His Brother's Fiancee. Jasmine Cresswell

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      CHAPTER ONE

      EMILY SUTTON’S fiancé caught up with her in the library of the elegant San Antonio mansion where he lived with his parents. Michael Chambers was normally blessed with a ready smile, but Emily noticed that today he looked somber, even a little nervous. How odd, she thought. Michael’s self-confidence was usually as vast as the state of Texas; it was one of the characteristics that had first attracted her to him.

       “Hi, Michael, what’s up? You’re looking worried.” She was already running late for her appointment at Finders Keepers, but she paused in the doorway, her arms clutched around the massive three-ring binder that contained the complex details of their wedding arrangements.

       Emily shifted the heavy weight of the binder from one arm to the other. There were moments when she felt sure the inauguration of the president of the United States couldn’t necessitate more paperwork than the elaborate wedding ceremony her mother and Mrs. Chambers had planned over the past three months. Her mother had loved every minute of the planning, of course, even though she and Mrs. Chambers both complained repeatedly that the engagement was much too short for them to put on a truly stylish affair.

       Thank goodness Michael needed to have the wedding ceremony behind him before he embarked on his election campaign for governor of Texas, Emily reflected wryly. Otherwise she couldn’t begin to visualize what their respective mothers might have attempted. Importing the royal guards from Buckingham Palace, maybe?

       Emily grinned, glad that she’d been able to make her mother so happy just by saying yes to all her fancy wedding plans. She leaned against the door, once again shifting the weight of the binder to her other arm. Michael still remained silent and she felt her first twinge of true concern.

       “You look really worried, honey. Tell me what’s wrong.”

       He didn’t respond and her stomach lurched with a premonition of disaster. “Michael, talk to me. Has there been an accident? Oh my gosh, is it one of my parents?”

       “No, not that…”

       “Is your dad’s heart playing up again? Please don’t try to cushion the blow—you’re just making me more scared.”

       He shifted from one foot to the other, so ill at ease that his discomfort seemed almost feigned. “I can’t marry you,” he said, avoiding her gaze. “We have to call off the wedding.”

       Shock momentarily paralyzed Emily. Then relief surged through her, leaving her knees feeling shaky. She suppressed a slightly impatient sigh. She’d noticed before that she didn’t share Michael’s rather cruel sense of humor, and she was too busy today to be tactful.

       Glancing at her watch, she gave a weak smile. “Michael, I’m sorry, but I don’t have time to play games. I’ll see you this evening at five o’clock. Remember we have the cocktail reception for the bridal party and family members at your father’s club, and then we have the dinner for out-of-town guests right afterward.”

       Compulsively organized as always, she opened the file and read out the column of arrangements that affected Michael. “It’s black tie tonight, of course. My parents are bringing me, so there’s no need for you to pick me up. By now, your brother should already have left for the airport to pick up your groomsmen who are flying in from Dallas. Harrison Turner and Carter Blayne. Those are the two groomsmen I’ve never met, if you remember. They’ll need transportation tonight, because they’re not renting cars for some reason. I have written in on my schedule that your brother will drive them to the dinner, but he hasn’t been pinned down on this, and you know Jordan is always a law unto himself. He may choose to cooperate, or then again he’s СКАЧАТЬ