The Bachelor’s Christmas Bride by Victoria Pade Read Free Book Online Page B

keeping for her in the entryway and picked up all three as if they weighed nothing.
    â€œI can take one of those,” she said before saying more about the favor.
    â€œThey aren’t heavy. Just lock the door and pull it closed behind us.”
    Shannon did, returning to the subject of the favor as they went toward her car.
    â€œWhat if the favor I have to ask is something you’ll hate? Shouldn’t you hear what it is before you say sure? ” she teased him, having no idea where the flirtatious tone in her voice had come from.
    â€œI think I can handle whatever you dish out,” he flirted back. “What is it?”
    As Shannon unlocked the trunk of her car, she said, “When the wedding is over, could you spare some time to go Christmas shopping with me? I bought Chase and Hadley’s wedding gift at a store in Billings where they’d registered, but Christmas gifts are different. I thought I might get an idea what to buy after being with them, and then it occurred to me that since you’re here and you know everyone better than I do, you’d also know what they might like.”
    â€œI could probably do that,” Dag said as he put the boxes in the trunk. “We can go on Sunday—ordinarily not all the shops in town are open on Sundays, but this close to Christmas everything is.”
    â€œI would be eternally grateful.”
    â€œNo problem.”
    And there would be no scheduling conflicts or meetings or public appearances or other obligations that prevented him from accommodating her request—the things that would have kept Wes from doing it at all. Shannon had become so accustomed to Wes putting her off if she did ask something of him that Dag’s ready agreement seemed unusual to her.
    But she didn’t say that. Instead she closed the trunk and headed for the driver’s side of the car. Dag managed to reach it at the same time and leaned around her to open her door.
    Again she thanked him.
    â€œI’ll see you back at Chase and Logan’s place,” she said then.
    â€œRight behind you,” he answered, closing her door with that same big hand pressed to the panel that had been wrapped around hers a few minutes earlier.
    That same big hand that her eyes stuck to when he waved it at her and even as it dropped to his jean pocket to dig out his keys.
    It had felt so good….
    Shannon yanked her thoughts back in line and started her engine, putting her car into gear and heading for the road that led away from the house just ahead of Dag.
    Dag, who did stay right behind her all the way home, making it difficult for her to keep from watching him in her rearview mirror.
    Dag, who she was thinking about seeing again tonight during the rehearsal dinner.
    Dag, who she knew she shouldn’t let cloud her thinking at all.
    And yet somehow he seemed to be anyway.

Chapter Four
    A fter the wedding rehearsal Friday evening, the dinner was in the poolroom section of a local restaurant and pub called Adz. The pool table had been removed and replaced by dining tables to accommodate what was a large wedding party. The lighting was dim and provided mainly by the candles on each table and there was a roaring fire in a corner fireplace made of rustic stone. The entire place reminded Shannon of an English pub she’d visited on a recent trip to London.
    Shannon knew very few people there, and those she did know—Chase and Hadley, Logan and Meg—were busy mingling. Dag was the only other person she knew and he ended up being a godsend because while he was not her formal date to the event, he stayed by her side as if he were, as if he recognized that she was an outsider and had taken it upon himself to make sure she didn’t feel that way.
    Not that Shannon hadn’t become accustomed to being in rooms full of strangers during the past three years. Dating a politician made that a common occurrence and she’d frequently been either expected