Montana Twins by Charlotte Maclay

Author:Charlotte Maclay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

“Yes, Mother, I know it’s sudden.” Twisting the long, curling phone cord around her finger, Laura paced across the kitchen. The twins were down for their afternoon nap. It had seemed like a good time to break the news of the wedding plans to her mother. Or rather, Laura had decided there was no sense in putting off the inevitable.

“You barely know the man, dear.” A rare hint of censure slipped into Barbara Cavendish’s voice. “I think you ought to take some time—”

“He’s as fine a man as I’ve ever met, Mother. And he loves the twins as much as I do.” Only one small element was missing that would make theirs a match made in heaven—Eric didn’t love her.

“But what about the wedding itself? I’d always hoped we could have a nice affair, nothing lavish, of course, but something where we could invite—”

“I’ll be just as married this way. Eric and I have discussed—”

There was a knock on the back door and it opened. “Hello? Anybody here?” Kristi poked her head inside, grinning like a schoolgirl who had just learned the biggest secret in town. “Oh, there you are.”

“Mom, I’ve got company. I’ll call you back, okay?”

“I just wish—” Barbara sighed. “All right, honey. I’ll talk to you later.”

Lizzie followed Kristi into the kitchen. “Sorry if we interrupted you,” Lizzie said with her usual gracious manner.

“I was talking to my mother.”

Exuberantly Lizzie wrapped her arms around Laura, hugging her. “I hope your mom is as excited as we are. Eric just told us that you’re getting married. Welcome to the family.”

“We all wish you both the very best,” Lizzie said.

“Thank you. I know it’s a little sudden—”

“You’ve got that darn straight, sister.” Laughing, Kristi led Laura to the table and sat her down. “There is no possible way we can get everything done by next week.”

“Done? There’s really nothing to—”

“You have to buy a gown. Even the fastest alterations take a week or more.”

“I have a nice summer suit at home,” Laura protested. “I thought I’d wear that.” She’d ask her mother to bring it to the courthouse. Which meant she’d have to change in a stark public restroom, she realized with a shudder of dismay.

Lizzie sat opposite Laura at the table. “I think Kristi has something else in mind.”

“In addition to getting you a gown, we need enough time to pull together a shower for you.”

“Absolutely not. You’ve already given the twins—”

Kristi waved off her objection. “Furthermore, there’s no way you want to be in a position that Lizzie and I can lord it over you twenty years from now that we were married in a church and you were married in some blah judge’s chambers, for heaven’s sake. So the judge thing is out.”

Beyond confused, Laura stared at her future sisters-in-law. “You’re not the kind of people who would—”

“Of course we’re not now. But who knows what we’ll be like when we hit menopause. You need to protect yourself.”

Lizzie made a choking sound that was somewhere between a cough and a laugh, quite indelicate for her usually sophisticated manners.

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