The Wedding Wish (Summer Grooms Series) by Ginny Baird Read Free Book Online Page A

constructed across campus by the arboretum, complete with an outdoor
amphitheater. That had come in handy this summer, with the school opening up
student performances of Shakespeare to the townsfolk in general. Kip pulled a
hanky from his pocket to wipe the building sweat on his brow. Eighty-five
degrees in the shade, and it was predicted to get warmer. Apparently, the
student body knew it and had dressed accordingly. He perused a group of passing
students in shorts and flip-flops as Buddy wrapped up his instructions. Things
were a lot less busy here during summer session, but there were still enough
kids around to keep the academic atmosphere at play. Kids and a few medical
professionals, he mused, as a bunch of young people in scrubs rounded the sidewalk
and headed his direction.
    Buddy asked him a question, and he turned to address it,
believing he’d spotted a familiar face as he did. “That’s right,” he told his
foreman, “nobody in the interior courtyard this time. Not until the skylights
are all set and the scaffolding removed.”
    Not twenty feet behind him, he heard a male voice say, “I
can’t believe it! You actually heard from Susan?”
    But what caused him to set his jaw was the voice Kip heard
next. The voice belonging to none other than Isabel’s indomitable new
boyfriend. “I was starting to think she’d never call. You know what I’m saying?
Like maybe I’d dreamed it.”
    “I hear ya, man,” the other one said. “But sometimes dreams can come true.”
    Kip angled his hat and glanced casually over his shoulder.
It was Robert Reed all right. Talking one-on-one with some other guy as they
trailed behind a group of students.
    “This one’s been a long time coming, that’s for sure,”
Robert said.
    “So when are you going to see her?”
    “As soon as she’ll let me, I guess.” Robert gave a happy
chuckle as his voice trailed away, and it was all Kip could do not to wheel
around and tackle him. Kip had played football in high school and hadn’t
forgotten any of those moves. Okay, so maybe he was a little wider in the gut,
but his shoulders were still as broad. And he sure as hell knew how to handle
somebody messing with his daughter. Man to man, that’s how.
    “Kip?” Buddy asked, his face questioning. It was only then
that Kip realized he’d missed some sort of question. “What should I tell the
guys?”
    “You can tell them…” Kip narrowed his eyes toward the
sidewalk as Robert and his pal strolled away. “Just wait until they have
daughters!” he said with an angry growl.

 
    “Now, Kip,” Trudy said on the porch, “I want you to calm down.”
She’d just poured them a pitcher of lemonade, and at Kip’s insistence had also
retrieved a bottle of vodka. He dumped some in his pink glass and frowned.
    “None it sounds good, Trudy, and you know it.”
    “Goodness gracious, who knows what you overheard? You could
be mistaken.”
    “About Robert being called by a woman named Susan, and him
having a burning itch to see her? A burning itch that…let me guess, here…he
likely wants Susan to scratch?”
    “You’re getting carried away again. For heaven’s sakes,
Susan could be his sister!”
    Kip set down his glass and stared at her. “The Reeds lived
beside us for years. You know very well Robert’s sister’s name is Teresa.”
    She sighed and sat on the porch swing beside him. “Be that
as it may, what you have here is nothing more than idle speculation—over
a conversation you weren’t even supposed to have overheard.”
    “Precisely what makes it so damning.”
    “Or—on the other hand—totally misunderstood.”
    Kip grunted and refilled his glass.
    “I need you to promise me something.” Her face was lined
with concern. “Promise you won’t breathe a word of this to Isabel.”
    “What? Why?”
    “Because, darling,” she said calmly, “you don’t even know
for a fact what’s going on. Honestly? Do you want to get Isabel’s feelings all
stirred up