The Wedding Dress by Lucy Kevin Read Free Book Online Page A

but he just wanted to hear Anne talk. She had a beautiful voice, so full of hope and optimism. He could listen to her talk all day.
    Besides, there was something very different about listening to Anne tell her story rather than studying a list of facts he’d compiled about her. Lists of facts didn’t have her infectious enthusiasm, for one. And they didn’t put in all the little details that made a stranger so much more.
    “Yes, I’ve lived here all my life in the same house I live in now. What about you?”
    “I have a place not that far from here. I moved to the city because there was a good job available with the police here, before…before I went solo.”
    She paused as if to digest that new piece of information, before saying, “So you must know all the good spots in the city.”
    How, he wondered, had she innately known that he didn’t want to talk about his reasons for leaving the force?
    “Actually, apart from traveling around for my cases, I pretty much stay in my neighborhood.”
    “You’ve really never gone looking for all the neat little areas in the city?” Anne asked, sounding surprised, like she couldn’t believe that everybody didn’t spend their days wandering around San Francisco.
    “I’ve been busy building my own business,” he said, but even he could hear it as the lame excuse it was.
    Anne shook her head with a smile, reached out across the table to take his hands in hers. “There are so many wonderful things in this city. Anywhere, if you just look. Come with me.”
    She stood up, still holding on to his hands. Her hands were small and should have felt delicate, but there was an unexpected strength to them.
    “Where are we going?” Gareth asked. “Don’t you want to eat lunch?”
    “Yes, we’ll do that later.” She grinned at him. “Right now, I’m going to show you what you’ve been missing out on.” He couldn’t miss the sweet challenge in her sparkling eyes as she pulled him toward the door with obvious enthusiasm. “What do you have to lose?”
    Possibly quite a bit, considering he shouldn’t even have been there with her in the first place.
    And yet, it was strangely easy to ignore that thought and let Anne pull him from the restaurant.
    “Anne, we’ve just walked past my car.”
    “The place I’m taking you is close by, and besides, it’s a lovely day.”
    He hadn’t really given the quality of the day much thought. He’d been too busy thinking about the mediation, about the case…about Anne. Now, though, he had to admit, it really was a nice day.
    “Sure, let’s walk.”
    She threaded her arm through his as they headed down the street. “It’s amazing the things you see if you just take the time to look for them. Things you never thought you might see.”
    “Are you taking me to see the Painted Ladies?” Gareth asked. He’d driven by the seven historic, colorful houses several times. Maybe Anne thought he hadn’t really looked at them properly before.
    “Oh no, I’m sure you’ve seen those,” Anne said. The secretive hint to her smile indicated she wasn’t about to spoil the surprise by telling him until they got to where they were going.
    She led him into a small park, along garden paths hemmed in by greenery on both sides so that it felt like a space cut off from the rest of the world, even though they were still just a little way from the restaurant.
    “Have you spotted them yet?” she asked.
    “Spotted what?”
    Gareth looked around, glancing over flowers and shrubs, a tree or two and not much else. What did Anne want him to look at? He tried looking again, more carefully this time, slowing down as his eyes scanned the space around him.
    Finally, he saw something unexpected.
    Plants were flowing up out of old sneakers, high heels, men’s dress shoes, even a few tall boots. They were bedding plants, mostly, but a few larger specimens poked up out of open-backed shoes that let their roots spread more.
    “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”