All’s Fair in Love
and Weddings: Excerpt
She froze in front of him like a
deer caught in the headlights, and despite the fact that she had some serious
explaining to do, the first thought that went through Tucker’s mind when her
eyes widened was that they certainly were a remarkable shade of green, weren’t
they?
“Good morning,” she returned
warily, and then those green eyes of hers narrowed.
Well, that seemed like an odd
reaction. If either of them ought to be upset, he was fairly certain it should
be him, not her. And had he not been so intensely curious as to why she had
sent him on a wild goose chase yesterday, he might have been more upset than he
already was.
“Coffee smells good,” Tucker said
conversationally with a nod toward her cup. “Is there more where that came
from?”
“Depends,” Prue returned, eyeing
him as if she expected him to make a sudden move at any time. “Are you a guest
of the resort?”
“Are you kidding? At their prices?
No.”
“Then I think you’re out of luck.”
And she drained the rest of her drink in front of him.
He watched her, unfazed. “Yeah, my
luck has been pretty poor the past twenty-four hours.”
“Has it?”
She seemed to be avoiding his gaze.
Under the circumstances, he was not surprised. “But it’s taking a turn for the
better now, because I was hoping to run into you again.”
“I’ll bet,” she muttered, so much
under her breath that he almost missed it.
“Mainly because I was hoping you
could explain something to me. Like why you sent me racing after the wrong
ferry?”
After a moment’s pause, she turned
to look directly at him and widened her eyes again with what—in any other
situation—he might have interpreted as innocence. It was almost, but not quite,
convincing. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“I think you do know what I mean.
You sent me to the Water Island ferry.”
One of her eyes twitched before
both of them grew even wider. Too wide. “That’s the one you wanted, wasn’t it?”
He looked at her evenly, wondering
what kind of game she was playing at here. “No. It wasn’t.”
“Well, that’s what I heard you say.
You specifically said Water Island, I’m sure of it.”
“I said St. John.”
She shook her head. “I think you
must be confused.”
Understatement of the year, he
thought. “Very, yes, but not about the islands. And neither are you, are you?”
“I think you must be remembering
wrong.”
“I fell for that line once already,
remember? What else have you got?”
Instead of answering, she played
with the empty coffee cup in her hands.
“Look, sweetheart, I don’t know if
you just like to do this kind of thing to other people for kicks, but I’m
really not in the mood for it today. I had a very long night, and it would be
hard to say if the crowning moment was when one of the tires on my car blew up
or when the tow truck guy discovered he was lactose intolerant while I was
still riding beside him in his truck, but—” He caught another twitch around her
eyes then, one that almost looked like guilt taking its toll. And then another
thought occurred to him for the first time, and he stared at her, incredulous.
“Wait—did you have something to do with that?”
“A lactose-intolerant truck driver?
Not likely.”
“I meant my tire.”
She played with her cup some more
without looking up, and he realized he had his answer.
“Are you kidding me?” He was almost
too bewildered to be angry. Almost. “Do you usually screw over the people who
do you favors, lady, or am I just special?”
Her head shot up then, and she had
the nerve to look indignant. “Screw people over? You’re one to talk!”
“Huh?” Tourists all over these
islands, and he had to cross paths with the one who appeared to be an escaped
mental patient. A very attractive mental patient, he thought as a distracting
curl escaped from the band she’d used to pull her hair back into a loose
ponytail, but a mental patient nevertheless. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about that wedding
you’re so anxious to stomp all over, that’s what.”
His irritation grew. “I don’t want
to ‘stomp’ on anything. I just want to—”
“Ruin the bride’s special day. I
know.”
“The bride—”
“Is my sister.”
He blinked and then stared at her,
and she nodded back, her displeasure with him written all over her face. “No…”
he breathed in disbelief.
“Guess again.”
