The Wrong Bride by Judith Arnold

Author:Judith Arnold
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-05-31T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

WHY HAD HE TOLD HER? Phillip asked himself. How had she gotten him to say it? He could scarcely even talk to his parents about the loan situation with Harry Riggs. His father had signed the damned papers, yet Phillip always got angry and frustrated whenever he tried to discuss the company’s indebtedness with his father—and he got even more angry and frustrated whenever his father said, “Oh, come on, Phil. I’ve known Harry forever. He isn’t going to pull any fast moves. He knows how much Keene Furniture means to our family.”

So Phillip couldn’t talk to his father about it.

But he could talk to Cassie.

God, he wished he could talk to her—the way they’d talked last year, when nothing limited their friendship, when no subject was out of bounds. When he knew he could unburden himself about anything that was bothering him, whether it was a case study in his management seminar, or a pompous professor, or his landlord’s reluctance to deal with the tenant living upstairs from Phillip, a man with very large speakers and a taste for Bing Crosby. All day and all night, Phillip would hear “White Christmas” oozing through his ceiling; when it was eighty degrees outside and eighty-five inside, listening to Bing croon about sleigh bells in the snow was torture.

Phillip used to gripe to Cassie and she used to shower him with sympathy. Sometimes she would offer advice, sometimes a joke that put his problem in perspective. Most of the time, Phillip found relief just by opening up to her, releasing his annoyances in a tirade and knowing that when he was done she wouldn’t hate him for complaining. Her eyes would glow with compassion and affection, and she would make a few observations in her husky, sexy voice, and his mood would improve. Sometimes she didn’t even have to say anything. It was enough for him to have her beside him, nodding and giving his hand a squeeze, letting him know she cared.

Her footsteps still echoed in his skull, soft but resolute, long after she’d departed from his office. He wanted to chase after her, to apologize for the circumstances beyond his control—and hers—that had drawn him into his current dilemma. He wanted to hug her and hold her and tell her he needed her in his life. He didn’t just want her—he truly needed her.

But he couldn’t need her. It was impossible. The kindest thing he could do was what he’d just done: tell her he loved Tricia, freeing her to leave him and Lynwood behind, to get on with her life and forget anything had ever blossomed between them. As kind as he’d been to her, she’d also be doing him a favor by disappearing. Having her around only made him regret the choices he’d had to make.

Three days. In three days he would marry Tricia and Harry would no longer pose a threat to his family. In three days it would be too late for regrets.

What had sounded

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