Some Like It Hot by Lori Wilde Read Free Book Online Page A

looked the part. Renee was willow thin and kept her pale blond hairstyled in a simple but chic shoulder-length cut. There was no denying the glow in her sister’s eyes since she and Pete Traynor had fallen in love.
    Melanie tried to shrug off a twinge of jealousy. She wasn’t normally the envious type. What was wrong with her today?
    “No beignets for me,” Renee said when the waiter brought a complimentary basket of the square French doughnuts, deep fried and dusted with powered sugar, to the table. “I’ve been overindulging lately.”
    “Great.” Melanie reached for the basket. “More for me.”
    “You’re so lucky,” Charlotte said. “You’ve never had to worry about your weight.”
    “That’s because Mel’s always in motion,” said Sylvie, the sister closest to Melanie in age. “She burns off the calories before they have a chance to stick to her hips.”
    “As if you have anything to complain about.” Melanie licked powdered sugar off her fingers with a groan of appreciation. “I’d kill for curves like yours.”
    Sylvie was the quintessential Bohemian earth mother with her curly red hair, green eyes, fair skin and heart-shaped face. She was also plainspoken, and her honesty took some people off guard. She had moved home to run the art gallery at the hotel, bringing her daughter with her. Daisy Rose was now an adorable three-year-old and Anne’s only grandchild to date. The entire family spoiled her shamelessly.
    Her sisters were all so different from her, Melanie thought, even physically. She was the only one who’d inherited their father’s dark coloring.
    Like Renee, Sylvie had just recently fallen madly in love. Her beau, Jefferson Lambert, was a widowed New Englandlawyer with a teenage daughter, and he and Sylvie took turns shuttling between Boston and New Orleans.
    It seemed love was in the air at the Hotel Marchand.
    For everybody except me.
    Not that Melanie wanted to get married again. She’d had enough of that nonsense, thank you very much. But she wouldn’t mind having a boyfriend.
    Of course, she hadn’t included Charlotte.
    Melanie cast a glance at her sister and wondered if Charlotte had given up on love entirely. At forty, she looked a good five years younger, but Charlotte lived and breathed the family business to the exclusion of a personal life. Like Melanie, she’d been married before and divorced.
    Odd to think they had something in common. They were so dissimilar in every other way, from their height to their dispositions.
    “I know I shouldn’t.” Sylvie winked conspiratorially at Melanie. “But pass the beignets.”
    She grinned and handed the basket of deep-fried dough to her sister. As a kid, Melanie had easily coaxed Sylvie into going along with her schemes, even though Sylvie was the one who usually got into trouble because she was six years older and should have known better. But Sylvie inevitably forgave her.
    “What are the rest of you doing with all those childhood mementos Mother’s been giving you?” Renee asked. “I’m running out of storage space.”
    “I just shoved them in a closet.” Sylvie dabbed powered sugar off her chin.
    “I’ve got mine in storage,” Charlotte said. “There’s no room in my house. You can toss your things in with mine if you want, Renee.”
    “What old childhood junk?” A tiny stab of the same abandonment she’d felt the day she watched the camper disappear around the bend at the Grand Canyon prodded Melanie.
    “Mère’s on a cleaning spurt,” Charlotte explained. “I think she’s getting restless, and since we’re doing our best to keep her from coming back full time to the hotel, she’s looking for things to do.”
    “She hasn’t given me any childhood keepsakes.”
    “She probably hasn’t unearthed yours yet,” Renee said. “Don’t worry, you’ll get them, and then you’ll wish you hadn’t, because you won’t know what to do with them.”
    Unless Mother didn’t keep any of my stuff. Melanie