Here Comes the Groom Read Online Free PDF Page A

imagination,” she complained. “You’d think he could have added a few jokes… Anyway, enough distraction. I need to prepare for this meeting with CommLink.” Kev wrote temsik in one of the crossword squares before looking up anxiously. “And you’re definitely saying no? Even if they make you a brilliant offer?”
    “Even if they make me a brilliant offer.” She rearranged the upside-down letters in her head. Kismet. “I’ll say they caught me in a weak moment, but on reflection I couldn’t possible sell the Chronicle. ” She’d expected relief but Kev was still frowning at her. “What?”
    “That wasn’t a weak moment—it was a rip in the fabric of society. You, the people’s champion, selling out to a soulless corporate conglomerate that only cares about maximizing profit? It’s like Michael Moore joining the gun lobby. Okay, you had that shoulder injury and Rosemary’s illness grinding you down but—”
    “Kev,” she interrupted him. “Can you please move on?”
    When CommLink came a-wooing she’d been under intense emotional pressure and desperate for a relief valve. Unable to do more than pay lip service to her business, it had seemed sensible to investigate options, particularly with the economy playing havoc with sales.
    “I don’t think you should tell them you had a weak moment, either,” he added. “Maybe I should come with you.”
    “No.” Jo stared him down. “I’ve got systems in place to manage Nan’s dementia and my shoulder’s fully recovered. I promise, no more weak moments.”
    There was a piercing shriek from the door and Delwyn rushed over, waving the wedding invitation she held in her manicured hand, her acrylic nails flashing. Jo’s heart sank. Exactly how many invitations had Dan sent out?
    “Oh. My. God!” Her brown eyes sparkled. “Jo, how could you not have told me this! I could have given you my countdown-to-conjugals calendar.”
    The bubbly young sales rep was getting married in July. For the past year, she’d been planning her nuptials with the kind of single-minded intensity normally associated with the invasion of small countries.
    As usual Delwyn didn’t wait for a response. “It’s been so long since you dated I’d even started to wonder if you’d changed teams. Especially when you got your hair cut so short.”
    Flicking her glossy brown hair back from her face, Delwyn frowned as Kev frantically shook his head.
    “Did I say something wrong?”
     
    S HAKER’S B AR & G RILL was a Beacon Bay institution on the estuary, only a sprawl of lawn separating it from the sea.
    The yeasty mimosa of local specialty beer all but permeated the walls, but on a cold day nothing beat a table near the fire gazing out through the salt-kissed glass to the seabirds hovering over the broad sweep of estuary.
    Having spent the morning fending off wedding congratulations, Jo was in no mood to appreciate the view. Dan was so going to pay for this.
    About to go in, she saw her ex Chris Boyle getting out of a Mercedes with CommLink’s financial controller, Grant. The sight dismayed her, not because she felt uncomfortable around an old boyfriend, but because if the company’s bigwig was here, CommLink had wanted the Chronicle badly. Well, it couldn’t be helped.
    Grant looked nervous as they approached. Sandy-haired and shy, he and Jo had gone to school together. He’d introduced her to Chris at Jo’s first publishing conference. Maybe he was feeling the awkwardness of that now. Giving him a reassuring smile, she held out her hand to Chris. “What’s it been…four years?”
    “And you’re still the same.” His smiling gaze slid over her slim curves.
    When she’d finally realized his self-assurance-cloaked arrogance and broken it off—a first for Chris—he’d retaliated by called her a ball-breaker. “Afraid so,” she said genially. “Shall we go in, gentlemen?”
    Grant raised his water glass as soon as they were seated. “So, congratulations! I got