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

couldn’t seem to look away from his dark gaze.
    â€œIt’s just nothing,” he said. “Everything is going to be all right. I’ll make it all right. I’m the sheriff. I can do anything.”
    â€œI believe you,” she said and was rewarded with a smile. She did believe him. That was the problem.
    She picked up her fork. It was only for a few weeks, she reminded herself. She just had to stay strong and resist the powerful charm of Travis Haynes. She could do it, she had to. Her life depended on it.
    * * *
    Elizabeth sat in the family room and stared at the television. The screen was blank. She picked up the remote control, then tossed it down. She didn’t want to watch television; she wanted to be with her daughter on her first day of school.
    She swallowed against the lump in her throat, but the pressure didn’t go away. Her eyes burned and she wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all. Little Mandy had gone off with Travis an hour ago. She’d waved and smiled, and promised to make her mom something pretty in class.
    â€œI should have been with her,” Elizabeth said softly, fighting the frustration. She touched her side, feeling the bandage under her shorts and panties. There was no way she could have made it from here to the school and back. It took all her strength to walk from the kitchen to the family room. But she’d so wanted to see Mandy’s classroom and meether teacher. Her daughter would only enter the first grade once and she’d missed it. What kind of mother did that make her? It wasn’t enough she’d taken Mandy away from everything she knew in the world, but now the girl was going to a strange school, escorted by a strange man. It wasn’t fair.
    â€œTelevision is generally more interesting when you turn it on,” Louise said.
    Elizabeth looked up at her. The other woman stood in the doorway to the family room. She had a mug of coffee in each hand. “I wasn’t really planning on watching,” she said.
    â€œWould you like some company?”
    Elizabeth nodded. “That would be nice, if you have the time.”
    Louise handed her one of the mugs and plopped down at the opposite end of the butter-soft leather sofa. “I’ve got plenty of time. That boy hasn’t even furnished most of the rooms in this monstrosity. There’s not that much cleaning to do. I suspect he hires me so that he can have a taste of someone else’s cooking and a friendly face to come home to a couple of days a week.”
    â€œAre you saying Travis is lonely?”
    â€œCould be.”
    Louise fluffed up her bangs with her fingers. Elizabeth noticed she painted her long nails a bright red and had thin stripes of gold dotted on the tips.
    â€œSo what do you think of him?” Louise asked.
    That was certainly subtle, Elizabeth thought, fighting a grin. “He seems very nice.”
    Louise’s eyes narrowed. “Now I don’t think any of the Haynes boys would appreciate being called ‘nice.’ Ladies’ men, maybe. Irresistible, certainly. But nice?” She shook her head and smiled. “You’d better keep that opinion to yourself.”
    â€œI guess I’ll have to.” She took a sip from her mug. “Travis mentioned he has three brothers.”
    â€œThat’s right, and his daddy is one of five.” She leaned her head back against the leather sofa. Her expression got soft and dreamy. “That means there are nine Haynes men walking around on this earth tempting women with their wicked ways. When I was in high school, Earl—that’s Travis’s father—came to speak to my class about drinking and driving. I don’t remember a word he said, but I do remember how handsome he looked in his uniform. When he smiled, I about melted in my seat.” She straightened and shrugged. “I was barely seventeen, and my boyfriend and I had just broken up. Earl Haynes looked