Mixed Blessings Read Online Free PDF

sensational figure, with her full bust in sharp contrast to her tiny waist, which was so small that Charlie could put his hands around it and almost touch his fingers. She wasn't tall, but she had shapely legs. She was a striking-looking girl, and even in a burlap bag, she would somehow have managed to look sexy. She just did, no matter what she wore. And now in the short, tight, white satin wedding gown, she was an overwhelming contrast of the innocent and the erotic.

    "Do you think my dress is too tight?" She looked nervously at Judi again. She felt as though they'd been waiting forever.

    She didn't know why they couldn't just have gone to City Hall, but Charlie had insisted he wanted a "real" wedding.

    This wedding had meant everything to him, so she'd gone along with it for his sake. She would have been a lot happier spending the weekend in Reno. But Charlie had planned everything, and invited all his friends. They were having sixty guests, and she knew this was the fanciest hotel in L.A.except maybe the Beverly Hills Hotel, she had told him, but he had insisted this one was even better. They'd chosen the least expensive menu, and the simplest plan, but he'd wanted their wedding here, even if it wiped out most of his savings. "You deserve it," he'd said to Barbie.

    "Your dress is fine," Judi reassured her, and she honestly thought the other girl looked terrific. Scared, but very pretty.

    "Everything's gonna be okay, kid. Just relax." She was beginning to wonder what the delay was, and then finally Charlie's best man appeared, and the music began. Charlie had hired a bass, a violinist, and an electric piano for the occasion.

    They played "Here Comes the Bride," and Judi looked toward the little gazebo that had been set up for the occasion.

    Charlie had found a minister somewhere, and he hadn't asked Barbie too many questions about being a Mormon, so she had finally agreed to let him do the wedding.

    And then Mark, the best man, offered Barbie his arm, and looked down at her with a fatherly smile. He was twice Charlie's age, and heavyset.

    He had been Charlie's supervisor at work for two years, and in some ways, he was almost like his father. He was still a good-looking man, although he was overweight, and little rivers of perspiration were running down the sides of his face from the neatly combed gray hair at his temples.

    He looked very serious as he bent toward Barbie just before they began their walk toward the gazebo.
    "Good luck, Barbara . . . Everything's going to be just fine." He patted her hand, and she tried not to let herself think of her father.

    "Thanks, Mark." He had agreed to give the bride away, and be best man.

    He had also given them all their champagne, because his brother-in-law knew a wholesaler with a terrific source in the Napa Valley. He wanted everything to be right for them. He was divorced himself, and had two daughters, one married, and the other in college.

    They started off down the aisle, and Barbara tried not to think of what lay ahead, the wedding, or the years of commitment. And then suddenly there he was . . . Charlie looking so sweet and innocent and young, with his blue eyes and red hair and sweet smile. He was wearing a white dinner jacket with a white carnation on the lapel, and he looked like a kid who had borrowed the jacket from his father for the senior prom. It was hard to be afraid of him, or of committing her life to him. And as Mark squeezed her hand encouragingly, she suddenly realized that all her fears were incredibly foolish. No harm would come to her as Charlie's wife. She was doing the right thing, and suddenly she knew it.

    "I love you," he whispered as she stood at his side, and as she looked at him, she realized that she really loved him. He was doing something wonderful for her, he was giving her a beautiful new life, and offering to protect her forever. No one had ever done anything like that for her, and she knew, as she looked at him, that he would