Death at a Premium
Page 22
Josie looked down at her dress and smiled. Who would have thought that she would be married in the very gown her new mother-in-law had worn when she married Sam’s father? “That was before I joined Weight Watchers, my dear!” Carol had pointed out when she offered her the dress.
Josie looked around. And who would have thought that their wedding reception would be held in the newly remodeled Bride’s Secret, or that the Bride’s Secret was going to be her new home—a wedding present from Sam, who had paid her company to do the construction as well? The house looked beautiful, and if anyone noticed that the plaster on the top-floor walls was still damp, no one mentioned it.
Sam walked up and slipped an arm around Josie’s waist and kissed her earlobe. “Happy?”
“Of course.”
“You don’t look it.”
“I was thinking about Tilly Higgins,” Josie answered. “She’s probably still upset about her husband going to prison for murder.”
“And destroying most of their wealth in all the years since they were married,” Sam added.
“If Seymour Higgins had been able to collect the huge insurance payment for his partner’s death as he planned on doing, they might be sitting here instead of us,” she pointed out.
“Then we’d be together someplace else. This is a wonderful house, but it really doesn’t matter where we are just as long as we’re together, does it?”
Josie leaned her head on his shoulder. “No. You are absolutely, totally right about that.”
“And what do you think about Tyler’s wedding present to us?” Sam asked after taking a moment to kiss his bride.
Josie looked over at the long built-in buffet Island Contracting had constructed in the living room and the huge glass lamp that stood on it. “I think it’s hideous, but it really is the thought that counts, isn’t it?”
“Yes. It really, really is. And you know I plan to spend the rest of my life thinking about you and your son.”
She looked up at him and smiled. Living with that lamp was a small price to pay for so much happiness, she decided.
Death at a Premium is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A Fawcett Books Mass Market Original
Copyright © 2005 by Valerie Wolzien
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Fawcett Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
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