Promises Reveal Read Online Free PDF Page A

but many had still doubted the Reverend’s ability to be so violent, even when morally outraged. Everyone except Evie.
    Evie hadn’t been surprised that the Reverend Brad was capable of such violence. There was something about the man that just seemed more outlaw than God-fearing. He was fascinating, masculine, and compelling, but he was also more than he appeared, deeper than he let on. He was a mystery, and over the last year he’d come to fascinate her. To the point that she had sketchbooks full of his portraits. And when that hadn’t gotten her the answers she sought, she’d painted him. In church, out of church, and eventually, out of his clothes. And then she’d put it on display. Because she’d thought it would prove a point. She sighed. Fat lot of good that had done.
    Judge Carlson interrupted her musings. “Do you, Evie Washington, take the Reverend Brad Swanson as your lawfully wedded husband?”
    Did she? An illogical thrill of excitement went through her when common sense said all she should be feeling was dread. Not that she was surprised. Nothing about how she reacted to Brad made sense. She didn’t like it and she didn’t know what to do with any of it—the good feelings or the bad.
    “That’s your signal to either speak up or walk away,” Asa murmured from behind the judge.
    The creaking of the pews indicated the interest of everyone else. They were all waiting for her. Well, they could wait a little longer. Evie hadn’t made up her mind yet.
    “Shut up, MacIntyre,” Brad snapped.
    There it was again. That flash of unconventionality. She glanced up at Brad. Nothing in his profile gave a clue to what he wanted. Did he want her to speak up or walk away?
    “There’s no need to be rude at a wedding.”
    He turned in her direction. “I thought the shotguns were setting the rules.”
    “I prefer to think of them as ornamentation.”
    For a second there was no change in his expression. Then the corner of his mouth twitched. “You have an unconventional way of looking at things.”
    “It’s probably from being on the shelf so long.”
    “You are a bit long in the tooth.”
    Twenty-five was not that old! “You can always throw me back.”
    He shrugged. “It’s time I married. Might as well be you as anyone else.”
    That was a deliberate goad. She bared her teeth in a smile. “I’ll try to live up to your low expectations.”
    “I think everyone’s taking bets on that.”
    They were betting on her success as a wife?
    “Who holds the bet that I brain you with the frying pan before breakfast?”
    Clint leaned back and said behind Cougar’s back, “That’d be me.”
    Clint was a handsome man, but not handsome enough for her to forgive him for the chuckle that rippled through the church. “Then I’ll be sure to lambast him before dessert.”
    “I’d sure appreciate it if you would,” a man with sun-streaked blond hair called from the first pew.
    Brad muttered something under his breath. “Shut up, Jackson.”
    “If we’re going to be influencing the outcome, I’d be grateful if you could see your way to belting him before the wedding cake,” Doc called.
    “You bet on a wedding?” Dorothy exclaimed.
    “Heck no! I’m betting on the demise.”
    The truth hit Evie. They expected her to fail as a wife. No one in the town thought much of her ways, she knew that, but she’d never thought they’d actually wish her ill.
    “After only a few hours?” she asked, burying the hurt.
    “The Reverend is the provoking sort.”
    “He’s a man of God!”
    “With a provoking side,” Doc argued.
    There was no disputing that. Shifting her bouquet in her grip, Evie glanced up at her soon-to-be husband. He was staring straight ahead. Laugh lines fanned out from the corners of his eyes, as if this was all a big joke. As if maybe she was a joke.
    “People don’t think a whole lot of you,” she told him with a great deal of satisfaction.
    He cut her a glance. “You sure it’s me they’re