Sweet Surprises Read Online Free

see Belinda. The right side of her body was paralyzed. Her words were slurred, and she could barely speak, but she managed to tell me that she had people staying with her. She begged me not to make them leave. I promised I wouldn’t.”
    Never make a promise before you’ve thought it through, son . A man is only as good as his word. You utter that promise, and you’re obligated to fulfill it. No matter what it costs you or how much it hurts.
    How many times had Dillard said that? How many times had River rolled his eyes?
    All that eye-rolling was coming back to bite him in the butt. If Dillard’s spirit happened to be hanging around nearby, the old guy was probably nodding his head and smirking that smirk he’d always worn when something he’d warned would happen did, because River? He’d thought about tossing every one of Belinda’s guests out, but he’d made that damn promise, and he couldn’t.
    â€œWell, that sucks,” Brenna said. “But, I have some good news for you, River. I have the key to the shop, and I’m happy to give you some fudge. Belinda was a long-term sub in my class the year my dad died. I’ve never forgotten how kind she was to me.”
    River wanted to tell her that he was sorry about her father’s death. It was old news, an old wound, but he didn’t think a person ever really got over losing someone she loved.
    â€œI’m—” sorry you lost your father at such a young age. That had to be tough , was what he was going to say, but she cut him off.
    â€œI’ll meet you over at the shop.” She rolled up the window and drove away, the Chrysler coughing up clouds of exhaust.
    He jogged across the parking lot, jumped into his truck and followed. Maybe he should have just let Brenna go back to whatever she’d been doing when he’d heard her walking through the cemetery, but the thought of returning to Freedom Ranch empty-handed appealed to him about as much as getting a root canal. Actually, the thought of returning to Freedom Ranch with the fudge in hand didn’t appeal to him, either.
    He’d go back, though, and he’d play nice with the people who were living there.
    He’d promised Belinda.
    He planned to keep his promise.
    Unless that little pipsqueak Huckleberry made Belinda cry again. Then the promise would be out the window and Huckleberry would be out on his scrawny behind.

Chapter Two
    River Maynard was nothing like Brenna remembered.
    And she did remember him.
    How could she not?
    He’d been the talk of the town from the time he’d arrived until the day he’d left when he was eighteen. Every parent worried about him, every girl secretly crushed on him, every guy was jealous. At least, that’s the way it had seemed to Brenna, but she’d been three years behind him in school, and she’d been too busy worrying about other things to pay all that much attention to the long-haired demon who’d descended on their quiet town.
    His hair wasn’t long now.
    He’d cropped it short. He probably also went to the gym, because his lanky teenage body? It had filled out. A lot. Shoulders. Thighs. Biceps.
    She’d noticed.
    God help her.
    She had.
    She might be off the market forever, but she knew a good-looking guy when she saw one. She knew trouble when she saw it, too. River might have changed, but she was certain he was still that. The curve of his lips when he smiled—just a little sardonic and a little wicked—the gleam in his eyes; they were all the clues she needed. That was fine. She’d keep her distance from him the same way she planned to keep her distance from everyone else in Benevolence.
    It wasn’t that she didn’t like the people there. It was more that she didn’t want to be a fraud, and she couldn’t see a way to be authentic. Not around all the people she’d grown up with who thought she’d made it big. Janelle liked to