The Bridesmaid Read Online Free PDF

smiled sunnily, as if she were proud of it.
    This was going to be the longest drive of his life, Joe thought. No contest. He took the next exit.

Chapter 4
    When Kate emerged from the bathroom at the Shell station, she felt sticky. It was overcast, warm, and very humid, which made it difficult to believe that a blizzard was engulfing half the country.
    Joe was leaning against the front bumper. He’d removed his tie and stripped down to shirtsleeves, which he’d rolled up. His arms were crossed over his chest, and his biceps, Kate could not help noticing, were bulging against the fabric of his shirt. What did he do, spend every spare minute in a gym?
    If a girl was going to be caught up in a catastrophe, it didn’t hurt to be caught up with a guy as handsome as Joe… Somebody. Even if he did exhibit some Typical Male-ish tendencies from time to time.
    But he looked good with his dark hair and blue eyes, and Kate, out of habit, smiled at him. Joe seemed surprised by her smile for some reason, and his gaze flicked over her face… lingering a moment too long on her mouth. “All better?” he asked.
    “Much. Are you ready?”
    “Baby, I was ready an hour ago,” he said casually, and pushed off the bumper of the rental car.
    “I’m just going to move my bag first,” Kate said as she walked to the passenger side of the car. “There’s not enough room for me and this.”
    She reached down to the floorboard and attempted to lift the bag with two hands, but it was wedged in.
    “Here, I’ll get it.”
    She hadn’t heard Joe come up behind her and abruptly straightened up and twisted about, knocking into him when she did. Yep. His body was as hard as a turtle shell, just like she’d guessed. She blinked up at him as he reached around her and lifted the bag out. He tossed it onto the floor behind the front passenger seat. “What is in that thing, anyway?” he asked as he walked around the back of the car to the driver’s side.
    “Work,” she said, sliding into the passenger seat.
    Joe started the car. “What kind of work?”
    “I am an editor,” Kate said proudly. “Well, assistant editor,” she amended. “But on track to be a full editor.”
    “What, like books?”
    No, like nursery rhymes. “Yes. Like books.”
    He glanced at her and smiled wryly. “You don’t have to say it like I am one step above a cow on the food chain.”
    “I didn’t say it like you were one step above a cow,” she said pertly, although she was aware that she had.
    “What kind of books?” he asked.
    Kate sat a little straighter in her seat as he pulled out of the parking lot. “Women’s fiction.”
    “Women’s fiction,” he repeated carefully. “Would that be fiction about women?”
    “It’s fiction about relationships. And love. That sort of thing.”
    Joe gave her a dubious look. “You mean romance novels,” he said, as if he’d just figured out a complicated puzzle. “What do they call them? Bodice rippers.” He laughed.
    “First of all, they are not only romance, and secondly, that is so ignorant,” Kate said. “It’s a cliché, and you wouldn’t say it if you actually bothered to read one.”
    “What makes you think I haven’t read one?”
    “ Have you?” she demanded.
    “No!” he said with a laugh as if that was ridiculous. “I don’t read, ” he added. “I mean, tech manuals, yes. But not books. ” He laughed again as if the mere suggestion was ludicrous. “Especially not books about relationships. I’d rather watch sports.”
    “Do you know how primitive you sound right now?” Kate said.
    “Why? Because I would rather watch sports than read about other people having sex?” He winked at her. “See, I don’t need to read about it.”
    Kate rolled her eyes. “And what do you do, Mr. Never Cracked a Book?”
    “Hey, I take issue with that,” he said with playful bravado. “I’ve cracked a few books in my time. I’m in technology, which—and this may surprise you—actually