The Last Bride (DiCarlo Brides #6) (41 page)

“I thought you settled everything with the estate already.” Angela said as she stepped even closer. Near enough she could touch his chest if she lifted her hands. She managed to keep her hands to herself. For the moment.

He cleared his throat, not moving away, but there were only a few inches between him and the shelves behind. “There are a few details. They decided to sell the house in Chicago. Lana had talked about buying it, but decided they would be there so rarely that it would be better to let it go.”

“That makes sense.” Angela clasped her hands behind her and tipped her head, studying him. “If you’ve had enough of the noise and confusion, why didn’t you call it a night?”

“I was going to go back in, a little later.” He tugged nervously at his gray pinstriped suit jacket. “When the Tylenol kicked in.”

“Ah.” She glanced around her and found a large plastic tub marked Pink Tulle, and tugged it over, taking a seat on the lid. “You could grab yourself another tub and join me for a moment. My feet are killing me in these heels.”

She didn’t often wear heels—they weren’t exactly practical for running around campus or for rehearsals. She thought she would get used to them after having to wear heels for her part as Hedy La Rue in Juniper Ridge, Colorado that summer, but she hadn’t.

“Your legs sure look great, though,” he said as he followed her example.

It was the first complement he’d given her. She smiled. “Well, I guess I shouldn’t complain, then. She stretched out her legs and sighed a little in relief as she felt the muscles shift happily on her arch.

“They look happy, after everything they went through, it’s good to see them happy.”

“You mean Jonquil and Gage, or all of the sisters?” Angela still felt more than a twinge of jealousy when she thought of Jonquil’s other family, and the five half-sisters she’d formed relationships with since arriving in Juniper Ridge over a year earlier. It made Angela feel left out and a little too on the fringes.

Being there for the summer, getting to know them and reconnecting with Jonquil helped, but it was still something that left Angela feeling somehow left behind.

“I meant Jonquil and Gage, but it fits them all pretty well. I can’t believe two of them have babies already.” Alex smiled to himself as he leaned back against the shelves.

“And two more on the way.”

“Family gatherings with them are going to get messy. Just give it a few years and see if it doesn’t.” He had a soft smile though. Obviously he looked forward to it.

“Do you have brothers or sisters?”

“No.” Alex blinked once, then focused on her, his mind brought away from whatever he had been thinking about. “It was just me. That’s probably why I grew so close to Cami and Lana. We were all we had.”

“Your parents don’t count?”

He grinned. “Certainly not—at least not when you’re up to mischief. Our moms were not at all happy about mischief.”

“Most moms frown on it.” Hers sure had. “I never could convince mine that I hadn’t meant for something to go south and make a mess. She never seemed to care about my intentions, just my actions.” She heaved a dramatic sigh.

He reached out and brushed his fingers along the ends of her hair, then along her jaw, which was about the same height. Their eyes met and held as the air around them seemed to draw them closer.

“Your hair is so soft.” His voice was low and intimate. Then his fingertip ran along her bottom lip.

Angela rolled her lips against it, wishing it was his mouth instead. Their eyes never wavered. She leaned forward, preparing to slide onto his lap and kiss him the way she’d wanted to since they first met. For a moment he looked prepared to meet her halfway.

Then Alex stood, shock on his face before a more practiced smile covered his features. “It was good talking to you. It’s been a long time. I really ought to get back in there, though. Cami will be looking for me.”

Angela’s eyes narrowed as she watched him go. That hadn’t been her imagination, had it? She could have sworn he felt that burst of chemistry too. Was there something wrong with her, or was something else making him run off every time they saw each other?

Find the rest of the DiCarlo Brides series on
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What does one do when they come to the end of a series? I’m not sure because apparently I couldn’t let this one go—not yet. Not completely. I want to say a really big thanks to all of the fans of this series. You’ve been such a bright, happy light for me, pushing me to get the book done despite the other things in my life that kept getting in the way.

I’d like to thank my parents, who, after forty years of marriage, are still going strong. It’s easy to believe in love when you have them as an example.

I want to thank Maria Hoagland and Danyelle Ferguson for editing for me, pointing out inconsistencies and catching typos and for my hubby for doing that final pass to catch many of the things I missed.

Writing this series has been a labor of love from the first word. I hope it shines through in my stories and that they’ll come to live in your hearts, at least a tiny bit as much as they’ve come to live in mine.

Heather Tullis has been reading romance for as long as she can remember and has been publishing in the genre since 2009. When she’s not dreaming up new stories to write, she, enjoys gardening, playing with her dogs and cat, cake decorating and working with her husband.

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