Wedding Day of Murder Read Online Free Page A

sickly sweet to Jason. She treated him as if he were a
philanthropist who had taken on Lacy as a charity project. It drove Jason
crazy. Everything about her mother drove him crazy; Lacy adored him for that.
    “Oh, Jason, look at you, working so
hard to try and put Lacy back together. What a sweet boy you are,” Frannie
said.
    “Lacy does a good job of being put
together all on her own,” Jason said.
    Frannie laughed. “Good one. Well, I
guess lunch is out. You can’t be seen in public until that gets taken care of.”
She shook her head, sighing expressively. “Come on, Riley.”
    Riley made brief eye contact with
Lacy, pleading. “Mom, it’s not that bad. Lacy can go with us.”
    “Riley, she looks like a skunk and
smells like Home Depot. She can’t go. Come on, we’ll find Tosh and finalize
plans for the rehearsal. I’m not happy with his mother’s guest list.” She
breezed from the room. Riley heaved herself from the chair and toddled after
her mother, closing the door in her wake.
    “Was it my imagination, or did
Riley look trapped and a little bit desperate?” Jason said.
    “I think Mom’s presence is wearing
on her, which is strange. Those two have always been so close. It was always me
and Dad and Riley and Mom. I think Riley feels strange about the alienation.
She’s unaccustomed to feeling frustrated by mom and being the brunt of such
intense and scathing focus.”
    “You’d think your mom would have
grown accustomed to the situation by now. She’s been here for weeks,” Jason
said.
    “Twenty three days, to be exact. If
you think you have it bad, be glad you’re not Tosh. He’s stuck in the middle
between Riley and Mom and between Mom and his parents. Mom’s turned into a
mother-of-the-bride-zilla. The wedding has to be perfect; so far nothing has
been good enough, Tosh especially. You know she tried to get them to live apart
until after the ceremony? Tosh put his foot down on that one.”
    “How are Tosh and Riley doing, do
you think?” Jason asked.
    “Mom’s presence has been a strain
on an already strained relationship, but I’ll give both of them credit for
trying hard. Riley has surprised me with her commitment to him and their
marriage, and Tosh has surprised me with his strength in standing up to her.
He’s determined that she won’t wear the pants in their marriage. She wants to
be pampered and spoiled as she’s always been. I’m keeping my fingers crossed
that after they work out the initial kinks they’ll be okay. And I’m trying my
best to stay out of it.”
    “You miss him,” Jason said.
    Lacy shrugged.
    He poked her shoulder. “C’mon, I
know you do. You guys were tight and then he abruptly dropped off the planet.”
    “I still have you,” she reminded
him.
    “Is it the same?” he asked.
    “No. He and I did goofy stuff
together,” she said.
    “We can be goofy,” he said.
    “You’re not goofy,” she said.
    “Ouch.”
    “That was a compliment.”
    “If you want goofy, and I’m not,
then that’s a failure on my part,” he said.
    “Jason, you can’t be everything to
me,” she said.
    “I can try,” he said, but she could
tell he was joking.
    “Kimber’s here now, and that’s been
a lot of fun. And Andy moved this week, so there’s that. Between the two of
them, my goof quota will definitely be filled.”
    “Just in case, maybe you and I
should do something that you and he used to do together.” He paused. “What did
you used to do together?”
    “We watched a lot of TV.”
    “I can watch TV,” he said.
    “Sci-fi stuff,” she added.
    “I’ve seen the occasional Star Trek here and there.”
    “We watched Korean fantasy shows
about futuristic alien cowboys who take over the earth and repopulate it with
dinosaurs,” she blurted.
    There was another pause, longer
this time. “So, Kimber and Andy can fill that goof quotient, you say?”
    She laughed and rested her head on
his knee. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “I should