Free Bride by the Book (Crimson Romance) by Kathryn Brocato Page B

remaining butter off her plate with the last scrap of toast and ate it, then dabbed delicately at her mouth with a napkin. With Garner’s gaze focused on her mouth, she wiped harder than usual. She kept imagining what it would be like to kiss him and ended up making a mess of her lipstick.
    Garner’s expression remained undecipherable. “If pink is what it takes, then that’s what you’ll have. Come on, folks. It’s almost nine o’clock, and there comes the delivery truck, right on time.”
    Angie paid her bill hurriedly, careful to leave Dolly a good tip, and followed Garner across the street to his office. In her briefcase she carried several flash drives that contained programs she’d need to jet-power Garner’s computers to something near her standards, and her own small laptop in case the programs failed. As soon as she got his books properly placed on the new shelves, she was tackling that computer.
    Cliff went directly to his own office, where a client was already waiting. “See you later, Angie,” he said, and added in her ear, “Don’t plan on lunch at the diner unless you like broiled chicken breast.”
    Angie nodded thoughtfully and thanked him with a smile. She’d thought the diner was perfectly located for her needs, but it looked as though she’d be wise to plan on packing a lunch for a while.
    Garner vanished into his office, leaving Angie to dictate the placing of the shelves. That suited Angie perfectly. Accustomed to working under her own direction, she enjoyed arranging the books on the new shelves and happily spent an hour at it before being interrupted.
    “Leave that until later.” Garner appeared in the door. “I need this letter retyped immediately.”
    Angie glanced up and focused on the letter in his hand.
    “What’s wrong with it?” she asked.
    “You misread my writing. ‘Arbitron’ should be ‘arbitration,’ and ‘Seagate’ should be ‘abate.’”
    Chagrined, Angie stared at the offending words. “Very well. I’ll have it ready in just a moment, as soon as—”
    “Now, Angie.”
    Angie stiffened and turned her indignant gaze upon him. Fortunately, she remembered her new calling before she could tell him to stuff his letter down his throat.
    “I’m terribly sorry,” she said. “Next time, try writing a little more carefully, please.”
    • • •
    Garner’s mouth opened. He didn’t want to fire his wonderful new secretary before she had shelved his law library. Or before she had showed him a thing or two about his computer.
    He withdrew into his office until he was certain she was concentrating on the computer then he slipped out and watched as she turned on the computer on her desk. The machine, which had been slow and crotchety when he’d last seen it, booted up swiftly. She’d done something more to it, but he was darned if he could imagine what.
    She called up the letter without having to search the entire disk the way he did, swiftly altered the two words he had pointed out, and had another copy printed in the time it would have taken him to get his word processing program called up. Garner confessed himself both awed and baffled, not to mention grateful.
    Angie turned, letter in hand, and started slightly when she almost walked into him. “Here’s the letter. In the future, maybe you’d better dictate your letters.”
    Garner slowly read every word in the letter while she waited then signed it and handed it back to her. With great ceremony, she inserted it in the envelope and placed it on her desk for mailing.
    “Thank you,” Garner said, with real gratitude. “Here’s a document I need typed right away, please. There are forms stored on the hard disk. Just pull up the correct one and insert the needed information in the blanks.”
    Angie studied the document he handed her. It was a lease, and he’d penciled in the words he wanted inserted. Hopefully, she could read his writing this time.
    “Very well,” she said. “I’ll have it ready in