An April Bride (17 page)

I could share the short version, though. “Gardening is my escape when life gets crazy. I don’t have a garden, so I borrow this one. I pull weeds and tidy things up. That’s all.”

“That doesn’t sound too criminal. Tell you what, I won’t tell if you won’t.”

“Deal.” Remembering Betty’s admonition to see everyone as a potential client, I decided to introduce myself. “I’m Ellie Martin.”

“Gray Whitby.”

The name surprised me. There was nothing gray about him. He was life and color and fun.

“Hurry up if you want a ride, Graham,” a man hollered from the direction of the parking lot.

“Hold your horses,” he yelled back.

Graham? Graham Whitby. That sounded stuffy, like he was a duke or something. But my real name wasn’t much better.

“I’ve got to run too.” I edged closer. Another whiff of his yummy, masculine scent made me want to bury my nose in his neck or thereabouts, but I kept a respectable distance as I passed him.

He followed me out of the flower bed onto the lawn. We faced each other, and suddenly I was as tongue-tied as a seventh grader at a school dance.

He had no such issues. He smiled, his dimple showing its cute little self again. “Now I know who to call if I need a real estate agent.”

Shoot. I’d broken one of Betty’s inflexible rules: Never be without a supply of business cards. “I’d give you my card, but I don’t have any on me. I’m online, though. Alioto Realty.”

He opened a wallet as shiny as his boots, pulled out a card, and placed it in my grimy palm. “Here’s mine. Call me sometime.” He started walking backward across the grass. “By the way, you’ve got some real estate on your nose.” He winked, turned around, and loped across the lawn toward his impatient friend.

I ran one finger down my nose. My finger came away smeared with orangey-red.

A shapeless trespasser with red dirt on her nose. So attractive.

Sighing, I tucked the card into my pocket without reading it. I wouldn’t call him. He could track me down if he wanted to, but it wasn’t likely.

Bracing myself for another day of fighting traffic and paperwork, I headed down the sidewalk toward my apartment and a shower.

The story continues in
A May Bride
by Meg Moseley . . .

L
enora Worth has written over fifty books for three different publishers. Her first Love Inspired,
The Wedding Quilt,
won Affaire de Coeur’s Best Inspirational for 1997, and
Logan’s Child
won
Romantic Time
s’ Best Love Inspired for 1998. Three of her books have finaled in the American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Award, and her Love Inspired Suspense
Body of Evidence
made the
New York Times
bestseller list in Mass Market Paperbacks. With millions of books in print, Lenora continues to write romance and suspense for several imprints. For several years Lenora
also wrote a weekly opinion column for the local newspaper and worked freelance for a local magazine. She now enjoys writing fiction full-time and going on adventures with her retired husband, Don. Married for thirty-eight years, they have two grown children. Lenora enjoys writing, reading, baking, and shopping . . . especially shoe shopping.