Three Down the Aisle Read Online Free PDF

was getting way too serious and increasingly personal. Mike grinned, taking that as his cue to leave before he did or said something he’d regret. “I only have one goal that concerns you…getting you to fix up this garden.” He winked at her. “See you around.”
    On his way back to his car, Mike couldn’t resist taking a peek in the front window. His jaw dropped. Melanie had indeed painted. The walls, which had been a dingycream on his last visit, were now a sunny yellow. The trim was white, and the sheer curtains billowing at the windows were fresh as a breeze. A blue-and-white spatterware pitcher held a bouquet of daffodils. If every room had been transformed like this one, Melanie D’Angelo was going to bring Rose Cottage back to life.
    He couldn’t help wondering, though, what it was going to take to put a sparkle back into her eyes.
    “Not my job,” he told himself grimly, then wondered why the hell he’d needed to utter the obvious warning. It should have been a given.
    Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the whole time he’d been sitting in that swing he’d wanted to haul her into his arms and kiss her until that sad mouth of hers curved into a smile. That was damn dangerous thinking for a man who’d vowed never to get involved in another relationship that could break either his heart or his daughter’s.
     
    Melanie was feeling inspired. The living room at Rose Cottage had turned out so well that she was ready to tackle the rest of the house. She’d gone through a dozen different decorating magazines and turned down the corners of every color scheme that appealed to her.
    Now she was on a mission to see what she could find in the local stores to use as some sort of centerpiece—a piece of pottery, a painting, throw pillows—in each room to set the tone she wanted to achieve. Since she was unemployed and using her dwindling savings to accomplish the makeover, she had to be frugal. Fortunately, there were all sorts of antique shops tucked away in the Northern Neck, and not all of them dealt with high-end items she couldn’t possibly afford. Besides, she liked the idea of bringing in things with a history.
    For her own room she was looking for the shades of the sea—blue, soft green, pale gray—but she couldn’t quite resist an occasional burst of orange or pink or even red in an old picture for the walls or a pillow that could be tossed on the bed. After all, even the tranquil bay turned brilliant shades of orange at sunset.
    She’d just emerged from a shop in the neighboring town of Kilmarnock, feeling triumphant about finding a cobalt blue pitcher inside, when she spotted Mike’s truck across the street. Her heart did a little stutter-step of anticipation. Because of that, she would have hurried on, but he came out of the real estate office and immediately spotted her.
    Crossing the street with his long stride, he studied her with his usual solemn expression. “You look pleased with yourself,” he concluded.
    She lifted the bag containing her treasured pitcher. “Successful bargain hunting,” she told him. Because she couldn’t resist, she pulled the dark blue pitcher from the bag and held it up to the light, which made the old glass sparkle like sapphires. “Isn’t it amazing?”
    His gaze was on her, not the pitcher at all, when he echoed, “Amazing.”
    Her heart skipped a beat under that intense gaze. “You’re not looking at the pitcher.”
    He shrugged and dutifully shifted his gaze. “It’s a nice one, all right. It would look good with flowers in it.”
    She laughed. “Do you ever think about anything besides gardens?”
    “Sure.”
    “Such as?”
    “Have lunch with me and I’ll tell you.”
    The faintly flirtatious words seemed to catch him bysurprise as much as they did her. Melanie was tempted to refuse, but the idea of another lonely meal back at the house held no appeal. Even the company of this dour man with the one-track mind was more intriguing than