Sisters in White (Love in Bloom: Snow Sisters #3) Contemporary Romance (10 page)

The hostess led them to an enormous private room in the back of the restaurant, decked out in gold, pink, and white, the colors of the wedding. The long cherry table had a glorious floral centerpiece, and every chair boasted ringlets of the same colorful ribbons.

Danica hugged Blake’s father again. “I’m so pleased that you were able to come. I know it was a really far trip.”

Harry Carter looked just like the old movie star Clint Walker: thick and wide chested, with leathery skin from too much sun, thick hair that must have once been as dark as Blake’s and was now more salt than pepper. His voice was as gravelly as Clint Eastwood’s. Danica had instantly liked him when they’d met last year, and watching the way he looked at Blake, like he was the proudest father in the world, endeared him to Danica even more.

“I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. He’s a good man, Blake is.”

“He sure is.”

Kaylie walked in arm in arm with Weston, Chaz’s older brother. He was every bit as handsome as Chaz, though he wore his thick, dirty-blond hair shorn close to his head, and his face had begun to show the effects of his high-stress life as a surgeon, with fine lines across his forehead and at the corners of his eyes.

“I still can’t get over my baby brother getting married before me,” Weston said.

“We’ll find you a wife, Weston. Leave it to me,” Kaylie assured him.

Great. Kaylie’s matchmaking service.
Danica turned to thank the hostess. On the wall behind them were life-size photographs of Kaylie and Chaz and Blake and Danica kissing, in various stages of laughter, and gazing into each other’s eyes, obviously taken since they’d been at the resort.

“When did Treat do all of this?” Danica gaped, in awe of the vibrant, sharp images and the blatant elation that gleamed in their eyes.

“That’s Treat for you. He never holds anything back,” Blake answered, as he took in the photographs. “He and his brothers have always been competitive, but I guess Treat brings his best to everything in his life.”

“Wow, that’s just amazing!” Kaylie gushed.

“You look stunning,” Abby, Chaz’s younger sister, said to Kaylie. Abby was in her mid-twenties, like Lacy, but she had idolized everything about Kaylie since the day they’d met.

“Aw, you’re too sweet,” Kaylie said, pulling her into a hug.

“Oh my God! Look, Kaylie, that’s you!” Marie said.

Kaylie raised her brows and opened her eyes wide. “Really? Is it?” she mocked.

Everyone laughed, except Chaz’s mother, Elise. She scowled and surveyed the room in her prim, chenille suit. Her stiff white shirt covered her wrinkly neck like a religious collar.

“It’s a little strange, having a rehearsal dinner without so much as a wedding rehearsal,” Elise said with her chin tilted up, her eyes looking away, and a wave of her hand, pinky pointed at the ceiling, like she was part of the royal family.

Danica watched her mother swallow a retort, her eyes narrowing in a stalking-her-prey manner, reminding her of Kaylie on more than one occasion.

“It is kinda weird that you’re not rehearsing anything. I mean, she’s right. It is a rehearsal dinner,” Astrid, Chaz’s older sister, said innocently. Astrid was practical, and beautiful in an old-fashioned way, with straight blond hair and a slightly rounded, though not heavy, figure, and each time Danica had seen her, she’d been dressed primly, with neatly pressed lines and perfectly polished shoes. Even so, she didn’t exude an ounce of privilege. She was a kind and warm woman.

Kaylie glared at Chaz, and Danica snickered silently as he shrugged, clearly unable to control tonight’s outcome where his mother was concerned.

“Kaylie didn’t want to rehearse the wedding, so we figured we’d make the best of the gathering and still celebrate the night before the wedding with a nice family dinner,” Max said confidently, leaving no room for if, ands, or buts.

The rehearsal had been the only bone of contention between Danica and Kaylie. Kaylie felt that the wedding should be spontaneous. She didn’t care if the kids froze as they walked down the aisle, or if the bridesmaids came down in the wrong order. She believed that whatever was going to happen, happened for a reason, while the ever-practical Danica had wanted to know what to expect. Danica had known the lack of a rehearsal would cause conflict with Kaylie’s very traditional future mother-in-law, who already alluded to Kaylie having “trapped” her son. Danica secretly wondered if perhaps Kaylie refused the rehearsal to goad Elise, staking her claim to their life as husband and wife. Silently telling Elise to butt out. So Danica backed off, and the compromise they made had worked out well. Max created a full outline of every aspect of the wedding, which Danica had spent the previous two months memorizing.

Now, as everyone moved to find a seat, Danica’s pulse raced again. She watched the teens settle in at the far end of the table. Chaz’s family sat to Chaz’s right and Sally, Nancy, and Max sat across from them, followed by Lacy and Madeline. Chaz and Kaylie sat with two high chairs in between them, and Danica sat on Kaylie’s other side.

Her sister was nestled far enough away from the remaining chairs that being near her father shouldn’t be an issue. Danica watched Blake’s father pull the chair out at the head of the table for her mother; then he sat down beside Blake. Her father settled into the only seat left in the room, beside Madeline and to the immediate left of her mother.

Danica hoped her interpretation of what she’d witnessed between her mother and father earlier in the day had been misconstrued. She breathed a sigh of relief once everyone was seated and the meal was served.

“Dane didn’t make it?” Lacy asked.

“He wasn’t expected to come to the dinner,” Blake explained. “He had a business meeting most of the afternoon and evening. He’s still hoping to make it to the wedding, though. Treat may stop in at some point, but he’s so busy, I wouldn’t count on it.”

Danica was pretty sure Blake didn’t pick up on Lacy’s disappointment in his answer, but she could not ignore the lackluster way that Lacy now picked at her food.

Chaz’s mother looked at Chaz, though she was addressing Blake. “What kind of family doesn’t make it to a rehearsal dinner?”

“Mother,” Chaz said sharply.

“That’s okay,” Blake said with a seemingly sincere smile. “Dane does a lot of international work and fundraising. He has to take his meetings and calls when his clients allow. He’s a remarkable person, really, with the work he’s doing.”

Lacy listened with wide eyes and bated breath. “He’s been on a humanitarian project in Belize, tagging sharks and raising money to help save them.”

“Sharks?” Elise made a
harrumph
sound.

“Mom, did you know that Blake’s cousin Treat, Dane’s brother, owns this resort?” Astrid winked at Blake as she engaged her mother in a conversation about the elegance of the hotel.

Danica’s father and Madeline had been murmuring quietly all night in between his conversations with her mother. Now Danica’s father looked at her uncomfortably, like he had a mouth full of rocks that he couldn’t quite spit out.

“Excuse me,” her mother said as she stood. “I’m just going to run to the ladies’ room.”

Blake’s father stood as she left the table, then settled back in beside Blake and went right back to their conversation about Blake’s business.

Danica was beginning to see where Blake learned how to charm the ladies. Everything his father did was natural and sincere, just like Blake.

 “Do you want me to go with you, Mom?” Danica offered.

“I think I can find it by myself. I’ll just be a few minutes.” Her mother hurried out before Danica could respond.

Jeff came around the table and took her seat while she was gone, diving right into the conversation with Blake and his father. Weston joined the conversation from the other end of the table, and the group of them eventually moved to the middle of the room.

Lexi began to whine, and Trevor was not far behind. Kaylie and Chaz picked them up and tried unsuccessfully to soothe them.

“It’s getting late. Maybe we should put them down,” Chaz said.

Kaylie agreed, and Abby and Max were right behind them. Abby offered to help with the kids, which Danica knew was just an excuse to get closer to Kaylie, and Max offered to arrange for one of the staff to stay with the children for the evening, as suggested by Treat earlier in the day.

“Danica, do you mind if we go down to the beach for a while?” Michelle asked.

“You’re a high school graduate now. Do you even have to ask? If your mom says it’s okay, I don’t mind at all,” Danica answered.

Rusty had grown to be almost six feet tall, but remained lean and lanky. He’d matured a lot since his father had passed away, leaving behind the angry boy and coming into his own as a confident young man. Standing next to each other, Rusty and Chase looked and acted like brothers. They were half brothers by blood, and she remembered a time when Rusty wouldn’t even acknowledge Chase’s existence. Now he’d almost never leave him behind.

Chase swung an arm around Michelle’s shoulder, and though she knew Michelle and Chase had been an item for months, she still thought she saw a twinkle of jealousy in Rusty’s eye.

She watched the trio walk out of the restaurant and felt the stirrings of nostalgia tickling the recesses of her mind.

“It wasn’t that long ago that you were that age,” her father said.

She laughed. “Maybe not for you. To me it feels like a lifetime ago.”

“If you’ll excuse me,” her father said. “I just want to make a phone call.”

Astrid, Sally, and Madeline were chatting about how beautiful Nassau was, and Danica took the opportunity to pop outside for a second and get a breath of fresh air.

She crossed the hotel lobby on her way to the veranda, and a laugh caught her attention. She followed the familiar sound down a corridor and was about to round a corner when the laugh grew louder, followed by a male voice that stopped her cold.
Dad?
Mom?

She stood with her back against the wall and peeked around the corner. Her mother and father stood much too close for Danica’s comfort, and why was she looking at him that way? Laughter filled the corridor. Her mother touched her father’s chest in a flirty manner.
Mom!
Danica popped back around the corner and covered her mouth to hold in her surprise.

“What are you—”

“Shh!” Danica took Lacy by the hand and dragged her out to the veranda.

“What were you doing?” Lacy asked with a laugh.

“Nothing.”
What the hell is going on?

“That’s not the look of nothing.” Lacy crossed her arms and tapped her foot.

Danica watched the lobby like a hawk.

Why are they still there? Together? Laughing?

“Danica, if you don’t tell me, I’ll go take a peek myself.”

“No, you won’t.” Danica dragged her to the side of the veranda, out of the line of sight from the lobby.

“We have to go back inside.” Danica paced, chewing on the image of her mother flirting with the man who had ruined several years of her life.

“Okay, let’s go.” Lacy headed for the lobby. “I’m going to take a peek—”

Danica didn’t realize she’d said it aloud. She caught up to Lacy and grabbed her arm. “My mother and your father are...talking.”

“Talking?”

“Talking.”

Lacy shrugged. “So?”

Danica knew better than to raise a red flag to anyone until she knew what was really going on. Maybe they were just happy to see each other. Maybe her mother was just pretending to be nice.
She was flirting. I know flirting when I see it. Damn it, Mom
.

“Oh, there’s my mom.” Lacy crossed the lobby and called out, “Mom.”

Danica’s eyes jetted between Madeline and the hallway where her mother and father were. She hurried over and took Madeline’s arm, taking quick glimpses behind her. “Let’s talk a bit,” she said nervously.

“Okay, that would be nice.” Madeline smiled.

“I’ll come along,” Lacy said, narrowing her eyes at Danica.

“Um, so, what are you wearing to the wedding tomorrow?”
Now what
? She had to place herself so she could watch the lobby but Madeline couldn’t. She guided them to a little conversation pit with a sofa that faced away from the lobby and two comfortable wing chairs facing the sofa.
Perfect
.

“I hope you don’t mind that I’m wearing blue. I know your colors are silver and pink, but I didn’t want to step on Helen’s toes, and I wanted to go with a safe choice, so it was either blue or gray, and gray seemed too dingy.” Madeline sat on the sofa. “Oh, this is nice.”

“Lacy, why don’t you sit next to her?”

Lacy sat in a wing chair with a smirk on her lips. “I’m fine here. This way I can look at my beautiful mother.”

Great. Lacy sees right through my ruse
.

“What a lovely dinner that was, Danica. How are you and Kaylie holding up? We haven’t had much time to talk. Are you nervous? Having cold feet at all?”

Why did Madeline have to be so damned nice? It made Danica want to protect her from whatever was going on between her mother and father.

Danica shifted her eyes between Madeline and the corridor. “Cold feet? No, nothing like that. We’re doing great. The dresses are here and they fit. Our families are here. Everything should be just fine.”

Her mother entered the lobby and looked around nervously, then quickly walked back into the restaurant. Danica glanced at Lacy, who was also watching the corridor. In the next second, her father followed the same guilty track.

Lacy’s hands clenched the arms of the chair.

“We should get back inside.” Danica stood and headed to the restaurant with Madeline and Lacy in tow.

Danica spent the rest of the evening with one eye on her parents.

“You okay, babe?” Blake asked.

“Fine, why?”
This is not my problem
. She needed to stay out of whatever was going on and focus on the wedding.

“You seem distracted. You’re not having second thoughts, are you?” He nuzzled against her neck.

“Get a room,” Max said as she and Abby returned.

“Sounds good to me,” Blake teased.