Read Online The Bridal Path: Ashley by Sherryl Woods - Free Book Online

the mention of rabbit stew and venison steak.”
    Dillon laughed. “I’m surprised Trent hasn’t disowned her.”
    “Believe me, the thought probably crossed his mind a time or two. On the other hand,” Ashley continued. “Sara loved it so much she ran off and spent days on end hiding out somewhere up here when Daddy threatened to send her off to finishing school. She turned everything he’d taught her against him.”
    Dillon’s grin broadened. “He told me about that.”
    “He told everyone about it,” Ashley said dryly. “It was hard to tell if he was furious or pleased, but after that, he pretty much gave up. I guess he figured he was no match for our individual preferences and stubbornness, or else he just accepted the fact that girls would never love the same things that sons might have.”
    “He let you off the hook? That doesn’t sound like him.”
    “Actually, by the time he dragged me up here, he just handed me a fishing pole and pointed me in the direction of the stream. He didn’t even complain when I tossed back everything I caught.”
    “Oh, but what a disappointment you must have been to him,” Dillon teased.
    “It was no laughing matter, I’ll have you know. But that was the least of the ways I disappointed him, actually,” she said with an air of resignation. “My determination to move to New York was the real biggie.”
    Dillon’s expression sobered at once. “No, it wasn’t,” he said adamantly. He regarded her curiously. “Don’t you know how proud he is of you? My God, Ashley, he has drawers filled with every magazine you’ve ever appeared in. He has framed pictures on the wall in his office.”
    “You’ve been to Three-Stars?” For some reason that startled her even more than his familiarity with the cabin or his apparent understanding of her father’s thoughts about the life she’d chosen.
    The cabin was her father’s private sanctuary, but Three-Stars was as public as a governor’s mansion, a place where Trent showed off his wealth and power. That Dillon had been invited there showed a level of acceptance, a certain depth of male bonding and respect between the two men that she hadn’t guessed existed, despite Dillon’s claims that the two were friends.
    “It’s not Buckingham Palace, sweetheart. It doesn’t require an invitation from the Queen.”
    Naturally, she thought, Dillon had managed to totally misunderstand and find an insult where none had been intended. “You know what I mean,” she said.
    “No, I don’t. Your father’s not the snob you seem to think he is. Or is it just that you can’t imagine anyone inviting me into their home?”
    Ashley could feel a dull red flush creeping up her neck. “That isn’t what I meant at all. It’s just that I’m still struggling with the idea that you and my father are friends. He’s so…”
    “Respectable,” Dillon offered.
    She didn’t like the stiff, cool way he said it, but she nodded. “Okay, yes. Trent Wilde is the epitome of respectability.”
    A warning spark flashed in Dillon’s eyes. “And I am…?”
    Ashley wouldn’t have answered that if all the hounds of hell had been nipping at her heels. Dillon’s expression demanded a diplomatic answer, and she couldn’t think of anything remotely tactful. Respectability had never been a word she would have applied to the Dillon of old.
    “Trouble?” he suggested, filling in the blank for her. “A grown-up version of a juvenile delinquent? Have I hit it yet or should I keep going?”
    Ashley swallowed hard at the sudden anger blazing in his eyes. “The truth is I don’t know you at all,” she admitted softly.
    “That’s right, you don’t. So maybe you should reserve judgment on whether or not your father’s a fool for befriending me.”
    His anger was palpable and, she felt, unjustified. “I never said that,” she said indignantly.
    “Maybe not in those precise words, but the message was clear enough.”
    “Or maybe you just have a