Sealed With a Kiss Read Free Page A

She’d done what
she’d set out to do, but it hadn’t ended well. At least she could
report back to her friends that Bella Fletcher was no longer their
mystery girl.
    It was just a pity that John Fletcher didn’t
share his daughter’s personality. If Bella was unhappy, there was
nothing she could do about it.
    Not today, anyway.
     
    ***
    John glanced at his daughter. Bella was
sitting on a kitchen stool, swinging her legs in time to the music
playing on their sound system. She had her head bent over a book,
concentrating on the words.
    He took a container of fresh fruit salad out
of the fridge and two bowls out of the pantry. “I met Ms. McReedy,
today.”
    Bella looked up at him. Her absent smile told
him she was still stuck somewhere in, Anne of Green Gables .
She frowned at the fruit salad, then glanced back at him. “The
teacher from the school I’m going to?”
    He nodded and Bella smiled. Her wide grin
caught him off guard. She was so much like her mom that a sharp
stab of grief made him forget what he was about to say.
    He wished his wife had been here to see how
beautiful their daughter was. Bella lit up the room with her happy
laughter and unguarded smiles. He was her beginning, middle, and
end, and the only reason he’d been able to function after Jacinta
died.
    He cleared his throat and reformed the words
inside his head. “Ms. McReedy said that she enjoyed teaching
you.”
    Bella leaned forward and rested her elbows on
the counter. “I liked her, too. She’s a fun teacher.”
    Bella’s gaze followed him as he put a serving
of fruit into each bowl. “She came to my office to see if I knew
who’d sent her friends a card.” Bella took one of the bowls and
waited for him to pass her a spoon. There was no flicker of
recognition, nothing that told him his daughter knew what he was
talking about.
    He passed Bella a spoon, then walked across
to his briefcase and took out the envelope. “Does this look
familiar?”
    The fruit on Bella’s spoon dropped into her
bowl. “How did Ms. McReedy get my card?” she whispered.
    John pushed the envelope across the counter
to Bella. “She helps her friends give bridesmaids’ dresses to
people who need them.”
    Bella nodded and pushed some fruit around in
her bowl.
    “Is there anything you want to tell me?”
    Bella frowned. “Daisy sent us a card from
Barcelona. I put it on the fridge.”
    Daisy was Bella’s tutor. Unfortunately for
Bella and John, Daisy had called him three nights ago and told him
she wouldn’t be coming back. The two-week vacation she’d first
planned had turned into twelve months of traveling around Europe.
John’s housekeeper was filling in as a substitute tutor, but he
needed to find someone more permanent.
    John glanced at the postcard. “That’s nice,
but it’s not what I’m meaning. Why did you ask The Bridesmaids Club
to find a bride for me?”
    Bella blushed and looked down at her fruit
salad.
    “Bella?”
    “It was ages ago,” she muttered.
    John wasn’t sure how to find out if his
daughter was lonely. So he didn’t. He carried his fruit salad
across to the counter and sat on a stool beside her. “Mrs. Daniels
said you’re doing really well with your school work.”
    Bella shrugged her shoulders.
    John stabbed a piece of melon with his fork.
“What did you do today?”
    “We did some math and reading. Mrs. Daniels
showed me how to make a chicken pasta salad and a huckleberry
cheesecake. We’re having them for dinner tomorrow night.”
    John nodded. He’d seen the weekly work plan
that Daisy had left with Mrs. Daniels. His housekeeper had shown
Bella a whole lot more than cooking skills, but if that’s what
Bella remembered the most, he wasn’t too worried. He was
advertising for a new tutor next week. With the money he was
offering, he didn’t expect to have any problem filling the position
before Christmas.
    “Ms. McReedy is nice.” Bella glanced at him
quickly.
    John nodded and kept eating his fruit