Unholy Matrimony by Peg Cochran Read Free Book Online Page A

the darker corners of the room.
    “No,” Flo said, her gaze following one of the servers.
    Lucille smacked her on the arm. “Stop looking at the waiters and see if you can spot Taylor.” She glanced at her watch. “We don’t have much time. We have to get him to the church and him and Bernadette married before either of them changes their mind.”
    “It seems to me he’s already changed his mind.”
    “Yeah? Well, when we find him, I’m going to unchange it for him.”
    Lucille continued to look around the room. “I wonder how come there ain’t no women here.” She stopped for a moment and sucked in her breath. “This here’s one of them bars where certain men go.” Lucille made a limp-wristed gesture.
    “Shit! I think you’re right.” Flo looked around again. “It is a gay bar. Taylor must be gay. You can’t let him marry Bernadette. She’ll never have—well, you know.”
    “I don’t care if he is gay, just so he marries my Bernadette. They can get it annulled later, but by then the baby will be born and she’ll have been a married woman when she had it.”
    “Is that all you think about? Nowadays, things are different. Women have—” Flo stopped abruptly as a young man approached her.
    Her hand went to her hair reflexively, and she batted her false eyelashes discreetly.
    “Hey, beautiful. Can I buy you a drink?”
    Flo giggled. “Sure. I’ll have a rum and cola.”
    “Don’t go anywhere”—he winked at her—“I’ll be right back.” He turned and headed toward the bar.
    “Well,” Flo exclaimed in a satisfied tone. “You see? It can be done. It just takes the right woman to turn them around.”
    Lucille frowned.
    “Don’t look so skeptical,” Flo admonished.
    Lucille shrugged and made her way to the bar. She signaled for the bartender, who looked at her strangely. Like the waiters, he was bare-chested and wearing a frilly apron. Lucille didn’t know where to look so she concentrated on a spot just to the right of his head.
    “Help you?”
    “Yeah. I hope so.”
    “We’ve got it all.” The bartender waved an arm toward the dozens of bottles arrayed behind him. “Name your poison.”
    “Actually, I’m looking for this guy,” Lucille said, although she had to admit the thought of a highball was pretty tempting what with everything that had happened that day already.
    “Hey, lady, everyone in here is looking for some guy. Know what I mean?”
    The bartender grabbed a rag from the counter behind him and began swishing it along the bar.
    “He’s a young guy. Named Taylor Grabowski. He’s supposed to be at St. Rocco’s right this minute marrying my daughter, although he didn’t show up and we don’t know where to look.”
    “Taylor?” The bartender paused in his swabbing. “Haven’t seen him today. He’s a good guy. Always buys a round when he comes in.”
    Sure, Lucille thought. Spending his parents’ money like it was water. Like his father didn’t work long and hard for that dough. She’d be sure to tell Bernadette to keep an eye on his spending once they was married or she’d end up like Sandra Talifarro—her husband spent them right into the poor house, or at least right into a third-floor walk-up apartment over on Railroad Avenue.
    “So in other words, Taylor hasn’t been here at all today. You haven’t seen him.”
    “That’s right,” the bartender called over his shoulder as he moved down the bar to serve a customer who had just come in.
    Lucille glanced over to where Flo was waiting for that fellow to bring her a rum and cola. She hoped Flo wasn’t going to be too long because they still hadn’t found Taylor, and she didn’t have no more ideas of where to look.
    Lucille watched as the young man, who was dressed in jeans, a plaid shirt and them things cowboys wore over their pants, handed Flo her drink. Flo’s eyelashes were going a mile a minute. Suddenly she hauled off and slapped him hard.
    Flo put her drink down on the nearest table, bore