Read Online First Class Male by Jillian Hart - Free Book Online Page A

crushing squeeze. Both loss and longing filled her as she took one long look at the mother-in-law she could have had.
    “If I’ve told you once, Lindylee, I’ve told you a thousand times. You must stitch the girl’s seams more securely.” Mrs. Reynolds reached into her oversized reticule and hauled out a lovely pink dress with expensive lace and intricate embroidery. “Clara tore through this on the first wear. Hardly a quality product, let me tell you. You should be ashamed of trying to pass yourself off as an accomplished seamstress. I demand my money back.”
    “May I ask what Clara was doing when she tore the dress?” Lindylee asked mildly, although her shoulders were set, her jaw rigid. Clearly there were some previous tensions between the two.
    Callie watched, aghast as Mrs. Reynolds sneered at the gentle shopkeeper.
    “Now that is none of your concern, is it?” The older lady puckered up her mouth most unattractively. She did not look kind or gentle at all. “You’ll refund me the cost of this dress or I’ll let everyone in this town know how you treated me.”
    Lindylee sighed. “Let me see the torn seam.”
    Smothered laughter drew Callie’s attention away from the front counter, where Lindylee bowed her head to inspect the seam in question. The two angelic little girls with Cupid’s bow mouths and delicate beauty were standing at the bonnet display. One girl struggled not to burst out laughing while the other gathered up spit in her mouth, covertly lifted a hat from its hook, turned it upside down and shot a spit wad into it. She replaced it on the rack with a giggle.
    If that was Earl’s mother, Callie thought, then these were his daughters. Interesting. These were the sweet, shy little girls who were nothing but loving and kind?
    “What are you looking at, lady?” One girl asked as she gathered up more spit in her mouth.
    “Yeah.” The other sister uncovered her mouth with her hand to sneer. “Go away, we don’t like you.”
    Callie’s mouth hung open, she didn’t know what to say. Shocked, she turned the doorknob, thinking that if children in the orphanage had behaved that way, they would be sitting in the corner through supper, if that’s what it took for them to learn to behave.
    Disillusionment struck her hard as she turned away. Clearly, the reality about Dr. Earl Reynolds and his version of it were clearly two different things. A hot ball of anger gathered in her stomach as she gave the door a good strong yank to open it. The bell overhead tinkled melodiously over the sound of the conversation at the front counter.
    “Perhaps Clara was climbing trees in this dress?” Lindylee asked as Callie sailed out of the shop. “Don’t think I didn’t hear all about that. She was swinging from a branch like a monkey and her dress tore. I specifically told you the size was too small, but you had to have the dress for your tea party.”
    “Excuses for your shoddy work!” Mrs. Reynolds argued shrilly.
    Callie shut the door, sending Lindylee a sympathetic look through the glass. Whew, she thought, standing in the hot puff of the summer breeze. She tripped down the boardwalk, thinking of how close she’d come to marrying the wrong man. She didn’t like Earl or his family at all. Strangely, grief took hold of her. She’d been so eager to love the family she’d read about in those letters.
    “Looks like you found something to suit you.” A deep male voice rose above the clatter of horses and vehicles on the road and the drone of conversations farther down the boardwalk. Mason pushed off the rail, his arms folded over his broad chest, his gaze intense as he looked her up and down, from lacy collar to ruffled hem and back up again. His baby-blue eyes glinted with male appreciation. “That’s a good color on you.”
    “You haven’t been waiting for me all this time, have you?” She started off down the boardwalk, trying not to look at him, trying to keep her heart from leaping at the