One Pink Rose; One White Rose; One Red Rose Read Online Free PDF Page B

city. I could never seem to fit in. I know you don’t understand because you’ve lived here all your life, but I felt as though I were suffocating. The air’s dirty, the streets are crowded, and everywhere you look are buildings so tall you can’t see the sky.”
    â€œWeren’t you willing to live in Boston with Randolph?”
    â€œHe promised we would move west after one year of marriage. Father was horrified. He thought Randolph’s handsome salary at the bank was far more important than my suffocation problems.”
    â€œMoney isn’t more important. I still remember what it was like living in New York.”
    Her eyes widened with surprise. “You lived in the East?”
    â€œUntil I was around ten or eleven years old.”
    â€œWhy did you move?”
    He was only going to answer her question and tell her a very little bit about his past, but she was such an easy woman to talk to, he got carried away and told her far more than he’d intended. He wasted a good half hour telling her about his brothers, his sister and her husband, and his Mama Rose. She seemed fascinated by his family and smiled after he mentioned he was going to become an attorney. He could have sworn tears came into her eyes when he told her Mama Rose was finally home.
    â€œYou’re very fortunate to have such a loving family.”
    He nodded agreement. “What about you?”
    â€œI have seven sisters. It’s my hope that one day some of them will come and visit Mr. O’Toole and me. He has a grand house with a curved staircase. He told me so in one of his letters.”
    Travis didn’t care about the house she was going to live in. “You’ll be sorry if you marry a man you don’t love.”
    She didn’t show any reaction to his remark. He watched her thread her fingers through her hair. No matter how much she messed with it, the curls floated back around her face. She could be a real charmer all right. She was also an amazingly feminine creature, and if she could only learn to be a little less crazy, she’d be just about perfect.
    He decided to tell her so. “You know what your problem is?”
    â€œYes, I do,” she replied. “I should have learned from my sister. Barbara doesn’t have a practical bone in her body. She doesn’t have any common sense either. She pretends to be helpless too, and she’s a marvelous flirt.”
    â€œNo man wants a helpless woman, but a practical one is real handy to have around out here.”
    He stood up before she could start arguing with him, stretched the muscles in his neck by rolling his shoulders, and then began to gather stones to put the fire out.
    She surprised him by helping. It took only a couple of minutes to finish the task, and he was suddenly anxious to get going. He’d spent entirely too much time talking about himself and his family. He didn’t understand why he’d told her so much, because it wasn’t like him to ever tell an outsider personal facts.
    He didn’t consider Emily an outsider though. She was . . . different. He couldn’t put his finger on what it was about her that got to him, but affect him she did, and in such a strange way his instincts warned him to keep his distance. His body had other ideas. He’d already had several fantasies about making love to her. He’d tried to picture her without her clothes on, which took quite a bit of imagination on his part, since she was covered from her chin to her toes.
    He had a feeling she’d be spectacular. The way she filled out the top of her dress, the tiny waistband, and the narrow hips all suggested to him that she was well put together and that he wouldn’t be disappointed. The woman had all the right curves and in all the right places.
    Still, thinking about it and doing something about it were two different kettles of fish. He wasn’t about to give in to his urges, but he