The Wedding Dress by Lucy Kevin Read Free Book Online

dates would do to help their situation. After all, she had been just a girl at the time, so she hadn’t kept track of the exact dates of her father’s tours.
    Until, suddenly, one leapt out at her.
    “Did you just say May seventeenth?” She laughed out loud, because she simply couldn’t help it.
    It was over. It was finally over.
    “What’s so funny?” Jasmine demanded. “Do you think this is a joke?”
    Ms. Williams intervened. “Ms. Farleigh, why don’t you tell us what’s so important about May seventeenth?”
    Anne smiled. “It’s my birthday. Do you really think that my father, that anyone’s father, would spend his daughter’s birthday with some other family? This is ridiculous.”
    Jasmine stood, and her lawyer spoke up. “It seems that we made a mistake in trying to resolve this situation with mediation. Thank you for your time, Ms. Williams.” Jasmine didn’t so much as acknowledge Anne as she stalked from the room. Richard Wells hurried out after his client.
    Anne didn’t care about either of them as she thanked the mediator and practically bounced her way out of the room to where Gareth was still standing by the door.
    He looked at her carefully. “How did it go?”
    Anne beamed at him. “I’m glad you talked me into coming today.”
    “You are?” Gareth sounded more than a little surprised.
    “Yes, I am.” Anne reached out to hug him. “Thank you. If I hadn’t come, then it wouldn’t be over.”
    Gareth raised an eyebrow. “Over? You and Jasmine agreed to a settlement that quickly? I’m surprised Richard didn’t say something about it when he left…and he didn’t look particularly happy, either.”
    “No, we didn’t agree to a settlement. I simply showed her why she couldn’t possibly be my sister. Even her own mother wasn’t prepared to stand up for her, so what does that tell you?”
    “Anne,” he said slowly, “I’m not sure this case will be quite so easy to wrap up. Why don’t you tell me everything that happened?”
    “Must I?” Anne asked. “I just want to take this whole stupid mess and put it behind me so that I can get on with my life.”
    “I’d feel a lot happier if you did tell me.”
    Anne thought for a second or two. Strictly speaking, she should probably be getting home to work on Felicity Andrews’s dress, not to mention her mother’s dress. On the other hand, when the alternative was spending more time with Gareth, it wasn’t exactly a difficult choice.
    Especially when she remembered that moment yesterday when they’d been so close to one another.
    “Okay,” she agreed. “I’ll tell you everything. But only if you let me tell you over lunch.”

Chapter Ten
     
    Gareth should have said no, of course. Private detectives didn’t go to lunch with the people on the other side of the case they were working. Not unless they were trying to talk them into accepting a settlement. And certainly not because the woman happened to be beautiful and wonderful and impossible to get through to all at once.
    So how did he come to be sitting in a small restaurant with views out toward the Golden Gate Bridge, sitting across a table from Anne, and looking into her eyes?
    Yes, he needed to find out what had happened in the mediation…but the real reason was that he’d been so swept up in Anne from the first moment he’d set eyes on her walking in the rain that it had been impossible to say no.
    Still, he had to try to keep some measure of professionalism. “Now will you tell me how things went in the mediation?”
    Anne made a little face. “Just a few more moments, could we pretend we’re simply out enjoying a nice lunch together?”
    Gareth didn’t need to pretend to enjoy himself around Anne. And, surprisingly, he found he wasn’t quite ready to ruin the moment by pressing her for more details about the case. “So, you’ve lived in San Francisco all your life?”
    Strictly speaking, he knew the answer because he’d done his research for this case,