Read Online The Best Bride by Susan Mallery - Free Book Online Page A

affectionately.
    â€œDon’t you try your wild ways on me, Travis Haynes,”she said, giving him a mock glare. “I’m old enough to be your very young and attractive aunt.”
    Elizabeth couldn’t help it. She started laughing. Even the sharp pains in her side couldn’t stop her from chuckling.
    â€œMommy.”
    Mandy entered the room. She was washed and dressed in a pretty blue dress with tiny white flowers. She came over to her and held out her arms for a hug. Elizabeth pulled her close.
    â€œAre you ready for your first day of school?” she asked. Travis was going to walk Mandy to the elementary school and register her.
    Mandy nodded. “Travis helped me pick out this dress to wear. Did we choose the right one?”
    â€œOf course, Mandy. You look perfect.”
    â€œI have ribbons.” She held them out. “Will you put them in my hair?”
    â€œSure.”
    Elizabeth turned and Mandy slipped between her legs. When the girl saw Louise, she squealed with excitement. “Louise, you found us.”
    Louise looked at her. “Morning, baby girl. What do you mean I found you?”
    â€œTravis said you were lost.”
    Elizabeth glanced at him. He’d taken a sip of coffee just as Mandy spoke and now he started to choke. Louise came over and pounded him on the back several times while he coughed.
    Louise gave her a quick wink. “He probably said I was trying to find myself.”
    The next thud on his back sounded a little harder. He turned to her and held up his hand. “That’s enough,” he said, his voice raspy and faint. “I’m fine.”
    Elizabeth wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw a flush ofcolor on Travis’s cheeks. She bit back her laughter and concentrated on Mandy’s hair. When the braid was secured with the length of blue ribbon, Mandy pulled out a chair and climbed onto the seat. As Louise fixed breakfast, Many chatted with Travis and Louise about what Mr. Bear had told her in the night. Louise slid a plate in front of the girl, containing a waffle shaped like a popular cartoon mouse. Cut strawberries formed a bright collar at the bottom of the waffle. A glass of milk completed the meal.
    Elizabeth looked up at the older woman. “Thank you for making that.”
    Louise shrugged. “It’s nothing. The first day of school should be special for a little girl. And Alfred was never impressed with my waffles.”
    Elizabeth wanted to ask if Louise really did feed her dog waffles, but she didn’t dare. As the smells of eggs, bacon and coffee mingled in the kitchen, she leaned back in her chair and savored her feeling of relief. She and Mandy were going to make it. In three weeks she would start her new job and move into her own place. In the meantime, they were safe here.
    She glanced at Travis and found him staring at her. His gaze dropped briefly to her mouth. The sensation of being touched was so real, she wanted to touch him back. The attraction flickering just below the surface fanned to life.
    He was her salvation and her greatest problem. This, this mindless reaction to him, had to stop. She knew better than to get involved with a man, any man. But he was even worse than most. She knew what his easy ways and quick, tempting smile meant. She’d already been seduced by one charmer and those results had been more awful than she could ever have imagined. The only decent thing to come out of her relationship with Sam Proctor had been Mandy—and that had been an accident.
    Louise served them breakfast, then poured more coffee. Elizabeth hesitated before picking up her fork.
    â€œDig in,” Travis said. “Louise is a great cook.”
    â€œI don’t doubt that, it’s just…”
    He leaned across the bleached oak table and laid his hand on top of hers. Heat flooded her fingers, warming her blood and making its way up her arm. She told herself to ignore it, and him, but she