Free Have Husband, Need Honeymoon by Rita Herron Page A

remembering the first time he’d gotten behind the controls. His dad, who had been in the reserves, had rented a Cessna 152 and taken him up in it. Brady had been only six, hadn’t even been able to see out the front window, but his dad had let him sit up front, and he’d explained the instruments to him. Brady had been so excited he’d almost wet his pants.
    He’d decided then he would be a pilot like his dad. He craved the freedom of soaring through the air, the exhilaration.
    Steady hands, his father had said. A man had to have steady hands and steady nerves to fly.
    Now Brady had neither.
    He held out his hands, and saw that they were trembling just like his insides. Josh’s face flashed into his mind, the explosion, the spiraling plane, the crash, the scent of burning metal and flesh.
    No, Brady’s taste for flying had changed, just as the rest of his body had changed with the accident. Bitter memories now tainted the flavor, just as sweet memories of Alison stifled his attraction to any other woman.
    * * *
    Alison struggledthrough the rest of the day, forcing herself to put on a cheerful facade for her customers. Finally, she closed the shop, picked up a carton of chocolate chip ice cream and headed home. She spent ten minutes in the shower cursing the heat; ten more cursing Brady Broussard; five more cursing herself for still caring about the blasted man while she tugged on boxers and an oversize T-shirt; then five more minutes staring at the hope chest. It was so beautiful, yet it had already brought so much turmoil into her life.
    It wasn’t the hope chest, she told herself as she grabbed a spoon and dragged herself to the TV, it was the contents. Those insufferable annulment papers. And Brady Broussard!
    The stubborn, hardheaded, detached military man. If he was so detached, though, why had he looked so stricken at the idea of advising the town on the medical flight service?
    He hadn’t, she told herself, dipping into the ice cream with a vengeance. He’d simply been stricken at the idea of spending time with her. She’d barely swallowed her first bite of ice cream when the doorbell rang. She glanced down at her sloppy clothes and messy hair and cursed again. It had better not be Brady or Thomas.
    No, her nosy sisters stood on the doorstep, looking curious and determined.
    Mimi took one look at the ice cream carton. “Okay, I knew something was up.”
    Hannah lifted a plastic bag, shrugging when Alison saw a carton of her other favorite flavor,
    Rocky Road
    .
    “Comfort food,” Mimi joked as she grabbed two more spoons from the kitchen drawer. They gathered around the coffee table, sharing both cartons.
    “Okay, what gives?” Mimi smiled in ecstasy as she inhaled her first bite.
    Alison feigned innocence. “What do you mean?”
    “Don’t play dumb, Ali,” Hannah said. “You, Mom, Brady? An interesting combination.”
    “It was just a coincidence.”
    “We’re not buying that,” Mimi said.
    “Too much tension,” Hannah added.
    Alison saw the love and understanding in her sisters’ eyes, and tears welled up in her own.
    “Oh, honey, what’s wrong?” Hannah said.
    Mimi reached out her arms. “Tell us, Ali.”
    Ali fought tears as memories of the past few days flashed through her mind. She wanted desperately to confide in her sisters, but both she and Brady had chosen her mother as their lawyer because they didn’t want the entire town to know about the divorce. And Mimi and Hannah had a way of treating her like the kid sister. This was one problem she’d have to take care of herself. So she opted for a half-truth.
    “I’m just so confused now. Having Mother around is really weird.”
    Her sisters frowned and mumbled agreement.
    “And Thomas asked me to marry him, and now Brady Broussard shows up.”
    “It would be hard to choose between those two,” Hannah admitted.
    Mimi grinned mischievously. “Yeah, but what a choice.”
    “That’s just it,” Alison said. “I don’t know