Mistakenly Mated by Sonnet O'Dell Read Free Book Online Page B

really hard.”
    “Huh?” Caleb asked, unable to strive for something more elegant.
    “Now, you’ve got to prove you were worth it.”
    Caleb looked at her stunned. He had to prove himself to her. He growled. “What are you suggesting? Dating? What the hell point is there in that? You’re already mine.”
    Kerry returned his growl with interest. He flinched. He could tell she was really mad at not being taken seriously.
    “Not doing well so far, are you?”
    Kerry wrapped her arms around herself and trudged back up the hill to claim her dress, what was left of her dignity, and hustle on home.

Chapter Six
    Kerry lay on her back on the bed, feeling completely miserable. It’d been nearly a week since she saw Caleb and her belly wouldn’t stop quivering at the separation. He could call her. She may not have given him her number but he was a smart, resourceful man. He could easily get her number.
    On the other hand, Dick wouldn’t stop calling. The night she was out in the grass with Caleb, he rang three times. Each ring of the phone ground on her father’s nerves. She came home to find a square of the front window taped off and the telephone sitting in the yard—cord and all. He was having a time-out on the stairs when she got in while her mother fumed about glass all over the floor.
    Kerry stared at the ceiling, throwing a ball back and forth between the surface above and her hands. The phone rang again. Kerry groaned, watching the extension in her room wobble in its cradle and the light flash indicating her answer machine picked it up.
    “Kerry,” screamed her other best friend. Kerry smiled from ear to ear and picked up the receiver.
    “Hey, Paulie,” she said, beaming. She could hear the music beating from the stereo in the car he was in. “Tell me you’re not driving and calling.”
    “Of course not. Would I do that?” She could hear the grin in his voice telling her he would do exactly that.
    “Don’t panic. I’m driving.” Kerry clearly heard Susan’s voice over the music.
    “Hey, Susan.” Kerry turned up the volume on the phone to hear them more clearly over the blaring stereo in the car.
    “I hear over the grape vine that somebody’s a gloomy Gus,so we’re coming to rescue you. Get your gear on, girl. We are going out and will not take ‘no’ for an answer.”
    Kerry sat up on the edge of her bed and looked at the clock. It was eight o’clock.
    “We’ll be at yours in fifteen minutes. Chop, chop.” Paulie hung up the phone.
    Kerry rushed to her closet, looking for something to wear in a hurry. She pulled on a pair denim cutoffs, a battered old pair of brown cowboy boots, a red halter, and a yellow straw Stetson. She fluffed her hair and did a quick round with some make up at her dresser.
    The door bell rang. Kerry shot from her room, grabbing her purse and flew down the stairs.
    “It’s for me. I’m going out. Be back late,” she called to whomever was listening.
    She threw open the door to get a face full of flowers. Kerry reversed back onto her heels and pushed the bouquet aside.
    Caleb stood there, dressed in navy blue shirt that was strategically unbuttoned to show his masculine chest and the tightest pair of black jeans she’d ever seen. She could put a nickel in his pocket and tell if it were heads or tails. Kerry blinked several times.
    “Caleb? What are you doing here?” she asked, unhappy with the way the uneasy fluttering in her stomach eased at his presence.
    He gave her a rueful smile and then sighed.
    “You were right. I did jump full steam ahead with the whole mated for life issue. Following tradition when frankly, there isn’t that much traditional about us. I wanted to start from the beginning and…”
    He paused, looking at her outfit. “You’re going out.” He wanted to say, “and you’re wearing that” but curbed himself. That statement would have been a step backwards. He imagined men leering at her wherever she was headed and it made his head spin