Here Comes the Bride by Gayle Kasper Read Free Book Online

telling him anything he didn’t already know. “I agree.”
    She continued looking out over the vista, her face averted from him. “All the objections we have about
their
relationship go double for us.”
    “Again, you’re right.”
    “This is just some sort of … physical thing between us.… We’re going to have to get past it.”
    “Easier said than done,” he said half-aloud.
    She turned around. “What?”
    “I said, ‘We can do that.’ ”
    She studied him for a long, quiet moment, her green eyes unreadable. “Yes. Piece of cake.”
    Nick wouldn’t go so far as to say that.
    To forget Fiona he needed to stay far away from her, like two thirds of the country away. But she was here until the wedding—or until the wedding was off, whichever one came first.
    Nick had to team up with her. Because of Winnie—because he owed it to his aunt not to let her make a mistake.
    He didn’t believe in love. He didn’t believe in forevers. The world had taught him that early. When his mother died, when his father left. Left him for Winnie to raise. Winnie had been the only constant in his life. It was why he was so worried about her happiness,wanted it for her, but didn’t believe it existed.
    Fiona saw a fleeting shadow of pain in Nick’s eyes, a hardness, and wondered what—or who—had put it there. His kiss had left her shaken, reeling. If she put a finger to her lips, she’d still find them quivering from the experience.
    She didn’t need to get involved with a man like Nick. She had the feeling he could cause heartache for any woman who was foolish enough to fall in love with him.
    “Come on,” he said gruffly, “let’s start back down. Maybe we can think more clearly out of this rarefied air.”
    Fiona wasn’t certain her legs would carry her back down the steep trail, but she agreed. They’d settled nothing up there at the top of creation, only stirred up something between them they shouldn’t have.
    The kiss they’d shared had been foolhardy. He’d made her want—and that was a risk she didn’t dare take. She hadn’t forgotten how much it had hurt to love another man—only to have that love destroyed.
    She followed in Nick’s wake, careful not to trip over exposed tree roots or half-buried rocks.
    Neither of them spoke until they reached the four-wheel-drive Jeep they’d left where the road ended and the trail began.
    Then Nick turned to her. “I’ve got it,” he said. “The perfect plan.”
    Fiona raised a dubious eyebrow. “Oh? What is it?”
    He helped her inside the Jeep, then slid in behind the wheel before he explained.
    Fiona listened, played the devil’s advocate for a while, then admitted she couldn’t come up with anything better. “It just might work,” she said.
    His plan had only one major flaw—it would involve spending more time with Nick.

FOUR
    Not ever again, Nick vowed. He wasn’t riding with Walter ever again. He helped Winnie out of the backseat of the oldest living vehicle on the road as Walter discharged his passengers in front of the restaurant where the four of them were to have dinner that night.
    “We’re taking a taxi back,” he whispered in Fiona’s right ear as Walter gunned the huge sedan and peeled off to park it, a plume of blue smoke trailing from the exhaust. “I’m not setting foot in that tank again.”
    “Dad likes big cars. They make him feel secure,” Fiona defended.
    “Well, he could fight a war in that baby.”
    Fiona shot him a fierce glower. “If I remember right, this evening was your idea,” she retorted, her voice low to keep Winnie from overhearing. “In fact, I believe the entirepurpose of it was to get
them
arguing so they’d put off the wedding. So far, the only arguing I’ve heard is between
us
.”
    Nick frowned. He and Fiona scrapping like a pair of mad dogs was not in the plan. But neither was tonight’s transportation snafu. How was he to know Walter would insist on doing the driving?
    Just then there was a