Read Online Anything but Love by Beth Ciotta - Free Book Online

settled into her new home, Daisy’s old house, with Jayce and Brewster. She’d reveled in planning her wedding along with her mom and Daisy, and her two closest friends, Chloe and Monica. She’d embraced the challenge of her new business—Red Clover Renovations. It was a slow build, but she also held a part-time job at Maple Molly’s Antique Barn—a job she loved—and Jayce had struck gold with his cyber detective agency. Financially, she,
they
were set. Emotionally, Rocky was riding a never-ending wave of love. Jayce rocked her world and Rocky gave as good as she got. Life was good. Life was great!
    Except for the delay in the release of the Cupcake Lovers recipe book, and the woman who was fast becoming the new bane of Rocky’s existence, her client from hell—Harper Day.
    Rocky shook her head in wonder as she pulled her jeep into her cousin, Sam’s, drive. Tasha Burke had left town and Harper Day had moved in. Not permanently, but due to her excessive texting and e-mails, she was always “present.” It was like trading one pain in the ass for another. It’s not that Rocky couldn’t handle the high-maintenance publicist from the West Coast. She just needed a reprieve for the next few weeks so she could focus on herself and Jayce. On their wedding.
    That’s where Sam came in.
    Hopefully.
    Bundled against the frigid cold and mounds of snow, Rocky made her way across Sam’s shoveled sidewalk and knocked on his front door. She’d always loved that it was painted bright red. That had been Paula’s influence. She’d loved bright colors and everything cheery in life—flowers, pop music. She’d been Sam’s opposite in so many ways and yet his perfect mate. Rocky’s heart still ached when she thought about the awful way Paula had faded from this world. No one blamed Sam for mourning his lost love so deeply, not that he ever talked about his grief or loneliness. But everyone wanted him to find new happiness. Everyone had laid their money on Rachel Lacey, but that hadn’t worked out, and now Sam was back to closing himself off to dating.
    The door swung open and Rocky’s tall, rugged, former military cousin greeted her with a teddy bear under one arm and two Miss Kitty pocketbooks slung over the other. Rocky smothered a grin as she moved inside what was usually a tip-top house. “What happened in here?”
    “Babysitter couldn’t get Mina to go to bed last night. Neither could I. In an effort to tire her out, I endured a fashion show. It lasted an hour. This was the fallout.”
    Rocky pressed her lips together as she surveyed the damage. Strewn about the living room were random piles of coats, feather boas, bright-colored shoes, hats, tiaras, and what looked to be about thirty fuzzy friends.
    “Her audience,” Sam said, indicating the rows of ragtag stuffed animals. “Along with me.”
    “Where was Ben?”
    “In bed. Pretending to sleep. He doesn’t think I know, but he reads those anime books under the covers every night by flashlight.”
    “You don’t want him reading graphic novels?”
    “I don’t want him reading period after lights out.”
    Rocky unzipped her jacket and perched her hands on her hips. “I never realized how many clothes and toys Mina has.”
    “That’s because I, we, keep them pretty organized in her bedroom and playroom.”
    Rocky swept up one of the boas. “Haven’t seen these before.”
    “New fascination. Boas and princess crowns.”
    “Why so many?”
    Sam turned away, scooping up a purple elephant wearing a raspberry pink tiara. “She wanted them.”
    Rocky raised a brow. Sam loved his kids more than anything in the world, but he wasn’t one to spoil them. Unless … “Mina still crying every morning when you drop her off at school?”
    “Frickin’ torture. It’s all I can do not to swoop her up and hit the road.”
    Rocky’s heart jerked when she caught the miserable look on Sam’s face. The rough-and-tough solider turned brawny carpenter, felled by a