All Through the Night: A Troubleshooter Christmas by Suzanne Brockmann Read Free Book Online

clothes he’d left in the bathroom.
    They were out in the hall, door closing tightly behind them in a matter of seconds.
    It was only then that she questioned Sam. “He did it, didn’t he? He asked Robin to marry him?”
    Sam nodded. But then he realized what she’d said. “You mean Robin asked Jules.” And besides, how did she know?
    â€œRobin asked Jules?” she repeated, breaking into a wide smile. “Jules was planning to ask Robin. Tonight, as a matter of fact.”
    So that was what they’d been whispering about over the past few days. Sam pulled her toward the elevators. “Robin was planning it, too,” he told her as he pushed the down button. “He showed me these rings he got. They were…nice. Kind of gay, but that works, because
they’re
gay, so…”
    â€œYou’re okay with this?” Alyssa asked. “I know you had your doubts about Robin being good enough for our boy.”
    â€œHe’s pretty young,” Sam pointed out as the elevator door opened and they got in. “My mother was what? In her fifties, when she stopped drinking. He’s not even thirty.”
    â€œEveryone follows their own path.” She pushed the button for the lobby. “He really loves Jules—I don’t doubt that. And Jules…” She laughed. “He was miserable tonight, Sam. I’ve never seen him that sick. And yet…Everything was okay, because Robin was with him.”
    Sam pulled her tight and she nestled close, her head against his heart. “I know the feeling,” he whispered.
    â€œRobin was so patient and…tender,” Alyssa said. “And he made Jules laugh, even as sick as he was.” She shook her head. “Everyone comes with some kind of baggage.” She looked up at Sam, amusement in her eyes. “You yourself aren’t exactly low maintenance. But you always make me laugh.”
    He kissed her. “That’s nice to know.”
    â€œThey really love each other,” Alyssa told him, and he realized she was still trying to convince him.
    â€œI’m good with it,” Sam said. “I am. Yeah, I’d feel better if Robin had five years of sobriety under his belt, but…As Boy Wonder himself told me tonight—he makes Jules very,
very
happy. I don’t doubt that at all.”
    Alyssa smiled at him. “I’m glad.”
    Speaking of making Jules very,
very
happy…Sam was pretty sure, that back in the hotel room, the happiness index was currently off the scale for both of his friends.
    And he also knew that, despite their rocky start, all was forgiven. Yeah, no doubt about it. Sam had just passed Robin’s test.

PART TWO
    the surprise wedding shower crasher
    N OVEMBER 10
B OSTON , M ASSACHUSETTS
    O VER FIFTY PEOPLE WERE STANDING, SILENTLY, BEHIND the tightly closed door of the wedding-theme-decorated living room, as Jules and Robin burst through their front door, soaked from the pouring rain.
    Dolphina Patel still hadn’t gotten used to their high energy entrances, and if she hadn’t been watching through the front window, half-heartedly flipping through the day’s mail while waiting for them, she probably would’ve jumped clear out of her seat in what had once been the front parlor of the pre-Victorian-era townhouse. And this despite the fact that it was the one-month anniversary of her employment as their personal assistant.
    She put down the mail—mostly replies to invitations for their mid-December wedding—and went out into the foyer, unable to conceal her dismay. “Didn’t you take an umbrella?” she asked. It had been her job not just to get them out of the house while the guests were arriving, but also to see that they were appropriately casually dressed. Now they were both completely drenched.
    â€œYikes,” Jules said, stepping back onto the carpet runner just inside the front door. They’d just had the