Unfinished Business Read Online Free PDF

stopped renting the
place out after that, and had handed the keys back and let the
lease lapse with a month to go. So Mother was technically right: I
had nowhere else to go. Just Rafe’s house and the ancestral mansion
in Sweetwater. An ancestral mansion I hadn’t returned to after
Bradley and I divorced, much to Mother’s annoyance.
    However, if I hadn’t scurried home with my
tail between my legs when my marriage fell apart, I wasn’t about to
do it now.
    In the silence following my prostitute
remark, the scuff of a foot sounded next to the table. The waitress
stood there, eyes wide. “Um...” she said. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t
help overhear what you were saying.”
    I smiled magnanimously. “No worries. These
things happen.”
    I was referring to people overhearing what
other people were saying when those other people were talking in a
public place, but she must have thought I was referring to
prostitutes turning up dead in people’s beds, because she
gulped.
    “Take your time,” Dix said kindly, while
Mother sniffed. Grimaldi hid a smile.
    The waitress took a breath and closed her
eyes for a second. “Welcome to the Germantown Café,” she said when
she’d opened them again, with a passable, clearly fake smile. “Can
I start you off with something to drink?”
    I wanted to order wine, but of course I
couldn’t. “Sweet tea, please. Extra sugar.” For the shock.
    Mother frowned, but placed her order too.
The others did the same, and the waitress wandered off, I’m sure to
share with her brethren what she’d overheard us talking about.
    “We should take a look at the menus,” I said
and opened mine. “And be ready to order when she comes back.”
    Since it was a reasonable suggestion, the
others followed suit. For a couple of minutes, all was peaceful and
calm. Then Mother closed her menu and opened her mouth. “You can’t
mean you’ll consider staying here, Savannah.”
    “You can’t mean you expect me to leave,” I
shot back. “It’s only been a few hours. And we don’t know where
Rafe is. He could walk in the door at any moment.”
    I glanced at it. Nobody walked in, although
Diana Morton’s companion was on his way in that direction. I guess
their meeting was over. As he passed our table, he slowed down and
then came to a stop. “Slacking?” he asked Grimaldi.
    Up close he was even more gorgeous than from
a distance, and I could feel Dix bristle. There’s nothing wrong
with the way my brother looks—like me, he takes after Mother’s
people, the Georgia Calverts. We’re all tallish, blue-eyed, and
fair of hair and complexion. Catherine, on the other hand, takes
after our father’s family, and is shorter, rounder, and darker.
    However, Dix was no match for the guy
currently grinning down at Grimaldi. And while I love Rafe, and
remain quite convinced that he’s the most gorgeous man in
Nashville, this guy ran a close second. Like Rafe he was dark, with
black hair and melting brown eyes, high cheekbones and the kind of
eyelashes women dream about. Unlike Rafe, who prefers to dress
casually in jeans and T-shirts, the newcomer was decked out in a
killer suit that I’m sure had cost as much as Rafe’s entire
wardrobe, and a gorgeous silk shirt. Mother clearly approved,
because she shot me a look that said, “ See? This is what you
could have ended up with if you hadn’t hitched your star to a loser
who couldn’t even bother to show up for his own nuptials .”
    “Maid of honor at a wedding,” Grimaldi
said.
    “Congratulations.” He had obviously picked
me out as the bride, because he transferred the grin to me. Not
surprisingly, since I was the one in the semi-white dress. Mother
was wearing blue and Catherine pink, while Grimaldi had jazzed up
her usual dark suit with a turquoise shirt.
    “And you must be the lucky guy,” he told
Dix. “Congratulations.” He held out a hand.
    “I’m the brother of the bride,” Dix
answered, but took it anyway. “Dix