The Bachelor's Sweetheart. Jean C. Gordon

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СКАЧАТЬ It slipped out as if his mouth had no connection to his brain. Time to bring out the reinforcements. Josh drew his mouth into the slow half smile that always worked on women. “Unbelievably, you look even more beautiful than usual.”

      Tessa rolled her eyes. She rolled her eyes. Not dating for the past few months had put him more out of practice than he’d thought. The Smile always used to work.

      “Catch you later at the reception.” He nodded toward the people lined up behind her and squelched the urge to glare at the man in front of him.

      “This is my cousin Pierre, from Montreal,” Claire said.

      Josh sized up the competition as they shook hands. “Nice to meet you.”

      “Ravi de vous rencontrer également,” Pierre said.

      Josh’s gaze pierced the back of Pierre’s head as he moved on. Was the guy showing off, or didn’t he speak English? Josh shook his head. He didn’t know what had gotten into him. There was no competition. Josh liked Tessa too much to let their relationship become anything more than a friendship.

      * * *

      Tessa waited for her grandmother on the sidewalk in front of the church, a small distance from the group of friends and relatives gathering there. She didn’t quite feel part of them, even though she’d been in the area and belonged to Hazardtown Community Church for several years. She’d caught the glare Josh had given Claire’s cousin. Pierre must have gone along with her suggestion he speak to Josh in French. She’d told him that Josh was working on his French for a possible promotion to a position in Quebec. It was essentially true. Josh’s employer, GreenSpaces, had an office in Quebec, and Josh’s ambition was to fast-track himself up the corporate ladder by whatever route was available. And his French was awful.

      If she didn’t know better, she’d think Josh was jealous. Tessa studied the rugged lines of his profile and gave in to the momentary pleasure of having a man as attractive as Josh show an interest in her. But he’d better not be going in that direction. She had it from his own mouth that his love-’em-and-leave-’em reputation was dead-on, and her record in romance was dismal. Tessa followed the line of people from Josh to her grandmother and lifted her hand to let Grandma know where she was in the growing crowd on the sidewalk. No, she wasn’t going to let Josh think about the possibility of them being anything but friends. Not now when she was going to need his friendship and help more than ever.

      Her grandmother joined her. “Edna said the wedding party is going down to the lake for some photos, but we guests can go to the church hall for hors d’oeuvres while we wait.”

      Tessa listened to the birds chirping as they walked around to the hall door at the back of the church building. The early-afternoon sun promised the day would meet the record spring temperature the TV meteorologist had forecast.

      “Connor and Natalie certainly have a gorgeous day for their wedding, considering it’s only late April and we had piles of snow left a week and a half ago. I’m sure their photos at the lake will be beautiful,” Tessa said.

      “The wedding would have been lovely, even if we’d had a blizzard,” her grandmother said. “Natalie and Connor are perfect for each other, although it took them long enough to figure that out.”

      Tessa stifled a laugh. Her grandmother, along with many of the other parishioners at Hazardtown Community Church, had started working on marrying off Connor almost as soon as he’d accepted his calling there.

      “Connor and Jared have come so far, despite the stigma of their father,” her grandmother said. “They do their mother proud.”

      Tessa didn’t miss that her grandmother had left out Josh, who was as successful as his brothers, if not as outwardly upstanding and charitable. Jared had selflessly invested a great deal of his racing winnings in bringing his motocross school to Paradox Lake to help the local economy and employment situation. Connor was their beloved pastor, at least now, after getting off to a rocky start with some of his congregation. Josh was a good man, too. Sympathy welled in her. He didn’t show enough people the real Josh she knew.

      She wished Grandma could see that. Tessa knew her grandmother didn’t really approve of their friendship. But if Josh would agree to her plan, she was sure Grandma would change her mind about him. Maybe because they were just friends and that’s all they’d ever be, Tessa was confident Josh was the one time her man intuition was correct. Taking and releasing a breath, she opened the hall door for her grandmother.

      “Oh, good,” her grandmother said, looking at the place cards at one of the round tables next to the long wedding party table near the door. “I’m sitting with Edna and Harry and Marie. I didn’t know if I would be, them being the grandparents.”

      Tessa wasn’t surprised. Natalie knew how close the three women were, and not many of their generation were left in the church. “You go ahead and get something to eat, if you want. I’ll look for my seat.” A pang of loneliness struck Tessa as her grandmother joined her friends at the hot hors d’oeuvres station. Tessa walked around the hall, looking for her place card, and found it at a table with other members of the church singles group. Without the bride and groom, and Josh and Claire in the wedding party, the group barely filled the eight-person table.

      After grabbing a cup of tea and some veggies to munch on, Tessa returned to the table to find Lexi Zarinski, one of Josh’s many former girlfriends, and a couple of acquaintances seated at the table. The table makeup reminded Tessa that almost all of her friends were married now. Hitting thirty was apparently the clock striking midnight on the single life. She chatted with the group through dinner, intermittently glancing across the room to check on her grandmother, who appeared to be thoroughly enjoying her friends, and on Josh. She needed to catch him and find out when they could talk, preferably tonight.

      When they’d finished eating, the DJ put on “Yours Forever.” Connor rose, took Natalie’s hand and led her to the dance floor in the middle of the room. “Natalie is so beautiful,” Lexi gushed, going into a monologue of every detail of the bride’s gown and why it was perfect for her.

      “And don’t Claire and Josh make a great couple?” Tessa interrupted Lexi’s soliloquy as Josh led Claire to the dance floor when the DJ invited the wedding party to join the bride and groom. If Josh ever got his act together concerning women, he and Claire were perfect for each other.

      Lexi pinched her lips together, and Tessa regretted her casual observation. Apparently, Lexi still had feelings for Josh. One of the guys at the table asked Lexi to dance, ending the awkward moment. Tessa tapped her foot to the music under the table, totally out of time, she was sure, but no one would notice.

      “And now, by request,” the DJ said several songs later, “The Chicken Dance.”

      “I didn’t think anyone did the Chicken Dance at weddings anymore,” Lexi said.

      “I haven’t heard it since I was a kid,” someone else remarked.

      Tessa surveyed the room, trying to figure out who might have made the request. She saw Josh making a straight line for her table. Lexi did, too. She sat up and fluffed her hair.

      “Hey,” Josh greeted everyone around the table.

      When he got to Lexi, she smiled and started to push her chair back, obviously assuming he’d come over to ask her to dance. She and Tessa were the only two women at the table right then.

      “Tessa, it’s our dance,” he said СКАЧАТЬ