Secret Hollows Read Online Free PDF Page A

emotion.
    Mary, half-laughing and half-crying, hugged her mother again. “Of course I will. I wouldn’t want anything else. Thank you.”

Chapter Four
    “You seem a little preoccupied,” Bradley said as they neared the exit from Highway 20 into Freeport.
    Mary nodded, “I saw my grandmother and my great-grandmother this afternoon.”
    “Oh, did they come when we were out?” he asked. “I’m sorry I missed them.”
    She turned and smiled at him. “Well, they’ve both been dead for a long time.”
    “ Ohhhhh ,” he answered slowly, “that kind of saw.”
    “Yes, that kind of saw,” she said. “They joined my mother and me when we were upstairs.”
    Bradley changed lanes and pulled around a slow-moving semi-trailer. “So, what were you two doing upstairs anyway?” he asked.
    She took a deep breath, still overcome with emotion. “I was trying on my wedding dress,” she said simply, wiping away the remnant of a tear.
    “Your wedding dress?” he asked. “I didn’t know you already had one.”
    “Neither did I ,” she replied. “Until my mother showed me the one my great-grandmother wore and my grandmother wore and my mother wore.”
    “Wow. A family heirloom. So, is it what you wanted?”
    “Oh, it’s classic, it’s beautiful. And even more important is what it represents,” she explained. “Generations of love. There couldn’t be a more perfect dress.”
    He reached over and took her hand. “Or a more perfect bride,” he said, lifting her hand to his lips and kissing it. “So, when should we get married?”
    “You mean the date?”
    Laughing, he nodded, “Yes, the date.”
    “Well, there’s so much to do,” she said. “So much to plan and arrange. Most couples are engaged for at least a year.”
    “Good thing we’re not most couples,” he said, exiting the highway and heading down South Street.
    “So a year’s too long?” she asked.
    “Oh, yeah, much too long. Are you hungry?”
    “What?” she asked, distracted.
    “I’m hungry and I thought we could stop for something,” he said.
    “I’m not hungry, but I’ll be happy to go with you.”
    He nodded. “Thanks.”
    “So how about a Christmas wedding?” she asked. “We could use red and green for our colors and have little Christmas tree decorations. I could have red roses in my bouquet.”
    “Christmas? As in almost a year away, Christmas?”
    She nodded. “Yes.”
    “But that’s almost a year away.”
    “I think we just established that,” she said with a chuckle.
    “Mary, a year is too long,” he said. “I think we need to compromise.”
    Thinking about it for a moment, she nodded, “Okay, when would you like to get married?”
    He paused and turned to her. “What are you doing next weekend?”
    She laughed. “No, that’s too soon. I wouldn’t be able to get things arranged.”
    “Like what? You have a dress.”
    “Like food,” she said.
    “We can order pizza. Everyone likes pizza.”
    “We are not ordering pizza for our wedding,” she insisted.
    “Okay, not pizza, but really, can’t we just hire a caterer?”
    “Well, we also need a venue, you know, a reception hall. Sometimes they’re booked for years.”
    “We can have it outdoors,” he suggested. “In one of those fancy tents, like in the movies. We could have it at Krape Park, where we met.”
    “Well, then we’ll have to wait until it’s warm outside,” she said. “We’re not going to have an outdoor reception in the winter.”
    “We could give our guests mittens,” he said, turning onto West Street.
    She just looked at him for a moment. “No.”
    “Okay, so it has to be warm,” he agreed. “April is warm.”
    “April still has snowstorms,” she said. “October is lovely. Early October is usually warm and the colors are beautiful.”
    Bradley looked over at her. “You’re serious about waiting that long, aren’t you?”
    She nodded. “It takes that long,” she said.
    Bradley turned away from the fast food restaurants