Read Online CnC 5 One Hex of a Wedding by Yasmine Galenorn - Free Book Online Page A

a phone call to make. Joe’s brother, Nathan, was due in town tomorrow morning, but if it were me, I’d want to know as soon as possible. I debated ringing his parents, too, but then pushed that thought aside. Joe would have a fit if he found out I’d called them.
    He’d refused to invite either of them to the wedding, and I hadn’t pressured him. Dexter, his father, had abandoned the family when the boys were young, following the lure of the casinos. As for Terri, Joe’s mother, she’d been shacked up with one loser or another for most of Joe’s life. He’d long ago given up on expecting support from either his parents.
    I flipped through the address book, found Nathan’s number, and punched in the keys. After a few rings, Nate answered, sounding so much like Joe that it gave me chills. “Nathan? This is Emerald. Joe’s fiancée.”
    A pause, then an “Oh shit!”
    I frowned at the phone. “What?”
    “Sorry,” came the garbled reply. “Just a minute.” Nathan’s words were obviously aimed toward somebody in the room with him. After a few blurred syllables that might have been “hold on” or “hang on,” he cleared his throat. “Listen, I meant to call Joe tonight. I can’t make the wedding.”
    Great. Could this day get any better? “Is everything okay?”
    “Yeah, fine,” he said, and I could hear the strike of a match. So, he smoked. Well, not in my house he wouldn’t. “I’ve been offered the chance to go to Sweden for a couple of weeks but we have to leave tomorrow morning. I can’t pass this up, not when it fell right in my lap. Joe’ll understand. Put him on.”
    I counted to ten, my hackles rising. “I can’t put him on. He’s in the hospital. That’s why I called.”
    “Oh hell, what’d he go and do now? He been playing hero again? I told him to get out of that business—bad for the health.”
    “Don’t you even want to know how he is?” I said, exasperated.
    “Yeah, yeah, don’t get your panties in a wad, Sis. I figure if he was dead, you’d be bawling, so he must be okay. What happened?”
    Wanting nothing more than to get off the phone and out of this conversation, I forced myself to calm down. “It has nothing to do with his job. Your brother got winged by a bullet from a twenty-two this afternoon. He’s going to be fine, but I thought you might like to know before you arrived. Obviously, since you’re headed to Sweden, that’s no longer an issue. Tell me, were you planning on letting us know about your detour before we were standing at the airport, waiting for your plane?”
    “Uh, yeah. I just forgot. Chill, okay?”
    Chill my ass. “I’m not in a good mood,” I said, biting my tongue to prevent saying anything I’d later regret.
    “Okay, okay … sheesh.” Nathan coughed. “So, old Joe took one on the wing? Tell him to get better and watch his step next time. Was it some redneck yokel out hunting ducks or something?”
    I was starting to get a sense for why Joe hesitated when discussing his family. Nathan apparently didn’t fall far from Dexter’s tree.
    “We don’t know,” I said. “Since you aren’t going to make it, I’ll just tell Joe you said hello. I have to go now. Bye.” I hung up before he could say another word—and before I forever ruined any rapport I might have with my soon-to-be brother-in-law. I stared at the phone in my hand.
    Grandma M. might be a pain in the butt sometimes, and my mother and father were bland, if loving, parents. Rose could be a handful, but had somebody called any of them with word that I was shot, they’d be here in a flash. I’d deliberately kept some of my misadventures from them because I didn’t want them to worry. In contrast to Nathan, they were as loving and supportive as I could ask for. I glanced at the clock. Time to call Margaret, Joe’s aunt. At least she would be at the hospital first thing come visiting hours.
    My hand poised to dial, I stopped and put the phone down. Aunt Maggie deserved