Just then the last of the guest came through, and Phillip was saved any more harassment for the time being. But he knew there was no way Zane was going to let this go. He’d hear more about it later. He was just hoping Christy wouldn’t be standing beside him at the time. He wasn’t going to hold his breath though.
The wedding party made their way to the reception hall where all the wedding guests were waiting on them. Zane was starving and just wanted to sit down and eat. He hadn’t managed to eat anything for breakfast because he had been too wound up to even try. Apparently, eating was going to have to wait a little while longer. Obviously, everybody wanted them to cut the cake first.
He managed to smear the icing all over Amanda’s mouth, and then he gave her a devilish look and leaned over and kissed it off. This caused the reception hall to erupt with hollering and whistling.
When she went to smear it all over his face, he trapped her wrist in his hand and took a bite of the cake before letting her go.
“That wasn’t fair.”
“Well, if you tried to do to me what I just did to you, you might not be able to control yourself. I’m sure everybody would rather we started the honeymoon after we get out of here.”
“I think you’re the one without any self-control,” Zane heard Jeff holler from where the wedding party was sitting. “The whole force is glad to see this day finally get here. Now maybe you won’t be such a bear.”
“Watch it, Jeff. I can still tell her. Of course, there are a lot of others here that would probably like to tell her for you. You should definitely watch what you say.”
Hannah turned and looked at Zane, pretending to still be in the dark about what they were talking about and asked, “Tell who what?”
“Jeff, you want to tell her what we’re talking about. Maybe if you breathe in her ear, it won’t matter what you say to her.”
“Funny, Zane.” Now Hannah was snarling at him.
They had finally got to sit down and eat their dinner and had moved on to throwing the bouquet and garter belt. Zane turned and looked behind him long enough to get a good idea of where Jeff was standing. He was fairly certain Jeff wouldn’t actually try to catch it, so he wanted to try and make sure it landed on him. When he turned back to face forward, several of the other guys caught the smirk on his face, and had stepped to the side, making a wide circle around Jeff. Jeff had been looking at the floor, intending to stand there till it was over, and had missed all the other guys moving away from him.
Zane lifted his arms over his head and hooking a finger from both hands on either side of the garter like he was shooting a rubber band, aimed where he knew Jeff was standing. Sure enough. He managed to hit Jeff right in the face with it, causing him to catch it out of reflex. Jeff looked up and gave Zane, who had turned around in time to see it fall in his hand, a dirty look.
“Well, look who gets to get married next,” he smirked. “I wonder if you’ll ask her out now.”
“No, Zane,” he answered very seriously. “I’m not going to.”
“It may not matter.”
“Whatever.”
“Okay, it’s my turn, so you two can just stop fighting for a few minutes,” Amanda said, stretching up and kissing her new husband on the cheek. “Get out of my way, please.”
“I don’t know what you’ve done to her, Zane, but she is far more assertive than she has been in the last couple of years. We’ve got the old Amanda back,” Mr. Carter said, slapping Zane on the back. “Thank you.”
“No problem,” he grinned. “I love the assertive part of her. I had to start arguments with her intentionally to remind her she was allowed to have an opinion.”
“Okay, Dad, Zane, out of the way, so I can throw the bouquet.” Then she added under her breath, where only Zane could hear, “I’ll see if I can hit Hannah with it.”
When Zane started laughing, Jeff gave him a dirty look, like he knew what they were talking about. That caused Zane to laugh harder.
Once all the single girls had lined up, Amanda looked behind her to see where her target was standing. She grinned to herself and turned back around and took aim. Hannah was trying only slightly harder than Jeff had to catch the thing, but Amanda’s aim was good enough it pretty much dropped in her hands. She only had to reach out a little to keep it from landing in the floor.
Zane heard Jeff groan. Jeff had to be thinking about the fact that he was now going to have to dance with Hannah. It was a new Townsend family tradition that had started with Luke and Mindi’s wedding where the ones who caught the garter and bouquet had to dance a whole dance together by their selves.
“Okay, Jeff. You’ve got to dance with Hannah now. Do you think you can control yourself?” Zane asked, turning Jeff’s words around on him.
Jeff turned and gave Zane a dirty look as he walked out onto the dance floor with Hannah. He took a deep breath and pulled her into his arms as the song started. He kept his eyes fixed over her shoulder, doing the best he could not to look her in the eyes. He knew if he ever gave her a chance, she would be able to read his soul through his eyes. She would know how much in love with her he was.
He wasn’t sure how he had done it, but he managed to get through the whole song without throwing her over his shoulder and taking off with her. The whole time they were dancing he was wondering if her family would even bother to come after them.
Once the song came to an end and he was able to let her go, he took a deep breath, mumbling, “Thanks for the dance.” Then turned and walked off the dance floor, right out the side door. He wasn’t trying to be rude, but he needed to go cool off a little bit. If Zane had any idea how close he came to carrying his sister off every time he got near her, he might not be so quick to push them together. Then again, knowing Zane, he might actually be worse.
By the time Jeff had walked back in the building, Zane and Amanda had finished their first dance as man and wife, and he heard Luke holler across the room, “Time for you to pay up, Zane.”
Zane turned around and looked at his brother-in-law. “You’ve got to be kidding. Here? Now?”
“Yes. Here. Now,” Luke said with a grin.
“Amanda doesn’t know about this bet. Don’t you think you should ask her first?”
“Oh, he asked me yesterday,” Amanda said, walking off the dance floor. “The floor is yours, Baby.”
“Amanda, come on. Are you sure about this?” Zane asked, almost pleading with her.
“Oh yeah. I really want to see you do this,” she said, unable to stop the grin that spread across her face.
“You’re not the only one who is going to see me do this. There’s a lot of single girls here. Are you sure you are comfortable with this?” he asked, trying one more time to talk her out of letting Luke make him do this during their wedding reception. “I’d be more than happy to do this for you later, in private.”
“Come on, Zane. Get to it,” Jeff hollered from across the room.
Zane turned and looked at Jeff, giving him a dirty look. Jeff smirked back at him as if to say it’s your turn to be in the hot seat. When the song started playing, he knew there was no use trying to talk his way out of it. So, he decided to make the best of it, and kicked his shoes off toward the edge of the dance floor first.
“Maybe if I did this with my eyes closed, I could get through it easier,” he said out loud to no one in particular. That caused everyone in the dance hall to laugh, so he grabbed the lapels on his tuxedo jacket and yanked it open, then turned and looked at Amanda and bobbed his eyebrows at her. When he started to pull the jacket slowly down his arms, he heard someone holler, “Come on, Zane. Take it off.” He was pretty sure it was one of the girls he worked with on the force.
He turned around looking for her. Once he spotted her, he grinned at her and pulled the jacket the rest of the way off and tossed it at her. She caught it, and hollering, twirled it above her head.
He decided to unfasten his tuxedo pants next, and everyone started chanting, “Go, Zane, go.
” He stopped and shook his head, truly baffled by the insanity.
“Come on, Zane. Don’t stop now,” Luke said, turning red in the face with the effort not to laugh.
Zane unzipped his pants and shook his butt, causing them to slide slowly down his legs. This time, when he leaned over and picked them up off the floor, he threw them at Christy. “Hang on to those for me, will you? I’m going to want them back in a little bit. This is going to be Phillip next time,” he added with a wink.
Christy laughed, and said, “I’m looking forward to it.” Phillip scowled and didn’t say a word.
He walked over to where Amanda was sitting on the side of the dance floor and turned around with his butt to her and lifted his shirt and shook it once again. She laughed, throwing her head back, then reached out and smacked him on one of his tight buttocks.
He turned around and backed himself back out on the dance floor, untying his bow tie. Then slowly pulling it off, he took it and tossed it at Mindi.
He unbuttoned a few of the buttons on his shirt, then stopped and looked around at everybody, waiting till they all started to holler before he finished with the buttons. He started to pull it off, then stopped and pulled it back up on his shoulders, causing everyone to holler again. He stuck his hand out, as if to say, just a minute. Then walking across the dance floor to one of the other girls he worked with, removed his cuff links, and dropped them in her open hand.
When he turned to walk back toward the center of the floor, he heard Jake holler, “Come on, Zane. The song isn’t twenty minutes long.”
Zane turned back to look at him, shaking his head. This time when he went to take his shirt off, he let it slide down his arms, then took it and twirled it over his head, and did a little hollering himself. He flung it toward the wedding guest but didn’t wait to see who caught it. He took a run at Amanda and slid across the floor on his knees, stopping in front of her.
“Ow. I wish I hadn’t done that,” he mumbled as he jumped up. She laughed and shook her head at him. He pulled her up out of her chair, and wrapping her in his arms, proceeded to kiss her silly.
When the song finally came to an end, he looked up at Christy, and asked her, “Can I have my pants back, please. I don’t want to embarrass myself.”
Once he had his pants back on, he turned to find Luke walking across the dance floor to him. “Hey, Zane, do you think we should go ahead and make a bet about who will get married next.”
“I’m not making any bets against you this time. Go find somebody else to pick on.”
“Well, I was going to tell you, I think it’ll be Hannah this time,” he said looking at Jeff.
Jeff shook his head and spoke before he realized he was going to do it. “No. This time it’ll be Phillip,” he said, nearly growling. He couldn’t deal with the thought of Hannah marrying someone else, but he knew he would never be the one to marry her.
“Jeff, seriously, watch it man,” Zane cautioned. “You don’t want to go there. I knew when I made this bet I was asking for trouble, but for some reason I did it anyway.”
“Yeah, maybe so. But this time he’s wrong.”
“Okay, you really want to make this bet?” Luke asked.
“Yeah, I do. It’ll be Phillip,” Jeff said, watching the guy in question walk up.
“Are you guys betting again, already?” Phillip asked.
“Yeah, we sure are,” Luke answered. “Zane’s already said he isn’t getting in on this one. Do you want in?”
“I don’t know. That depends on what your bet is.”
“Well, I think Hannah will get married next. Jeff thinks it’ll be you.”
“I agree with you,” Phillip growled. “I’ll get in on that bet. What are you thinking of making him do?”
“Oh. I think in the case of these bets, the loser needs to do a strip dance at the wedding reception, like Zane just did. The winner gets to pick the song.”
“I can agree with that,” Jeff said, wondering if his mouth was going to get him in trouble.
“Okay. What’s your song for Phillip and I?” Luke asked, grinning at him.
“The Wheels on the Bus.”
Luke started chuckling. “Have you hit your head recently?”
“No. I’m just twisted that way,” Jeff said, not realizing Hannah was standing so close until he heard her giggle at his answer.
“Okay. ‘The Wheels on the Bus’. It’s going to be irrelevant anyway.”
“Okay. Whatever. What’s your song?”
“It’s Raining Men.”
Jeff laughed and shook his head. “You’re going to lose this time, Luke. It won’t be Hannah.”
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Excerpt from Married by Christmas:
Chapter 1
Monday, December 8
811:34am
Brock paced back and forth in front of his big antique, oak desk. It had been passed down to him from his grandfather when he’d taken over the newspaper. The Silverman’s had owned and ran the paper ever since it was started in nineteen oh three. He was agitated, trying to decide if he should go through with the plan he had just devised. Out of desperation, no less.
His strongest, if not only desire, was to be married before the year was out. His biggest problem was, he didn’t know how to approach the subject with the only woman he wanted to fill the position of his bride without possibly losing valuable body parts. He glanced down at the front of his jeans with a wince. The one and only time he remembered noticing her in high school, he saw her knee a guy for getting to friendly. She had an unerringly good aim. Of course, that guy had been trying to get a handful of boobs. He was wanting to ask her to marry him. He might fair better. Or worse. He just had no way of knowing which.
He walked over to the floor to ceiling windows, staring out at the parking lot, wondering if they were ever going to get that snow the forecaster had kept threatening for the last five days. You really didn’t need the snow to know it was cold though. It had been in the single digits this morning when he first arrived. It hadn’t gotten much warmer in the last three hours he’d been in his office. The large digital thermometer on the side of the brick building the paper was printed in now read fifteen degrees.
His office was positioned where he could see people coming and going through the front door of the building and he eyeballed the decorations Mary Ellen had obviously put out in front. He usually loved this time of year, but his Christmas spirit was seriously lacking right now. She apparently wasn’t having the same problem he frowned, watching the lights blinking on and off on the little cedar tree at the end of the side walk leading up to the glass front door. It wasn’t much of a Christmas tree if you asked him. It couldn’t have been more than three feet tall. Of course, his irritation over the tree was probably due more to his frustration at finding a way to ask her to marry him, than the tree its self. Now, if he could find the answer to that question, his mood would be sure to take a much brighter turn.
He sighed, finally, coming to the conclusion he was going to have to do something drastic, or he was never going to get what he wanted. He pulled himself up straighter, turning toward the door and grabbed the doorknob. He stuck his head out the door, and with a gruff voice, snapped, “Mary Ellen, I need you in here, please.”
The pretty blonde with the startling blue eyes looked up with a smile. “Will I need to take notes?”
He sucked in a breath, reacting to her beautiful smile the same way he always did. He felt like the bottom had dropped out of his stomach. “Doubtful.”
His curt words were out of character and drew a confused look from his personal assistant, but she was going to have to deal with his mood this morning. His nerves were making him short on patience right now. Maybe once he got this over with, he’d be a little more like his usual self. It all depe
nded on how the next few minutes turned out.
He ducked back in his office and immediately started pacing again. He had just turned to make a trip back across his plush office when the door opened. Well, plush for Sapphire Springs anyway. Probably not so much in New York, but they weren’t in New York. Thank God.
Mary Ellen walked the few feet to the chairs in front of his desk and took a seat. “How can I be of service, Mr. Silverman?” she asked with a mischievous glint in her eyes. She knew he hated how formal she insisted on being.
“Mary Ellen,” he cringed, giving her a sour look. “You’ve been working for me for three years now. Do you think, just maybe, you could start addressing me by my first name now? It’s not like you don’t know me outside of work. I’ve heard Brock pass your lips plenty of times. I know you can do it.”
“Mr. Silverman, we’ve been over this,” she said on a sigh. “It’s out of respect for…”
“I’m not your elder, Sweet Cheeks,” he said with a smirk, thinking about her sweetly rounded bottom. He knew she had no idea he was referring to her backside, rather than the cheeks on her beautiful face. Even if he thought them to be just as sweet as her derriere.
She glared at him, hopping back up, and smashing her fists down on her hips. This was a game they played quite often, and she was getting tired of it. “Don’t call me sweet cheeks.”
“Then don’t call me Mr. Silverman.”
“It’s a sign of respect. And to maintain a professional working environment.”
“I’m not your elder, Sweet Cheeks,” he said again with the same smirk as before.
She glared at him, crossing her arms below her breast. “No, but you are my boss,” she snapped, not realizing his attention had been snagged by her cleavage that had just become more prominent when she unintentionally pushed her chest up with her arms. “When we are at work, I will not call you by your first name.”
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