Dream Wedding: Dream Bride | Dream Groom by Susan Mallery Page A

in disgust and glared at her. “Don’t you have a story to write? Packing maybe? Get out of here.”
    “Yes, Jerry.” Despite herself, Chloe grinned. Jerry acted so tough all the time, but he would be the first one at the hospital after Nancy gave birth. He would be cooing like everyone else over the newborn.
    She made her way back to her desk. She had her permission. She was really going away with Arizona. Out into the wilderness, where anything could happen.
    * * *
    C HLOE STARED AT the clothes folded neatly on top of her bed. “I don’t know what to take,” she admitted. “I’ve never been camping.”
    Cassie sat in the chair by the desk and smiled. “You’ll do fine. Take jeans and underwear. Shirts and sweaters. You’ll want to layer if it gets cold, but you won’t want anything bulky.”
    “Arizona says we’ll have to hike in the last part, so I have to carry everything with me.”
    Cassie leaned forward, picked up the blow-dryer and waved it in the air. “In that case, I’d leave this behind. It’s big, heavy and you’re not going to have electricity.”
    “I know. I just thought—” She shuddered. “I don’t know what I was thinking. It was a hideous mistake to agree to this. I’m completely out of my element.”
    “You’ll be fine. Arizona will keep you safe.”
    Chloe didn’t know whether to laugh or scream. What her sister didn’t understand was that Arizona was part of what she was afraid of. But she couldn’t say that to Cassie without going into detail. And how was she supposed to tell her sister that she had indeed had a dream the night of her twenty-fifth birthday and that the man in her dream had been someone she’d met the very next day? How was she supposed to confess that every time she was near him her body went up in flames, and that all the time they were apart, he was all she could think of?
    Besides, not all of her fears were about Arizona. Some of them were about herself. She didn’t know what was wrong with her. She felt herself changing. Nothing was as it should be. She wanted… Chloe sighed. That was the problem. She didn’t know what she wanted.
    Cassie stood up and walked to the bed. She opened Chloe’s cosmetic bag and dumped the contents.
    “Toothbrush and toothpaste,” she said. She rummaged through the rest of the items, then eyed her sister’s long hair. She picked up a wide-toothed comb and a cloth-covered rubber band. “Don’t worry about makeup.” She fingered a tube of sunscreen. “This has moisture in it.” She added a tiny bottle of shampoo to the small pile. “Arizona will bring soap, I’m sure. Use his.”
    Chloe stared at the half-dozen items. “How do you know this stuff?”
    “I work with preschoolers. If nothing else, I’ve learned to improvise.” She pointed to the piles of clothing. “Want me to do the same on that?”
    “Please.”
    As Chloe watched, her sister sorted through jeans, shirts and sweaters. She picked up a waterproof windbreaker, a thin, high-tech fabric pullover guaranteed to keep Chloe warm, two flannel shirts, a spare pair of jeans and underwear.
    “Take extra socks,” Cassie told her. “Your feet might get wet.”
    “That’s it?” Chloe asked.
    “It is if you really have to carry it on your back. I know this from personal experience. I’ve baby-sat too many kids who didn’t want me to bring the stroller. I told myself it was just a quick trip to the mall and that they didn’t weigh all that much. After about five minutes I learned they got heavy very quickly, and I always regretted my decision.”
    “I’ll take your word for it,” Chloe said. “You’re obviously the expert.”
    “I might have some shampoo samples,” Cassie said. “You know those little flat packages? Let me check, because they would be lighter than this bottle. I’ll be right back.”
    After she’d left, Chloe looked at the small pile of clothing and wondered what on earth she was getting into. Would she and Arizona be