Wedding Series Boxed Set (3 Books in 1) (The Wedding Series) Read Online Free

piled on top of her head wrapped plump arms around him with enthusiasm. "It's been too long! Much too long. You must tell us how you have been all these long months we have seen nothing of you. And your mama and papa, and your dear little sister. But now you come, come and sit, you and your young lady."
    Bette would barely have had time to absorb the lightning switch from the frown and scolding to the smile and invitation before she was towed along between crowded tables. But she didn't seem thrown.
    He shrugged and headed after them.
    In a far corner, amid deep, rich colors aglow in candlelight, Bette slid into a tiny booth, its seat a quarter of a circle so small that when he sat next to her their knees tangled.
    "Here. Now you settle, get comfortable, and I get wine. Then we talk about the dinner and I will tell you what you must have to eat." The woman patted Bette's hand and Paul's shoulder, and hurried away.
    "Is that Mama Artemis?"
    "No. That's her daughter, Ardith. Mama Artemis is much more forceful."
    Bette shook her head as she chuckled. "Where are they from? I don't recognize the accent."
    "I really don't know. Not that I haven't asked. I have. But when they start talking about it they get into a lot of complicated history, and just when I think I'm starting to follow it, they get excited and lapse into their native language. Best I can tell you is somewhere in southeastern Europe. I guess one of those places that's been passed back and forth a good bit."
    Ardith bustled back with a bottle of wine swaddled in a napkin to catch the weeping condensation.
    "How is Mama Artemis, Ardith?"
    "Ah, Mama. She is the same. Always Mama." She poured pale gold liquid into the chunky clear glass in front of Paul. "She is a terror, Mama." Her affection and admiration and made "terror" a term of respect.
    At her gesture, Paul tasted the wine and gave wholehearted approval.
    "Glad to hear she's doing well," he said. "Be sure to tell her Jan had her baby today. A boy."
    "Ah, a baby! Yes, yes, I will tell her. Such a happy thing, young Jan to have a baby. And you should be having babies, too. You should find a woman, marry her, settle down and have babies."
    "Aw, Ardith." The refrain was so familiar he responded automatically, but underneath a memory stirred uneasily of that same refrain spoken in another voice.
    "Yes, yes, many babies. Baby girls for you to spoil and baby boys to play with the toys like you do with my nephews. They ask for you. Goran has found three soldiers he wants to show you. And a new engine. You come some Sunday. And you bring your young lady."
    As she launched into a description of the meal she would serve them, Paul knew it had been more edict than invitation, and if he didn't bring Bette, he'd spend all his time explaining why.
    Ardith left them, apparently satisfied that their choices - more accurately, her choices for them - were in order.
    "I don't know why I come here," he grumbled, only half-kidding. A lot could be said for places where nobody asked you to Sunday dinner or cared whom you were with or speculated on when you'd start having babies.
    "Isn't the food good?"
    "The food's terrific."
    "Maybe that's the reason," Bette said as if she meant it, but he spotted a glint in her eyes. "Or maybe it's because you're obviously adored here."
    "You saying I have an ego problem, huh?"
    She shrugged, a movement that also raised and lowered her knee a fraction of an inch where it touched his, just enough to send sensation up his leg. "Or maybe it's because they invite you to come over on Sundays to enjoy the children's toys."
    He grinned, trying to ignore where that sensation had concentrated. "Occupational hazard."
    "Occupational? It sounds more like child's play."
    He tilted his head. "Didn't Jan tell you what I do?"
    "Of course she did. I couldn't select possible temporaries for you without knowing what they'd be doing."
    "What do I do?" He saw her resistance. "Humor me, please?"
    She let out a short breath.