The Truffle with Weddings Read online

  Fern rushed forward. "Of course I'll do it, sweetie. You don't need to ask me twice."

  Leatrice looked stunned as he threw his arms around her and Sidney Allen and pulled them inside.

  "I'm sure we'll all help," I said, walking over and giving her a hug of my own.

  "Sit," Fern said. "I want to hear all about the proposal, and then we need to start brainstorming about the wedding." He gave Leatrice the once-over as he pushed her onto the couch. "I'm thinking we take your hair pink."

  Reese grabbed the jewelry box from the table, lifted the bottle of champagne from the standing wine bucket, and took me by the hand into the hall, closing the door behind us. He sat on the top step of the staircase and plopped me onto his lap. "That's better."

  "Richard won't be happy when he realizes we're not in there," I said.

  "We can go back in a second. I just want a quiet moment before you have to start planning Leatrice's wedding." He handed me the box wrapped in red ribbons. "Happy Valentine's Day, babe."

  My throat felt dry as I untied the bows and lifted the lid off the box. A single diamond drop necklace glittered up at me.

  "I did think about getting you a heart-shaped necklace, but Richard told me you might be scarred by hearts after the wedding you just planned."

  "It's perfect," I said, finding my voice and holding it out for him to put it on me. I lifted my hair as he fastened the clasp. "I love it."

  He touched a finger to the diamond as it rested in the hollow of my throat. "And I love you." He kissed me softly at first and then more deeply, wrapping his arms around me and pressing my body against his.

  When we came up for breath, I felt dizzy. "Your gift is inside, but I don't think I should go inside to get it right now. I can tell you what it is."

  "You didn't have to get me anything," he said.

  "It's nothing this fancy," I said, running a hand along the chain of the necklace. "I got you cable so you can watch the games here and you don't always have to go to a bar or your brother's place. The plan with the sports package."

  He threw back his head and laughed. "It's perfect. I love it."

  "And I love you," I said, grinning at him. I glanced down at the envelope his brother had given him. "So what show are we going to see? Aside from the one going on in our apartment?"

  "Open it." He handed me the envelope. "Fern did this part. He swore up and down you'd love it."

  I pulled out a pair of tickets and squinted at the print. "The Burlesque Circus. I didn't know DC had burlesque."

  Reese took the tickets from me. "He was supposed to get Miss Saigon." He shook his head slowly. "This is what happens when I outsource."

  "To be fair, Fern probably thought Miss Saigon was a drag name." I took the tickets back and studied them. "Is it a drag burlesque?"

  Reese started laughing and buried his head into my neck, his body shaking. "I can't wait until the guys at the station find out I'm going to drag burlesque shows."

  I kissed his neck. "Who knows? You may like it."

  He tilted his head to meet my lips, using one hand to pull my head closer as he deepened the kiss. He pulled back and smiled at me, his eyes half-lidded. "I really hope not."

  Before we could kiss again, our apartment door opened and Richard appeared holding two champagne flutes. He marched out and handed them to us. "You're going to need these."

  "Thanks, Richard," I said to his back.

  "I'll be back with your first course," he called over his shoulder. "There is no way this brunch is going to waste, and I'm not letting that riffraff inside eat it."

  The door slammed shut, leaving us in the relative quiet of the stairwell.

  "Thanks for being cool with all of this," I said as I readjusted myself on Reese's lap. "Not every guy would be okay with my crazy friends."

  "I've always known it was a package deal, babe."

  "A crazy package," I said.

  "That's putting it mildly," Reese said then shrugged. "It's the strangest thing, but as infuriating as they can all be, I can't imagine life without them."

  I threw my arms around his neck. "That's exactly how I feel."

  * * *

  THE END

  Also by Laura Durham

  Read the entire Annabelle Archer Series in order:

  Better Off Wed

  For Better Or Hearse

  Dead Ringer

  Review To A Kill

  Death On The Aisle

  Night of the Living Wed

  Eat, Prey, Love

  Groomed For Murder

  Wed or Alive

  To Love and To Perish

  Marry & Bright

  The Truffle with Weddings

  * * *

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  https://www.bookbub.com/profile/laura-durham

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  deadringer.lauradurham.com

  Acknowledgments

  As always, an enormous thank you to all of my wonderful readers, especially my beta readers and my review team. I never give you enough time, but you always come through for me. A special shout-out to the beta readers who caught all my goofs this time: Linda Fore, Bill Saunders, Sheila Kraemer, Sandra Anderson, Linda Reachill, Kaitlyn Platt, Tricia Knox, Annemarie Pasquale, Linda Fore, Tony Noice, and Christy. Thank you!!

  A heartfelt thank you to everyone who leaves reviews. They really make a difference, and I am grateful for every one of them!

  A special shout-out to the show Death in Paradise. I got the idea for the switcheroo box of chocolates from one of their episodes. I love watching mysteries as well as reading them and get ideas from everywhere!

  About the Author

  Laura Durham has been writing for as long as she can remember and has been plotting murders since she began planning weddings over twenty years ago in Washington, DC. Her first novel, BETTER OFF WED, won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel.

  When she isn’t writing or wrangling brides, Laura loves traveling with her family, standup paddling, perfecting the perfect brownie recipe, and reading obsessively.

  She loves hearing from readers and she would love to hear from you! Send an email or connect on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter (click the icons below).

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  Find me on:

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  [email protected]

  Copyright © 2019 by Broadmoor Books

  Cover Design by Alchemy Book Covers

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

 

 

 
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