Sweet Talk Boxed Set (Ten NEW Contemporary Romances by Bestselling Authors to Benefit Diabetes Research plus BONUS Novel) (149 page)

You’re invited to a wedding in Whiskey Creek, Heart of the Gold Country

Unfortunately, it’s the
wrong
wedding. Olivia Arnold is arranging the festivities

—and it’s the hardest thing she’s ever done. Because
she
should be marrying Kyle Houseman. They were together for more than a year…. But her jealous sister, Noelle, stole him away—and now she’s pregnant.

All their friends in Whiskey Creek know as well as Olivia does that Kyle’s making a mistake. His stepbrother, Brandon, knows it, too. But Kyle’s determined to go through with it, for his child’s sake.

Olivia’s devastated, but surprisingly Brandon—the black sheep of the family— is there to provide comfort and consolation. The intensity between them, both physical and emotional, shows Olivia that maybe Kyle wasn’t the right man for her….

But is Brandon?

***

“Brenda Novak is always a joy to read—and never more than with this new series!”

—Debbie Macomber, #1
New York Times
bestselling author

Dear Reader,

I recently came off a stint of wedding movies—S
omething Borrowed, Made of Honor, The Wedding Planner, The Wedding Date.
Some of these are dated.

You probably realize that. I’m not sure how I missed them when they first came out, but it was fun catching up. I had renewed interest in this subject because the first of my five children was married recently. Everyone talks about how stressful such an event is. With only two months to plan, we whipped through the preparations but were so pleased with how it all turned out (thanks in large part to the fact that one of my BFFs owns the best wedding venue in the area and another is a fantastic photographer). I can honestly say I’ve never been to a more beautiful wedding (completely objective opinion, of course ).

Anyway, all those “I do” vibes and sighs of love put me in the mood to write my own wedding story—a first for me. Here you have it. Only this wedding doesn’t go quite as smoothly for some participants as others….

I’m excited to be able to offer you this story. I think it’s a fabulous way to introduce you to my
Whiskey Creek
series. If you like
When We Touch,
you’ll hopefully enjoy
When Lightning Strikes
,
When Snow Falls, When Summer Comes
,
Home to Whiskey Creek, Take Me Home for Christmas, Come Home to Me, The Heart of Christmas and This Heart of Mine.
More details about the series can be found at my web site (
www.brendanovak.com
), where you can also enter my monthly drawings, join my fan club, or learn more about my efforts to raise money for diabetes research. So far, with the support of so many, I’ve been able to raise $2.4 million. Visit
www.brendanovakforthecure.org
to see how you can help!

Brenda

Dedication

To Megan and German...

Watching you two fall in love has been one of the most gratifying things I’ve experienced as a mother and confirms everything I believe as a romance writer.

You can live the dream. Never, never lose what you have!

Chapter One

Returning for her sister’s wedding would’ve been difficult had it merely meant pretending to be a happy and supportive bridesmaid. But being in charge of the whole event? That added insult to the most heart-wrenching emotional injury Olivia Arnold had ever sustained.

As she drove back to Whiskey Creek for the first time since learning that Noelle would be marrying Kyle Houseman—the man she’d been dating herself until three months ago—she wished she’d had the nerve to refuse her parents. Noelle tried to beat Olivia at anything and everything she did. It had been that way since they were children.

But Olivia planned weddings for a living. She was also the family peacemaker, so it came naturally to try to forgive, to move on. And, as her mother had pointed out, she was the one who’d asked Kyle if they could take a “break” while she moved to Sacramento to build her business. She’d wanted one year to see if she could develop it into something spectacular in a bigger city before marrying Kyle and settling down in Whiskey Creek.

Given all that, how
could
she refuse to help? Especially when she could save her father so much money?

Despite her determination to soldier on through everything that was happening, an odd sense of panic welled up as she reached the edge of town. Pulling over just beyond the sign that said Welcome to Whiskey Creek, The Heart of Gold Country she tried to get hold of herself but almost turned her Acura around. Within an hour, she could be home in Sacramento. She could hide away until this wedding was a distant memory and, if she was lucky, avoid her sister and new brother-in-law for a decade or two. Maybe by then she’d be able to face them without wanting to cry.

And why shouldn’t she turn back? If she stayed, the humiliation of the next few days would be as painful as the heartbreak. Whiskey Creek was a town of only two thousand people. Thanks to the fact that she and Kyle had been a couple for two years, and had separated so recently, she couldn’t possibly escape the whispers, the pitying looks or the condolences of the friends and neighbors who’d known her most of her life.

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit!” Bumping her forehead against the steering wheel, she pictured Kyle kissing “the bride” and groaned at the disappointment and betrayal. Noelle had waited for just the right moment. When Olivia was in Sacramento, trying to experience something new before starting her life with Kyle. When he was alone and not coping well with the separation. Then she’d made her move. Olivia wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to forgive her sister, especially since it was Olivia’s own tears and confidences that had armed Noelle. They’d never been particularly close, but they came from the same family and had lived under the same roof until Olivia relocated to Sacramento last February. That gave Noelle certain insights she wouldn’t otherwise have had.

But if she left, if she ran, her sister would know she was just as hurt today as she had been that terrible evening the horrible truth—that Kyle and Noelle had been seeing each other—came out. Why give Noelle the pleasure? Why confirm that her sister, younger by two years (which only made it worse), had finally landed the coup de grâce of their sibling rivalry?

“Ahhhhh!”
She pounded the steering wheel with her fists this time, before hitting everything else in sight. Somehow, seeing her hometown looming ahead had destroyed her restraint. Rage seemed to be a monster growing in strength and power until it was bursting out of her chest—

A knock on the window interrupted her mid-sob. She’d been so focused on her distress, on screaming and beating her dashboard, she hadn’t heard anyone approach.

Mortified to realize she had a witness to her behavior, she turned to see a tall, blond man dressed in a white T-shirt, khaki shorts and flip-flops. His mouth, tense with some emotion, made a slash in his face beneath a pair of mirror like sunglasses.

Oh, God…
Despite those glasses, it wasn’t a cop, as she’d expected. Worse—it was Kyle’s stepbrother, Brandon Lucero. He was younger than Kyle by a year, which made him almost a year older than her, and he appeared to be… concerned. No doubt he thought she’d lost her mind.

He might as well have caught her with her pants down. It would’ve been less embarrassing. Her only consolation was that Brandon wasn’t likely to tell Kyle what he’d seen, even if he connected it to the upcoming wedding. There was no love lost between the two men. They’d lived under the same roof while in high school, after Kyle’s older sister had married and moved out and Brandon’s mother married Kyle’s father, but that hadn’t made them friends.

Brandon waited to speak until she rolled down the window. “You okay?” he asked, his teeth a stark contrast to his golden tan.

After getting abusive with the interior of her innocent car, her right hand hurt so badly she was afraid she’d fractured it. She cradled it in her lap, hoping he wouldn’t notice the swelling, and wiped her other hand over her wet cheeks. This kind of behavior wasn’t like her.

“Don’t I look okay?” she countered as if she hadn’t just lost control. “Babe.” He shook his head. “Tell me this has nothing to do with Kyle.”

She dabbed at her eyes, inadvertently smearing her mascara, which she wiped onto her white shorts. Cut low at the hips and high on the leg, they’d been purchased with one goal in mind—turning male heads. In her current situation, she needed the ego boost. But her pride in the body she’d worked so hard to slenderize and tone had gone out the window, along with her composure. What did it matter if she looked better than she ever had? Noelle was marrying the man Olivia thought would be
her
husband. “Would you believe I broke a nail?”

His biceps bulged, stretching the sleeves of his T-shirt as he folded his arms. “Not a chance. Want to try something else?”

“No. Who cares if you think I’m an idiot?” she grumbled as she pushed her long hair out of her face. “You’ve never liked me much to begin with.”

This seemed to surprise him. “What gave you that impression?”

“I don’t know.” She managed a facetious smirk. “Maybe the way you scowl every time you see me? Or, if you can’t avoid me, which is always your first choice, you just grunt so you don’t have to say hello?”

He scowled when she’d expected him to laugh. “Would you believe I was saving you from myself?”

“No.”

“I can be chivalrous when I want to be.”

“That’s definitely not an adjective I’d use to describe
you
. I’m sure all the women with broken hearts you’ve left behind would agree with me.”

His scowl darkened. “What women with broken hearts?”

She could’ve named a few. Some of them were acquaintances. He was a tempting challenge—few women could refuse him. But he didn’t give her the chance to be more specific. He was still talking.

“I’m going to assume you’re angry or you wouldn’t have said that. You’re obviously having a bad day.”

Ah, the understatement of the year. And since she had to face Kyle and Noelle as well as her parents in the next few minutes, her day was going to get worse.

“We had a class together, remember?” he added. “I took you to my junior prom. I’ve always liked you just fine.”

She couldn’t see his eyes, but she sensed that they were moving over her, taking inventory of what her clothes revealed. Instinctively she wanted to cover up. The only thing stopping her was the sure knowledge that doing so would draw more attention to her atypical attire. “And—” he grinned “—from what I can see so far, I’m going to like the new you even more.”

What had she been
thinking
when she’d put on this outfit? If Kyle didn’t regret what he’d done by now, a pair of short shorts and a low-cut blouse wouldn’t do the trick. It was too late to save what they’d had, anyway. It wasn’t as if she could take him back.

“I dressed in a weak moment,” she explained, her face burning. “I needed to feel attractive.”

“Mission accomplished.” He whistled. “You could stop traffic. You stopped me, didn’t you?”

She considered the amusement on his face. “I’m pretty sure you thought I was having engine trouble.”

“To be honest, I thought a bee had gotten into your car and you were under attack.”

“Thanks for the visual. That helps with the embarrassment. But it wasn’t that bad.”

His eyebrows rose above his sunglasses. “It was alarming. But back to your changed wardrobe. I don’t think showing that much skin is the best way to recover.” He scratched his smooth-shaven chin. “I mean…I’d hate to see you wind up with the wrong kind of guy.
Again.
”

“Kyle was the wrong kind of guy?” She was anxious to hear his justification for that statement. The general belief was that
Brandon
was the less reliable of the two. Kyle had attended UC Berkeley on an academic scholarship while getting a degree in electrical engineering. He’d started his own company manufacturing solar panels after that, which was currently making him rich. He was strong, kind, talented.

Maybe he wasn’t
quite
as handsome as his stepbrother, but his attention wasn’t nearly as fleeting, either.

“For you he was
completely wrong
,” Brandon maintained as if he’d been able to see it all along.

The uncertainty she’d always felt in his presence returned. She’d caught him watching her since that prom. Most of the time he turned away the second she noticed, but occasionally their eyes met and held, and she remembered how badly she’d once wished he’d call. “Who would be better?” she challenged.

Mouth quirking up on one side, he said, “Why don’t you follow me to my place and put yourself back together before you walk into the lion’s den? We can talk about it.”