Icing on the Cake (Close to Home) by Karla Doyle Read Free Book Online Page B

important moment or dragged anybody down today.
    “Bacon, Dad?” she asked, offering the platter.
    The three-letter word did the trick. His eyes lightened and the mood in the room jumped even higher. This was Nia’s big day, the beginning of her new life. In a way, it felt like a fresh start for Sara too. Another one. Maybe this time she wouldn’t screw it up.
     

Chapter Four
     
    Lawlers didn’t get nervous. They set their minds to a thing and took control, in professional and personal matters. Curtis had been ringside as Conn employed this method in his quest to woo Nia. Given his resourcefulness, patience and determination, Conn’s pretty little neighbor hadn’t stood a chance.
    The guy who’d won the blonde was MIA at the moment, however. Conn had barely eaten breakfast, he’d torn the hotel room apart looking for his “lost” tie, and he’d checked his phone more times than he’d blinked. Now he was doing his best to wear a groove in the floor of the pastor’s office. No two ways about it, Conn was nervous.
    “How much longer?”
    Curtis pushed the cuff of his white dress shirt out of the way. “Not long now. Thirty minutes or so.” Since this was the third time he’d had to answer the same question, his idea of helping Conn relax by getting him to the church early could be classified as a fail.
    “Shit. The waiting is killing me.”
    Curtis too, though for less romantic reasons. He wore a flak vest for hours at a time and thought nothing of it, yet fifty minutes in a tux had him ready to crawl out of his skin. And the day had only begun. He wouldn’t get to ditch the rental monkey suit for another six hours, minimum. Just thinking about it had him itching to undo the top button of his shirt.
    “I wish this window faced the front of the church instead of the parking lot. Then I’d know if she was here yet. We should have made it a one o’clock ceremony instead of two.”
    A few of Curtis’ buddies had gotten married in recent years, but he’d never seen a guy more eager to don the ball and chain. “Here, you need this more than I do.” He pulled an airplane-sized bottle of vodka from his pocket and tossed it toward his brother. “You take care of that and I’ll go check on things.”
    His move couldn’t have been better timed, because when he opened the office door, his sister was on the other side, hand poised for knocking.
    “Hey. You look beautiful.” And she did. Lindsay was the natural-beauty type. A no-makeup and high ponytail kind of woman. Today her brown hair was swept up in some fancy kind of twist with a few loose, curled strands framing her face, and a light dusting of eye shadow and blush gave her skin an elegant shimmer. “You’re going to have all the single guys in one hell of a state at the reception. If you need some brotherly muscle to beat them back, just holler.”
    Instead of shaking her head at his offer, or thanking him for the compliment, Lindsay grabbed his hand and urged him away from the door. Something was up, and by up, he meant up to no good. He hoped to hell it wasn’t— “Sara left.”
    Fuck. “Elaborate.”
    “On the way to the church, Nia asked where Sara had put Conn’s wedding band because she wanted to look at it. Sara was driving and I was sitting behind her in the SUV, so I couldn’t see her expression, but I did see Nia’s face when Sara told her she hadn’t brought the ring. Holy crap, Curtis. She held it together, but barely.”
    And fuck again. But at least Sara had a valid reason for leaving. “So she went back for the ring. Shouldn’t be a problem, the ceremony doesn’t start for another half hour.”
    Lindsay squinted at him. “How can you be so calm after that disappearing act she pulled at the party last night? Apparently she didn’t come home until everybody was asleep at the Chambers’ house. She let Nia go to bed wondering if she’d be coming back at all. What if this is just another obnoxious grab for attention? A lame