Wedding Survivor by Julia London Read Free Book Online Page A

would show them gowns she could make just for Olivia
!
    If Vera Wang had a studio in L. A. Wow. She really had some research to do.
    "Marnie?"
    She jerked her head up.
    Mom nodded at her hand.
    Marnie looked down; water was leaking out of the top of the bottle she was holding at an odd angle. "Oh geez," she said, and moved to get a paper towel to mop up what she'd spilled.
----
Chapter Five

 
    AT least Eli now knew that Marnie came by the gift of gab honestly. When he'd asked if Marnie made it home with all the fruit, her mother had launched into a tale of oranges and fruit salad that had gone on and on and on.
    And here came the daughter of the fruit queen now, walking down the sidewalk toward him with a very large portfolio in hand. More notably, Eli was pleasantly surprised to see that she was wearing something besides schoolmarm clothes. She wore a pair of white hip huggers that did their part by hugging her like a glove, and a dark-blue shirt that sort of wrapped around her middle and left no curve undefined, and even gave him a peek of her belly.
    The woman had some great curves.
Outstanding
curves. Curves like he hadn't really noticed—okay, wanted to notice—in a long while.
    She said hello with a very winsome smile, juggled her stuff, and finally managed to sit across the table from him. Her dark copper hair was loose today; it hung just below her shoulders and she had long bangs that sort of draped to one side.
    Okay, all right. It wasn't news that she was damned attractive. Of course he'd noticed it during the auditions. Christ, he was still a man, even if he had been effectively neutered by Trish.
    But he honestly hadn't appreciated how naturally pretty Marnie was the other day. Maybe because she'd been sweating so profusely. But now she had a look about her, like she'd walked off a Wisconsin cheese calendar. He could just imagine her with a pitchfork—or whatever implement they used to make cheese—a pair of cutoff overalls with nothing underneath, one side unhooked, the flap just covering the nipple of a perfect breast…
    Damn. That wasn't where he wanted to go. He squinted and tried to concentrate on what she was saying—not surprisingly, she'd been chattering since the moment she'd shown up. Something about venues as she shoved a pink book at him. An organizer, she said, and hauled the portfolio up onto the very small cafe table and opened it to the first page.
    "This is a wedding I assisted. A beach wedding," she said, proudly smoothing the page. "I wanted to show you because it was outdoors, and this one will be outdoors. By the way, do you guys have an office? Because I will probably need the address. But anyway, you can see how we set it all up with the white chairs and the altar and the red carpet, so the bride wouldn't ruin her gown, although," she said with a mischievous little smile, "there was an incident with the gown, but it was at the very tail of her train, and to this day, I don't know if she knows." She laughed at that. "And the reception was just next door," she continued, turning the page, "with the same view, but we put down a dance floor and hired a little six-piece combo, and in the end, everyone kicked off their shoes and they were dancing on the beach to great music. We had these really cute lights, too."
    She glanced up at Eli, obviously waiting for him to say something. Only he didn't say anything, because he had no idea what he was supposed to say about cute lights.
Where can I get some
?
    A tiny little frown creased her brow, but she looked down at her portfolio again. "Here's another outdoor venue. This one was in Lake Tahoe. Have you ever been to Lake Tahoe?
Gorgeous
. So anyway, this one was on a private estate, and we did this great theme of skiing, even though it was in the summer. You know, trucked in some handmade snow, set up these little hills—"
    "Question," Eli said, leaning back and stretching his legs long beneath the table.
    "Shoot!"
    "Do you always… talk so