Holiday Wedding by Robyn Neeley Read Free Book Online

sauntered in and pulled out a chair next to Lauren.
    “Nothing.” Luke stood and shut the door while Lauren sneaked a whiff of Drew’s cologne. It took all of her strength not to lean closer to inhale him deeper. God, she’d missed his musky scent.
    Judging from what sat across from them, they were obviously going to talk about the Happily Ever After dolls. Apparently Luke had decided he’d rather have her in the room for this conversation. She would have preferred that the brothers square off in private, but that didn’t seem to be happening.
    “So …” Luke started. “After yesterday’s turn of events, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the wedding and what we should do next.”
    Lauren breathed a sigh of relief. He’d called her here to discuss his wedding. Terrific. She’d offer her help and hightail it out of there before Drew got his butt chewed out.
    Although out of any of them, she and Drew were probably the least equipped to offer any advice on throwing a wedding. For their own nuptials, they had hired Kate’s company to take care of all of the arrangements.
    “You brought us up here to talk about your wedding?” Drew cocked a suspicious eyebrow.
    Luke grinned. “Not exactly. I asked you both here because I’ve decided that you two are going to
plan
my wedding.”
    “What do you need us to do?” Lauren asked. “Everything’s pretty much done. Kate and Miles have been working on this event for months. Since Kate and you are now the bride and groom, we just need you both to step into the roles that Jack and Vanessa vacated.”
    Luke shook his head. “That’s just it. It was their wedding. Not ours, and certainly not the wedding Kate ever dreamed she’d have for herself.” He swung both of his pointer fingers in their direction. “And that’s where you two come in.”
    “Dude, you’re not making sense.” Drew leaned back in his chair.
    Lauren smiled. No matter how hard she tried while they were together, she could never break Drew of the “dude” habit he’d picked up in college.
    Luke slid Lauren a shiny red folder and Drew a set of keys. “You two are going on a little trip.”
    “What? Where?” Lauren opened the folder. Inside was a winter brochure for a ski village in Vermont. Tiny log cabins clustered at the bottom of a white-covered mountain. “You want us to go skiing?”
    “No.” He paused. “Well, if you have free time, I’m sure Drew would love to hit the slopes. You’re both leaving tomorrow for Snow Frost Mountain. Once there, you’ll plan my wedding for the next two weeks, and we’ll all surprise Kate on Christmas Eve.” Luke grinned from ear to ear.
    “And what do these unlock?” Drew jingled the keys in the air.
    “The log cabin I’ve rented. You and Lauren will stay there and then all of us will join you the day before Christmas Eve. There’s plenty of sleeping space for the family.”
    Lauren looked over at her boss, eyes narrowed. “You planned all of this last night?”
    Luke’s nod couldn’t have any more triumph to it if he tried. “And this morning with help from my assistant. Listen …” He raked his hair. “Kate and I absolutely love Snow Frost Mountain. We spent a long weekend there last winter and fell in love with it. I know this is the place for us, not a church with all the pomp and circumstance and a fancy reception at the Four Seasons. That’s not us.”
    He had a point. Luke and Kate were more of a laid-back couple. Before Lauren could ask another question, Drew threw the keys on the table.
    “Have you lost your ever-freakin’ mind? I’m not going anywhere. I have an entire region to run.”
    Luke challenged his brother. “And that region is on the other side of the Pacific. You can do it from Snow Frost Mountain just as easily as you could do it from New York.” He turned to Lauren. “I’ve already talked this morning to Miles, Dad, and Vanessa. Miles will pretend that everything is status quo. Kate’ll never know