The Bride's Curse by Glenys O'Connell Read Free Book Online Page A

thought.
    Then the two of them seemed to shiver as if a cold breeze hit them. They turned and walked quickly away.
    The same cold breeze blew over Kelly and a strange feeling of not being alone prickled at the back of her neck. “Darn it!” she exclaimed, looking out to see the old man was once more sitting on the bench, gazing in at Wedding Bliss.
    “That’s it! He’s wrecking our business,” she snarled. She made for the door as Noelia looked up from the orders she was writing. “Who are you talking about? Not that young man who calls you Red?”
    “No, not him.” Kelly surprised herself by thinking it would be nice to see him. He gave her shivers of a different kind. “It’s that old guy out there on the bench—the one I told you about who sits looking in our window.”
    Noelia joined her at the window, standing on tiptoe and craning her neck to look out over the window display. “I can’t see anyone.”
    “He’s right there on the bench. You’d think he had a mortgage on it, the time he spends there.”
    Noelia looked again, and then back at Kelly, her expression puzzled. “Honey, there’s no-one there. The bench is empty.”
    “I guess he must have sneaked off while we were … no, he’s there. Can’t you see him? Push the dress aside a little so that … ”
    “Really, there’s no one there. Maybe the sun is in your eyes and casting shadows?”
    Kelly stared, first at Noelia and then at the bench. She could see the old guy as clearly as day. Noelia couldn’t see anyone on the bench at all.
    That could only mean one of two things. Either she was going crazy or the old guy was a ghost. The first she’d seen since moving to Marina Grove.
    Kelly shivered and fought back tears. The very idea of these visions starting over again depressed the heck out of her. There was only one way to find out if he was flesh and blood or not. Grabbing her bag, she fled from the store and walked briskly over to the bench.
    “I wondered if you’d come out.” He greeted her in that same rusty voice. It seemed a bit fainter now than the last time he’d spoken to her and he didn’t look at her as she sat down beside him. Horribly conscious of Noelia’s worried gaze from across the road, Kelly spoke to the man in barely a whisper.
    “I don’t know who you are, but just say what you want and go away!”
    He was silent for so long she would have thought he had gone if it hadn’t been for his pale presence on the bench. And he was getting paler. Stranger and stranger. She jumped when he finally spoke.
    “I want some help. Once, a long time ago, I hurt two people I loved very much. Now I need to make it right … before I leave.” The sorrow in his voice tore at Kelly’s heart.
    “Does this have something to do with that wedding dress you were so fixated on?”
    “Yes, it does … ” His words were cut off as he disappeared before her very eyes. Coming along the sidewalk was Brett Atwell, the hunky guy who wasn’t afraid of consequences. The consequences of calling her Red, that is. This was the second time the ghost had taken leave quickly when Brett had appeared. Was it this man’s presence that disturbed the ghost so? And, if so, why?
    Brett crossed the road toward her. “Hello, Red,” he said and grinned widely at her narrowed eyes. “I thought we could maybe grab some dinner together and try and get back on the right foot.”
    “Just tell me one thing before I kill you. Did you see anyone sitting on this bench as you came toward me?”
    He shot her a puzzled look. “No one except your own sweet self.” There was that dazzling smile again. So that settled it. If Noelia couldn’t see him and Brett couldn’t see him and if he could do that weird disappearing act, there was no other answer.
    She was being stalked by another restless spirit.
    As if it wasn’t enough that she was being stalked by a ghost, now she had The World’s Most Annoying Sexy Hunk looking down at her with that self-satisfied