Taming Tall, Dark Brandon by Joan Elliott Pickart

Author:Joan Elliott Pickart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-05-29T16:00:00+00:00

Jennifer came striding down the corridor leading from the dining room just as Ben entered the hotel. At the exact same moment, Aunt Pru and Aunt Charity emerged from the elevator.

All four were carrying the special edition of the newspaper. All four headed directly for the registration desk where Brandon was talking on the telephone.

Brandon glanced up, then did a double take as he swept his gaze over the quartet in front of the counter, all of whom were staring at him intently.

“Well, keep us posted, Jerry,” Brandon said. “This is certainly worth missing the Christmas party for, isn’t it? That baby will arrive when it is good and ready... Okay, we’ll be waiting to hear from you. Goodbye.”

Brandon replaced the receiver and smiled at the assembled group.

“That was Jerry,” he said. “His wife is in the hospital in labor. The only question that remains is whether they have a Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day, baby.” He paused. “You’re all a bit early, aren’t you? The party doesn’t start for another three hours. It’s at nine o’clock. Remember?”

“We remember,” Jennifer said. “I don’t know about the others, but I came to see you about this picture on the front page of the newspaper.”

“Ditto,” Ben said.

“Yes, dear,” Aunt Pru said. “Charity and I came directly down when we saw this photograph after Mickey delivered the paper to us.”

“You sly devil you,” Aunt Charity said. “You are one fast worker, I must say.”

Brandon frowned. “You’ve totally lost me. What are you talking about?”

“Have you looked at the picture?” Jennifer said. “Really looked at it?”

“Sure,” Brandon said, shrugging. “It’s great. That’s one fine snowman, don’t you think? My father would be proud.”

“You’re as dense as a rock,” Ben said, shaking his head. He smacked his copy of the paper onto the counter. “Take another look.”

“Perhaps, Brandon, dear,” Aunt Pru said, “you might tell us what you see.”

“You’re all acting very weird,” he said, eyeing them warily.

“Put a cork in it and do as you’re told, big boy,” Aunt Charity said.

Brandon shifted his confused gaze to the newspaper.

“I’ll humor you,” he said. “It’s very sad that you all went nuts at the same time.”

“Hamilton,” Ben said, a warning tone to his voice.

“All right,” Brandon said. “We have here a full-color spread of Christmas trees surrounding the picture of a snowman. The snowman is smiling, the kids are smiling, Andrea and I are smiling. What else? We’re covered in snow, are obviously wet and cold, but don’t care. That covers it.”

“Dense and dumb as a rock,” Ben said. “Hey, I’m no expert about this stuff, but even I can see it.”

“See what?” Brandon said. “May I have a clue? Are we playing Twenty Questions?”

“Who wants the honors?” Jennifer said.

“Aunt Pru,” Ben said, “you talk to this idiot. If I try to, I’ll probably deck him.”

“There’s a thought,” Aunt Charity said. “I’ll vote for that.”

“You people are starting to get on my nerves,” Brandon said. “What in the hell is going on?”

“Brandon, dear,” Aunt Pru said. “I must admit that I’m a bit disappointed in you.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.