Read To Love and Cherish for Free Online

across the street.
    â€œParades,” King growled. “What a hell of a waste of time.”
    â€œDon’t you like music?” she asked curiously.
    â€œI like a military band or a symphony orchestra. You haven’t had tosuffer the brass section of this outfit,” he grumbled. “And I’ll be damned if I’m going to. There’s an air show out at the airport. I’m going there instead.”
    â€œAn air show?” She didn’t realize how her face lit up at the mention of it, or how big and bright her dark eyes became. King looked at her as if he’d only just realized that she was beautiful.
    â€œDon’t tell me you like airplanes, young Shelby?” he murmured.
    â€œMy father…my real father,” she corrected, “was a pilot. He used to take me up when I was only four years old. He could do anything with a plane,” she laughed, remembering. “Barrel rolls, spins, dives…and he didn’t even have an aerobatic license. If the FAA had ever caught him…”
    King frowned. “What happened to him?”
    The laughter left her dark eyes allof a sudden. She turned them out the window. “He…he found mother with another man. They had an argument, and he drank heavily that night. Early the next morning, the police came to tell us that he’d crashed his plane into a mountain. Apparently he’d taken it up when we thought he was in bed asleep.” She sighed and felt a prickling of hurt at the memory. “It was a long time ago.”
    â€œHow old were you?”
    â€œTen.”
    â€œBut you still love planes.”
    â€œHe loved them.” She clasped her hands in her lap. “He was the only person I cared about for a long time. He was larger than life. Every time I go up in a plane now, I remember him. It’s almost like being with him again when I fly. I’ve had my ground training, but somehow I never got time to get in any hours of flight training.”
    â€œMy God, you’re a puzzle,” he said heavily.
    â€œDo you fly?” she asked.
    â€œI have to, honey,” he replied quietly. “I spend a lot of time traveling on ranch business.”
    She nodded, idly watching the smoke from his cigarette curl up in thin gray spirals. His brown fingers drew her attention. He had beautiful, masculine hands—tanned and strong and square-tipped, with dark curling hair on the backs of them traveling up into the sleeves of his shirt.
    â€œDo you really want to watch the parade?” he asked her suddenly.
    She shook her head, and her heart ran away with her.
    â€œAll right, then.” He cranked the car and reversed it.
    Danny and Mary Kate Culhane were coming across the street as King pulled out into it. He pressed a buttonon the door and the window powered down. He called to Danny.
    â€œWe’re going to the air show,” he told his brother. “We’ll be back in time for lunch.”
    Danny’s eyebrows went up and Shelby could have sworn his eyes were dancing. “Sure,” he said. “We’ll see you then.”
    Mary Kate Culhane had a death grip on the younger Brannt’s arm. “Have fun!” she called, with a smug, confident look on her peaches and cream complexioned face.
    King didn’t even answer her. He turned the car and sped down the road toward the airport. “I must be crazy as hell,” he muttered.
    â€œIf you don’t want me along…” she began.
    â€œShut up, Shelby,” he said flatly. He scowled over his cigarette. “Just because I’m taking you to an air showdoesn’t mean I’ve changed my mind, so don’t get ideas.”
    She sighed. “I didn’t expect that you’d change it,” she agreed. “But thank you for this.”
    He only went faster, his face like a thunderhead.
    The air show was everything Shelby expected it to be. She watched the pilots stall out and do rolls and