Read Online Love Me Tender by Susan Fox - Free Book Online Page A

list?”
    â€œThe bar.”
    â€œTick it off. I just checked with Roy. And Mitch has the food and the servers under control. And the décor looks fabulous.” She gestured around the room. The dark wood and brass were tempered with peach and white table settings and vases of ivory-colored orchids blended with pink, orange, and peach freesias. The sweet, fresh scent of the freesias perfumed the air. “All that’s left is putting the place cards on the tables, right? And you have the seating chart.”
    Madisun took a deep breath. “Okay, that sounds right.” She fumbled the seating chart out from under the spreadsheet. “Oh God, I’ve lost the place cards!”
    â€œThey’re here.” Cassidy grabbed the stack off a nearby table. “I sorted them by table, but we should double-check as we put them out. Starting with the easiest, the head table. Read me the names on the seating chart.” She and Madisun knew this table by heart, but it might calm the younger woman to get a process going.
    Obediently, Madisun read from the chart. “Karen and Jamal, of course. The best man, Jake, and the matron of honor, Brooke.”
    â€œWho, conveniently, happen to be husband and wife.” She put cards on the table.
    â€œThe maid of honor, Lark Cantrell, who doesn’t have a plus one. Karen’s parents and her brother and his wife.” She looked up. “It’s too bad Jamal has no family. He’s outnumbered.”
    â€œAt least he has Jake.” The two men, both RCMP officers, were good friends.
    Cassidy and Madisun moved on, table by table. The bride and groom had kept things small. There were RCMP colleagues, local friends, and a handful of Karen’s relatives from Ontario.
    At the final table, Madisun read, “Jess and Evan, Dave and Sally, and—”
    â€œYou’re really sure that’s a good idea?” Cassidy asked.
    The younger woman frowned. “We discussed this before.”
    â€œI know, but it still seems strange.”
    Over the past weeks, Cassidy had learned a lot about the intriguing Dave Cousins. Not much from the man himself, as he tended to be closemouthed about his personal life, but from staff at the Wild Rose; her landlady, Ms. Haldenby; Dave’s family; and other townspeople. Having experienced small towns before, she wasn’t surprised that people minded each other’s business. In the nicest possible way.
    She’d found out that she had guessed wrong about Jess breaking his heart. In fact, their marriage had split up because he had fallen in love with Anita, a recently arrived teacher. That surprised Cassidy; it seemed so out of character for him. And, oddly, people didn’t censure him. He was Caribou Crossing’s fair-haired boy who could do no wrong. She’d lost track of the number of times someone had referred to him as the nicest guy in town, and told her about some problem he’d solved or generous act he’d bestowed.
    According to the rumor mill, Dave and Anita had nobly tried to deny and resist their mutual attraction. But Jess noticed that Dave seemed stressed and miserable, and she forced him to tell her the truth. Then she—Caribou Crossing’s fair-haired girl despite her chestnut locks—nobly freed him from their marriage. It seemed that although Jess and Dave did love each other it wasn’t that “once in a lifetime” kind of love, as Maribeth at Days of Your put it. So Jess freed Dave to find that kind of love with Anita, and she later found it herself with Evan, who’d been her best friend as a kid but had left Caribou Crossing for ten years.
    Tragically for Dave, he and Anita had barely announced their engagement when she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She’d undergone every possible treatment, with Dave steadfastly at her side, but had died in a few short months. That had been three years ago. Now Cassidy understood the sadness