Annabelle Archer BoxSet, page 179
part #1 of Annabelle Archer Series
“Not many. I was actually looking for something small to give as token to the men I’m breaking up with, but I wouldn’t mind a ‘Gillian and Ted’ wine opener.”
“You’re breaking up right before Christmas?” I asked. “And you need consolation prizes?”
“Now you’re making me sound heartless,” she said, resting a hand on her hip hugger jeans. “I’ve decided to turn over a new leaf and start the year by dating intentionally, which means I need to clear out the men who aren’t long-term prospects.”
“I thought you made it a policy to avoid any relationship that might last longer than a goldfish.” I placed two candles on the bookshelf by my front door and arranged the small bowl that held my keys between them. “What does dating intentionally even mean? It sounds a little new-agey for you.”
“Your relationship with Reese has inspired me,” she said. “I admire how you two took it slow and neither of you lost yourself when you moved in together. Most women vanish once they get a serious boyfriend, but you’ve still made time for me and Richard and the rest of the friends you had before Reese came along.”
“Thanks,” I said, “but it’s not like I had a choice. You work for me, so I couldn’t exactly stop seeing you, and if I’d ghosted Richard he would have made a voodoo doll with long reddish-brown hair and used it as a pin cushion.”
Even though I’d only moved in with my cop boyfriend, Detective Mike Reese, a couple of months ago, I’d made a concerted effort to spend time with my friends so my best friend, Richard Gerard, wouldn’t have any reason to feel left out.
“Speaking of the city’s most dramatic caterer, why isn’t Richard here helping us decorate your apartment? I would have thought he’d relish this since you’ve never really done much to your place aside from hanging up a sad fake pine wreath.”
“Well, part of the reason I’m going all out for the holidays is to bring us all together,” I said. “I thought we should have a party for our crew here to celebrate another successful year.”
“And to celebrate surviving another year.”
I knew Kate meant the run-ins we’d had with kidnappers, jewel thieves, and murderers while planning weddings for the city’s most famous and infamous. “You make it sound like we plan weddings in a war zone.”
She shrugged. “There have been days. . .” She flopped onto my yellow twill couch. “So what does a crew party have to do with Richard not being here?”
“If we’re having a party, we need a tree, right?” I pointed to a corner I’d cleared out next to one of the tall windows where a tree stand stood at the ready. “Richard and Reese are out getting the Christmas tree.”
Kate nearly dropped the candle she was holding. “Are you telling me you sent your boyfriend and best friend out on a team building exercise? I hope they don’t kill each other in the process.”
“I made sure Reese didn’t take his gun.” I liked to think he would never shoot an unarmed man, but after a few hours of Richard nit-picking Douglas firs, I couldn’t guarantee it.
“Assuming both Richard and Reese return from this expedition in one piece, a holiday party sounds like fun.” Kate rubbed her hands together. “We should do a secret Santa gift exchange. That way we don’t go bankrupt buying everyone gifts.”
“Or that everyone doesn’t get identical “Gillian and Ted” wine openers from you.”
“Exactly.” She winked at me. “Although you might get a wine opener and a candle.”
I put a hand to my heart. “I’m touched.”
“Will this shin-dig be before or after the Douglas wedding?”
“Before,” I said. “We might not be alive after another Debbie and Darla wedding, even if it is the son’s wedding this time.”
Debbie and Darla were a mother-daughter duo we’d first worked with when we’d planned Darla’s very WASPy wedding to Turner Grant the Third. The women had rarely been sober for any of our meetings with them, and Darla’s wedding had been a bourbon-soaked extravaganza. Even though the son’s bride-to-be did not consider mint juleps to be the breathe of life like the family she was marrying into did, any party with Debbie and Darla involved was bound to be eventful.
“Coming through.” The door to my apartment flew open and Richard strode into the room with both arms waving. “Make way, people. Make way.”
The tip of a tree poked through the doorway and then Reese lurched into view, covered almost entirely by the prickly green branches of the pine tree he held with both arms. “Don’t worry. I’ve got it.”
Richard pushed the couch over an inch. “Right though here, Detective.”
I rushed over and grabbed the sagging trunk of the tree as Reese struggled to keep the large tree from falling to the floor. Bits of pine needles adorned his chocolate brown hair and he tried to blow both an errant curl and a branch off his forehead. “Did you carry this up the entire staircase by yourself?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Richard touched a hand to his dark hair, still perfectly spiked up. “I navigated and opened all the doors.”
“That’s true,” Reese said. “If it hadn’t been for Richard I never would have known which way to turn at each of the landings.”
Richard sniffed. “Well, not all of us dress like lumberjacks. I couldn’t exactly get pine sap on my Armani pants.”
Kate eyed Reese’s jeans, untucked blue flannel shirt, and brown lace-up boots. “Too bad. The lumberjack look is a good look.”
Reese and I got the tree across the room and lowered it into the stand. I stood back and admired the full tree that nearly reached the ceiling. I wrapped my arms around my boyfriend as he wiped both sweat and pine needles off his face. “It’s perfect.”
“Of course it’s perfect,” Richard said. “It’s not too skinny. It’s not too fat. It doesn’t have any gaps. It doesn’t lean to one side. Trust me, we made sure this was the best tree out there.”
Reese let out a long breath. “He’s right about that. Richard insisted we go to seven different lots before we found this one.”
Kate put a hand over her mouth, a presumed to stifle a laugh. “Seven? That must have taken hours.”
“Yep.” Reese kissed my forehead. “Four to be exact.”
“Why don’t I get you both a drink?” I suggested, giving Reese a final squeeze and heading for the kitchen.
Richard sank down on the couch next to Kate. “That would be divine. Picking out trees is exhausting.”
I opened my refrigerator and looked in the door for where Reese kept the microbrew beers he enjoyed. I picked out two bottles. Richard wasn’t usually a fan of beer, but I didn’t happen to have a bottle of wine. As I closed the door, I felt an arm reach around me.
“I couldn’t wait,” Reese said taking one of the beers from me and enveloping me in a hug. “This was the only thing that kept me from killing Richard for the past four hours.”
“The thought of a cold beer?” I turned around and leaned into him, feeling the hard muscles of his chest.
“No, the thought of you.” He kissed the top of my head. “And knowing how unhappy you’d be with me if I came back without your best friend.”
I looked up at him. “I’m sorry Richard was so . . . well, so Richard, but thank you for going with him. It means a lot to me, and I think he’s really warming up to you.”
He twisted off the cap of his beer bottle and took a swig. “Yay me.”
“I should probably get this to Richard,” I said, holding up the other bottle. “Even if he barely broke a sweat.”
Reese pulled me back as I took a step toward the living room and kissed me. His lips were soft, and I could taste a hint of pale ale as he deepened the kiss. He grinned when he let go and left me blinking up at him. “That’s another thing that kept me from becoming homicidal.”
I tried to regain my composure as I walked back into the living room and handed Richard a beer.
He looked perplexed. “What is this?”
“Reese’s favorite,” I said. “He thought you’d appreciate it.”
Richard couldn’t stop himself from smiling. “Did he now?” He nodded at Reese as he came back in and sat down on the overstuffed chair. “Well, never let it be said that Richard Gerard is not up for a little adventure.”
“So what do you think of Annabelle’s apartment so far?” Kate asked, sweeping an arm wide. “Can you believe all of this was done with leftovers from past weddings?”
“Yes, I can,” Richard said as he glanced around the room. “As a matter of fact, just seeing all these things is giving me wedding day flashbacks.”
Kate gave him a dismissive wave. “No one else will know, and I think it shows just how creative and clever wedding planners can be.”
Richard took a long draw from his beer and grimaced as he swallowed it. He set the bottle on my coffee table and stood. “It’s been delightful, but I’d better retrieve my dog from your nutty neighbor before she decides to give him a perm.”
“Hermes would look adorable with curly hair,” Kate said.
“He would look like a poodle,” Richard said, crossing to the door and picking up his cross body man bag from where he’d left it on the floor. “Yorkies do not have curly hair.”
“If Leatrice asks, I’m not here,” I said. As fond as I was of my downstairs neighbor, I was not as fond of her habit of popping in unannounced when Reese and I were trying to have some alone time or when Kate and I were trying to work or when I was trying to enjoy a few moments of quiet.
“Consider it done.” Richard opened the door and paused with his hand on the knob.
Buster and Mack, our friends and favorite biker florists, stood in the doorway. The two burly men each topped six feet and three hundred pounds and both sported goatees—one dark red and the other brown. They had bald heads and tattoos that were mostly covered by the leather pants, vests, and jackets they wore. A “Road Warriors for Jesus” patch emblazoned the front of their vests as well as one that said “Ride Hard Die Saved.”
My eyes dropped to the squirming bundle in Mack’s arms wearing a pink-and-blue-striped cap and wrapped in a pink blanket.
“Is that a . . .” Kate began.
“Baby?” I finished for her when I finally found my voice.
Richard turned around, his eyes wide. “Does anyone else feel like one of these things just doesn’t belong?”
“We didn’t know where else to come,” Buster said, his deep voice cracking. “You’ve got to help us.”
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To keep reading MARRY AND BRIGHT, turn the page for buy links or click the link below:
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MARRY AND BRIGHT
Also by Laura Durham
Read the entire Annabelle Archer Series in order:
Better Off Wed
For Better Or Hearse
Dead Ringer
Review To A Kill
Death On The Aisle
Night of the Living Wed
Eat, Prey, Love
Groomed For Murder
Wed or Alive
To Love and To Perish
Marry & Bright
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Thanks for reading and reviewing!
xoxo
Laura
Acknowledgments
The longer I spend with Annabelle and her team, the more I realize that the books are as much about the family-like bond they’ve created with each other as they are about the murder and adventure. This theme is inspired by my real-life wedding crew for countless years. There are actual people who inspired the characters of Richard, Fern, Kate, Buster, Mack, and even Leatrice. Writing these books takes me back to the days when we did spend every weekend together working on weddings. We may not have encountered dead bodies, but we had lots of wild stories. Those wild stories became the inspiration for these books.
As always, a huge thank you to all of my wonderful readers, especially my beta readers and my review team. Your early feedback in invaluable! A heartfelt thank you to everyone who leaves reviews. They really make a difference, and I am grateful for every one of them!
Thank you to my ever-supportive and extremely patient husband and children. They have survived my crazy life as a wedding planner and are so patient with my different (but sometimes equally wacky) life as an author. I love you!
About the Author
Laura Durham has been writing for as long as she can remember and has been plotting murders since she began planning weddings over twenty years ago in Washington, DC. Her first novel, BETTER OFF WED, won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel.
When she isn’t writing or wrangling brides, Laura loves traveling with her family, standup paddling, perfecting the perfect brownie recipe, and reading obsessively.
She loves hearing from readers and she would love to hear from you! Send an email or connect on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter (click the icons below).
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Find me on:
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laura@lauradurham.com
Copyright © 2018 by Laura Durham
Cover Design by Alchemy Book Covers
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Laura Durham, Annabelle Archer BoxSet
