Razzmatazz-DDL by Patricia Burroughs Read Free Book Online Page A

at Alex and Chris. “Well, don’t just stand there—stop her!”
    Kennie stood poised by the railing, staring into the river. Her head lowered, she fumbled with Chris’s signet ring, wincing when -she tried to tug it off over her swollen knuckle.
    Chris lunged past the ladies. “Stop her! Don’t let her do it! That ring’s priceless! It’s been in my family for seven generations!”
    Kennie glanced over her shoulder and saw Maizie straighten to her full four feet eleven inches and glare at him. “You mercenary little snit!” Maizie spat out at Chris.
    What had been a dull, throbbing ache in her hand now escalated to a sharp stabbing pain as Kennie jerked viciously on the ring. She gave it one last tug and it pulled free, along with a bit of her skin. She gasped.
    “What’s wrong?” Alex demanded, grabbing her shoulders and spinning her toward him.
    “She got it off!” Chris grabbed for the ring, but Alex batted his hand away.
    Kennie clenched the signet ring at her side in her right hand, and drew her left fist to her lips, tasting blood. Somehow in all the confusion, she hadn’t felt the pain. But she felt it now. Mercy, did she feel it.
    “Kennie, let me look at your hand!” Alex bent his dark head over her and tenderly opened her fist. “Why didn’t you say you were hurt?”
    She blinked back tears she was too angry to acknowledge. “It’s nothing. Forget it.”
    “For God’s sake, Alex, get my ring away from her before she throws it in the river!”
    “Will you shut up? She’s my wife, dammit! Leave her alone!”
    Maizie and Vera exchanged shocked glances. “If she’s his wife....” Vera stammered, jabbing a finger at Alex.
    “Why is she wearing his ring?” Maizie finished.
    “It’s just as well. She probably wouldn’t get a penny out of that one,” Vera sniffed her disapproval in Chris’s direction, “He’s more concerned with a pinky ring than with that sweet girl.”
    “Come on. We’ve got to do something about this hand.” Alex eased his arm around Kennie’s shoulder, and she caught her breath. No amount of anger could blot out his effect on her. She should hate him. She should despise him. But even after twenty-four dizzying hours of chaos, after all the trouble he’d caused her, all she wanted to do was curl up in Alex Carruthers’s arms and cry.
    “I don’t think any bones are broken,” he murmured consolingly, “but damn, that hand looks like it hurts.”
    “It’s the story of my life,” Kennie sighed, wiping a tear with her bare arm. “In eighth grade I broke my toe kicking Billy John Dervis in the shin. I barely bruised him, but I couldn’t walk for a week.”
    A low chuckle erupted from Alex’s chest. “Kennie Sue Ledbetter, you are a joy.”
    Maizie dabbed at her cheeks with a wrinkled hankie. “Isn’t that the most beautiful thing you ever saw, Vera? I think we’ve just witnessed a reconciliation.”
    Vera harrumphed. “It won’t last. They never do. Besides, she should have married the blond. He’s the one with the money.”
    Maizie shrugged her ample shoulders, pointed a finger at Alex and added smugly, “But he’s the one with class.” Rolling her eyes, Vera steered Maizie toward the casino. “Well, at least now you’ll have a new story to tell about this damned bridge!”
    Chris threw his hands up. “Will somebody please give me back my ring?”
    Alex removed the ring from Kennie’s unresisting fingers and tossed it over his shoulder without a backward glance. Kennie watched Chris chase it as it rolled dangerously toward the Truckee River.
    Chris snatched it from the pavement, then pressed it to his mouth. He slid it back onto his little finger. Then he shouted after them, “What I don’t understand is why are you taking everything out on me? I was only the best man!” Snuggled securely under Alex’s arm, Kennie knew that was one question she didn’t even want to consider.
    At the next corner Alex led her to a bus bench. She sank down