Lori Wilde - There Goes The Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

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, knowing her 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 bed, the wheels of her skates making a clacking noise as she stood. “See ya in your dreams.”
    “Wait, don’t go.”
    Skylar paused. “Yeah?”
    “Do you really think your plan would work?”
    “Guaranteed.” She winked.
    Delaney worried her bottom lip. She wasn’t a liar, but she wanted so badly to wear the veil at her wedding.
    “I’ll tell you something else,” Skylar added.
    “Oh?”
    “I was hanging out tonight, eavesdropping on your dinner conversation with your friends, and I think they’re right.”
    “About what?”
    “Seducing Evan. Making him your sex hostage. Sounds totally hot. Go for it. Maybe it’ll be the jump start you two need.”
    “Your glowing endorsement is all the more reason not to do it.” Delaney glowered.
    “You sound just like her, you know.” Skylar wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue.
    “Just like whom?”
    “Who do you think?”
    Skylar was right. She did sound just like their mother. Judgmental, inflexible, overly concerned with appearances. And that was the last thing Delaney wanted.
    She dragged a hand through her hair. “This is horrible! How can I stop from becoming like her?”
    “Do the most outrageous thing you can think to do. Kidnap Evan from his office, take him to the woods, and have your way with him. I triple dog dare you.”
    “Fine,” Delaney said. “If that’s what it takes to prove to you I’m not like Mother, I’ll do it.”
    Skylar snorted. “Seeing is believing, pipsqueak.”
    Following that snarky comment, Delaney woke up.
    Detective Dominic Vinetti watched Dr. Evan Van Zandt stride into the exam room, frowning at the chart in