Read Bride Quartet Collection for Free Online Page A

wealth and class. Yet, as he remembered, it felt not like a mansion, but a home.
    It smelled female, sort of floral and citrusy at the same time.
    The women sat, forming a cozy conversation area in the large, coffered-ceilinged drawing room where a fire snapped and sizzled in the big hearth, and winter sunlight splashed through the trio of arched windows. He was used to being outnumbered by females, as he was the middle child, with two sisters bookending him.
    So he supposed he’d survive the next hour.
    Parker popped out of her chair, all smiles and polish, crossing the room, hands extending. “Carter! It’s been a while.”
    She kissed his cheek, kept his hand in hers as she drew him toward the fire. “Do you remember Laurel?”
    “Ah . . .”
    “We were all kids.” Smooth and easy, Parker nudged him into a chair. “Emma mentioned you’d come back to teach at Winterfield. Was it strange, going back as a teacher?”
    “At first it was. I kept waiting for somebody to assign homework, then remembered, oh yeah, that’s me. Sorry about Sherry. She’s on her own clock, and it usually runs behind. I could call—”
    The doorbell cut him off, and brought him desperate relief.
    “I’ll get it.” Emma rose, headed out.
    “How’s the head?” Mac asked, lolling back in her chair with her coffee cup tucked in both hands.
    “It’s fine. It’s nothing.”
    “What happened?” Parker asked.
    “Oh, I just rapped it. I’m always doing things like that.”
    “Really?” Mac smirked into her coffee.
    “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Sherry came in like a whirlwind—color, energy, motion, and giggles. “I’m never on time. I hate that. Carter, you’re the best—” Her happy, flushed face shifted into concern. “What happened to your head?”
    “I was mugged. There were three of them, but I fought them off.”
    “What! Oh my God, you—”
    “I hit my head, Sherry. That’s all.”
    “Oh.” She dropped down, easy and relaxed, on the arm of his chair. “He’s always doing that.”
    Carter got up, and sort of tugged his sister into the chair, then tried to figure out how to hover discreetly. Emma simply shifted closer to Laurel on the couch, then patted the cushion.
    “Have a seat, Carter. Well, Sherry, how excited are you?”
    “Off the charts! Nick would’ve come, but he had an emergency surgery. It’s part of the package, marrying a doctor. But I figured Carter could give the male perspective, right? Plus he knows me, and he knows Nick.”
    She reached over, grabbed Parker’s hand, did a little butt wiggle of joy in her chair. “Can you believe this? Remember how we’d play wedding when we were kids? I remember playing that a couple of times out back with you guys. I think I married Laurel.”
    “And they said it wouldn’t last,” Laurel responded, teasing the quick, infectious giggle out of Sherry again.
    “And here we are. Right here. And I’m getting married.”
    “Slut threw me over for a doctor.” Laurel shook her head, sipped from a glass of ice water with a slice of lemon floating in it.
    “He’s amazing . Wait till you meet him. Oh God! I’m getting married!” She pressed her hands to her cheeks. “And I barely know where to start. I’m so disorganized, and everyone’s telling me I should be thinking about this or booking that. I feel like I’m running in circles, and I’ve only been engaged a couple months.”
    “That’s what we’re for,” Parker assured her, and picked up a thick notebook. “Why don’t we start with you telling us what kind of wedding you want?” Just use three or four words to describe how you see it.”
    “Um . . .” Sherry sent her brother a pleading look.
    “No, jeez, don’t look at me. What do I know?”
    “You know me. Just say what you think I want.”
    Damn it. “Just eat cookies,” he muttered. “Have fun.”
    “Yes!” She shot out her finger at him. “I don’t want it to sound like it’s not important and solemn and all that,