The Wedding Kiss by Lucy Kevin Read Free Book Online

he immediately tried to ease her mind by saying, “I’ve been working on the new setup and it’s going well.”
    “That’s great, RJ,” Rose replied. “It’s nice to know that one thing is going right.”
    He frowned. “Are there problems with the rest of the wedding plans?”
    “Let’s put it this way, anything that can go wrong is going wrong.”
    “Not your dress,” he said. “It’s beautiful, Rose.”
    Their eyes held for a long moment before she said, “Thank you,” and then, “unfortunately the food, the flowers, and the music all have to be practically redesigned from scratch for one reason or another.” She laughed, but there wasn’t much humor in the sound. “I never thought I’d see the day when Anne was the one person I didn’t have to worry about being ready by the wedding day.”
    “She’s not the only one,” RJ assured her. “I’ll get this new setup finished in time.”
    “I know you will, and it’s good to have someone I can rely on. Although at this rate,” she continued, “we’ll probably find that the dress has gone missing right before I need to walk down the aisle.”
    “You’re worrying too much.” RJ didn’t step closer to put an arm around her shoulders, even though he badly wanted to. “How about if we get some lunch and I’ll go through some of the details for what I have in mind for the new setup. I know a place that does great chili fries.”
    “Chili fries?” He could see the hungry gleam in her eyes before she said, “Actually, I need to watch my weight so that Anne doesn’t have to re-adjust the dress.”
    “Don’t worry,” RJ said with a grin, “one plate of fries won’t hurt anything.” Before she could protest again, he put his hand on the small of her back, gently but firmly. “Come on, a change of scenery will do you good.”
    He managed to keep her moving all the way out to his truck, then drove quickly to the place he had in mind, a small diner he’d come across on the way to get materials from a local lumber yard. It was a place working men went to in the middle of the day, and definitely not somewhere Rose would go with Donovan. If the plastic surgeon ever found himself touching something in a place like this, he’d probably spend the next day or so scrubbing up.
    Apparently, Rose thought pretty much the same thing when they pulled into the diner’s gravel parking lot.
    “ This is the place you’re taking me?”
    “You’re going to love it,” RJ said with a smile. It was time to remind Rose of who she really was, not who Donovan wanted her to be.
    “But there are plenty of other places we could go.”
    “None that serve chili fries like these.”
    “But this looks like a total dive.”
    He turned off the engine and got out of the truck to make it clear that they were staying. Rose seemed to get the message, or maybe she was just finally able to admit to herself that she wanted the chili fries more than she wanted to avoid the diner. He helped her carefully climb down from the truck and they headed inside together.
    One basket of chili fries later, and Rose had taken off her jacket and was no longer sitting bolt upright in the booth.
    “You’re right, these are really good fries,” she admitted. “They remind me of when I was working at the bowling alley to save money for college, only with maybe just a bit more grease,” she said with a grin that he loved seeing.
    “You never told me you worked at the bowling alley.”
    She flushed. “It’s not exactly something I like admitting to, working the same dead-end job as my mom.”
    “I don’t see what’s wrong with doing the same job as your family. And you’ve accomplished a lot since then.”
    “Not compared with the people I meet at Donovan’s parties. The ones who aren’t doctors are lawyers, and the ones who aren’t lawyers are in politics.”
    RJ wished Rose could see how important she was to the people she’d worked with at the Rose Chalet, and to her