Название: The Wedding Party And Holiday Escapes Ultimate Collection
Автор: Кейт Хьюит
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Контркультура
Серия: Mills & Boon e-Book Collections
isbn: 9781474067744
isbn:
Liana shook her head. ‘No, never.’
They were both silent for a moment, struggling with these new revelations and the emotions they called up. In Gabriella’s arms Isabella stirred, gurgled, and then gave her grandmother a big, drooly smile.
Gabriella let out a choked cry of surprise and joy. She turned to Liana with a tear trickling down one pale cheek. ‘Then maybe this is a new start for all of us, Liana,’ she said, her voice wavering, and Liana nodded and smiled.
She knew there was more to be said, to be confessed and explained and forgiven, but for now she revelled in the second chance they’d all been granted. A second chance at happiness, at love, at life itself.
Gabriella handed the baby back to Sandro and slipped down to the chapel where the christening would be held. Liana gazed at her husband and daughter and felt her heart might burst with so much feeling. She felt so much now, all the emotions she’d denied herself for so long. Joy and wonder, grief and sorrow. She wouldn’t keep herself from feeling any of it ever again.
‘I couldn’t have imagined any of this before I met you,’ she said softly. ‘Talking to my mother so honestly. Having a husband and child of my own. Loving someone as much as I love you. You’ve changed me, Sandro.’
‘And you’ve changed me. Thank God.’ He smiled wryly and then, with the expertise of a father of a baby, he shifted Isabella to his other shoulder and drew Liana towards him for a kiss. ‘This really is the beginning, Liana,’ he said softly as he kissed her again. ‘Of everything.’
* * * * *
The Wedding Party Collection: Always the Bachelor
Best Man’s Conquest
Michelle Celmer
One Night with the Best Man
Amanda Berry
The Bridesmaid’s Best Man
Barbara Hannay
Michelle Celmer
USA TODAY bestselling author MICHELLE CELMER has written more than twenty-five books for Mills & Boon. You can usually find her in her office with her laptop, loving the fact that she gets to work in her pyjamas. Write her at P.O. BOX 300, Clawson, MI 48017, USA visit her website at www.michellecelmer.com or find her on Facebook at Michelle Celmer Author.
I dedicate this work to my future Great Niece or Nephew, who will make his or her appearance at roughly the same time as this book. You have five brothers, so naturally your mommy is hoping for a girl. Try to work on that okay?
One
Is your ex hanging around and making noise like he wants to reconcile? Does he think he can sweet-talk his way back into your life? Don’t fall for it! Repeat after me: men don’t change.
—excerpt from The Modern Woman’s Guide to Divorce (And the Joy of Staying Single)
Ivy Madison was not a violent person, but as the “surprise” man she’d been hearing about for the past three months—the one who looked disturbingly similar to her gazillionaire ex-husband—unfolded his long, lean body from the backseat of the limo, she quietly began plotting her cousin Deidre’s murder.
No, it couldn’t possibly be him.
Blake, Deidre’s fiancé, was supposed to be off picking up the best man from the airport. There was no way that the surprise Deidre had repeatedly enticed her with, the mystery best man Ivy was just going to love, was Dillon Marshal! Never in a million years would Deidre expect Ivy to stand up in a wedding, much less spend the week before the ceremony in the Mexican villa, with the biggest mistake who had ever walked in, then walked back out of, her life.
Would she?
May be the surprise was that the best man only looked like Dillon. Yeah, that was probably it. They would have a good laugh, then Ivy could relax and enjoy the first real vacation since the release of her book.
It was just one of those weird, quirky coincidences.
The man who couldn’t possibly be her ex slipped off his Ray-Bans, revealing a familiar pair of heavy-lidded, come-hither, steel-blue bedroom eyes. Eyes that had been known to melt her with a mere glance, reduce her knees to mashed potatoes and her head to scrambled eggs.
Oh shi—
A blast of emotions tore through her insides with the velocity of a tropical storm, misfiring the synapses in her brain and tangling her intestines into knots.
She turned from the front window and looked to her cousin for an explanation. For an assurance that there was no way the man standing in the driveway was who he looked like.
Deidre flashed her a look seeped in guilt and offered a weak, “Surprise.”
Oh, no.
Ivy’s heart slid down from her chest, weaved around her internal organs and settled just north of her ovaries.
Her knees felt as if they might give out, and the bagel she’d had for breakfast was in danger of making a repeat performance all over the southwestern-theme rug. This could not be happening. There was a damned good reason she’d spent the last decade avoiding Dillon.
Feeling woozy, she lowered herself onto the couch. She glanced out the window and saw that men were at the back of the limo now, collecting Dillon’s luggage. Soon they would be coming inside.
Her stomach launched into an Olympic-caliber backflip with a triple twist.
Deidre sat down on the opposite end of the couch, far enough away to hopefully avoid any flying fists. “I know you probably want to kill me right now, but I can explain.”
Oh, yeah, she definitely had to die. And it would be slow and painful. Stung to death by African bees, or drained by a million leeches. “Deidre, what did you do?”
“I have a very good explanation.”
There was no good explanation. And there was only one thing Ivy could do. She needed to grab her things, slip out the back, and catch the next flight back to Texas.
She made a mental list СКАЧАТЬ