The Fiction of Forever (A Stand By Me Novel Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

expected from me. The prick of tears behind my eyelids increases as they threaten to spill, so I study her card. There’s a business address with a little needle and thread running through Zoey’s name.
    “Nice to meet you. I’ve got to run.” Zoey steps back and glances at the dress hanging on the dressing room wall. “Happy wedding.”
    “You too.”
    She lifts the headpiece from her hair, untangling a strand of her red hair. Then she’s gone.
    I shouldn’t be jealous of her, of the way she said her finance’s name and the way her eyes twinkled when she talked about her wedding. I have a fiancé willing to give me the world. That is, a world without my own career or my own voice.
    I leave the dressing room and browse through a shelf of wedding jewelry. I toss a glance over my shoulder as the clerk comes to stand beside me.
    The clerk sniffs. “I hate the riff raff. Girls like that one come in with no intention of buying—”
    “The veil she was trying on? Can you box that up for me?”
    The woman stares at me. “But you already have a custom piece.”
    “I know. Please box that up and send it to this address overnight.” I hand her one of Zoey’s business cards. “I’d like it there by tomorrow.”
    “But do you know her?” Shock ripples in a wave over her face.
    “I do now. Put it on my account.”
    “Hmph. She’s definitely lucky that you were here today.” She appears perplexed. “I’ll put a gift card from you in the box.”
    “No,” I say. “Please insert a card that says courtesy of the bridal shop. I don’t want her to know it came from me. Put something sweet and romantic on the card.”
    “Like what?”
    For someone who works in weddings, she has no imagination. I think about it for a minute. “How about, ‘May your marriage be filled with romance and passion, held together by the threads of your love.’”
    She looks at me like I’m a loon. “All of that? The gift cards are small.”
    “Yes,” I answer, getting slightly irritated. “All of it.”
    My cell phone tings and I pull it out of my bag to read the text message. The clerk takes the opportunity to escape.
    Mason: Guests arrive at six. I’ll send over something for you to wear. I know you won’t let me down.
    I place my phone back in my purse; a dull thumping in my head warns that I’ll have a migraine soon. Romance and passion. It’s out there. Zoey is proof.
    Ever since I was eight years old and my mother walked out on my dad and me, I vowed to find true love.
    I’ve had this image of what true love is supposed to be—the kind of love that you feel in your bones as you drift off to sleep. The kind that follows you safe and sound into your dreams. The kind where people care more about each other than themselves. Sacrifice.
    A season of my dad’s reality show Forever only takes four weeks to film. Six weeks tops. Surely Mason can sacrifice his ideas for less than two months, when we’ll be married a lifetime.
    The woozy feeling in my belly settles down when I think about Dad’s reality show. The magic of finding soulmates proves that true love and passion aren’t dead.
    I’m more determined than before. I can’t cancel my spot as Matchmaker on the show. This season is mine to match a bachelor with his forever love.

Chapter Three

Mad For Her
    C urrent Day
    Gunner

    I wonder if Kiley Vanderbilt wears a princess tiara to bed. It wouldn’t surprise me.
    Pretentious is her middle name.
    She sits in her black Cadillac SUV honking her horn while she waits for me to move my backhoe off her driveway. The bleating sound grates over every ounce of patience I possess. I wipe my sweaty forehead against the sleeve of my T-shirt, and my baseball cap tumbles to the ground.
    Dang-it. Now I'll have to get down and retrieve my hat.
    “Hold up,” I mutter to myself and flash a stiff smile in her direction. I hold up my pointer finger—not the finger I'd like to give her. I drive the backhoe out of her way and wait for her