Kiss the Bride Read Online Free PDF Page A

your dream imagination. You could send me packingif you really wanted to, but honestly your life would be pretty damn dull without me. So quit arguing and produce the veil.” Skylar made “gimme” motions with her fingers.
    Delaney flipped her head over the side of the bed and grappled underneath the bed skirt until she found the sack. She slipped it out, sat up, and cautiously handed her the sack. “Be careful with it.”
    Skylar peeked inside and whistled. “Holy shit, that’s an awesome veil.”
    “I know.” Her sister’s approval meant a lot. Delaney felt eight years old again, full of wistful longing to be glamorous and grown-up. Hanging around Skylar’s vanity, watching her apply makeup and change outfits as she got ready for a date.
    “And I see that you found the veil at a consignment shop.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Mom’s never going to let you wear it.”
    “I’m aware of that.”
    “You could fight her on this. Oops, oh, wait, I forgot. You’re so into being the perfect daughter, you could never buck the flawless Honey Montgomery Cartwright.”
    “No need to get unpleasant.” Delaney snatched the wedding veil away from Skylar and folded it back into the sack.
    “Ah, perfect little princess. Lucky for me I died when I did. I would never have heard the end of how perfect you are, and how perfect I am not.”
    Skylar’s comment shot her full of anger. Delaney remembered the raw horror and agonizing grief she’d experienced over her sister’s death. Nostrils flaring, hands knotted into fists, she faced off with her. “No, it was not lucky! It was terrible the way you died.”
    “Okay, sorry. Chill.”
    “I won’t chill. The way Mother and Daddy were afterward was awful. Losing you was the worst thing that ever happened to this family. I had to be perfect because you got your silly self killed, sneaking off to a KISS concert, drinking with your friends, and then getting smashed up in a car crash. If you hadn’t been so damn rebellious, you’d still be alive and I wouldn’t have ended up spending my whole life making amends for something you did. I had to have chaperoned dates until I was nineteen. Mother wouldn’t even allow me to go to sleepaway camp, much less a rock concert. She refused to let me get my driver’s license until I was twenty-one. And it was your entire fault.”
    “Ooh, where’s all this emotion coming from?” Skylar applauded. “I approve. Usually, you’re so pent-up.”
    “I don’t want your approval.”
    “Why not?” Skylar crossed her legs and the wheels of her skates left dirty marks on the sheets.
    Delaney cringed. “Watch the linens, will you?”
    “What? Scared you’ll become like me? Scared Mommy won’t love you anymore if you do?”
    That’s exactly what she was scared of, but Delaney couldn’t tell her sister that. “I am going to wear this veil on my wedding day. Wait and see.”
    “Sure you are,” Skylar scoffed.
    “I am!”
    “Nah.” Skylar pushed the top hat back off her forehead and assessed Delaney with a pensive stare. “You’ll cave and our mother will get her way yet again.”
    “I won’t.”
    “We’ll see.”
    Delaney clutched the sack to her chest, knowingher sister was right. If she responded true to form and accepted her mother’s edicts for what constituted the perfect wedding, she would not be wearing the consignment shop veil.
    “I have an idea on how to handle Mother.” Skylar smirked. “If you’ve got the balls for it.”
    “There’s no need to be crude.” Delaney pressed her lips together. “What’s your idea?”
    “Why don’t you sew a designer label on the veil, put it in an expensive box, and tell Mom someone very high up on the blue-blood food chain sent it to you. Like one of our Philadelphia relatives we’ve never met.”
    Delaney gasped. “But I can’t do that. It’s underhanded and sneaky.”
    “I knew you didn’t have the balls for it. Night, Chicken Little.” Skylar swung her legs off the