Victoria Pade - The Bachelor's Northbridge Bride

But just when Kate expected more cajoling and coaxing, that wasn’t what he did.

What he did was lean over the door to press his mouth to hers. Only for a moment. Stealing a kiss instead.

And then it was over so quickly she hadn’t even had a chance to react or kiss him back—not that she’d wanted to.

“I thought I wasn’t your type?” she said, raising her chin to him as if that slight buss hadn’t added to the earlier touch of his hand to make her knees go just a little wobbly.

“Yeah…I keep telling myself that,” he said in an almost-whisper.

Dear Reader,

Kate Perry has a goal—to get married and have kids. But she’s wasted a lot of time with immature men who have strung her along. So now she has a plan—she’s joined dating services and will agree to meet only men who list their own goal as marriage and family, men who give no indication of immaturity in any form.

Then in swoops Ry Grayson, flying his own plane, his shoulder injured in a skateboarding mishap, already touted as a daredevil kid-at-heart. So he instantly doesn’t make the cut.

Of course, the conservative, small-town reverend’s granddaughter isn’t Ry’s type, either. He just needs her help solving the mystery of his grandmother’s past. The problem is, sometimes being together reveals that there’s more than meets the eye….

Welcome back to Northbridge. I hope it feels like home to you.

Always the best,

Victoria Pade

www.millsandboon.co.uk

is a USA TODAY bestselling author of numerous romance novels. She has two beautiful and talented daughters—Cori and Erin—and is a native of Colorado, where she lives and writes. A devoted chocolate lover, she’s in search of the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. For information about her latest and upcoming releases, and to find recipes for some of the decadent desserts her characters enjoy, log on to www.vikkipade.com.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Epilogue

“Here he comes!”

Kate Perry heard the announcement of the excited bride just as Kate ducked in reflex to the sound of a plane flying so low overhead that she thought it was going to crash into the Graysons’ house.

Kate watched her soon-to-be-sister-in-law rush through the French doors that opened onto the balcony outside the second-floor bedroom. From there Marti Grayson waved wildly as two of the other bridesmaids followed behind. Kate only reluctantly brought up the rear. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be on the balcony of the decaying old house if the plane made a second pass.

Which it did just as she got outside, towing a banner that said CONGRATULATIONS MARTI AND NOAH.

“That’s Ry,” Marti said with a laugh, enjoying the spectacle as the plane flew off this time.

Marti Grayson was about to marry Kate’s brother Noah. Kate and her sister Meg were two of the four bridesmaids, but Meg was helping Noah with his tie while Kate stayed with the bride and the other bridesmaids.

But Kate seemed to be the only one of the group who had found it alarming to have a plane take a dive toward the house.

“I know Noah said your brother was flying in but did that mean he pilots his own plane?” she asked, wondering if she’d missed that bit of information somewhere along the line.

“That’s what it means,” Marti confirmed. “You name it, Ry does it—flies his own plane, races cars and motorcycles, does extreme sports, dives off cliffs—he’ll do anything. He has no fear, our Ry. He’s just a great big kid at heart. I don’t think he’ll ever grow up,” the bride concluded affectionately.

Kate forced a smile at her soon-to-be-sister-in-law’s amusement. But to Kate, what Marti was saying about Ry Grayson—and many of the other things Kate had heard about him—just made him sound reckless and immature.

She kept her opinion to herself, though, as everyone moved back into the bedroom to continue the last-minute wedding preparations. Her preliminary opinion of Ry Grayson wasn’t important to anyone but her.

“I can’t wait for Ry to meet you, Kate,” Marti was saying. “I know you were out of town for Wyatt and Neily’s wedding a few weeks ago so you didn’t get to meet him then, but you’re going to love him—everybody does.”

Kate did the smile again, adding a nod this time.

She knew everyone who had met the third Grayson triplet when he’d been in her small hometown of Northbridge, Montana, had liked him. And was still talking about him even though three weeks had gone by. Full of life. Will do anything for a good time. Over-the-top crazy man. Fun, fun, fun…

Those were only some of the things Kate had heard said of Ry Grayson. And swooping around in a plane with a congratulations banner? That was going to win him more popularity points with everyone else.

The Grayson triplets were the grandchildren of Theresa Hobbs Grayson, a native of Northbridge who had left town over fifty years ago. Theresa had only recently returned in the midst of a particularly bad episode of the mental instability and dementia she suffered. It had brought her back to her deserted family home in search of something she claimed to have had taken from her.

Her grandchildren, Marti, Wyatt and Ry—who were also her guardians—had opted to let Theresa remain in Northbridge while they sorted through her history and tried to make right the wrongs Theresa believed were done to her long ago.

In Northbridge, both Wyatt and Marti had made love-matches—Wyatt with Neily Pratt, and now Marti with Kate’s brother Noah. But while Kate liked the down-to-earth Wyatt and Marti, she wasn’t looking forward to meeting the more showy Ry.

There was a knock on the bedroom door just then and Kate’s sister Meg came in carrying a box full of tiny white daisies.

“The florist said these are for everyone’s hair,” Meg said as she set the box on the bed.

“They’re a surprise!” Marti informed them. “I asked for these with you in mind, Kate. They seemed like the perfect thing for that curly red hair and the way you’re wearing it pulled back today. So everyone gets them since we didn’t plan headpieces or hats.”

Kate appreciated the special thought and took her share of the daisies to one of several mirrors set around the room for the occasion.

Curly red hair—that was what she had all right. Not wiry, coarse curls, just big waves of thick hair the color of red mahogany.

It was good hair. In fact, in high school, it had been voted Best Hair. But Kate sometimes wondered if it got her into trouble. If maybe the novelty of it drew the attention of the sort of men she was now dead set against getting involved with again.

Maybe she should dye it.

Change her hair color, maybe change her luck with men?

It was a thought….

Careful attention was required for Kate to intersperse the flowers among the curls but even so, she was the first to finish while Meg and the other two bridesmaids continued to place them as artfully as possible in their own hairdos.

She asked if anyone wanted help but since they didn’t, she used the time to make a final assessment of the rest of her own appearance.