Read Online Barefoot in Lace (Barefoot Bay Brides Book 2) by Roxanne St. Claire - Free Book Online Page A

“You take the mother to the kitchen, Willow, and do a final tasting of the key menu items. I’ll walk Hailey through the event and calm nerves with some outside air and soothing talk.” She handed the files to Gussie. “I would normally do this since it’s more about setting than styling, but since you roped him into helping us, why don’t you take this prop checklist to the storage space in town with the photographer and start hauling some of the pieces? The most complicated one is the gazebo, but it fits in our van with some ingenuity and muscle power. I’m assuming this guy has a little of both.”
    Gussie imagined Tom hauling the gazebo in the Barefoot Brides’s van. “He has both in spades, though I’m not sure he’ll fall in love with the idea of hauling gazebo parts in ninety-two degrees.”
    “You’ll make it fun,” Ari said, and then caught herself. “You don’t mind going over to the warehouse in Fort Myers with him, do you?”
    A day alone in the warehouse? “Couldn’t be more treacherous than walking the beach in the moonlight with him.”
    “You did?” The question came in unison from both Ari and Willow.
    “Yup.”
    Ari and Willow shared a look that Gussie instantly analyzed. They didn’t mind that there was more to the dinner than wedding planning, but they sure as heck minded not being told about it.
    “And you were going to spill these beans, when?” Willow asked, leaning across the conference table as if ready to physically pull the details out of Gussie.
    “It’s not like anything major happened. We talked for a while, and I hung out with his niece and played a Wii game,” she said. “After I told him I wouldn’t go in the gulf in my underwear.”
    Ari gasped, but Willow started laughing. “That sounds familiar.” She was referring to her fiancé, of course, a former Navy SEAL who loved nothing more than the water…with very few clothes on.
    “This is different,” Gussie assured them.
    “Sounds like it,” Willow said dryly. “Nick never stops at underwear.”
    “I talked him out of it and convinced him to get back to his twelve-year-old niece.” She’d told them about the girl when she’d first closed the deal with Tom, and mentioned today that he had guardianship of her, but hadn’t elaborated on what had happened last night.
    “Did Rhonda and Hailey witness the stripping photographer?” Willow asked.
    “They’d gone already,” Gussie said.
    “And nothing else happened but talking?” Willow prodded.
    Gussie shrugged. “Not really. Well, I wigged out. Literally.”
    They both gasped. And Willow shot up from the table and walked to the office door, closing it with a solid thud. “Every word. Every detail. Now.”
    “There’s nothing to tell,” Gussie said.
    “Coy is one accessory you don’t wear well,” Ari finally replied, crossing her arms and giving that look that reminded everyone that her sixth sense was as uncanny as her ability to read “the universe” and its vibes.
    “I’m not being coy,” Gussie insisted. “I mean, there’s really nothing to share except we talked and made a, you know, nice connection, and he asked me why I wear wigs, and I showed him. No biggie.”
    “No biggie?” Willow asked, reaching her hand out to put a light touch on Gussie’s arm. “You don’t show that scar to many people, Gus. I think I knew you for five or six months before you explained the reason you love wigs and hats. Which is perfectly reasonable. You know this guy for, what, half a day, and you reveal your most personal truth?”
    Ari slipped into a chair, nodding. “Willow’s right, you know. This is significant.”
    Was it? For some reason, Gussie didn’t want it to be significant. Probably because she knew what she wanted out of a man…and one who advertised “always alone” on his arm didn’t fit the bill. “He’s mind-numbingly attractive, so I’m claiming a numb mind.”
    “Nick’s mind-numbingly attractive,” Willow countered.