Love Blooms on Main Street by Olivia Miles Read Free Book Online Page B

behind for a day, much less a week or two.”
    Kara all but stuck her fingers in her ears as her pulse began to race. She didn’t need to hear this! Not now. Not when she needed to stand firm.
    â€œYou deserve a nice wedding. And a honeymoon,” she told her friend. The realization that she could be responsible for robbing this from Anna made her almost start to shake.
    â€œI just hope you know how grateful I am. We have the best team, don’t you think?” Anna grinned.
    â€œWe’re all just doing our part,” Kara said through a tight smile. And that’s what she was doing, her small, yet necessary and very uninspiring, part.

CHAPTER
5
    I vy pulled up to Jane and Henry’s house at seven sharp, noticing by the lack of cars on the street that she was probably the first to arrive. Holding the salad she’d brought as a side dish, she let herself in through the front screen door and called, “Hello!”
    Henry came around the corner first, grinning and swiftly taking the serving bowl from her hands before giving her a peck on the cheek. She’d started having dinner with her brother and Jane on a regular basis, but she hadn’t yet been able to let her guard down in the house, despite its cozy, lived-in feel. It was probably because of the ulterior motive she suspected her brother had for inviting her. Because of the way he and Jane eyed her over the table, watching every morsel she placed in her mouth. The way they never offered any dessert, no matter how much Sophie, Jane’s six-year-old daughter, protested.
    She reminded herself on each occasion that they only did this because they cared, but each time she left, each time she saw Grace or Kara, she was happy she’d continued to keep her secret. Once upon a time she’d kept it so that it didn’t further separate her from the rest of the kids in town—thanks to their mother, she and Henry were already misfits, and she didn’t need to fuel the fire. But now, as an adult in a town whose only population growth stemmed from the dozens of babies being born each year, for which she could recite every birth date, because she was the one making the celebratory floral arrangements, there were some things that she’d rather keep to herself. As it was, every person in Rosemary Hastings’s book club probably knew who’d given her her first kiss. But did they know who gave her her last one?
    Ivy pinched her lips. That was another thing she’d be keeping to herself. No one would know what happened between her and Brett. There was nothing to tell.
    Jane was busy in the kitchen when they got to the back of the house. “Oh, a salad, great. Anna’s bringing a dessert tray and Kara offered an appetizer. No clue about Grace.”
    Ivy exchanged a knowing glance with her best friend’s youngest sister. Grace was good at many things. She was a best-selling author after all, and she’d turned her father’s bookstore around and made it a thriving success. But cooking? Or even baking? Nope, not high on Grace’s priority list.
    â€œI’m thinking ice cream, or maybe something store-bought disguised on one of her best platters.”
    Jane laughed as she set some hamburger rolls in a basket. “I’m guessing cheese and crackers. But I think you’re right about the plate. She does love putting her new registry items to use.”
    Ivy washed her hands and plucked a knife from the block near the fridge. She’d assumed it would be a small party—the Madisons, Hastingses, and Birches, probably with an appearance of a few other girls they knew and, of course, much to Kara’s chagrin and Rosemary’s delight, Jackson and Sam. But still, Ivy always hoped that eventually someone new would make an appearance at one of these events. Someone they hadn’t known since they were still eating sand off the playground in the town square.
    â€œSo, how’s the wedding