The Bridal Path: Danielle by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online Page A

follow,” she informed him. “My father’s only regret was that he couldn’t get any of us to turn pro. If he’d thought we were interested, he probably would have challenged the league rules on our behalf. Daddy really, really wanted–
and expected–sons. He didn’t cut us much slack for disappointing him by being girls.”
    Slade gestured toward the table and its burden of food. “Is that how you rebelled, by turning into a fabulous cook just to prove how feminine you are?”
    She stared at Slade, surprised by his insight. “Now that you mention it, I suppose it was. I never thought of it that way before.” She grinned. “It does drive him crazy to find me with flour on my nose, instead of camouflage paint or something equally disgusting.”
    “Your father strikes me as a powerful man.”
    “In this state, he is.”
    “I didn’t mean that. I was thinking of the force of his personality.”
    “That, too,” she agreed. “And we all got our share of it. No one messes with a Wilde.”
    He grinned. “I’ll remember that.” He gestured toward the grill. “Now, are you ready for the hamburger buns, or don’t you trust me with those, either?”
    Dani did a slow and deliberate survey of him from head to toe, then nodded in satisfaction. “You look reasonably coordinated to me. You should be able to get them from there to here without any major catastrophes. When you get back, you can give me your answer about that touch football game.”
    A spark of pure mischief that equaled anything she’d seen in Timmy’s or Kevin’s eyes lit their father’s.
    “That’s a foregone conclusion,” he told her, his male pride clearly on the line. “It’s the Watkins men against you and that ragged pickup squad of yours.”
    When Timmy and Kevin heard about the plans for after lunch, they gaped at their father.
    “You’re not going to work this afternoon?” Timmy asked.
    “Nope,” Slade said. “I never could resist a challenge, and Ms. Wilde has made certain that I couldn’t turn her down. She actually thinks she and those other boys can beat the three of us.”
    Kevin stared at Dani, disbelief written all over his face. “You’re going to play football, too?”
    “Of course.”
    Both boys looked impressed. “I didn’t know girls played football,” Kevin said.
    “Well, this one does,” Dani assured him. “Any objections?”
    “Heck, no,” Timmy said. Suddenly he looked worried. “We don’t have to tackle you, do we?”
    Dani grinned. “I certainly hope you won’t.”
    Slade groaned. “There goes the game.”
    She reached over and patted his cheek consolingly. “The outcome was always a foregone conclusion, anyway.”
    * * *
    Apparently she’d gone a little too far with that taunt. Slade threw himself into the game with such enthusiasm that all of them were exhausted and filthy by the end of the afternoon.
    Judging from the stunned and self-satisfied expression on his face, she gathered that despite all those taunts, he hadn’t actually expected to win. She would never, not in a million years, tell him that she had deliberately dropped the pass that would have tied the score. He was savoring his victory too much.
    “Are you going to gloat?” she inquired when they were on the back porch with fresh glasses of iced tea, while the worn-out boys all lay collapsed on the grass. She hadn’t felt so thoroughly content in a very long time. She could handle a little gloating.
    “It wouldn’t be polite,” he told her.
    She grinned. “No, but you really want to, don’t you?”
    He chuckled. “Yes, I do. I feel guilty as hell about it, but I do.”
    She sat up a little straighter, her expression deliberately stoic. “Go ahead. I can take it.”
    Before she realized that gloating was suddenly the last thing on his mind, he’d moved. His lips were on hers and, in deference to their audience, gone again. That quick brush with temptation was so startling, so thoroughly unexpected and intriguing that