The Birthday Fantasy Read Online Free

the ranch house, though. Hank had them sitting everywhere. And yeah, Jamie resembled her mother a great deal; except Louisa had dark hair and Jamie inherited her father’s color.
    The clerk’s eyes widened and she stepped away . One of the shoeboxes tumbled to the floor, spilling out a pair of strappy gold-colored high heels, but either she or Jamie seemed to notice. “You’re her little girl? She and I went to school together and started this shop before she went to California to pursue her acting career. It was her idea to build the shopping center, in fact. I was so heartbroken when she passed away.”
    He picked up the forgotten shoes and set the box on a fancy little table next to the clerk.
    “I never knew my mother.” Her tone pulled on his heart.
    The saleslady set the boxes she carried on the small table and rested her hand on Jamie’s bare shoulder. “I’m so sorry. My name’s Juliet Gracen. I was your mom’s maid of honor when she married that cowboy from Texas.” Juliet smiled and shook her head. “Hard to believe she’d fall for a man like him. Rough, tough and everything she wasn’t. But fall she did. She was engaged to a rich Hollywood director, in fact, but broke off the engagement when she met Henry.>
    Henry? Oh, Hank’s real name was Henry. Wo w… Tate was glad he’d sat on the couch again. He had the strangest sense of déjà vu he’d ever had.
    “It’s said that the director was so angry, he had Louisa blacklist ed and she never worked again. But Louisa never cared. She moved to Texas and as far as I know lived happily.” Ms Gracen shifted the dresses she held and picked a little black number off a rack.
    Jamie met his gaze, and from the shock stretching her delicate features, he knew she felt that weird sense of something working, too. “Where did my mother and father meet, Ms Gracen?”
    “Here, of course, her father invited him to the resort when he was looking for a new producer for our prime beef.” Juliet laughed and hugged the dresses to her chest. “I think Mr. D'aubigne considered that the best decision he’d ever made until his dying day.”
    “Why?” Tate had to know.
    “Because he hated the Hollywood director. Louisa and Henry met at the meeting and there was no changing the course of their fates. They were soul mates.”

Chapter 4
     
    Jamie ended up trying on four other dresses —a deep green velvet number she instantly rejected, the black mini Juliet insisted she try on, a turquoise sheath dress with gold accents, and a strapless white silk mermaid gown trimmed in satin roses. She didn’t let Tate see her in the last dress and didn’t understand why she had to have it. The damned thing looked like a wedding gown—her ideal dress and everything the one hanging on her closet door in Texas was not. She had this nagging voice in her head telling her she’d need the dress and that it was perfect. When she’d wear it, she had no freaking idea.
    They left the shop and went to a small open air café, where they ordered Starbucks coffee and ice cream cones from the connected soda parlor. After they found a small empty table overlooking the marina, Jamie said, “I had no idea how Daddy and my mother met. No one ever talked about it.”
    Tate bit off the swirly top of his vanilla ice cream cone. “Me either.”
    Jamie sipped her coffee. “He doesn’t talk about her much. Only that he loved her and I remind him of her.”
    “Your grandparents aren’t living, are they?”
    She shook her head. “No. My grandfather died about six years ago and Grandma passed away about ten years ago. My mother was the youngest of seven children. Her three brothers and two of her sisters, along with a whole slew of my cousins, now run this place.”
    S he licked the melting chocolate ice cream. Was her father hoping some kind of repeat of history? He may not like Robbie, but she’d chosen to marry him. Daddy should respect her decision to spend her life with him.
    Tate c runched