Free Loving You (The Bridesmaids Club Book 2) by Leeanna Morgan Page A

looked at the boys kicking the ball. If he kept watching Annie, he’d start laughing. “What would you need such a big kitchen for, anyway? It doesn’t take three ovens to cook dinner for one person.”
    Annie looked down at her jeans. “If I had a kitchen like that I could almost start my own business.”
    “Don’t you like working for Tess?”
    Annie sighed. “I do, but I’ve got an idea for another business. There are lots of villages springing up everywhere for older people. I want to give the residents another option for eating in their homes. And there are lots of working parents who want a home cooked meal instead of takeout. I could do that for them.”
    “You’d make meals and deliver them?”
    Annie nodded. “I wrote a business plan and showed it to the loans officer at the bank. I just don’t have enough money at the moment.”
    “So your dream is to own your own business?”
    “My dream is to own my own successful business. I’ve got a financial plan. In three years, I’ll have enough money saved to lease a property with a commercial kitchen.”
    Dylan pulled his cell phone out. “Sounds like you’re organized.”
    “I have to be. Life doesn’t just happen. You have to make it happen.”
    “On that positive note, I’m calling Polly. Do you want to come and have another look at the first house?”
    “I shouldn’t,” she muttered. “I feel like I’m supporting your addiction to spending money.”
    He scrolled through his contact list. “I’ll take that as a yes.” Annie sat quietly beside him while he arranged to meet Polly in twenty minutes.
    With the appointment made, he disconnected the call and stretched his legs out in front of him. “She wasn’t surprised.”
    “I bet she’s working out her commission as we speak.”
    “There are worse ways to spend a Saturday afternoon.”
    Annie glanced down at her watch. “I need to be home by four-thirty at the latest.”
    “Who are you bowling against?”
    “My coach. He thinks he can beat me. What time are you meeting your friends?”
    “Five thirty. We’re having dinner together. A couple of the guys had family things to go to this afternoon.”
    “How did you meet them?”
    A white ball rolled toward Dylan. He stood up and kicked it back to the group of boys. “I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. My counselor told me about the support group Pastor Steven set up. It’s a small group, but it means a lot.”
    “I overheard Logan telling Tess about it. It sounds like a good group to be part of.”
    Dylan nodded. The transition to civilian life had been hard enough without having to deal with what had brought him here. The friendship of the guys in the group had made everything much easier to deal with.
    He checked his watch. “We’d better get going or we’re going to be late.”
    Annie sighed as she stood up. “And we wouldn’t want that. Someone else might have their pen in their hand, ready to sign their life away.”
    “But what a life.”
    “Think mortgage.”
    Dylan laughed. “You worry too much. I might not like the house as much this time around.”
    Annie snorted. “I don’t think so. I could see you figuring out where you’d stack your unopened boxes.”
    He stood beside the passenger door of his truck. “This could be the home that inspires me to unpack everything for the first time. And then there’s the kitchen. You could practice your bulk cooking skills in there.”
    Annie growled at him. “Blackmail won’t make me change my mind.”
    A heat he hadn’t felt in a long time spread through his body. He could think of more creative ways of changing Annie’s mind, and buying a house didn’t even come close.
    He opened her door and waited for her to get inside his truck. “You know, there is another way of looking at this,” he said.
    Annie looked up from her seat. “There is?”
    “It could be a move in the right direction. I’m putting down roots, finding something more permanent