Read Online If the Stick Turns Pink... by Carla Cassidy - Free Book Online Page A

explained.
    â€œPoor SueEllen.” Tanner shook his head ruefully. “She wants that crown badly and doesn’t realize displaying herself won’t get it for her.” Tanner grinned. “But she does have a nice figure, doesn’t she?”
    Bailey returned the grin. “I didn’t notice.”
    â€œYeah, right,” Tanner replied dryly as Bailey gotinto his truck. “We’ll see you tomorrow evening at the reception.”
    Tomorrow evening at the reception. Tanner’s words echoed inside Bailey’s head as he drove home. More than once that day he’d had to fight the desire to phone Mellie and call the whole thing off.
    He’d definitely overreacted to the whole Miss Dairy Cow thing, had been vulnerable because of SueEllen’s naked appearance and had fallen prey to Mellie’s crazy scheme for a baby.
    Still, even though he’d wanted to call her and back out, he hadn’t. It was no longer a matter of just letting Mellie down.
    Things had spiraled way out of control. In the past week his mother and Mellie’s mother had been like twin tornadoes, blowing away any obstacles that stood in the way of a day to remember.
    Flowers had been ordered, a caterer found, the community center had been reserved and a band had been hired. He’d been fitted for a black tux with yellow cummerbund and tie, and wedding gifts had been arriving at the house for the past three days.
    He had a feeling nothing short of his death could force an end to the events he and Mellie had set into motion.
    One thing easy to dismiss was Tanner’s assertion that part of a marriage was discovering each other’s secrets. Mellie with her bright-green eyes and freckled face was like an open book to him.
    He knew what she liked to eat and how her noseturned bright red when she cried. He knew her politics tended to lean to the right, that her left-front tooth was a crown and that her nickname when growing up had been “skinny, minny Melanie.”
    He certainly had no secrets from Mellie and he hadn’t been lying when he’d told Tanner that he knew her better than he knew himself.
    No, there would be no surprises, no wondrous awakenings to deepen any marital intimacy between Mellie and him. Hopefully he could succeed in getting her pregnant right away, then they could have a quiet separation and an uncomplicated divorce.
    But what about the baby? A little voice whispered in his head. For the first time he considered the outcome of this deal with Mellie. The outcome would be a tiny human being…Bailey’s baby.
    Bailey had never thought much about having children. Stephanie had made it clear when they’d married that she wasn’t particularly interested in having a family. Bailey had suspected she felt the same way about children that she did about animals…they were messy and dirty and required too much attention.
    He parked his car in front of his house, then walked to the barn to check on the pups. No wonder he loved dogs. They were so remarkably uncomplicated. Feed them, water them and scratch them behind the ears, and they offered back unconditional love.
    He only hoped this brief marriage to Mellie remained as uncomplicated as it had sounded when they’d first agreed to it.
    Â 
    Melanie stood before the mirror in the church’s ladies’ room, staring at the reflection of the bride in the glass. She’d told her mother all week she didn’t want a wedding dress, that her beige suit would work just fine, but Marybeth Watters was not about to allow her daughter to be married in an old suit.
    The dress they’d finally agreed upon was a simple, but traditional white gown. A slick silk with tiny seed buttons down the front, it clung to Melanie like a second skin, delicately displaying the thrust of her breasts and the slenderness of her waist.
    Her hair had been braided and coiled around her head, the bright copper color broken up by