The Bride Wore Blue by Cindy Gerard Read Free Book Online

him think she was capable of forgetting about him.
    * * *
    “Well, Hersh,” J.D. groused as he settled into his sleeping bag and the lab curled up beside him, “looks like the lady took me literally. I think she did forget about us.”
    Maybe he shouldn’t have been so enthusiastic when he’d assured her he’d be fine out in the elements. He hadn’t thought at the time that he’d been all that convincing.
    “Goes to show how much I know, huh, boy? Because I also figured she’d invite us in.”
    He cast a scowling glance toward the dark cabin. She’d walked away a little over three hours ago and he hadn’t seen her since.
    At the very least, he’d expected an offer to sleep on her couch. Hell, he’d have settled for the floor. Anything would have been softer than this rock his tent was pitched on.
    He hit the button illuminating the dial on his watch Only half an hour until midnight. It was going to be a long wait until morning. He’d built his fire for warmth but foregone cooking for the slices of summer sausage, cheese and crackers he’d packed in the little cooler he always carried in the plane. Hershey had been content with his dog chow and a couple of crackers. After a little recreational game of hide-and-seek with another chipmunk, the lab had settled in beside him.
    “She’s going to be a tougher nut to crack than I’d originally thought,” J.D. reflected aloud as he turned on his back, made a final check of the black clouds rolling across the night sky and hoped for a tender heart in the event of rain. In absence of an invitation, he prayed that the hastily applied patches of duct tape he’d slapped across the new tears in his old tent would hold. He hated getting wet. Truth to tell, he hated camping out—though he’d never admit it aloud. Not to his friends, at any rate. They’d laugh him out of the state—especially if they found out that his idea of roughing it included a microwave and a CD player.
    While he loved the north country, he loved it between sunrise and dusk, when the air was sweet and crisp and the sun was warm and mellow. By night, even in the summer, the lake land could be cold and sometimes dangerous. Shadows bled into shapes—many of them wild black bears, scavengers of the night, propelled to roam by boundless appetites that made them easy prey to the poachers currently plaguing the area.
    Tomorrow would be soon enough to worry about them again. Tonight he had to worry about staying warm. And dry. When the sun had disappeared for the day, the warm breeze had shifted to a stout northwesterly, carrying a hint of an arctic chill. For a while the moon and the mosquitoes had been the only friendly company in the dark.
    “I could do without the mosquitoes, but I wouldn’t have minded a little more moonlight,” he grumbled. The cloud bank had completely darkened the sky. “Wouldn’t have minded a soft bed, either,” he added grumpily as he tugged the sleeping bag higher over his shoulder and grudgingly accepted that it was going to be a long, cold night.
    That was when he felt the first raindrop fall. A big splattering drop bulleted its way in through the trailing flaps of the pup tent, which were suddenly snapping like sheets in the wind.
    He poked his head outside.
    “Holy hurricane, Hersh!” He swore above the sudden and aggressive slap of the wind and rain pelting him full in the face. “Looks like we’re in for a dam buster.”
    Hershey, ever the loyal companion, took one peek outside the tent, gave J.D. an every-dog-for-himself look and broke for the cabin. He was whining and scratching on the door—something J.D. was about ready to do himself— when he heard a screech of metal scraping against wood.
    He snapped his attention toward the dock. With the rising wind came rising waves. The smoothly rolling surface of the bay had transformed in a heartbeat into a boilingcauldron of black water and crashing surf. And the Cessna, tied as she was to the end of the dock,