A Newport Christmas Wedding by Shelley Noble

Author:Shelley Noble
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

“GIRLFRIEND, YOU ARE totally nuts.” Carlyn handed her a mug of steaming coffee. “The man is totally into you, Nora loves you, Lucas is away at school most of the time, and when he’s here you get along, right?”

Meri drew her hands out of her jacket pockets to stir her coffee. They were the only two at Gilbert House that morning, so Carlyn hadn’t bothered to turn up the heat. It was set at a steady sixty-­two, warm enough to protect the renovation but not enough to be comfortable.

Meri had arrived at the crack of dawn to an empty house. She didn’t want to go to her apartment. She didn’t want to wake Carlyn up, so she’d sat in the parking lot alternately turning on the engine to warm the car then turning it off until it got too cold to think.

Not that any of her thinking was doing much good.

“I know Alden does. I love him, too. Totally. And the kids, too. And they like me, at least I think they do. But I don’t think they want me to marry their father. You have to look at it from their perspective.

“They were treated like unloved stepchildren with Jennifer and Mark, and they finally come back to Corrigan House only to have their dad decide to get married.”

“So you can all live happily ever after together,” Carlyn said.

“Well, I think they may be afraid that they’ll be stuck in the same situation again. That they’ll lose him. To me.”

Meri took a sip of coffee, put the mug down. “What went wrong? We were all looking forward to the wedding and now everyone is upset. If I’m wrecking the fragile relationship Alden has with his children, I would rather not marry him.

“Maybe it would be better if we just let things go on as they are now.”

“And what are they?” Carlyn asked.

“You know, snatching time together when we can. Not making anything official.”

Carlyn yawned and rolled her eyes to let Meri know what she thought about that scenario.

“That way they won’t feel as threatened.”

“You know, for a smart person . . . First of all, Nora may be a little self-­centered, I mean she’s a teenager for crying out loud. She’s supposed to be the center of her universe. But she’s almost eighteen and will most likely be gone in the next year.”

“Which would be a perfect time to get married.”

“Provided neither of you has been hit by a bus during that time.”

“Jeez, Carlyn.”

“Seize the day, girl.”

“Would you do it? Marry someone if his kids didn’t want you to?”

“Sure I would. I’d bulldoze right over them to the I do’s.”

Meri laughed in spite of herself. “You are so full of it.”

“Well, did you two sit down and give them the blended family talk?”

Meri took a sip of coffee. “No. I mean, it never occurred to us. Nora’s announcement came out of the blue last night. She might not even have told us if we hadn’t overheard it.”

“Yeah, that was kind of weird.

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