The Last Bride (DiCarlo Brides #6)
Page 29
A little less well for herself, apparently. Her eyes slid back to Alex. She couldn’t help herself.
“I better go talk with Martha. She’s missing her David, you know. Death is never easy.” Sophia patted Angela’s hand and moved away.
Angela wanted to sigh in relief. She’d been listening to Martha for nearly half an hour—which by her way of thinking, was about twenty-eight minutes too long to listen to the ins and outs of bottled preserves.
Angela looked around her, thinking she could use a drink. She noticed Alex was not with Lana anymore, but didn’t see him as she continued to survey the room. She did, however, see Norton Brooks moving in her direction, determination in every step.
The son of one of her father’s old business friends, Nort was the last person Angela wanted to speak with tonight. He’d had a crush on Angela since they were kids and always sought her out whenever they were at an event. She had managed to avoid him for most of the past few years—going to Chicago for college had been a very good get-away-from-Nort tactic, even if that had only been a benefit and not the reason for the location. She took evasive action, moving behind the large flower bouquet, then sliding between the backdrop where the ceremony was held and the wall, coming out the other side, only inches from the door to the hall. She rushed into the hall and looked around her.
There were three doors. One was the changing room for the bride and would be locked until just before she and Gage left. The second door was just closing on someone. She tried the handle and it opened under her hand, letting her inside. It was a supply closet—this time full of wedding decor.
Alex stood in the middle of it, looking at her in surprise.
“What are you doing in here?” Angela asked.
He slid his hands into his pants pockets and took a slow look of appraisal. “I could ask you the same.”
“I’m trying to avoid Nort and his grabby hands.” She spoke in a low voice, not wanting to be overheard in the hallway. “Again, why are you here? Surely you didn’t come in expecting to find a refill on your glass.” She gestured to the empty champagne flute that sat nearby.
“Of course not. I just needed a few minutes alone.” His blue eyes looked a little weary. “I took something for my headache but the music and voices weren’t helping.”
“That’s too bad. I promise not to make too much noise.” She stepped closer to him. “When did you arrive?”
“This morning. It’s been a long day.”
“I bet DiCarlo Phildelphia had a room waiting with your name on it.” She sauntered over to him, deciding that as long as she had him trapped, she would take advantage of the opportunity. “It was nice of you to come to the wedding. I know you’ve showed for all of the rest of the girl’s weddings, but it’s not like Jonquil is actually related to you.”
“Only indirectly.” He stood a little straighter. “But it was partly business.”
He had five or six inches on her five-foot-six frame so he was just the right height, in her opinion. That was joined by the just-right cleft in his chin, the just-right lips above the chin, the light brown hair that waved just right over his head—only a few inches long so it was easy to style but still very clean cut. As far as she could tell, nearly everything about him was just right.
“I thought you settled everything with the estate already.” Angela said as she stepped even closer. Near enough she could touch his chest if she lifted her hands. She managed to keep her hands to herself. For the moment.
He cleared his throat, not moving away, but there were only a few inches between him and the shelves behind. “There are a few details. They decided to sell the house in Chicago. Lana had talked about buying it, but decided they would be there so rarely that it would be better to let it go.”
“That makes sense.” Angela clasped her hands behind her and tipped her head, studying him. “If you’ve had enough of the noise and confusion, why didn’t you call it a night?”
“I was going to go back in, a little later.” He tugged nervously at his gray pinstriped suit jacket. “When the Tylenol kicked in.”
“Ah.” She glanced around her and found a large plastic tub marked Pink Tulle, and tugged it over, taking a seat on the lid. “You could grab yourself another tub and join me for a moment. My feet are killing me in these heels.”
She didn’t often wear heels—they weren’t exactly practical for running around campus or for rehearsals. She thought she would get used to them after having to wear heels for her part as Hedy La Rue in Juniper Ridge, Colorado that summer, but she hadn’t.
“Your legs sure look great, though,” he said as he followed her example.
It was the first complement he’d given her. She smiled. “Well, I guess I shouldn’t complain, then. She stretched out her legs and sighed a little in relief as she felt the muscles shift happily on her arch.
“They look happy, after everything they went through, it’s good to see them happy.”
“You mean Jonquil and Gage, or all of the sisters?” Angela still felt more than a twinge of jealousy when she thought of Jonquil’s other family, and the five half-sisters she’d formed relationships with since arriving in Juniper Ridge over a year earlier. It made Angela feel left out and a little too on the fringes.
Being there for the summer, getting to know them and reconnecting with Jonquil helped, but it was still something that left Angela feeling somehow left behind.
“I meant Jonquil and Gage, but it fits them all pretty well. I can’t believe two of them have babies already.” Alex smiled to himself as he leaned back against the shelves.
“And two more on the way.”
“Family gatherings with them are going to get messy. Just give it a few years and see if it doesn’t.” He had a soft smile though. Obviously he looked forward to it.
“Do you have brothers or sisters?”
“No.” Alex blinked once, then focused on her, his mind brought away from whatever he had been thinking about. “It was just me. That’s probably why I grew so close to Cami and Lana. We were all we had.”
“Your parents don’t count?”
He grinned. “Certainly not—at least not when you’re up to mischief. Our moms were not at all happy about mischief.”
“Most moms frown on it.” Hers sure had. “I never could convince mine that I hadn’t meant for something to go south and make a mess. She never seemed to care about my intentions, just my actions.” She heaved a dramatic sigh.
He reached out and brushed his fingers along the ends of her hair, then along her jaw, which was about the same height. Their eyes met and held as the air around them seemed to draw them closer.
“Your hair is so soft.” His voice was low and intimate. Then his fingertip ran along her bottom lip.
Angela rolled her lips against it, wishing it was his mouth instead. Their eyes never wavered. She leaned forward, preparing to slide onto his lap and kiss him the way she’d wanted to since they first met. For a moment he looked prepared to meet her halfway.
Then Alex stood, shock on his face before a more practiced smile covered his features. “It was good talking to you. It’s been a long time. I really ought to get back in there, though. Cami will be looking for me.”
Angela’s eyes narrowed as she watched him go. That hadn’t been her imagination, had it? She could have sworn he felt that burst of chemistry too. Was there something wrong with her, or was something else making him run off every time they saw each other?
Find the rest of the DiCarlo Brides series on Amazon, Nook, Kobo and other ebook retailers. The books are also available in paper and coming in audiobook.
What does one do when they come to the end of a series? I’m not sure because apparently I couldn’t let this one go—not yet. Not completely. I want to say a really big thanks to all of the fans of this series. You’ve been such a bright, happy light for me, pushing me to get the book done despite the other things in my life that kept getting in the way.
I’d like to tha
nk my parents, who, after forty years of marriage, are still going strong. It’s easy to believe in love when you have them as an example.
I want to thank Maria Hoagland and Danyelle Ferguson for editing for me, pointing out inconsistencies and catching typos and for my hubby for doing that final pass to catch many of the things I missed.
Writing this series has been a labor of love from the first word. I hope it shines through in my stories and that they’ll come to live in your hearts, at least a tiny bit as much as they’ve come to live in mine.
Heather Tullis has been reading romance for as long as she can remember and has been publishing in the genre since 2009. When she’s not dreaming up new stories to write, she, enjoys gardening, playing with her dogs and cat, cake decorating and working with her husband.
Learn more about her at her website and sign up for her newsletter at http://heathertullis.com/ or her Facebook fan page http://www.facebook.com/HeatherTullisBooks.
Table of Contents
Contents
Front stuff
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chatper 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Epilogue
A Perfect Fit
SEALed with Love
Reclaiming His Bride
Family Matters
Wild Hearts
Acknowledgements