Love's Battle (True Blue Trilogy) Read Online Free PDF Page A

placed a quick call, helpful but not so helpful in my case, to Triple A where an agent assured me my tire would be replaced within the hour.
    Doing my best to act casual I eyed the handsome Everett. Well dressed in a smartly cut but somber charcoal gray suit with white pinstripes, he was bathed in a familiar powder blue light.
    As I watched my knight I thought of the best way to approach the situation. I know this would be wedding day was anything but happy for him.
    “You know I almost didn’t come.” Everett confessed with a smile that didn’t quite reach his cheerless eyes. “I changed my mind at least a hundred times on the way here. I just couldn’t seem to turn back.”
    This was exactly the opening I was looking for. Maybe my day was starting to look up after all.
    “I sure am glad you didn‘t.” I smiled. “Hey, did you know that almost eight hundred years ago today, King John of England kidnapped Isabella d’Angouleme on the eve of her wedding to Hugh le Brun, Count of Lusignan?”
    “You’re the history buff, not me.”
    Casually I watched as Everett’s fingers took a death grip on the steering wheel. “The bride was reported to be a Middle Ages beauty that rivaled even that of Helen of Troy.”
    “Interesting.”
    I raised an eyebrow, unimpressed by Everett’s one word answer and overall lack of encouragement for the current conversation at hand.
    “Yep. They were married until John’s death sixteen years later and had five children.” I didn’t see any reason to add in that in the years following John’s death
    Isabella had married the son off her cast of fiancé, Hugh the tenth. Or that their union produced an additional nine children!
    Such pesky little details had no need to be mentioned. It was the kidnapping part I wanted Everett to concentrate on.
    “John loved Isabella greatly. So much so that he risked losing all of the French land England had acquired over the years and an ensuing war when he took her as his bride. A hefty price to be paid for true love.”
    “Is it that obvious?” Everett asked, his voice full of self depreciating laughter.
    “That you’re in love with the bride? For me, yes. For others, no.” Knowing time was of the essence I reached across the seat to lay a comforting hand on Everett’s shoulder, resisting the urge to slap the back of his head as his need for confession wasn’t quite over.
    “I’ve loved Melanie DeAngelo for years. We met in college, but she’s always been with Stephen. So I settled for being what I could to stay close to her. I settled for being her friend when all I want is to be more than that.”
    “It wasn’t right until now,” I placated, giving him a hurried pat of support and another smile as we turned to join the line of cars being directed to the next available parking spot.
    As the church came into view so did the product of a guest list that I was only just now beginning to fully consider. Yikes! Hope certainly was not going to be happy when word got back to her about this- and word would certainly get back to her.
    Oh, she’d gripe on and on about how image is everything and how her lively hood depended on word of mouth and discretion. But then again, Hope hadn’t been in a good mood for the past three hundred years, so what did I care?! I was here to do a job and do it well. Bad news can be just as helpful as good, right?! I just hoped no one I knew would be in attendance. Talk about awkward!
    “How could you tell?” Everett asked, his question interrupting my pondering about what an incredible fool I was going to be making out of myself. “I mean, if others don’t see it, how can you? I work hard to hide it. Especially from Melanie.”
    “It’s a gift.” I shrugged as we pulled it to slot next to a Beamer. “Do you remember senior prom when I dared Thomas Daniels to dance with Kelly Benson?”
    “The quarterback and the debate club geek.” Everett chuckled. The trip back in time had him reverting into the