Read Online Walker Bride by Bernadette Marie - Free Book Online Page B

with
her.”
    “The bridal mecca?”
    He chuckled. “Yup. That one.”
    “Are you getting married?” she asked and then
hoped he didn’t say yes. She wasn’t sure she could handle that
right now.
    “No. No.” His answer was firm. “Can I come
in?”
    Pearl stared at him. Did she want him in her
house? Yes, she did.
    “I have coffee and bacon. I was just about to
whip up an omelet. Would you like some?”
    His lips tightened as if he were giving it
some thought, but didn’t want to impose. But then his eyes lit. “I
would. Do you mind?”
    “I offered, didn’t I?”
     
    So, she wasn’t a morning person. Twice she’d
found him on her doorstep and twice she might not have been so glad
to see him.
    Pearl stepped back and Tyson stepped inside.
He’d never been inside of her house, and now that he was there he
felt a bit odd about it.
    Having seen the girlie interior of her store,
he might have thought her house would be spotless and white. That
surely wasn’t the case.
    She wasn’t neat and tidy, but she wasn’t
messy either. Her purse sat open on a chair in the living room.
Shoes were tossed aside by the door. A blanket she might have
wrapped herself in while watching TV was thrown on the couch and a
forgotten plate and glass sat on the coffee table.
    It brought a bit of pure joy to his heart to
see this side of her.
    “Do you want anything in your coffee?” Pearl
asked from the kitchen.
    He hadn’t even noticed she walked past him.
“No. Just black.”
    Walking through the doorway to the kitchen,
he watched as she turned with a mug in her hand. She wasn’t
covering herself up now, and there wasn’t much left to the
imagination.
    Tyson swallowed hard and willed every manly
part of him to behave.
    She was a mess. Her hair piled on her head
and a smudge of makeup under her eyes. Nothing should have been
stirring in him, but damn he couldn’t help it. Her disheveled look
didn’t distract from her beauty.
    Taking the mug from her, he looked down at
the floor. “Thanks.”
    “I’m going to go change. The bacon has a few
more minutes. When the timer goes off, just pull it out. There are
oven mitts on the counter.”
    He nodded, looking into his coffee now as she
scurried away. However, he did manage to take a look over the edge
of the mug as he sipped and caught her walking out the door. She
sure had an excellent body.
    When the timer buzzed, Tyson set his coffee
down and pulled the tray of bacon from the oven. She was a crispy
bacon kind of person. He liked it a little floppy.
    Setting the tray down on the trivet on the
counter, he noticed she’d already started beating the eggs for the
omelet she’d said she was going to have. Obviously, she hadn’t been
expecting a guest. It wouldn’t hurt to add a few more eggs he
thought.
    With a careful hand, he picked up two more
eggs and cracked them into the bowl. After discarding the shells,
he went to work. His mother always added a little bit of milk to
the mix. He pulled open the refrigerator and found a nearly empty
quart of milk, which was set to expire at the end of the day.
    He added a drop of milk and turned on the
burner on the stove.
    Pearl had already set out her cheese and the
few items she was planning to put into the omelet. There was no
reason to assume she wasn’t going to use everything. He’d just make
one big omelet, and they could split it.
    He looked at the bag of cheese. It too looked
as though it might be on its last day and there wasn’t much of it.
Maybe he’d let her have most of the omelet.
     
    Pearl could smell the bacon. He’d taken it
from the oven. That was good. Now she could smell something
else.
    Quickly she finished with the mascara she’d
started to put on and gave herself one more look in the mirror.
    Aside from not having had a shower, she
thought she looked pretty good.
    She’d pulled her hair back in a ponytail,
washed her face, and added some mascara and tint to her lips. The
yoga pants she’d chosen were