It's Always Complicated (Her Billionaires Book 4) Read Online Free Page B

get that image out of your head once you know it actually happened? Can you imagine a luggage tag clamped to your—”
    Click.
    Hanging up on Darla was the only way to preserve her mental health. And to stop the flood of images of luggage tags attached to—
    Bzzzz.
    Against her better judgement, Josie looked at the text.
    It was a picture of an actual luggage tag attached to a—
    CLICK.
    “Who was that?” asked Meribeth, walking into the florist’s cooler where Josie now stood, red as a beet from seeing that which could not be unseen. She was going to kill Darla the next time she saw her.
    Beat her to death with a luggage tag.
    “Um, no one important,” Josie said, plastering on a fake smile. She was here with her future mother-in-law to pick out some final flower choices for the bouquet and for Alex’s boutonniere. While this was a double wedding, with Alex and Josie marrying in one ceremony, and Laura, Mike and Dylan having their own separate wedding (minus the legalities), all five of them had already decided to throw convention out the window.
    Why not just do what each group wanted and let the wedding be a chaotic, unmatched, crazy party?
    Which pretty much described Josie’s life right now anyhow.
    Instead of worrying about her mother’s possible criminal charges, she was going to be shallow and think about her wedding dress.
    Josie would wear a white, strapless gown with simple lines and very little lace. She enjoyed the classic 1920s look, with pearls for accents and sweet amounts of flat silk hugging her body. Years of living with Alex had added some pounds to her slim frame, giving her hips and boobs. Alex loved her no matter what, but he expressed considerable appreciation for having a little more to grab these days than when they’d first met.
    She’d found herself pleased with her curvier form, though she was still tiny compared to most of her friends and family. She fit under Alex’s arm like someone had carved her to his specifications, a companion piece that clicked in beside his rib.
    And she liked it that way.
    “What about this deep shade of burgundy?” Meribeth asked, bringing over white roses with blood-red tips. “What an interesting combination!”
    She knew that the wedding was a huge deal for Meribeth, who had been an eighteen-year-old single mother to Alex, and who had married later in life in a simple ceremony with Alex’s stepfather, John. This crazy double wedding might not have been what Meribeth would have chosen for her only child, but she’d joined in the planning with gusto.
    And, to Josie’s relief, remarkable restraint. She couldn’t imagine having a mother-in-law who was a Momzilla when it came to their wedding.
    She’d just run off to Vegas and elope if that happened.
    And never, ever come back.
    Ring!
    Speaking of mothers she wished she could run away from, Josie thought as she stared glumly at her phone screen. Aunt Cathy was calling her, and that could mean only one thing.
    “What’s she done now?” Josie said into the phone after sliding the phone icon, her long, weary sigh ending with a groan. Might as well get it over with.
    “Darla didn’t tell you?” Aunt Cathy jumped right into the conversation as if this were normal. As if talking about Marlene’s crazy exploits were just like discussing which dessert to bring to a potluck.
    “Oh, she told me. Complete with pictures and everything.”
    “There are pictures?” Aunt Cathy howled. Josie heard a man’s low tones in the background, clearly trying to calm her aunt down. Must be Calvin.
    “What’s going on?” Meribeth asked. She was calm, her brows pushed together with a slight frown of worry, face so serene Josie’s whole body flushed with a kind of displaced shame. At some point, she’d have to tell Meribeth what was going on with her own mother, but couldn’t they have a few more minutes of pretending that the wedding was just a normal family affair, and that picking out which flowers to put in