His Darling Bride (Echoes of the Heart #3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

told him to get, he’d head around the bar and be grateful for the hot-as-sin diversion of having her in his arms for a few minutes. Which wasn’t to say that he wouldn’t mind pretending for a little while longer. Long enough for her brothers to stand down and give her and Mike a few minutes alone. His mouth was watering for another of those bubble gum–flavored kisses.
    Her cheeks flushed bright pink, as if she’d read his mind. Then she took his hand and stared down her family.
    “Leave Mike be while he’s in town. Stop acting like a pack of redneck yokels seeing to their little woman.”
    “Does Mom know he’s coming to the wedding?” asked the lighter-haired guy.
    “You’re my brother, Travis, not our dad.”
    “I didn’t see a plus one for you on the guest list,” said the other cop. “Dru’s been driving me crazy with it.”
    “And you, Brad Douglas, aren’t officially my brother for another month.”
    Her grit and sass outshone her sprite-like stature all to hell and back. And damn, Mike liked sass in a woman. He licked his bottom lip. Then he locked gazes with the brother in the two-thousand-dollar suit, who appeared to be as good at reading minds as Bethany was. Oliver looked ready to throw another punch.
    “Look,” Mike said, “I didn’t mean to make trouble.”
    He didn’t do this kind of thing at all.
    Gorgeous, spirited women who kissed like sex bombs were great. But he sensed this one was different, and for the life of him he couldn’t say why. Except that Bethany had had him on the ropes with one look. With one hesitant request for help, she’d laid claim to protective instincts that Mike had buried deep. Which was the biggest red flag of all not to get involved.
    There was a reason bartending had become an escape for him whenever he cobbled together the time to indulge. The easy flow of the lifestyle, listening to customers, harmlessly flirting with women, talking sports with the guys, and serving everyone with an anonymous smile . . . It made Mike happy. Mostly because people forgot about him between one sip of their beer and the next.
    For a couple of years after he’d left home, he’d worked in whatever bar job he could snag. Cutting ties with his old life, he’d traipsed all over mixing just enough drinks to pay his way to wherever he wanted to go next. Living a drifter’s life had cleared his mind, slain the worst of his demons, and given him perspective. It had saved his sanity and taught him how to leave personal drama to other people.
    These days, he’d rebuilt enough structure and connection in his life to be good again to someone besides himself. He couldn’t come and go as often as he liked, but he was once more making a difference in the world. Most days he even managed to find a way to like himself. But complicated family dynamics like the one playing out around him were never going to be his scene again.
    “I never meant to—” he started to say.
    Oliver held up his hand. “This is a private matter. And considering that my brothers and I have never set eyes on you, and you just had your hands all over our sister, this would be a good time for you to find somewhere else to be.”
    Lawyer, Mike guessed.
    Lethal was the next word that came to mind.
    Bethany pressed her body back against him. “I said leave Mike alone.”
    His fingers curled around the lithe muscles that nipped in at her waist. She relaxed a tiny bit more, tempting him to stroke. Instead, he glanced at her increasingly concerned girlfriends and beyond to their avid audience.
    “Humiliating your sister in public isn’t what I had in mind,” he said to Bethany’s siblings. “I doubt it’s what you do for kicks on a Thursday night.”
    The Brothers Grimm exchanged uneasy glances.
    “Bethie.” Oliver’s expression looked too soft suddenly, for such a hard-edged man. “We didn’t mean . . .”
    “To treat me like I can’t handle my life,” she asked, “and whomever I invite to be in