Free The Surprise Princess by Patricia McLinn Page A

oddity. I thought we’d settled that the other day.”
    He turned off the car and shifted toward her. “Not an oddity, Katie. A mystery.”
    She looked up. Into the lose-your-soul-and-your-mind blue of his eyes.
    “I’m not a mystery.”
    “You are to me.”

 
    CHAPTER NINE
     
    H is concentration on basketball gave her a break during the game, but she braced for a renewed – what? Assault? Attack? Inquisition?
    Instead, he was silent and frowning as they walked to the car while most people remained in the gym for the next game.
    As they reached the main road, he sounded stiff when he said, “I’ve got that other stop to make now. Sorry.”
    “I remember. It’s no problem.”
    “You’ll like these people.” But he didn’t sound happy about it.
    And he didn’t look happy as they walked up to the front door of a handsome, inviting house in Evanston, the first suburb north of Chicago. He rang the bell.
    Voices – children’s and adults’ – and a dog’s bark preceded the door swinging wide to show a man smiling broadly. “Come in, come in. Quick, before the hordes get you.” He waved them in as the other arm extended back as if to hold off two kids and a fuzzy dog of indeterminate parentage. The kids and dog ducked under the restraining arm with ease, staring up at them with friendly interest.
    “Good to see you again, Brad. And you must be Katie. I’m Paul Monroe. And these two bandits—” He scooped up a child in each arm, setting off waves of giggles. “—are all my fault. Nick and Cassie,” he added, hitching first one then the other higher by way of introduction. “Say hello to Katie and Brad.”
    They did, as the man instructed Brad to hang his own and Katie’s coats on a line of pegs by the door.
    As they reached a stairway, Paul Monroe set the two kids down on the second step and said, “Upstairs now, and no pestering Anne Elizabeth, the both of you.”
    “But Da-ad—” Tried the girl, the younger one.
    “We talked about this. Now go.”
    The boy said glumly, “We might as well go, he’ll get Mom if we don’t.”
    They trudged upstairs.
    “As you can see, I’m a fearsome disciplinarian,” Paul said deadpan. “C’mon back and meet everybody, Katie. This is my wife, Bette.”
    A woman with the same dark hair and blue eyes as the little girl met them where the hallway opened to a large room. Even before entering, Katie saw a fireplace, comfortable groupings of seating with a number of chairs perfect for curling up in. “Welcome, Katie. We’re so glad you could come. These are our good friends, Leslie and Grady Roberts. And Tris and Michael Dickinson over there putting toys away.”
    Both couples had smiles as warm as the Monroes’, though Katie felt a layer of discomfort edged in. Was she picking up a bit of discomfort on their parts? But why?
    She glanced over her shoulder toward Brad, who was exchanging low words with Paul. He didn’t meet her gaze.
    “And this,” Leslie Roberts said, holding onto Katie’s hand after they shook and using that hold to draw her deeper into the room, “is my cousin, April Gareaux.”
    Katie stopped.
    Stopped moving. Stopped breathing. Stopped thinking.
    Stopped everything but staring at the young woman who had been in the news so much at the beginning of the year. The young woman so many people had said she resembled. The young woman in the magazine she’d looked at so many times.
    “We’re here shamelessly throwing ourselves on Bette’s organizing skill to pull together our wedding,” April said with a warm smile. “I’m so glad it’s also giving me this opportunity to meet you.”
    Katie looked into her mind searching for a reaction and it was an utter blank except for one fact. Brad had brought her here. To a house where April Gareaux was.
Brad
.
    Movement caught her attention, finally breaking her immobility to focus on it. Now she was staring at the man who’d come to stand behind April, one arm going around her.
    “Hello,