A Fortune's Children's Wedding Read Online Free PDF Page A

while I worked nights. You were a perfect child.”
    â€œNot this again!” Casper howled, his temper flaring anew. “I’m sick of hearing about how perfect Angel andDanny were when they were kids. You don’t even try to understand.” He burst into tears and ran out of the room.
    â€œMama, don’t.” Angelica laid her hand on her mother’s shoulder as she saw her mother brush aside a tear. “This is a hard age for him. He’s going through a rough time at school and he—”
    â€œOh, Angelica, don’t give me that psychology junk you learned in nursing school,” Romina said impatiently, before turning on her heels. Sarah followed, leaving Angelica and Flynt facing each other in the vestibule.
    â€œMama tries her best.” Angelica looked forlorn. “She always has. But she and Casper—well, they just—just—”
    â€œRub each other the wrong way?” suggested Flynt. “Believe me, I’ve been there.”
    â€œYou don’t get along with one of your children?” Angelica asked, her dark eyes wide as saucers.
    A smile twitched at the corners of his lips. “I don’t have any kids. Or a wife, either, for that matter. I meant that, growing up, I played Casper’s role. I always managed to do or say exactly what would get on poor Mom’s last nerve. She always claimed she was doing her best, too.”
    He felt Angelica studying him, and a peculiar warmth began to spread through him. “I’m waiting for you to express your deepest sympathy for my mom. To say that an obnoxious adult like me could’ve only been a hellacious kid, one that would drive any well-meaning mother into a frenzy.”
    â€œDo you get along with her now?” Angelica saidinstead. “Did things between you and your mother get better when you grew up?”
    â€œAfter I left home, things between us definitely improved. Because I wasn’t there.” Flynt was glib. He wanted to drop the subject; Corrigan family history was not something he ever cared to dwell upon.
    â€œDo you keep in touch with your mother?” Angelica pressed. “Do you phone or visit her often?”
    She was watching him, both curious and determined. As a dogged interrogator himself, Flynt realized that she wouldn’t let up till she got some answers. Well, he was willing to provide some, but if she was hoping to hear about a fractious mother-son relationship turned harmonious, she was out of luck.
    â€œThere is the occasional phone call,” he admitted. “But I limit my visits to one afternoon a year, on Christmas Day. My aunts, uncles and cousins are around to keep the conversation, and the eggnog, flowing. The TV set is on all day and that helps, too.”
    He shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry I can’t paint a more glowing picture for Casper’s future relationship with your mother, but who can tell? Maybe it will be better for them, maybe they’ll end up the best of friends. Now, about Brandon—”
    â€œWhat about your sisters and brothers?” Angelica dismissed his attempt to switch topics. “Are you close to them? Are they—”
    â€œThere aren’t any,” Flynt said tersely.
    He felt the familiar ache that struck whenever anyone posed casual, innocuous questions about siblings. If he replied that he had none, he felt he was denying that Mark had ever existed at all.
    But mentioning his younger brother often led to more questions, ones that inevitably culminated in the pain and dread that had shadowed his childhood. And his adult life, too. How could it not?
    â€œYou look strange,” Angelica observed. She’d moved to stand closer to him and was eyeing him intently.
    She was close enough for him to inhale the subtle scent of her perfume, a fresh citrusy aroma that reminded him of sunshine and… Flynt gulped. And sex.
    The sexual arousal was based strictly on his strong