Just Once More Read Online Free Page A

He thought so, and since he had a beautiful soul himself, maybe he did know. Maybe.
    Hannah and Drew weren’t here yet, were waiting until Gracie woke up from her morning nap, so she couldn’t hide behind her sister. Not that she needed to, because it wasn’t about her anyway. It was about the others. She’d stay quiet, listen, laugh at their jokes. And not being pretty, no matter what Liam said, would be better anyway. With women.
    And then the first person she saw, getting up from her beach towel to greet them, made her dismiss that worry. Because, as pregnant as Kristen was, there was no contest.
    Jocelyn Pae Ata. The bride in the wedding they had all gathered to celebrate, and one of New Zealand television’s biggest stars.
    It was easy to see why. A truly stunning face, with the velvety bronze skin, lush dark hair, and chiseled cheekbones of her Maori heritage. And a body, displayed to spectacular advantage in a red bikini, that told Kristen why Josie had been selected as a model forthat sporting magazine’s famous calendar, and that would surely have every single man on the beach falling over himself to get another look.
    Or maybe not. Because that had to be Hugh standing up beside her. The guys never looked as big on TV as they did in person. There was no helpful contrast to normal men when they were out there on the field, that was the problem, so you didn’t get the full impact.
    Kristen had told Liam once that she liked him because when she was with him, nobody stared at her. Hugh had to have that effect as well, and she’d bet Josie appreciated it as much as Kristen did herself. Big, tough, and nothing but fierce, his neatly trimmed dark beard putting the finishing touch on an appearance that would have had more than the rugby players unfortunate enough to be on the other side of his punishing tackles running the other way.
    Liam set down his burdens, made the introductions, gave Josie a kiss on the cheek, then greeted Hugh with a quick embrace, a clap on the back that told Kristen how glad he was to see him, even though they’d been together on the All Blacks’ European tour until just a few weeks ago.
    “Two days to go, eh. Holding up all right?” Liam asked the two of them. “Getting married at the marae’s an adventure in itself. Least Kristen probably thought so.”
    “Oh, no,” Kristen objected. “An adventure, maybe, but it was wonderful.”
    Exactly the wedding she’d always dreamed of, the one she hadn’t had the first time around. Family. Closeness. Love, the real kind. The right kind. And Liam, with Nate by his side, standing and waiting for her at the front of the big room with its ornate carvings, its intricately woven flax panels.
    Standing in the building that was more important to him than any other, and letting her know that she was just that important too. Watching her walk to him, every line of his broad body and beloved, battered face telling her how much he wanted her to do it, how much he needed to be right here, doing exactly this. Taking her hand in his, and marrying her.
    “For you, I hope it was wonderful,” Liam told her. “But then, my family was nothing but rapt to have you, and no worries that you weren’t good enough for me. More the other way around, wasn’t it. But for this ugly bugger, who knows. It’s bound to be a bitmore of a challenge for a Pakeha boy. Has your future father-in-law explained to you yet,” he asked Hugh with a grin, “that if you treat her wrong, you’ll have not just him to answer to, but her entire whanau and the ancestors as well?”
    “If I remember right,” Hugh said, “it was more to the point than that. Can barely recall, to tell you the truth. I was pretty terrified at the time.”
    “You were not,” Josie said. “And he did not.”
    Hugh laughed. “You think not? Think I’m making that up? Trust me, I’m not making it up. Never mind. I understand it. A Dad thing, that’s all.”
    Hugh was raising his brother and