Sweetheart Reunion Read Online Free Page B

have a picture. Hold on.”
    Alma groaned then glanced out the window of the cottage where she lived behind the restaurant. Less than two hours since Julien had pulled that stunt and already it had gone viral.
    Her sister’s silky voice returned. “Okay. I sent you a copy. Look.”
    “I don’t have time—” But she looked anyway. “Oh, wow.”
    “Oh, wow is right,” Brenna said, giggling again. “That would look good on a romance novel cover.”
    “Yeah, right. Don’t get any ideas.”
    “Oh, I only have one idea,” Brenna said with a sigh. “We need a wedding in Fleur. And you and Julien have been dancing around this thing since high school. Actually, since kindergarten.”
    “We’re not dancing around,” Alma retorted. “We’re just friends.”
    “Friends? Sister, that shot shows you and Julien LeBlanc are so much more than friends.”
    “Delete it,” Alma said. “That’s what I’m going to do right now.”
    “No, you won’t,” Brenna said. “You’ll print it out and put it in that scrapbook you’ve been working on for years.”
    “And how do you know about my scrapbook?”
    “I have ways.”
    “You are so sneaky. No wonder you’re good at your job.”
    “And what does that mean?”
    “Nothing,” Alma said. “Just that your imagination makes you suspect things and I guess that is a bit creative when you’re dealing with art. You can spot a fake.”
    “Exactly,” Brenna said. “Julien tries to be a fake, pretending to be a bad boy and all that, but he’s still in love with you. That’s why he pretends to leave a trail of broken hearts behind him. But he’s the one with the broken heart. And now I have the picture to prove it. You know what they say about a picture?”
    “Well, this one isn’t speaking a thousand words,” Alma replied. “More like, this picture is purely, truly fake.” She swallowed, then closed her eyes to the memory of Julien’s kiss. It had not felt as if he were faking at all. No, that kiss had been all too real. “He only did that to embarrass me and get me all riled up.”
    “Okay, keep telling yourself that,” Brenna said. “I think you are riled up, but in a good way.”
    “And what about you?” Alma asked, anxious to get off the subject of that kiss and the way it had made her feel. “When are you going to have that big Baton Rouge wedding you keep dreaming about?”
    Her sister went silent. And that wasn’t like Brenna.
    “Bree?”
    “Not a good subject right now.” Alma heard a sigh. “Keep the picture, Alma. You’ll regret it if you delete it. I gotta go. Hope to see you in a few weeks.”
    The connection ended and Alma was left standing there, staring at a picture of Julien LeBlanc kissing her.
    “I should delete it,” she said, mumbling and muttering as she went around locking doors and preparing to go to bed.
    But she didn’t.
    She got in her grandmother’s old brass bed laced with mosquito netting and stared at the picture for a long time.
    Then she turned out the lights and tried to go to sleep.
    But the face of a dark-haired charmer kept popping into her mind. And the memory of that kiss kept her tossing and turning well into the wee hours.
    Why did Julien want to be back in her life?
    * * *
    Julien wasn’t the first one in the door at the Fleur Bakery and Café the next morning. He waited until almost lunchtime, not wanting to appear anxious.
    Except that he couldn’t wait to see Alma again. She’d kissed him back last night, and for the first time in a long time he had real hope in his heart. Since the night she’d walked out of his life, Julien had longed for a way to win Alma back. But pride and her aloof nature had held him back.
    Then Sunday after church, he’d watched his maman with his cousin’s new baby. Watched and seen the tears forming in his sweet mother’s eyes. She missed her husband. Julien’s daddy had died from a heart attack just last fall. They all missed him. When his mother Virginia had glanced