Daniel's Bride Read Online Free

assistant at a souvenir store,
and a receptionist at a podiatrist’s surgery. She hadn’t even been granted an
interview and had been told by one agency she was overqualified.
    To top it off, her tenancy was almost up. She already had
half her gear packed in boxes, ready to cram into the small storage unit she
was about to rent. She had barely enough money to put down on an apartment,
even if she got a job by the end of the week. Of course, she’d get the deposit
money back from the landlord when she handed him the key but it wouldn’t last
long.
    She was broke. And there was no one else she could blame.
    With frustration, she pushed open the door of her flat,
dropped her keys on the table and went through to the lounge where the packing
was taking place. Not everything was hers. She glanced at a box labeled
Salvation Army, filled with Julia’s things. Her clothes, her books, her
crockery from the kitchen. Julia hadn’t had much time to pack up her stuff.
After all, when you left by stealth with your flatmate’s boyfriend – fiancé – it hardly left any time to get organized.
    Mel bypassed the box.
    The worst thing of all was just how much her life had
revolved around the new future she’d been planning, the new married life that
had vanished down the drain in a gurgle of vile water. Just thinking about the
things Max had said in his note, the reasons he’d wanted out of their
relationship…
    She shivered and concentrated on sorting a stack of
paperbacks. When she had to leave the flat, she could stay with her mother a
few nights. There was a couch in her mother’s tiny apartment, and Ellie would
still assume Mel was getting over the pain of being jilted. She grimaced as she
sorted the novels into a keeper and giveaway pile. She’d shied away from
relating the whole sordid story and had kept her flatmate’s name out of it.
    Ellie Green had enough to contend with, without worrying
about the mess her only daughter had gotten herself into.
    The phone rang suddenly, shrill in the silence, and Mel
hesitated. It could be a telemarketer. Or it could be her mother, or even the
rest home.
    She cursed her cost saving when she’d gotten rid of caller
ID, picked up the phone and tucked it under her chin. “Melinda Green speaking.”
      It was Daniel.
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
     
    Mel took a bite of her hamburger and used a paper napkin to
wipe away a dribble of ketchup from her chin. Steak, tomato and lettuce, a warm
bun, pickles, tons of sauce – what more could you want?
    She took a sip of cola - diet cola – from the paper cup, set
it back in the holder, and glanced discreetly at Daniel. What she’d give to
read his mind now, right this minute, as they sat on hard plastic seats in a
stadium with sports crazed fans surrounding them. Most of them were vocal; a
lot of them were just plain drunk. She took another bite of hamburger. This was
the dinner he’d promised her?
    Not that she was complaining when it was the most excitement
she’d be getting for a while. Their thighs had touched before and brief as it
was, she hadn’t wanted the feeling to end. But watching a game meant they
weren’t getting to talk and in the days since he’d phoned, imagining their
dinner had been a welcome distraction from everything else. In complete violation
of the rest home rules which stated no visitors allowed she had spent last
night at her mother’s apartment. It had been a trial run, being her mother’s
new roomie, and it would be fine; in a fortnight, she’d have no choice.
    Daniel finished off his hamburger and began to tuck into the
rest of his fries. She was drawn to his profile, to the way his hair sat around
his neck, the way his jaw moved as he slowly chewed, the short lines around his
eyes as he focused on the game. Her gaze dipped. The t-shirt emphasised his
flat stomach, sitting nicely around muscular arms and wide, powerful shoulders.
He leant forward, and the t-shirt slipped up from his jeans. Beneath it, a