Sealed with a Kiss by Leeanna Morgan (microsoft ebook reader txt) 📖

Rachel parked her car outside her friend’s apartment. For the entire ride across town, she’d been thinking about the envelope sitting on the seat beside her, the exciting news that would bring a smile to Annie’s face.

For the last couple of months, Rachel had been helping a group of friends who’d started The Bridesmaids Club. They gave donated bridesmaids’ dresses to brides in distress. Most weeks, at least a dozen dresses were sent to them, packed in boxes, bags, and anything in-between. Sometimes she helped with the dress fittings, but her main job was to sort through the letters they received. She made appointments for the bridesmaids to see the dresses and contacted the people they couldn’t help.

Nearly a year ago, a letter had arrived from a little girl called Bella. All of her friends had spent weeks trying to find her. But Bella wasn’t easy to find. With no return address and no last name, the glittery card with sparkling jewels had become their mystery card. The only clue to where she lived was the Bozeman postmark on the envelope.

Bella’s big, round handwriting made them smile, and her request had touched their hearts. Bella didn’t want a bridesmaid’s dress. She wanted a bride for her daddy.

Rachel picked up Bella’s envelope and smiled. She was almost one hundred percent positive that she’d found the little girl they’d been looking for.

She got out of her car and headed toward Annie’s apartment. The cold October wind tore through her coat and left her shivering on the doorstep. They were lucky it hadn’t started snowing. Montana’s weather could be unpredictable at the best of times, but during the fall, they could have four seasons in one week.

Annie opened her front door just as Rachel was about to knock. “Tell me you’ve got good news?” She pulled Rachel into her apartment and closed the door.

“What’s happened?” Rachel stared at the boxes scattered around the living room. Annie was getting married the following weekend. She had everything organized, right down to the way each napkin would be folded on the tables. She’d been determined not to get stressed, or give in to the last minute pre-wedding nerves that most brides seemed to develop.

Annie ran her hands through her hair. “Dylan’s mom is driving me insane. She doesn’t like the table favors we’ve organized for each guest. We should have gotten married next April. Why did I want to get married earlier?”

“Because you love Dylan and couldn’t wait to be his wife.” Rachel glanced at the tulle and ribbon bags they’d filled two nights before. “What’s wrong with peppermint creams, anyway? I thought Dylan’s mom liked peppermint.”

“So did I, but she’s found a company in Vermont that makes maple toffee crunch brownies. One of her friend’s daughters got married last weekend. The brownies were the most delicious thing she’d ever tasted. They come in individual boxes, gift-wrapped with ribbon to match the theme of the wedding.”

“But this is Montana, not Vermont,” Rachel said carefully. She didn’t want to get between Annie and her mother-in-law, but with one week left before the wedding, it wasn’t the time to be changing anything.

“Precisely. But is she listening to me? No. Dylan called her this morning, but she’s determined to have the brownies. She called the company and they can send enough boxes to us by Friday. She even offered to pay for them. What am I going to do?”

Rachel took off her coat and scarf and left them on the back of a chair. “What difference does it make if you have the brownies?”

“Nothing, if they arrive in time. We could give the sixty bags of peppermint creams to someone else. But it’s the principle that counts. Dylan and I have spent months getting everything ready.”

“Do you want my advice?”

Annie nodded. “You’re the sanest person in the room at the moment.”

“Go with the brownies. No one’s going to be worried if they get a brownie instead of peppermint creams.”

Annie moved two pairs of shoes off a chair and sat down. “I suppose you’re right. It’s just so annoying.”

“Welcome to the world of families. Dylan’s mom probably had the best of intentions when she mentioned the brownies.”

“If she’d had those same intentions two months ago, it would have been better,” Annie grumbled.

“I’ve got some news that’s better than your brownies.”

Annie frowned. “Have you found the farmyard animal costumes from last year’s Christmas play?”

Rachel shook her head. “I don’t think we’ll ever see them again. One of the other teacher’s must have left them in a box somewhere. This is more exciting than lost costumes.” She waved Bella’s envelope in the air. “Do you remember this?”

Annie looked closely at the brightly colored envelope. “Is that Bella’s card?”

Rachel nodded. “And guess what?”

“You’ve found her?” Annie’s mouth dropped open. “How did you do that? We spent weeks searching for her.”

“The reason you couldn’t find her is because she’s homeschooled. Her dad travels around a lot with his job. She has a tutor who goes with them when they need to leave Montana.”

“Does her dad really need a bride?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to him.”

Annie grinned. “I’d like to hear how that conversation goes.”

“You can if you want to.”

“Let me guess…Molly, Tess, and Sally didn’t want to go with you to meet Bella’s dad.”

Molly, Tess, and Sally, were all part of the original group of friends who’d started The Bridesmaids Club. “Molly’s getting ready for another exhibition, Tess is baking like crazy for a Halloween party, and Sally is busy teaching.”

“Sounds like it’s you and me, then.”

“Only if you can spare the time,” Rachel said quickly. “I don’t know where Bella lives or what her father’s name is. If it takes more than a few days to find him, you’ll be well and truly on your honeymoon.”

Annie walked across to the kitchen. “How about you let me know when you’ve found him? Now that you know who Bella is, it must be a lot easier finding her dad.”

“I hope so,” Rachel said. She pulled the pretty card out of the envelope and re-read the message. Dear Bridesmaids Club. Can you please help my daddy find a bride?

Bella’s message brought back so many unhappy memories for Rachel, that she knew she had to find her. After searching through every public record she could get her hands on, Bella had simply walked through Rachel’s classroom door.

She knew Bella’s last name, but she didn’t know where she lived. And once she had an address, she’d have to figure out how to tell her dad that his daughter was looking for a mom.

John Fletcher stared at the release form in front of him. He’d been working with the Department of Defense for the last year, creating a prototype drone that would change the way surveillance operations were carried out around the world.

They’d passed the field tests and provided all the information the Special Ops Unit wanted. Now all he had to do was sign on the dotted line and his bank account would be millions of dollars better off.

“You gonna sit there and stare at that paper or sign the damn thing?” Tank, his friend and one of the ex-Navy SEALs who worked with him, wasn’t known for his patience off the battlefield. But leave him in the middle of an alligator-infested swamp, and he could stay still for hours.

John glanced up. “Did Connor encrypt the schematics?”

“All done.”

“And Sam sent the files through to Tanner?”

Tank focused his flat stare on him. “What’s wrong?”

John wasn’t going to admit that he’d had misgivings about this project long before they’d started the design phase. Tank didn’t need to know about the conversations he’d had with top-ranked officials in the Department of Defense or the issues that kept him awake.