Take Me As I Am by JM Dragon & Erin O'Reilly

Author:JM Dragon & Erin O'Reilly
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9780908351411
Publisher: Affinity Ebook Press NZ Ltd
Published: 2016-02-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

“Hi, Stella. How are you doing today?”

“Hey, Thea, I’m good. What about yourself? I see your arms are full, as usual. Can I get you some help?”

“No, I’m good.” Thea grinned while walking in step with the older sprightly woman who owned a seamstress business next to a bakery operated by her husband.

“You should get out more. I keep telling your mother just that and she says you will not listen. You young people are all the same…thinking you know best. We’ve already experienced it before so you should listen to us.”

Thea grinned at the comment. “Bradley was going to help me but he has baseball practice.”

“Oh, that boy is spoiled.” The older woman chuckled. “Of course I spoiled my son and now my grandchildren.

“Yeah, but I never knew I had a brother, so I’m making up for lost time. He’s a very caring young man and reminds me of someone I once knew.”

“Ah, so our Thea has a secret love affair buried away, has she?”

Thea laughed nervously at the comment. It was so close to the mark but no one would ever know that, especially now Joanna was a star. “Nope, a friend. A good friend at the time. He was very caring like Bradley. We berate men but some of them are wonderful. Don’t you think?”

Stella and her husband had been married for almost forty years and her mother was hosting a party at the hotel to mark the event.

When they entered the bakery, Thea breathed in the wonderful aroma of freshly baked bread. She loved to stand on the threshold and take in the distinctive aromas.

“Ah, two lovely ladies. What brings you in today?” asked a tall, strikingly handsome man with swarthy Mediterranean looks, twinkling brown eyes, and a sharp Grecian nose.

“Alex, you flatterer, you will be having me spying on all your customers in a calculating way if you carry on like that.”

The man moved from around the counter and hugged the woman. “Stella, you are my one true love. No one can ever take your place.”

Stella grinned in Thea’s direction.

Ever since arriving in this part of the Hudson Valley Thea wondered if it wasn’t magical. Everyone who was a couple seemed to thrive in this environment. She wondered if things would have been different between she and Joanna if they’d come here first.

“Thea, when you have this, don’t give it away ever. No matter how absurd or impossible it may seem, it is too precious to lose,” Stella said.

Thea shook her head, wondering if she would ever get the chance to feel like that. For a brief time she did have that. But it wasn’t mutual.

“Leave the girl alone, Stella. She has plenty of time. Although I do know one or two eligible bachelors—”

“No. No. Please, Alex, I’d rather try to find the right person on my own. Thanks all the same.”

The man released his wife with a wink and went back around the counter. “You should bring someone to our anniversary party, Thea. They would be most welcome.

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