Vegas or Bust: An Aggie Underhill Mystery Read Online Free

to?”
    “Anything but classical,” Roger said. 
    “Okay.”  Betty scrolled through her list of songs.
    “And no country,” Roger said.  “Oh, or heavy metal…”
    Betty turned around in her seat to scowl at him.  “You don’t like anything.” 
    “I like all sorts of things.  I’m just not in the mood for certain types of music right now.  That’s all.”
    “Then what are you in the mood for?” 
    “Pop,” he said, shrugging, “o r maybe R&B.”
    Betty rolled her eyes.  “ Agsie dear, what are you in the mood for?  Since you’re driving, you should choose.”
    “Pop’s fine.”
    “All right,” Betty said, selecting a song.  Upbeat music flooded the stereo speakers and all three of them burst into song, singing along with the Backstreet Boys.
    ***
    There was a knock at the door.  Miriam Smith gently laid her dress down on the bed and ran a finger over the plastic bag protecting the beautiful emerald green satin material.  She took one more admiring glance at it before answering the door.  Peeking out, she said, “You can’t come in.”
    “Why not?” Jack asked.
    “It’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding.”
    “But our wedding isn’t until tomorrow,” he said.  He knew they’d been through this dialog before, but not seeing her was killing him.  He wanted to spend the evening with the love of his life.  He really wished she wasn’t so paranoid about marriage.  He understood that her last marriage had been a horrible experience.  And since she’d been married to a cheat and a louse, it’d really made it hard for him to prove to her that he was nothing like that.  Not all men were jerks.  He was one of the good guys.  As he’d explained numerous times, he loves her and will take care of her for the rest of his life and he’ll never even dream of cheating on her.  So he didn’t understand why she was being so superstitious about him seeing her.
    “Yes,” she said.  “But I’m not taking any chances.  I’ve already had one horrible marriage and I don’t want that to happen again.  I want everything to be perfect.”
    “Come on, Miriam,” Jack laughed.  “Don’t be silly.”
    “I’m not.  I’m being practical.”
    “Just give me one kiss,” he said, winking at her.  “Then I’ll leave.  I promise.”
    “No,” she said, peeking out through the small crack between the door and the jamb.  “I’m not taking any chances.”  She pushed the door closed, leaned her back against it and sucked in some air.  Letting out her breath, she reached up and tightened the oversized dark green bow in her straight mousy brown hair.  She unzipped her floral print suitcase and went back to work, unloading her toiletries and everything she’d need to get ready for the wedding.  She wanted to make sure she had her makeup, curling iron, and other beauty supplies all ready for tomorrow.
    Jack stood in the hallway staring at the closed door.  He shook his head and sighed.  He understood that Miriam wanted to make sure that their wedding went smoothly especially since her nightmare of a divorce finally ended, but he felt she was being paranoid.  She had even reserved them each their own hotel rooms for tonight.  She was in the honeymoon suite and he was in a standard room.  They weren’t to see each other, talk to each other, or anything else until the actual wedding took place.  Then tomorrow night they would share the honeymoon suite as a married couple.
    Jack leaned against the wall next to Miriam’s door and sighed again.  His mind drifted to his older brother.  The perfect brother.  In his mother’s eyes, anything and everything that Brice ever did was perfect.  Well, almost everything, until he got caught in the middle of a shady business deal while on the Mexican Riviera Cruise.  Even then, his mother didn’t believe for one second that Brice was guilty.  She believed that he was set up and the bad government put her precious son