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

her dagger look of surprise and dismay. She probably wanted to tell him she certainly wasn't looking in this kind of neighborhood, because it was way out of her price bracket, but was constrained by his parents' presence.
    He'd remembered her comment Thursday about looking for a house and he'd spotted the real estate listings on her coffee table, but he hadn't known he'd make use of the observations until he'd spoken the spur-of-the-moment words.
    "A house is an excellent investment," said James Monroe with an approving nod. "I wish Paul would make that move so he'd build some equity in a property."
    Paul shrugged at the familiar refrain. He should have seen it coming. "I don't mind paying rent."
    "You must not, since you've been doing it so long, and now you have rent on your office as well as the apartment."
    "Property just ties you down." He worked to keep the words light. It was an old skirmish line between his father and him.
    "Perhaps it's time you were tied down. We had owned our first home for six years by the time I was your age."
    "You owned it?"
    Only the blink of his father's eyes showed that the arrow had gone home. They both knew Walter Mulholland had held the title on the Monroes' first house, as he had on this house until the day he died.
    "Well, I'm just glad you both came," smoothed Nancy Monroe. "I have a lovely roast in for dinner, and now we'll be saved from a week's worth of leftovers."
    "Oh, no, really. Thank you, but we can't drop in like this for dinner." Bette stopped abruptly, turning wide blue eyes on Paul, and for a moment he forgot everything else. "I mean, I . . . I really should . . ."
    He saw her floundering between not wanting to impose and not wanting to deprive his parents of having their son home for Sunday dinner. "We didn't mean to stay for dinner, Mom. We just thought we'd drop off some pumpkins and I'd show Bette around a little, then we'd be on our way."
    "Oh, but you must stay for dinner. There's plenty of time for you to show Bette, maybe take her to Beach Park, then we can have a nice meal and get to know each other. This is such a wonderful surprise, Bette. We don't get Paul home often enough as it is, and we always enjoy meeting his friends."
    Paul tried one more time against the force of his mother's beaming smile. "But we don't want to interrupt, and -"
    "Nonsense. We were just discussing the arrangement of our spring bulb garden. It's so hard to remember where things were the spring before by the time you get around to planting in the fall."
    He knew staying for dinner was all but a certainty. Maybe he'd known it when he pulled into the driveway. He refused to consider whether he'd known it when he'd first thought about stopping by.
    He cocked an eyebrow at Bette and gave an infinitesimal shrug, indicating that if she didn't want to stay, he'd do his best, but . . .
    A smile edged into her eyes and he felt an easing of the muscles in her back where he was only half-surprised to realize his hand still rested. She'd come to the same conclusion and she didn't mind, at least not terribly.
    Paul's father took a direct approach in trying to make the unexpected guest feel less awkward. "Bette, how long have you known our son?"
    Paul rubbed his free hand across his mouth to mask a smile.
    Ever the lawyer, his father had asked the question to set up some point he wanted to make. The flaming color he brought to Bette's cheeks was inadvertent, and the surprise her answer was about to administer to his parents came as a pure, unanticipated bonus from his point of view.
    "Four days." Ah, another bonus. She'd been counting. Otherwise, she would have hesitated to total them or said "since Wednesday."
    Paul saw his mother blink, then take a closer look at Bette. When her gaze came to him, he looked away, suddenly not so enthralled with surprising his parents.
    James Monroe, however, nodded, as if he'd half expected the response to his question to be "four days," then took Bette by the elbow