The Wedding Favor by Unknown Read Free Book Online

fences that obscured the neighboring chateaus. “Wow,” she murmured, dazzled by the colors.
    Directly below her window, a flagstone terrace stretched the entire width of the chateau, holding a huge farm table that would easily seat twelve and had to be centuries old. Blazing pink azaleas framed the terrace, with more lining a flagstone path that led away from the terrace to a pergola blanketed in grapevines, utterly private and perfectly romantic.
    “Gosh, Matt.”
    “I know. Crazy, right?”
    She tore her gaze away from the gardens, eyed him narrowly. “Okay. Now give me the bad news. Who else is staying here?”
    “Well, Ricky’s across the hall from Jack and Lil.” Ricky was the best man, wide receiver to Matt’s quarterback through four years of varsity, and like a second brother to Victoria.
    “The other groomsman’s across from you. He’s that old friend of Isabelle’s I mentioned. More of a surrogate brother, I guess. I haven’t met him yet, but he’s friends with Jack too, going back to when they were kids—”
    “Quit stalling, Matt.” She stared him down. “I saw another hallway with four more doors.”
    He shifted from one foot to the other. “Well, Isabelle’s in one room, obviously. And Annemarie, who’s a friend of hers from high school—”
    “Mother’s staying here, isn’t she?”
    He swallowed. “Isabelle put her here without asking me.”
    Victoria plopped on the bed.
    “I’m sorry, Vic. Mom looked at the hotel online and mentioned something about how small the rooms are. Isabelle panicked. She sent Mom pictures of this place and she loved it.” He sat beside her, massaged her shoulder with one hand. “The good news is she’s bringing a guy. He’ll probably keep her busy.”
    She groaned. “They’ll be doing it down the hall.”
    “Maybe not. He’s getting a separate room.”
    “When has that stopped her? Remember the Hamptons?”
    “S orry,” Matt said again, and he truly was. Their mother, who never gave him grief about anything, was unremittingly hard on her only daughter. Always disapproving, always critical.
    And Vicky let it get to her, big time. No matter how well she did in school, what she accomplished professionally, how many people told her she was a star, the only voice she heard was her mother’s.
    Then that idiot Winston came along. How he wished for a do-over on that, so he could un-introduce them. But it was too late, the damage was done.
    The crazy thing was, everything had seemed to be great between them. Winston acted like he really cared about her. And he was good for her. He got her out of her apartment, took her to new places. She seemed really happy when they got engaged, and she threw herself into the wedding plans.
    Then the dick cheated on her, and to make matters worse, when she gave him the boot he went running to Adrianna, professing remorse. And unaccountably, Adrianna actually took his side, accusing Vicky of disappointing him in some way. She even badgered Vicky to take him back, to the point where Matt had intervened.
    That was nothing new, he’d intervened often over the years. But now he was getting married. With a wife and, hopefully, kids of his own, he wouldn’t always be around to stick up for Vicky. Now, more than ever, she needed to stand up for herself.
    He’d asked Isabelle’s advice and, wretched over housing Victoria and Adrianna under one roof, Isabelle had decreed that what Vicky needed was a man who would boost her ego. An easygoing, fun-loving guy who wouldn’t be fooled by the cool and distant woman Vicky often pretended to be. A guy who’d recognize and care about, maybe even love a little, the warm, funny person she really was.
    And, Isabelle had assured him, she knew just the man for the job.
    “T yrell, will you stand still .” Isabelle Oulette rolled her big blue eyes. “Raoul’s trying to pin your inseam.”
    Ty threw her a look of distress, stage-whispered, “He’s grabbing my nuts.”
    Raoul huffed.