Maui Widow Waltz (Islands of Aloha Mystery Series) Read Online Free Page A

be
joking.”
    “It’s Vera Wang, Kevin.” Lisa Marie
shot me a sideways glance complete with arched eyebrow.
    “Usually the bride brings her gown
with her or she orders one from a local bridal shop at least four months in
advance,” I said. “But since Lisa Marie needs a dress on extremely short
notice, and she said she’d prefer a designer label, I managed to pull together
a few rentals.”
    What I didn’t let them in on was
the begging, pleading and bribing I’d done a few hours earlier at a bridal shop
in Kahului. Lucky for me the owner’s daughter had just picked up her high
school senior pictures and she hated them. She claimed the photos, taken by a
local school photographer, made her look fat and cross-eyed. I’d offered
Steve’s services for quick retakes with a money-back guarantee. In return, I’d
received four sample dresses the shop owner was willing to rent. The immediate
problem solved, I knew I faced more begging and pleading with Steve once I got
home.
    “How much does it cost to rent one
of these things?” Kevin said, flipping over the tags on the remaining three
gowns.
    “They range from a thousand to
eighteen hundred, plus alterations.”
    “A thousand bucks to wear a dress
for a couple of hours? I’m obviously in the wrong business.”
    “You’re Brad’s business partner,
right?” I said, making an effort to tone down the shrill that had crept into my
voice. “At DigiSystems, a company the news reports refer to as a ‘multi-million
dollar tech company’.”
    “Yeah. Actually, I can’t complain.
Brad brought me in during the start up. He’s the hardest working guy I’ve ever
met.” He lowered his eyes and shook his head. “Not the greatest with the
business side of things, but that’s my job. Now, I’m not sure what we’re gonna
do...” He ran a hand through his carefully coifed hair.
    “Kevin,” Lisa Marie said. “We’re
going to do what Brad would want us to do. We’re going to focus on getting this
wedding set up. Right here, right now.”
    He nodded but didn’t look up.
    “Hey,” she continued. “Remember
that time when he didn’t come to his own birthday party?”
    “Yeah,” he said. “The guy was a
maniac. We put on this huge bash for his twenty-third birthday but he stayed in
the lab running QC on the beta of version three until one o’clock in the
morning. I’ll say this about Brad: the dude was focused—and
stubborn.”  
     “Shut up, Kevin,” said Lisa
Marie. She had enough steel in her voice to build an aircraft carrier. “You
make it sound like he’s gone forever. He’s not. He’ll be back soon and you’ll
be eating your crows for talking trash about him being dead.”
    “Tell you what,” he said. “You
girls knock yourselves out here. I’ll wait for you in the front.” He turned and
parted the beaded curtain to leave. A few seconds later I heard the springs
groan in my old sofa.
    For nearly an hour I listened to
Lisa Marie ponder aloud the pros and cons of the four gowns. The neckline on
one was too high; there were too many bows on another; the color of the third
was “icky;” and so on. It was like watching Goldilocks on crack. She tried on
each dress at least three times.
    At half-past noon I asked for her
decision.
    “I don’t know,” she said. “They all
pretty much suck. Maybe this isn’t going to work out after all.” She plucked
her handbag off the floor and disappeared behind the dressing room curtain. I
heard her rustling around as she put on her street clothes.
    “I could have a dress made for
you,” I said in a sprightly buck up tone intended to shore up my morale
as much as hers. Gathering steam, I went on, even though she hadn’t made a peep
from behind the curtain. “We could use a local seamstress. It would be a
one-of-a-kind original.”
    “And how much would that cost?” Kevin growled through the plywood wall. He’d been so quiet the past hour
I thought he’d fallen asleep. I heard the sofa