The Last Bride (DiCarlo Brides #6) by Heather Tullis Read Free Book Online

heat most of the house during the occasional power outage and big windows that brought the forest into the back and sides of the house. The forest had always been a refuge for Gage, so he’d wanted to surround himself with it as much as possible.
    He entered to find a stack of dirty forks and knives, and several dirty paper plates on his counter from the previous night’s dinner and breakfast that morning. He glanced at the cupboard full of good china he’d inherited from his paternal grandmother, but cleared the dirty paper dishes and plastic forks and pulled out a stack of new ones for dinner that night. He knew better than to put china in the dishwasher and he was opposed to washing dishes by hand. He wiped down the counter and swept up the dirt from the kitchen floor. One of these days he really ought to get out the mop.
    Checking the clock, he trudged up the open staircase to his room to grab a load of laundry. It was too bad clothes weren’t disposable too, because that would save him a lot of time in washing and folding.
    His mom kept saying he should get a housekeeper to handle those kinds of things for him—she had always had one—but he didn’t want someone else in his stuff, hanging around the house, folding his boxers. He’d become too independent since heading off to college.
    He started the washer and checked the dryer full of polo shirts and pants he’d washed days earlier and never folded, then put them in for a quick refresher run to get the wrinkles out—no way was he pulling out the iron if he didn’t have to.
    By the time the clothes were ready for folding, he had cleared off the pile of stuff he left on the table beside the door, and was happy to find the key to the classic 1967 Camero he was restoring in his garage in the few free hours he could eek out of his busy schedule. He really needed to figure out how to juggle work, family, friends and come home before he was ready to drop into a coma. He hung up his clothes on the bar over the washer and told himself he’d move them to his closet later.
    That done, he sank into one of the leather sofas he’d bought soon after he bought the house—it could hardly be his house if it didn’t have a nice-sized HDTV and a comfortable set of living room furniture to stretch out on while he watched the games. The doorbell rang as soon as he got comfortable. It had to be the pizza. He couldn’t remember the last time Vince or Jeremy bothered to ring the doorbell.
    He hauled himself out of the chair to answer it, dropping some cash in the kid’s hand. When Gage told the kid to keep the change, his face brightened with excitement. Gage set the pizzas and soda on the table and slumped back into his sofa again. The house was quiet. Too quiet. Too empty. The hum of the refrigerator and ticking of the clock in the next room were all that broke the silence. He told himself he liked it that way, but he couldn’t quite believe it.
    Intertwined with the suggestions that he get a housekeeper, his mother badgered him to move back into the family home. “After all, honey, you’re still single and it will be yours one day. Unless Natalie wants it.”
    He most definitely did not want it, and he seriously doubted Natalie could afford it. The utilities alone would kill a man. People criticized him for his own home, saying it was far too big for a bachelor, but his parents’ place was several times larger.
    Moving home would only make it so he was really on call around the clock, something that would drive him crazy. He needed his space. He loved his space. So why was it feeling really big and empty lately? He turned on the television for company, though he didn’t pay attention to the sitcom that came up.
    Jeremy and Vince came in together a few minutes later, saving him from insanity. “Hey, lazy bones. What’s up with this? You came home before eight? What a slacker.” Jeremy joined him on the sofa as Gage hit the power button on the remote. “What’s the