The Wedding Dress Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Oh, it is my business. This family is my business. Tim is closer to me than my own brother. I won’t see him hurt or this family torn apart. I’m raising three children as Roses and I want them raised like their dad, not the mess I had to endure with my parents.”
    Charlotte grabbed the door handle and jerked hard. As she did, Lauren, Rudy’s date for the evening, burst into the ladies’ room. “Charlotte, there you are. Tim’s looking all over for you. Hey, Katherine.”
    “Lauren.”
    Charlotte left without a final glance back. Tim stood in the hall, against the wall, his hands tucked in his pockets.
    “Hey,” he said.
    “Hey.” Charlotte fell against him, letting his presence warm away Katherine’s cold confrontation. “I’m really sorry about the trunk money, Tim.”
    “Forget it. I just had to cool down.” He hooked his finger under her chin. “I’m sorry for what I said about your dress. You can buy whatever you want. We’ll find a way.”
    Charlotte kissed him, and Tim slipped his hands around her back and held her close.
    “Want to dance?” she said.
    “I thought you’d never ask.”
    On the dance floor, Tim curled Charlotte into him and peered into her eyes as the singer crooned about “the house that built me.”
    “What happened in there?”
    “Nothing.” Charlotte swayed side to side, round and round with him. “Ladies’ room privilege.”
    “But you’re upset. Nothing is that sacred.” Tim craned his neck in an obvious effort to see who exited the restroom alcove. “It was Katherine.”
    “You should’ve warned me she was a pit bull.”
    “Didn’t think she’d go after you.” Tim gently held Charlotte’s head between his hands. “Her bark is worse than her bite.”
    “Have you ever been bitten by her?” Charlotte made a face, almost smiling, the tension of her exchange with Katherine thinning. “She seems to think she has dibs on you. On the whole family. If we lived in biblical times and something happened to David—”
    Tim’s kiss landed on Charlotte’s lips, clipping her thought, and they moved to the rhythm of the melancholy music.
    “The most beautiful girl in the room is in my arms,” Tim whispered in her ear, “so if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not talk about my brother’s wife.”
    When he kissed her again, Charlotte slipped her arms around his neck and let her burden go.
     
    A little after eleven, Tim drove Charlotte home and walked her up the four flights to her loft, slipping his hand into hers, loosening his tie, and unbuttoning the top of his shirt.
    “We’re thinking of taking the bikes out tomorrow, going to the dirt track.” Tim leaned against the wall as Charlotte unlocked the heavy steel loft door. Tim was a passionate, amateur motocross racer. “Paul and Artie haven’t been racing since they moved to Texas.” Tonight Charlotte learned Paul and Artie were cousins on his mother’s Buchanan side. “Come with us. I’ve even talked Dave and Jack into coming.”
    “I have an appointment with Tawny.” Charlotte flipped on the entryway light and leaned against the doorjamb.
    “You have an appointment on Sunday?” Tim slipped his hand around her and pulled her close to him.
    “You’re racing? On Sunday? ” She arched her brow, grinning, mimicking his inflection.
    “We’re not racing, we’re riding .”
    “It’ll be a race the moment you start the engines.” She reached up to lace her fingers through his hair. “Want to come in?”
    “You think you know me so well?” His quick kiss was playful as he stepped past her into the loft.
    Did she? His competitive nature and passion fort>< passio all things extreme weren’t hard to see. Tim carried those on the surface. But she didn’t have long to contemplate. Tim hooked her away from the door, letting it slam behind him, and drew her tight.
    As he did, her heels crashed into something hard and she stumbled backward, falling out of his embrace.
    Tim snatched her hand