Lucky In Love Read Online Free Page A

beautiful name.”
    “Thank you.” The voice, warm and smooth, startled me.
    I turned to find myself staring at a tall woman—almost my height—dressed in a simple, bright-yellow shift, gold sandals, and a wide smile that lit her whole face. Her skin was the color of rich coffee with a dash of milk. She wore her hair cropped short, which accented her fine features and large, expressive eyes.
    I extended my hand and once again made the introductions.
    Pleasantries exchanged, Melina clasped her hands and held them to her chest as she wandered the room, her face holding a kid-at-Christmas delight. “This is lovely.”
    “There you are, darling.” A voice boomed from the doorway.
    Tall and lean, John Farenthall was the perfect matching bookend to Melina. His skin a rich mahogany and his eyes alight with a hint of mischief, his already warm smile deepened when he saw his future bride.
    She extended a hand to him, which he stepped forward to take. “Isn’t this perfect?”
    “I’ll say.” His eyes hadn’t drifted from Melina.
    When she looked at him and caught his meaning, she ducked her head shyly. “Would you quit? Look.” She gestured around the room. “Amazing, isn’t it?”
    He pursed his lips and nodded. “It’ll do.” Which elicited a giggle from his intended.
    “We were conned into this, you know?” he said, turning to me. “Our families conspired against us, entering us in the competition. We never would’ve done it on our own.”
    Melina stepped closer to him, snaking an arm around his waist as she looked at me. “With John trying to get his practice up-and-running and my eighty-hour weeks, our family despaired of us getting married. They threatened us with bodily harm if we didn’t play along.”
    “Woe be it to anyone who crosses my mother,” John added, with a grin.
    Melina looked a bit stricken at the mention of her future mother-in-law; when her happy-face slid back over her features, her eyes didn’t mirror the smile. “And here we are.”
    “Well, welcome.” I eased toward the door, herding Miss P in front of me. “If we can enhance your stay in any way, please let us know.”
    I took a deep breath and shook my head as I closed the door behind us, leaving John and Melina to themselves.
    “Interesting cast,” Miss P remarked.
    I shrugged in agreement. “Let the games begin.”
    “Speaking of games, where do you want me to park Mr. Gold?”
    “Put him in Room 30145.”
    Miss P looked at me for a moment. “Buttering him up, are we?”
     

Chapter Two
     
    E lla Blue usually spoke in exclamation points. Psychiatrist by day, mail-order clergyman by night, Ella presided over most of our formal couplings at the Babylon. Even with the noise of the shoppers in the Bazaar, the underlying happy music, and the cacophony of thoughts pinging around my empty skull, I could still hear her as I approached the Temple of Love. “ This is Loely! Delphna, you are a dear. An absolute dear !”
    Delphinia, the Babylon’s resident wedding planner, and I had a noon appointment. Otherwise I would still be home asleep. Two hours of shut-eye. I groaned and rubbed my eyes as I paused outside the grand entrance to the Temple.
    “I love these flowers.” I could picture Ella, her hands clasped, dancing around like a Valley girl in a Saturday Night Live skit. I never could tell whether her mannerisms were affectations or reflections of an intellectual deficiency. “Everything is so... so... perfect .”
    Perfect—not the adjective I would use. Ella wasn’t exactly what the doctor ordered. There wasn’t enough coffee in the universe to jump-start my day, so I was trying to ease into it. Stepping into the darkness within, I paused to let my eyes adjust.
    From the outside, the Temple of Love resembled a ziggurat—huge stairsteps of large sandstone blocks, with a grand entrance flanked by double wooden doors replete with a beam to secure them against an invading hoard. We hadn’t had to use it