The Senator's Hispanic Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

could get their hands on was flung at the other as they screamed and laughed, covering each other in a disgraceful mess. The food fight soon turned into a wrestling match and they both wound up on the floor in each other’s arms, laughing and crying as they tried to get the better of each other. Finally, they realized that neither one of them would win, and they gave up and Isabella laid her head in Marisol’s lap, looking up at her. They were both completely covered in food and utterly unrecognizable.
    “Mari, please just be there for me and be happy for me. I need you to be my maid of honor, and I need your help. I can’t do it without you. Please?” Isabella begged her sister, holding her hand in hers.
    Marisol slumped her shoulders and looked around the disastrous prep room in defeat. “Alright. I’ll help you, but I don’t like it, and I don’t like him. He doesn’t deserve you.”
    “Thank you, Mari. I love you,” Isabella said with a wide indiscernible grin.
    Marisol leaned down and kissed her sister’s meringue covered face. “I love you, too.”
    Just then their mother walked in and her jaw fell wide open. “ What in the name of the holy… get this mess cleaned up right now ! Just what do you two think you’re doing! That’s a waste of food! It’s a waste of money and resources, and just look at the mess you have made of this prep room! Get up now and clean it!” She glared hotly at both of them and turned and stomped out of the room.
    The girls burst into giggles and pulled each other up off of the floor. “This is all your fault,” Isabella said snidely to her sister.
    “ My fault? How is it my fault? You’re the one who brought him in. You started all of this!” They argued and laughed, picking up their mess and cleaning the prep room until it shone better than it had when Marisol had first entered it, then they cleaned themselves up and walked out arm in arm.
       ***
    Michael arrived at his office and called Glenn in to talk with him. Glenn walked over to Michael’s desk, watching him the whole time, and sat down expectantly.
    “Well? How did it go?” he asked with impatience.
    Michael leaned back in his chair and smiled, thinking of the incredible lunch he had shared with Isabella and her family. “It went really well! We had a wonderful time. I asked her to marry me and she said yes!”
    Glenn’s face widened with his smile, like a frog swallowing a fly. “Good! That’s very good. Let’s look at dates.”
    *
    The newspapers carried the story of the engagement the next day, and it caught like wildfire over the state. The stories varied from the white candidate for the Senate seat marrying a Puerto Rican woman, to lower shelf pieces touting sad news to masses of disappointed women who would not be finding favor with the gorgeous dark haired hero that they all loved.
    Glenn was ecstatic. He carefully combed all of the media, reading it all while Michael had his assistant prepare an engagement party for a few hundred of the people that most needed to be there. He made a personal call to Ramon and Savannah’s restaurant, La Cocina Criolla.
    Selena answered the phone and was only too happy to discover her new cousin on the other end of the line. She put him on hold and a moment later, Ramon was on the phone with him.
    “Michael?” he asked happily.
    “Hi, Ramon, how are you doing?” he asked pleasantly.
    “Michael. You must not call me Ramon. You must call me Papa,” he said with a kind smile in his voice. Michael felt his heart skip and tears threaten to sting his eyes.
    “Yes, sir. Papa. I’ll do that. Thank you. How are you doing?” he asked, genuinely interested to know.
    “I’m good! I’m very blessed,” Papa said in a happy tone.
    “That’s good. Listen, we’re going to have an engagement party, and I wondered if you would want to cater it? I’d love to give you the business, if you want to do it.”
    “Oh! That’s wonderful!” Papa replied. “I’m so