Read Lone Star Wedding for Free Online Page A

waited until she looked up to grace her with his sexiest smile. “And I take it you don’t like flowers.”
    Her hands stilled for a moment, then resumed their task.
    â€œCome on, Hannah. I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for weeks. Even my father thinks it’s taking a toll on me. From the looks of all the brochures and swatches of material and files in this room, you’ve been busy, too. I have to eat. You have to eat. We might as well eat together.”
    He gave her a second dose of his sexy smile.
    â€œI can’t, Parker.”
    Parker understood a simple no when he heard one. This wasn’t a courtroom, and she wasn’t a witness he could badger. She was a woman, and she’d made herself perfectly clear. He straightened and carefully returned the clasp to the edge of her desk. He did a quick inventory of the room. There were framed photographs on several shelves behind her; a yellow flowered sofa sat at a comfortable angle near a matching overstuffed chair. White lights were strung through the fronds of huge potted plants. Balloons bobbed from strings that were tied to an antique filing cabinet, a cardboard cut-out clown propped nearby.
    It occurred to him that Hannah Cassidy made her living from planning more than weddings. Redistributing his weight to one foot, he said, “I’d like to hire you.”
    â€œWhat?”
    She had a suspicious mind. He’d given her good reason for it. “I’m thinking about having a party.”
    â€œYou’re kidding.” Her disbelief showed in the tone of her voice. Recovering slightly, she said, “What kind of party?”
    â€œI don’t know. I just thought of it.”
    â€œParker, why are you really here?”
    That was a good question. He worded his answer very carefully. “It isn’t because I have a lot of idle time. It’s just the opposite. Yesterday I was trying to talk an irate husband out of hiring a private investigator to follow his wife, whom he suspected was cheating. I was in the middle of trying to explain that in no-fault divorce states, there’s no use. Suddenly your image crowded into my brain. You’re interfering with my concentration.”
    Hannah didn’t know what to say. Doggone it, she felt complimented. She had no business feeling that way. She and Parker were complete opposites. While she planned weddings down to the smallest detail, he took marriages apart, asset by asset.
    â€œLook. I have an appointment across town with a very anxious bride to be.” She opened a drawer and pulled out a price list and several brochures depicting the different themes she’d used in planning parties. Placing the pamphlets near the edge of her desk, she said, “You can look these over, if you’d like. If you truly want my help planning a party, let me know. Otherwise…”
    He glanced at the brochures, the rest of her statement hanging in the air, unfinished. That “otherwise” spokevolumes. He could hire her services as a party planner, but she didn’t plan to see him socially.
    â€œI see,” he said. “Maybe I’ll do that.”
    â€œGoodbye, Parker.”
    Hannah watched him stride toward the door. It was in her own best interests to let him go. And she was letting him go. It was better this way. A clean break from what could have turned out to be a disastrous relationship.
    She covered her lips with three fingers, remembering how it had felt to kiss him. If she let him go, how would she ever know what might have been?
    She didn’t need to know. It was for the best. For both of them.
    She wondered if he’d really been burning the candle at both ends. Had there been shadows beneath his eyes?
    â€œParker?”
    His fingers were already wrapped around the doorknob when he turned around. His eyes looked hooded. She couldn’t read their expression from here. “You forgot your brochures.”
    He retraced