Wolfe Wedding Read Online Free PDF Page A

“For shoofly?” Shoofly pie was his all-time favorite.
    She laughed again—a mother’s laugh. “No. Not today. I’m making lemon meringue.” She chuckled again, and this time the sound was different, loaded with amusement and self-satisfaction.
    Cameron frowned. What was she up to? He knew full well that lemon meringue was his brother Eric’s all-time favorite. But why should that amuse his mother?
    “Eric coming for dinner?”
    “Not today. Tomorrow,” she said, and now her voice was rife with an alerting. something.
    “Okay, Mom, I give up,” he said, his curiosity thoroughly aroused, as he knew she had deliberately set out to do. “What’s the story with Eric?”
    “He’s coming for dinner tomorrow.”
    Maddy did so enjoy teasing her overgrown sons—teasing and testing.
    Despite his impatience to get under way, Cameron had to laugh, enjoying his mother’s enjoyment.
    “And?” he prompted when she failed to continue.
    “He’s bringing Tina with him.”
    Tina. He should have known. Cameron administered a mental self-reprimand for missing the clue Maddy had given him.
    Lemon meringue. Not only was the dessert Eric’s favorite, but also, from what Maddy had told Cameron, the object of a friendly rivalry between his mother and the young woman his brother had met last fall.
    At Maddy’s invitation, Eric had brought the woman home to meet her at Thanksgiving. Tinahad brought along a lemon meringue pie as her contribution to the feast.
    After the holiday, when Maddy relayed the information to Cameron, she had graciously conceded that Tina’s pie was first-rate. almost as good as her own.
    Cameron hadn’t been fooled for a moment. He knew at once that Maddy didn’t give a rip about the pies, one way or the other. But what she did care about was the possibility of a serious relationship growing between Eric and Tina, who, she claimed, was a lovely young woman.
    Cameron was also fully aware that his mother lived in hope of first seeing her sons settled into marriages as strong as her own had been, and second spoiling the hell out of her grandchildren—of whom she had expressed a desire for at least eight.
    And now Eric was bringing the woman home to mother for a second visit.
    Hmm, he mused, recalling that, to his knowledge, Eric had never brought a woman home twice.
    First Jake. Now Eric?
    “Does this portend something?” he asked after a lengthy silence, realizing that his mother had calmly been waiting for him to assimilate the facts.
    “I sincerely hope so,” she answered. “Keep in touch, and I’ll keep you informed.”
    “Yeah, well, as to that,” he said, interested in being brought up to speed on his brother’s love life, but a lot more interested in pursuing his own, “I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get back to you. I’m going out of town for a spell.”
    “I see.” Not a hint of concern tainted her voice; after thirty years of living with a police officer, she had long since learned to conceal her fears. “Well, then, I’ll talk to you when I talk to you.” She paused, then added softly, “Take care, son.”
    “I will.” A gentle smile tugged at his lips as he hung up the phone. In his admittedly biased opinion, Maddy epitomized the best of the female sex.
    Female.
    Sex.
    Sandra.
    Swinging away from the phone, Cameron strode from the kitchen. He collected his bags, glanced at, then deliberately shifted his gaze away from his beeper, which was lying atop the bedside table. He wouldn’t need that where he was going. Gear in hand, he gave a final sweeping look around the room, then left the apartment.
    “Dammit.” Cameron wasn’t even aware of swearing aloud; he was too busy making the turn to head back. He had driven only a few miles from his apartment when he knew he just couldn’t do it. Hejust could not leave town for two weeks without his “connection” to the office, and the weapon that had grown to feel almost a part of him.
    Muttering to himself that the two