A MATCH MADE IN MURDER (The Wedding Planner Mysteries Book 5) Read Online Free Page A

she’d so easily fallen in love with. In her eyes, Steve was a hero of sorts.
                  “Is that what you do for a living?” Penny inquired. “A sportsman? An expert marksman? A hunter?”
                  “It’s just a hobby,” Steve explained, finally relaxing into the conversation. “I run a strip joint off the 101 in Hudson.”
                  “Christ,” Sterling muttered.
                  “They asked, I answered,” he barked. “I used to lead a much calmer life back when Sterling was a boy, but all that changed when—”
                  “Dad.”
                  “How could they not know?” Steve challenged.
                  “We talked about this,” Sterling countered.
                  Penny tried to smooth it over. “We read about it,” she offered. “We’re so sorry.”
                  “Life’s a real bitch,” he barked, slapping Sterling on the shoulder then squeezing him hard. “You enjoy this woman as best you can every second.”
                  “I will, Dad.”
                  “I mean it,” he pressed, as though the weight of his wife’s death had changed him in ways that hadn’t affected Sterling. “You never know, son. You just never know.”
                  Sterling looked uncomfortable, but Kitty was sure the topic had concluded.
                  “Where’s Layla?” she asked her mother then explained for Steve’s benefit. “Layla’s my cousin on my mom’s side. She’s been studying geology in New Zealand, but flew all the way over just for the wedding.”
                  “What the hell is geology?” Steve looked annoyed.
                  “Rocks, Dad. It’s the study of rocks and the earth.”
                  Now Steve looked disgusted, but he shrugged, claimed the entire champagne bottle as his own, and drank it down, leaning back in his chair and spreading his legs wide as though the Delamar’s famed terrace restaurant was no different than his living room.
                  Kitty found it amusing, but Sterling was clearly dying on some level. She got the waiter’s attention and swirled her finger then softly announced, “Another bottle is on the way.”
                  “Oh, I’m sorry,” said Steve in a manner that showed he wasn’t. “I guess I just feel comfortable with you folks. Ain’t that a good sign?”
                  “I wish it were, Dad. I wish it were.”
                  Penny picked up where Kitty’s question had left off. “Layla wanted to be here, sweetheart, but she’s terribly jetlagged. She’s up in her room. I’m sure she’ll be one hundred percent tomorrow morning.”
                  Kitty nodded and realized she wasn’t at all disappointed, though she couldn’t wait to see her cousin. Being in Steve’s company had put her on cloud nine. And she genuinely felt that things were going well.
                  “Grady’s coming,” said Steve, as he slammed the empty champagne bottle on the table.
                  Sterling brightened at that.
                  “Grady?” Kitty asked.
                  “My uncle,” said Sterling. “Dad’s older brother.”
                  Ernie let out a little yelp of terror then turned it into a cough, as Penny pat his arm.
                  “Awe, you guys’ll love Uncle Grady,” Sterling assured them.
                  Ernie chuckled nervously. “We love Steve here.” The poor man was terror-stricken.
                  “Uncle Grady’s a writer as well,” Sterling told Ernie. “He was a professor of philosophy up at Syracuse before he retired to work on his satirical novels.”
                  Ernie was genuinely intrigued. He