The Bachelor's Perfect Proposal (Bliss Series Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

had made on the counter, and covered my mouth.
    “I told you not to let her cook, Maggie.”
    Mrs. Stewart sat on a nearby chair, fanning herself with the hem of her long skirt, and exposing things I didn’t need to see. I averted my eyes toward Maggie, who appeared ready to vomit as she yanked open a window.
    “I tried, Nica! You know how she gets.” Maggie covered her mouth, eyes tearing up.
    “I’m right here, you know. How was I supposed to know that the plastic has to be removed? It just said put it on a tray, heat up the oven and stick it in,” their mother reasoned.
    When I was younger, I grew up away from my family when my brother and I attended boarding school. I’d never had to experience this kind of tension within a family. These days, there was barely any communication between my mother and me, if at all, and I preferred it that way. I pulled the collar of my cashmere sweater over my mouth to take a deep breath and grabbed a pair of oven mitts to help Veronica deal with the unidentifiable burnt blob.
    Looking behind me, I saw June swipe at the tears flowing from his eyes. “Hey, can you get Maggie and Mrs. Stewart out of here? Open all the windows too.” He nodded and led the two women out of the kitchen.
    “This is why I didn’t want her to cook.” Veronica continued to fan the smoke out of the oven with a floral apron. I didn’t know how she was able to stomach the fumes.
    “Here, let me take care of that.” I reached over and grabbed the ends of the tray. Trying as hard as I could not to take a deep breath, the acrid smell of burnt plastic attacked my senses. If I didn’t get the blob out of here, I would soon lose my breakfast on the tiled kitchen floor. Although the taste of bile in my mouth would be an improvement.
    “Where’s the bin?” Veronica had a blank look on her face. “The garbage, love. Where’s the garbage?”
    “Oh! Through there.” She pointed behind me at a white door.
    I went through it and found what I was looking for. After dumping the blob in it and sealing the plastic by tying the end in a tight knot, I returned to the kitchen, leaving the door wide open. There wasn’t anything we could do with the smell except let it air out.
    With her forehead furrowed, she fumed, massaging her temples. “That was supposed to be dinner. Thank God we got here early. She could have burned the whole house down.”
    I remained silent, keeping a hand over half of my face.
    “Now do you see why I was so nervous?” She propped a hand on her hip.
    I sauntered over to her, ditching the mitts on the counter. Snaking my hand around her waist, I planted a kiss on her firmly pressed lips. “I’m sure we can remedy this. All I need is a grocery store.”
    “Tough luck. Nothing is open today.”
    “Nothing?”
    “Haven’t you been in America long enough to realize that?”
    “Sorry, love, other people do the shopping for me.”
    Veronica pursed her lips. “Well, for us regular people, the stores close during National Holidays.”
    “Well then, I’ll have to check what we have in hand.”
    “Yeah, good luck with that. Let’s hope Maggie remembered to do the shopping yesterday.”
    “Oh, ye of little faith.” I gave her another quick kiss. If I could fix this, it would earn me some major brownie points.
    I grinned when I opened the fridge door. Brownie points galore!

Keep Calm and Be Thankful
    VERONICA

    A t this point , I was ready to get in Levi’s car and drive back to San Francisco. If we were lucky, we could get there before night fell. Levi was adamant that he could save dinner, though. He was a fabulous cook, but I couldn’t see how even he could perform a big enough miracle to pull it off.
    I was also shocked he had packed properly. I’d been worried he might have thrown in just whatever for the weekend. I suspected he did it when I was in the shower (and he didn’t join me). As I looked through the bag, I realized I should have known not to doubt him. Could he be