LITMIR.BIZ

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impound lot than be late for my own wedding.”

      “At least your ambivalence disappeared,” Casey said.

      Megan didn’t bother to correct her. “Can you two get yourselves inside?”

      Peggy had been scrounging under the seat for an umbrella. She held one out to Megan, a poor cousin of the species but still useful. “You go ahead. The weather’s only going to get worse. I’ll see if I can start this monster.”

      “I’m not walking down the aisle without you. You have to hold me up.” After a lot of speculation on who should accompany her on the trip down the aisle, Megan had asked Casey and Peggy to walk just a step ahead of her, more escorts than attendants. She had a dozen male relatives who would have been happy to do the honors, but she had chosen her sisters instead. The man who should have walked with her wasn’t up to the task.

      Megan gauged the distance and the raindrops. “Which should I ruin? My pumps or my panty hose?”

      “I brought extra panty hose.” Casey was leaning over the seat now.

      Megan removed her shoes and opened the door. “See you inside.” She flipped open the umbrella, and in stocking feet she sprinted across the grass to her favored entrance. At the door to the stairwell, she shook like a spaniel, closing her eyes and the umbrella and letting the raindrops fly. When she opened them, her future husband was staring back at her.

      “Nick!” She put a hand over her heart. “What are you doing here?”

      “Checking to see if you’d deserted me at the altar.”

      She stared at him. The dark suit set off his wide shoulders, black hair and neatly trimmed beard. With his olive skin and Roman centurion features, he was the perfect finale to any walk down the aisle.

      “You weren’t supposed to see me like this.”

      He was smiling now. “I remember the first time we spent an evening together. Do you?”

      At the moment she wasn’t sure she remembered her own name. She stared at him, this gorgeous, masculine human being who wanted to share her life.

      “You invited me home after a day at work,” he said, “and you were exhausted. So you took a shower while I waited, and when you came into the kitchen your hair was wet. Sort of like it is now. And I was flattened by desire.”

      “Flattened?”

      “Metaphorically. More or less the opposite of my real state, I guess.”

      She smiled. “I’d forgotten.”

      “So I have a thing about seeing you wet. And dry, for that matter. Just seeing you.”

      “Oh, Nick.” She wanted to fall into his arms. Instead she spread her skirt, holding it out with both hands like a little girl in petticoats. “Are you sure you want to go through with this? I’m not much of a bargain.”

      “We never get guarantees, but I think you’re a pretty safe bet.”

      “I’m a mess. I’m dripping, my car’s probably going to be towed, and I’ve ripped my stockings into shreds.” A hand leaped to her hair. “And I lost my damned orange blossoms.”

      “Good. You look perfect the way you are.” He paused. “Although my mother and father will be more impressed if you put the shoes on your feet.”

      “They came?”

      He nodded.

      This time she did fall into his arms. Casey and Peggy arrived just as they finally stepped apart. “Peggy got Charity parked. We—” Casey stopped when she saw Niccolo. “Get out of here,” Casey told him in mock horror. “Go wait where you’re supposed to. This is bad luck.”

      He grinned with no contrition.

      “Scoot!” Casey gave him a mock shove. “Go tell the organist to do another round of ‘Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring.’ Give us ten minutes.”

      “Five.”

      “Seven. Go!”

      “Bye…” Megan watched him leave. Nick turned in the doorway and blew her a kiss.

      “Megan!” Casey grabbed her shoulders and turned her toward the stairs.

      They were ready in ten minutes, panty hose changed, hair dry enough. Megan entered the foyer flanked by her sisters. Through the door into the church she could see that Nick, Jon and Father Brady had already entered from the front. The orange blossoms had been restored—Casey had rescued and pocketed them early in their walk—and even Megan’s shoes had been wiped clean. She was ready.

      “Do you think Rooney made it to the church? Do you think he’s here somewhere?” Megan positioned herself at the doorway. Heads were beginning to turn.

      “He wanted to be,” Peggy said.

      The strains of Beethoven’s “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee” sounded from the front of the church. Megan had begged the organist to step up the tempo a little so the trip to the front wouldn’t take so long. Now the familiar melody sounded like the most strenuous selection in a Richard Simmons exercise video. Sweating to the Sacred. Clearly, after the delay, the poor woman was ready to call this gig quits.

      “Okay, we’re going in together. Don’t walk too fast and leave me behind.” Megan took a deep breath. “Let’s go.”

      “I love you,” Casey said, and Peggy echoed it.

      Megan’s eyes filled with tears. “Just go, okay?”

      They started down the aisle. She took a step over the threshold and into the back of the church. Like one body the assembled guests rose. From the corner of her eye she saw a lone male figure step into the aisle. Then, as naturally as if he had rehearsed the scene for hours, Rooney Donaghue, shirt buttoned properly, clean shaven and smiling, came toward her and held out his arm.

      chapter 3

      None of the Donaghue sisters were sentimental, but despite that reputation, Peggy choked back tears during the ceremony. Megan was radiant as she joined her life with Nick’s, and even though Peggy hadn’t spent much of her adult life in church, the familiar rhythms of the wedding Mass touched her. But nothing touched her more than seeing her father take his rightful place at his oldest daughter’s side.

      That glorious glimpse into the sacred exploded the moment she opened the door into the Whiskey Island Saloon.

      “Ice machine gave up the ghost.” Barry, their bartender, pushed past her on his way outside. “Going for ice.”

      “I—”

      “And the band says they need more room to set up than you gave them,” he shouted over his shoulder. “So I moved tables out of their way, only now there aren’t so many tables—”

      “I—”

      “And there’s trees down all over Cleveland, so there’s no hope of getting a crew in tonight to cut it up. We roped off the area around the kitchen so nobody’ll park near the piece that’s still standing. But we can’t even get the car towed until…” His voice trailed off as he disappeared into his car and slammed the door.

      Peggy wondered exactly what she was going to tell Niccolo and Megan when it came time for them to make their getaway and Casey’s car—if her tire was fixed by then—was waiting for them at the curb instead of the Honda.

      “Peggy?” A strong hand ushered her all the way in. She looked up to see Charlie Ford, one of their loyal patrons. “The bakery just called. The cake’s all set up, but they forgot the petty cash, or something like that.”

      “Petit fours. I thought maybe they had just put them in the kitchen.” She was beginning to panic. This was a crowd that would expect sweets before the cake was cut.

      “Said they’d be by with them

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