Free Wedding Series Boxed Set (3 Books in 1) (The Wedding Series) by Patricia McLinn

is." If he sounded a bit defensive, too bad.
    From the corner of his eye, he caught her looking at him. "Really, it is, Paul. It's rather amazing. Everything's so neat. Even the gas stations and train station."
    He said nothing as they passed the train station and drove next to the tracks for a while. When he turned, it was into a neighborhood of older, modest homes that had produced bumper crops of bicycles and skateboards. He slowed nearly to a stop in the middle of a block.
    "There, the light blue one, that's where we lived until I was twelve."
    "Oh."
    Bette Wharton could infuse a lot of meaning into one syllable. He just wished he could interpret it. Glancing to his right as he pulled away from the curb, he caught her eyes on him and thought perhaps he saw someone truly looking at him - at him, beyond images, expectations.
    He shifted position to ease a tightening in his shoulders, steering with his right hand at the top of the wheel and his left elbow propped out the window. If that left less of his face open to his passenger's scrutiny, well, that was a coincidence. He turned into a narrowly twisting street, and headed toward his parents' house.
    What was the big deal? So he'd had this impulse to show her where he grew up, to have her meet his parents. That was how he did things. By impulse.
    A curse muttered across his mind.
    Who was he kidding? He'd fully intended to introduce Bette to his old house, his hometown, his parents ever since he'd first had the idea Friday.
    He'd been planning this afternoon's stops for two days.
    And he didn't like that fact.
    Even when he'd done it for a woman whose navy-blue eyes lit at the sight of him, then shuttered themselves faster than a blink. For a woman who talked about plans and arrangements so stiltedly, then laughed with abandon over a pumpkin.
    Worse, he couldn't find it in himself to regret any part of it, not the thinking about her for every waking hour, not the pumpkin ploy, not the hometown tour. None of it, because it all meant she was sitting here next to him.
    "There are my folks," he said as he pulled into the circular portion of the driveway. Spotting the car, his parents waved and started toward them. Since they'd been contemplating a flower bed on the far side of the considerable front lawn, he had a moment to cover Bette's hand where it rested on the front seat between them. "They're nice people, Bette. Honest."
    She met his look and gave a forced smile.
    "Much easier to get along with than me. I promise."
    To his relief and pleasure, the teasing light flickered into her eyes. "Thank heavens!" she said with soft vehemence.
    He was still chuckling when he opened her door and they walked out to meet his parents.
    "Paul! Why didn't you tell us you were coming?"
    His mother's affectionate scolding as she hugged him harmonized with his father's dry interjection, "Because he never does."
    "I would have made something special for dinner," his mother concluded, then barely paused as she smiled warmly at Bette and extended a hand. "Hello, I'm Nancy Monroe."
    Paul knew he'd have to hurry or his mother's sociability would outstrip his manners, and for some reason he wanted to be the one to make this introduction.
    "Mom, Dad, this is Bette Wharton." He placed a hand at the small of Bette's back, with some idea of encouraging her and reminding her of his support, though he knew his parents could be counted on to welcome her. But the feel of her soft sweater and the firm, smooth curve of her back gave him something, too, something indefinably pleasing. "Bette, these are my parents, James and Nancy Monroe."
    "How do you do, Mrs. Monroe. Mr. Monroe."
    She shook hands with them, and he glimpsed the poise she must bring to business dealings, at least ones that didn't involve him. He suspected he threw her off her usual stride.
    He liked that.
    "Bette's in the market to buy a house, and I thought she should see some of the other neighborhoods around, so we swung by here."
    He caught