Sunday Kind of Love by Dorothy Garlock Read Free Book Online Page B

skepticism Samantha might have felt; Gwen’s aunt was a romantic, through and through. Seconds later, she had joined in the wedding planning, tossing ideas around the table.
    “There has to be a band!” she declared. “A big band!”
    “Like Tommy Dorsey’s?” Warren asked. “I thought you were listening to all that newfangled stuff, with all the noise and whatnot.”
    “Not like with horns, you goof,” Samantha replied. “I mean someone with lots of sound, a band that knows all the latest hits!”
    “The music has to be something everyone will like,” Meredith added.
    “Who wants that old fuddy-duddy stuff?” her sister-in-law asked.
    While her family began to bicker, Gwen leaned over and squeezed Kent’s arm to get his attention.
    “Isn’t this great?” he declared. “Everyone is so—”
    “We need to talk,” Gwen said, cutting him off.
    “What about?”
    “About us getting married ,” she told him, the words sounding strange, almost unbelievable to her own ears. “Right now.”
    “This instant?” Kent asked, looking across the table at her parents and aunt still discussing wedding details. “But we haven’t even had dinner. We—”
    “ Now! ” Gwen hissed, finally putting her foot down.
    Without waiting for a reply, she stood up, tossed her napkin on her plate, and stalked out of the room. She didn’t look back, but from the way everyone had fallen silent, she was sure they were all staring after her.
    But Gwen didn’t care.
    She wanted answers, and she wanted them now.
      
    Out on the porch, Gwen shivered, rubbing her hands up and down her arms to ward off the evening’s chill. Rain continued to fall, though not as heavily as before, pitter-pattering on the porch roof, a steady drumming. Water rushed down the gutters, gathered in broad puddles on the sidewalk, and glistened in the grass, reflecting light from the street lamps. The rumble of thunder could still occasionally be heard, but the sound grew fainter, the storm finally moving away.
    “Is everything all right?”
    Gwen turned as Kent pulled the door shut behind him. Before it closed, she could hear that everyone was already back at it, discussing the wedding.
    “What did you tell my family?” she asked.
    “That you wanted some air,” Kent answered. “I said that I’d offered to keep you company. From the sound of things, they’ll be all right without us.”
    Gwen frowned. “Have you lost your mind? What were you thinking?”
    “What are you talking about?” he replied. From the look on Kent’s face, Gwen had to wonder whether he was actually clueless. Then again, as successful an attorney as he was, with every courtroom victory hinging on convincing a jury that he was sincere, Gwen thought he might be trying to snow her, too.
    “You announced we were getting married! You never even asked me if that was what I wanted! You never proposed!”
    “I just assumed—”
    “How could you assume something as important as that ?!”
    “You’re right,” Kent said, holding his hands up, palms out. “I got ahead of myself. But after spending time with your father, asking him for your hand, I suppose I got caught up in the moment.”
    Gwen’s eyes went wide. “You…you asked him for permission…?”
    “Of course,” he answered with a chuckle. “That’s the main reason I agreed to come with you to Buckton. I’ve had it planned for months. It wasn’t like I was going to call him on the telephone or write him a letter.”
    It was then that Gwen understood why Kent had been so insistent that she go upstairs and take a nap, why he hadn’t been the least bit put out to spend time alone with her parents. It had all been part of his plan. While she slept, Kent had asked Warren for his daughter’s hand in marriage.
    “Did I make a mistake?” Kent prodded. “Should I not have asked?”
    Gwen shook her head. “It’s not that…not exactly…”
    “Then what is it?”
    She didn’t know how to answer.
    Kent smiled