Wedding Cake Killer by Livia J. Washburn Read Free Book Online

that,” Eve said.
    “Right now, just hold still,” Phyllis said, “so we can get this right . . .”
    By a little before five o’clock, the driveway and the curbs along both sides of the street were full of cars, and the living room of Phyllis’s house was full of people. Fewer guests had shown up for the wedding than for the shower, which was a good thing, because the room wasn’t as uncomfortably crowded as it had been a week earlier.
    Phyllis stood at the top of the stairs and looked down at what she could see of the living room. Everything seemed to be perfect. Maybe if she held her mouth right it would stay that way, she thought, an old saying she had heard frequently when she was a child.
    Sam walked past the bottom of the stairs with the minister who would perform the service. He gave Phyllis a thumbs-up. She crooked a finger at him, and he said something to the minister, then came up the stairs.
    “Did he bring the music?” Phyllis asked.
    “Yep. Got it loaded in the CD player.”
    “How’s Roy holding up?”
    Sam grinned. “He hasn’t bolted for the exit, if that’s what you mean. Seriously, he’s fine. Lookin’ forward to bein’ married to Eve.”
    “All right.” Phyllis glanced at her watch. “I think we’re about ready to start, then.”
    “I’ll tell the preacher. You’ll hear the music and know when it’s time to come down.”
    Phyllis took a deep breath and nodded.
    “Let’s get these two married,” she said.

Chapter6
     
    “I t was a beautiful ceremony, wasn’t it?”
    “Yep.”
    “Eve was so lovely.”
    “She sure was.”
    “And the music and the flowers and the cake . . . oh, the cake . . .”
    “All perfect,” Sam said. “Couldn’t have asked for everything to be any better.”
    Phyllis lifted her head from his shoulder, where she’d been resting it as they sat together on the sofa, which had been moved back into the living room along with the other furniture after the ceremony with the help of some of the guests. “It was, wasn’t it?”
    Then she kissed him.
    Sam’s arm tightened around her shoulders where he had draped it casually when they sat down. When Phyllis broke the kiss, he smiled and asked, “What was that for? Not that I’m complainin’, mind you.”
    “I just want you to know how much I appreciate everything you do, Sam. Having you around just makes everything easier.”
    “I’m always glad to help out; you know that.”
    “I know. And I don’t think any of us thank you enough.”
    “So that kiss was just gratitude?”
    Phyllis smiled. “Well . . . not completely.”
    “Good to know.”
    He leaned down and did the kissing this time.
    The sound of Carolyn coming down the stairs made them sit up straighter, although Sam didn’t remove his arm from Phyllis’s shoulders. Carolyn came into the living room and sank into one of the armchairs.
    “If you two are as worn out as I am, you probably don’t want to do anything for a week,” she said.
    “It’s been a pretty stressful couple of months,” Phyllis admitted, thinking back to the Harvest Festival at Holland Lake Park, then Thanksgiving and everything that had come after that in December.
    “It’ll be midnight after a while,” Sam said. “A whole new year. We can put this one in the books. Out with the old, in with the new.”
    “Good riddance,” Carolyn said.
    “I wouldn’t go that far,” Phyllis said. “Some good things happened this year, too. Eve and Roy finding each other, for example.”
    Carolyn said, “The jury is still out on that one.”
    “Are we gonna stay up and watch the ball drop at midnight?” Sam asked.
    “It doesn’t drop at midnight our time,” Carolyn pointed out. “When it’s midnight in Times Square, it’s only eleven o’clock here, and what do I care if it’s the New Year in New York already? The TV stations used to have the decency to delay the broadcast so that they showed the ball dropping when it was midnight here, but they