a creepy way.”
“He was probably just noticing a pretty woman.”
Kendall wasn’t so sure. She had a feeling he wasn’t looking at her for her looks. Maybe he’d watched a strange woman come out of a bridal shop and had his own thoughts on that. Maybe he’d been dumped by a woman or his bride-to-be changed her mind. Who knew?
What other reason would a man have to park along the street and watch her? Kendall had no enemies.
Then why did she have this bad feeling?
She glanced back as their driver pulled out into traffic. The other car turned out onto the street and made a U-turn.
“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” her mother asked, looking back like Kendall was.
“That car.”
“It’s that same man,” Marion said. “Is he following you?”
The driver glanced in his rearview mirror. Kendall was glad he’d listened and was now alert to the potential danger. She glanced back again. The other car stayed three cars back but followed them down Main Street. As the town faded away and they headed back up the mountain toward home, the car remained behind them.
The driver didn’t try to lose the other vehicle. Kendall wondered if that was a mistake. Would they lead the man to their home?
As they approached the turn to the road that would lead to their property, Kendall and her mother watched through the rear window. Their driver made the turn.
Kendall’s heart pounded as the other car neared the turn. He didn’t appear to slow and she breathed a sigh of relief when the driver passed on by without so much as a glance their way.
Kendall faced forward and leaned back against the seat.
“You sure are jumpy,” her mother said.
“Maybe it’s just the day. Buying a wedding dress is kind of a monumental event.” Or maybe she hadn’t imagined the man watching her and maybe he had deliberately followed them. Was it a message? But why on earth would a stranger be after her?
After hugging her mother goodbye, she got out of the car when it stopped by her house.
She locked the door and set the alarm, not understanding why she still felt so unsettled. She removed her jacket and other winter clothes and started farther into her house when the doorbell rang.
She stopped and stiffened. Could that driver have turned around and driven up the road and found her? She didn’t see how. There were other driveways along the road they’d turned onto. Turning to the door, she went there and cautiously peeked out the side window. A florist stood there, holding a beautiful bouquet of wildflowers and a stuffed wolf. Instantly lighter of heart, she disarmed the alarm and opened the door.
“For you, ma’am,” the middle-aged man in a baseball cap and a maroon puff jacket said.
She took the flowers and then the wolf. “Thank you.”
The wolf felt soft and furry and the flowers wafted a sweet summery scent, a refreshing difference from the chill in the air today.
Closing and locking the door and rearming the security system, she took the stuffed animal and the flowers and left the entry, passing white-and-dark-wood-trimmed stairs and a console table. In the spacious, high-ceilinged living room, she went to the seating area, which was furnished with off-white chairs and a sectional sofa around a rectangular wooden coffee table.
Smiling to herself, she put the flowers on the coffee table and inspected the wolf, thinking this quite a creative gift. Looking for a card, she found it in the flowers.
Dinner was nice, but just a taste. I’ll have a car pick you up at seven for another. Just you and me this time. Formal attire. D.
He’d gotten her wildflowers because she’d told him she loved the outdoors and he’d gotten her the wolf because she’d told him about the pack she’d spotted. How very thoughtful of him. She hadn’t expected that.
Nevertheless, she wasn’t sure if she liked his boldness. What if she had plans tonight? Did he expect her to drop everything just to go out with him? She’d have to ask. One thing she’d establish right from the start—she would not change her life to suit his schedule or his business aspirations. She had her standards and she would not compromise herself for him. He had to respect her.
Would he?
Decker hadn’t heard from Kendall, so he assumed she’d be ready when he had his car pick her up. He waited for her in the Columbine off the main lobby of The Lodge, where he’d reserved a section just for them. He had warned the staff to be at their top performance. Tonight he wore a suit and tie. He couldn’t wait to see what Kendall had decided to wear, although she would look great in anything, even if she showed up in jeans just to spite him.
He received a text indicating Kendall had arrived. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back; soft jazz music played. No center candle tonight, instead, a brass table lamp. The small bar had a bartender who waited in his suit and tie. Decker had put them in a room often reserved for moderately large dinner parties. The two double-door-sized archway entries had glass French doors with draperies for privacy that he’d ordered closed, but the lights from the start of the gondola could still be seen from here.
He spotted Kendall walking toward him and froze for a second as her beauty dazzled him. Adorned, in a simple long black dress that V’d modestly at the bodice, it complimented her tall, graceful physique beautifully. She wore a sapphire necklace and matching earrings and had put her long blond hair up.
“You look radiant,” he said, lifting her hand to his lips to plant a soft kiss along it as he had the other time.
Behind her, one of the waitstaff closed the French doors.
“You did say formal,” Kendall said.
Straightening, he thought he detected a slight edge to her tone. “You could have come in jeans and I wouldn’t have minded.”
“You could have asked me to dinner instead of summoning me.”
Oh, yes, definitely an edge. “I wouldn’t call it summoning. Charming you into joining me, perhaps.” She’d taken offense.
“It was presumptuous of you to assume I wouldn’t have any other plans and if I did, that I’d change them.”
He grunted, trying to smother a laugh. He would never presume anything of her. “Actually, I was sure you’d turn me down. When I didn’t get a call, I got excited.”
He saw her immediately soften. “Okay, you’ve redeemed yourself.” She smiled. “Thank you for the flowers and the wolf. They were very considerate gifts.”
“As was my intention.” He indicated for her to join him at the bar.
She preceded him there, giving him a view of the scooping
