Free House Divided by Jennifer Peel

did.
Unfortunately, sharing the moment with Brady seemed to make it all the better.
    Caroline finally made it to the front of
the line. She bounded up to Santa; Brady and I stood nearby and watched her.
    “Is your brother really ok with his
daughter being with me?” I had to ask.
    “I told you things have changed, Ellie.”
    “No they haven’t. You should have seen the
way your bank manager treated me today. And did you notice the stares we got as
we left together?”
    He looked upset. “I’ll talk to her.”
    “Brady, I don’t want you to talk to her.
I’ll be gone soon anyway.”
    He looked down at me with his beautiful
eyes. They looked so full of passion. I’d seen that look before. It was right
before the last time he ever kissed me. I held my breath as he leaned down. He
didn’t kiss me, but he whispered in my ear, “Maybe you’ll change your mind.”
    His warm breath on my skin sent shivers
through my body. Once I recovered from my reaction to him I was going to tell
him I wouldn’t be changing my mind, but Caroline came bouncing back toward us
excited to tell us about her experience on Santa’s lap. Brady stood up straight
and tugged on my hair before he picked Caroline up and swung her around. He
looked toward me. “Where to, Ellie?”
    I pulled out the long list my Aunt Lu had
written me.
    Brady laughed.
    “You didn’t know what you were getting
into when you lied to get me to come with you this afternoon.”
    He winked. “I only bent the truth.”
    He hoisted Caroline on his shoulders. I
looked up to her. “Well, Miss Caroline, I need help picking out a dress for
church tomorrow, do you think you could help me?”
    She shook her head yes vigorously.
    I looked at Brady. “Follow me.”
    “With pleasure,” he replied.
    I walked toward one of my favorite stores.
I felt a little weird buying clothing with Brady, but I didn’t need my aunt
having a fit over me not attending church the next day. I was worried about her
repeated delays, and I didn’t want to do anything to upset her. Brady let
Caroline down, and she helped me peruse the racks of dresses. Her taste was
interesting; she loved polka dots, bright colors and bows. It was quite a bit
different from my taste.  I liked simple and sleek and subdued tones, but I
didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I took the dresses she picked out to the
dressing room with me, along with a few of my own choices. Brady took a seat
with Caroline and all the other men waiting for their wives or girlfriends. It
kind of made me wish I fit the bill.
    I tried on Caroline’s picks first, and I
came out and modeled for both her and Brady. Of course Caroline loved them, but
I think Brady’s tastes ran more along my lines. As Caroline oohed and aahed,
Brady, above her, would silently shake his head no and smile. After several of
her picks, I came back out in a mint sheath dress that hit me right at the knee,
it was long sleeved and it clung in all the right places without being too
clingy. I loved it, and by the look on Brady’s face, he was quite fond of it
too. Thankfully, Caroline loved it. I really didn’t want a pink polka dotted
dress.
    Outside the store, Brady leaned down
toward me as we walked to our next destination. “I’ll be looking forward to
church tomorrow.”
    I rolled my eyes at him. His country boy
charm was not going to work on me. At least that’s what I kept trying to tell
myself.
    I pulled out my long list and mapped out
where we needed to go. I had no idea my aunt bought gifts for so many people.
She had everyone from the gardener and mailman to her hair stylist. This was
the first time that I really looked at the list, and I was shocked when I got
to the bottom of it. Brady and Benjamin Jackson were on the list too. I almost
asked Brady if he knew what that was all about. I couldn’t believe my aunt
would want to buy gifts for those two. Maybe it was her idea of a joke, but she
never joked about the Jacksons. Maybe she had the early