A Christmas Kiss Read Online Free PDF

had her arm around Cori's shoulders and was half dragging, half carrying her inside. "My brother Joey was raised better than to leave a woman bleeding on the front porch. He was taught proper behavior. But he is a big man with his badge and his important business, and he has forgotten the courtesies and manners our mother taught him." She cast a dangerous look over her shoulder and muttered something in French.
    "Laurette!" Joey warned.
    "Don't speak to your older sister in that tone, Joey." Laurette never stopped as she assisted Cori past a massive fir tree that touched the ceiling and was decorated with multicolored lights, white crocheted snowflakes, angels and red glass ornaments. Beneath the tree the floor was covered with presents. The cool, spicy scent of the tree gave way to the warmth of a kitchen bubbling with the smell of gumbo and corn bread. "And just in time for something hot." She eased Cori into a chair at the red-checked tablecloth, and in less than twenty seconds she had placed a steaming bowl of gumbo and a hot piece of corn bread in front of her.
    "Sit," she commanded her brother as she motioned to another chair. "Cliff isn't coming home for lunch, and Angela is Christmas shopping with the neighbors. As soon as this injured one eats, we'll look at her knee."
    "I'm fine." Cori was surprised that she could manage to get a word in edgewise between the brother and sister. They were so alike, and yet so different. Where Joey's voice carried only a hint of the Cajun dialect, Laurette's was the voice of that unique region of Louisiana. Cori looked from one dark, worried pair of eyes to another. If they were not close in spirit, they were almost identical in looks. The arch of their eyebrows was perfectly matched, as was the widow's peak that marked their smooth, olive foreheads. Even the full cupid's bow of their upper lips, over a lush bottom lip, were exactly the same.
    '' Joey is my younger brother,'' Laurette said as if she read Cori's mind. "People sometimes think we're twins, but I'm older, and therefore he has to listen to me." She got up and quickly placed gumbo in two more bowls. Before she took her seat they all had corn bread and butter, gumbo and big glasses of sweetened iced tea.
    Cori had not intended to eat, but the spicy food tantalized her, making her mouth water. Joey and Laurette had no such reservations. Laurette mumbled a prayer and they began to eat. Cori lifted her spoon and let the delicate blend of spices and seafood invade her mouth. One spoonful followed the next until her bowl was empty, and she looked up to find duplicate expressions of satisfaction on the two faces across from her.
    Patting Joey's arm, Laurette turned to Cori. "So, when is the wedding?"
    The words stunned Cori. She looked up to find that Joey looked as shocked as she was.
    Laurette saw the amazement and focused on her brother. "Surely this is a wedding. For ten years you live in New Orleans and never once do you bring a single girl anywhere near the doorstep of my house. Now you drag in this half-starved child with her leg bleeding. I was certain you'd asked her___"
    At her brother's glower, Laurette finally fell silent. Her gaze fell on Cori's left hand where the wedding band and engagement ring sparkled. "Oh, my," she whispered. "I've made a terrible mistake."
    Cori recovered first. "It's okay." Laurette was a warm-hearted woman, and her love for her brother was more than clear. "I, uh, sort of work with Joey. He saved me from getting run over, and I was a little.
    ..out of it. So he brought me here to talk." She looked up and saw gratitude in Joey's eyes. For the first time in a long time it felt good to be able to do something helpful for someone else.
    "Here I make an issue of Joey's manners, and I had assumed..." Laurette couldn't look at her brother. When she did, the fire was back in her eyes. "But it's a natural thing to assume. He's thirty-four.
    An old man by my family's standards. And no girl on the