it rolling.
    He walked up the five steps and opened the screen door without being invited, the way he would have if it had been Crash in the swing, even though he suspected the rules he knew didn’t apply to this strange new situation. He sat on the concrete floor, his back against one of the porch rails, facing her. He was close enough to touch her bare foot. Her ankle was narrow, all bone and pale skin. Her toes were long. He’d never before in his whole life realized that toes could be pretty, but it struck him that hers were. Her toenails were painted a pale, shimmery pink.
    â€œWhat are you working on?”
    â€œNothing you’d be interested in.”
    â€œTell me.”
    â€œJust a quilt.”
    Tag wasn’t sure how a quilt was different from a blanket, but he sure wasn’t about to ask. “Is it hard?”
    She looked at him without raising her head from her task. He saw that she worked with a needle and thread, and that her fingers were as long and graceful and pretty as her toes.
    â€œIt’s tedious,” she said.
    â€œWhy do you do it?”
    â€œBecause when I finish it will be a work of art. And...”
    â€œAnd what?”
    â€œThat’s all.”
    â€œWhat are you going to do with it?”
    â€œPut it in my hope chest.” She raised her chin, daring him to poke fun at her, the way he’d poked fun at her as long as he could remember.
    He couldn’t see any way to poke fun at her anymore. All he could see when she mentioned a hope chest was this picture of her in his mind’s eye, dressed up in white the way Emily had been when she and Elliott got married. There was old Susie, dressed in white lace and dancing in front of a cedar chest.
    â€œOh.” He had to draw a deep breath, because somehow he couldn’t quite get his lungs full. “I didn’t know you were talented until I saw you dancing in your window.”
    â€œYou watched me?”
    Tag knew right away from the tone of her voice that he’d said the wrong thing. “I can see you. From the house.”
    Her mouth looked tight and displeased. It called to mind the contrast from moments before, when her mouth had looked soft. He knew then that he wanted to kiss her.
    Gee willikers, what was he going to do about that? Wanting to kiss Crash Foster’s kid sister. Crash would never let him live it down. Or else Crash would kill him, because nobody wanted one of his horny pals messing around with their kid sister, even if their kid sister had always been a pest.
    â€œYou look...” Tag swallowed hard, but his mouth remained dust-dry. “You look real beautiful when you dance.”
    She let go of her needle and stared at him. “If you’re trying to josh me, Tag Hutchins, I’ll—”
    â€œNo! I’m not. I swear it.”
    â€œDid Steve put you up to this?”
    â€œNo!”
    She started back on her needlework, but her pursed lips told him he’d made a real mess out of