Read Online Two Weddings and a Fugitive (The Chanel Series Book 4) by Donna Joy Usher - Free Book Online Page B

took the glass from Gloria.
    ‘Not yet,’ Celeste said. ‘Into your dress first.’
    Tara pulled a face. ‘She’s a genius, but she’s also a tyrant.’
    I put the glass back down on the table and walked over to Celeste as I eyed off the dress she held up. ‘What if it’s too small?’
    Tara let out a laugh. ‘My sister is seven months pregnant. I doubt that’s going to be a problem.’
    I pulled my dress off and held my arms up for Celeste to lower the bridesmaid’s one over my head. ‘Her first?’
    The other women started laughing. ‘Try number eight,’ Tara said.
    ‘Seriously?’ I emerged from the top of the dress.
    ‘Yeah. They had planned to stop at the last one.’ Tara shrugged her shoulders. ‘But this one’s a boy.’ Her face broke out in a radiant smile.
    ‘The rest are girls?’
    She nodded her head and took a sip of her drink.
    ‘That’s going to be fun when the hormones kick in.’ I remember what I had been like during my teenage years.
    ‘It’s started already,’ Nat said.
    ‘Are you chicks decent yet?’ Nick hollered through the door.
    In answer, Tara opened the door for him. I waited for him to give her some sort of smart-arse comment, but he smiled sweetly and made his way back to the seats. Martine copped a glare when he found her in the seat he had vacated but he didn’t give her the lip I had expected. Seemed he was trying to behave himself.
    Celeste finished tugging the dress into position and stepped back. She cocked her head to the side as she stared at it and then she took a pin from between her lips and crouched down in front to adjust the hem.
    The dress felt perfect.
    ‘I thought you said she was seven month pregnant.’ I gestured at my waistline.
    ‘Billy gave us some measurements,’ Tara said.
    ‘He did?’ I could feel my eyebrows riding up my forehead.
    ‘We thought we might need to make some more adjustments but looks like his guesses were accurate. You look amazing.’
    ‘Excellent design,’ Nick said. ‘I mean if it can make her look good, it would have to be.’
    ‘And you were being so charming.’ I poked my tongue out at him and he let out a chuckle.
    ‘Oh.’ Tara smacked herself in the head. ‘I forgot to bring your shoes. You’re a size seven right?’
    ‘How did you…Billy?’
    She nodded.
    He knew my shoe size?
    ‘So,’ I looked at all of them, ‘you all know why Nick and I are here, and yet none of you seem worried.’
    Elaine sank onto a seat and crossed her long, lean legs. The cream silk of her blouse set off her tan beautifully. ‘We’re not unconcerned,’ she said. ‘There is a reason none of us brought our children with us. But if this is the best way to protect Matt, by luring the threat to him so it can be neutralised, then we will do what needs to be done.’
    Wow. This was a really close-knit set of friends.
    ‘And who else knows.’
    ‘Just us, and our partners,’ Nat said. ‘We will be the ones who will be with Matt and Tara the whole time. We thought it best not to panic the parents.’
    ‘It’s not a very big wedding,’ Tara said. ‘Just us, our immediate families and closest friends.’
    Billy had said there would only be about thirty people at the wedding. It would certainly make things easier.
    ‘And you didn’t think about cancelling the wedding?’ Martine asked.
    Tara shrugged. ‘It was so hard to pin down a date as it was, what with Matt’s schedule. And if this is going to happen, I would prefer it to happen like this, where we can all watch each other’s back, and not at home where we could be picked off easily.’
    When Celeste had finished, we made our way down to the pool area where we were having lunch with Tara’s Mum, Bet. She was already there with a heavily pregnant woman I assumed was Tara’s sister, Lily.
    Nick let out a low whistle as he saw Lily. ‘I’d climb that pole even with a bun in the oven,’ he said so that only I could hear him.
    ‘Behave,’ I growled at him.
    He