Finally a Bride Read Online Free PDF Page A

way,” Steve insisted. “Everyone’s been warned. No calling you to work for them, either. I don’t want to see you back here for a week, South. That’s an order. I know that you’re too good an employee to disobey an order.” But the supervisor must have doubted him because he hung up before Eric could begin to argue.
    Molly ducked her head out of the bedroom doorway. “I take it that wasn’t one of my bridesmaids?”
    “Not this time.” He sighed. “Seems like I’m going to be around more than I thought next week.” More than he’d hoped.
    “That’s good,” she said, but she sounded about as convinced of that as he was.
    “Don’t worry, though,” he assured her. “I’ll stay out of your way. Give you time to…read.” Maybe he would have to borrow a few of her books. Anything to get his mind off the thought of her here, lying in a bed just a few yards away from his.
    “Hmm?” She turned toward him, obviously distracted.
    “Nothing,” he said. “Your mind is somewhere else.” Or on someone else. Did she regret running out on her groom?
    “They didn’t cancel the reception, you know,” she informed him.
    “I know,” he admitted. “Your bridesmaids have been calling from the American Legion.” The post was the only facility in Cloverville big enough for parties. Even if the new construction expanding the town included a banquet hall, he doubted any true Clovervillians would use anyplace but the American Legion. The town, like his uncle Harold, was loyal and steeped in tradition.
    She groaned. “Didn’t Abby read them the note?”
    “You didn’t ask them to leave me alone,” he pointed out.
    She grinned, amused by their friends’ ingenuity. “Leave it to them to find a loophole.”
    “To find you.”
    “Even though they know where I am, I think they’ll leave me alone for a while,” she said, her earlier panic seeming to have subsided.
    “If they let you be, it’s probably only because of your mom.” Mrs. McClintock would make sure the others laid off.
    “Probably,” she agreed.
    “I guess it doesn’t matter why—as long as they agree to do it,” Eric allowed.
    Molly glanced up at him and blinked, as if she hadn’t heard a word he said.
    “That’s what you want, right?” he asked, wondering if she’d changed her mind. “Time to think?”
    “Yes,” she said vaguely, leaving Eric to consider whether she was answering his question or another one she’d asked herself.
    “If you’d rather be completely alone, I can take off,” he offered. “I have a buddy I can crash with in Grand Rapids. I stay with him when I work doubles. He’s closer to the hospital.” Maybe that would be far enough away so that he wouldn’t think of her. But he doubted it, since even the Middle East hadn’t been far enough away.
    “I don’t want you to leave.” Her dark eyes shone as if something had just occurred to her. “At least I don’t want you to leave without me.”
    “I know I’m going to regret asking,” he said, his stomach muscles tightening as he braced himself for her response, “but what exactly do you want, Molly?”
    She flashed him a smile as her eyes took on a mischievous glint. “I want to crash my wedding reception.”

Chapter Three
    “This is crazy,” Eric grumbled as he handed Molly a glass of punch. But he’d gone along with her plan—just as he always did.
    Fighting a smile, Molly tilted her head so she could see beyond the brim of her hat. Eric’s face was also in shadows because of the fedora he wore. In a dark pin-striped suit, with his hat and a bright red tie, Eric resembled the dapper gangsters of old. Dashing but dangerous.
    “You look good,” she murmured, pitching her voice low so no one would overhear.
    As usual, he didn’t acknowledge her compliment. “You look like Mrs. Hild.”
    The elderly widow whose life revolved around her roses…She wore flowered dresses and wide-brimmed hats. Molly smiled. She didn’t exactly consider the