One Winter Wedding. Barbara Hannay
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Connor had that same hit-below-the-belt feeling. And this time he was damn sure gonna listen. So far, though, his background check had merely revealed Dunworthy was the youngest son of a wealthy Chicago family. Numerous newspaper photos showed him at the opera, a benefit for the symphony, a gallery opening. And while the events and locales changed, he always had a different woman—tall, blond and beautiful—on his arm.
No doubt about it, Emily was definitely Todd’s type.
“You sure you don’t hate the guy just ’cause the Wilsons love him?” Javy had pressed on the ride from the restaurant to the hotel.
Connor couldn’t blame his friend for asking. And, okay, so maybe he would dislike anyone who met with the Wilsons’ approval, but that didn’t change his opinion. Todd Dunworthy was not the man they thought he was.
He’d spoken to several of the Dunworthy family employees and none of them were talking. It wasn’t that they wouldn’t say anything bad about their employers; Connor expected that. But these people refused to say a word, which told him one important thing. As well paid as they might be to do their jobs, they were even better compensated to keep quiet.
Most were lifers—employees who had been with the family for decades. But there was one woman he hadn’t been able to reach. A former maid named Sophia Pirelli. She’d worked for the family for two years before suddenly quitting or getting fired—no one would say—two months ago. The silence alone made Connor suspicious, and figuring an exemployee might be willing to talk, Connor wanted to find her.
A few days ago he’d found a lead on Sophia’s whereabouts. As much as he longed to follow that trail and see where it ended, he couldn’t be in two places at once. He wanted to stay focused on Todd, so he’d asked his friend and fellow P.I., Jake Cameron, to see if the former maid was staying with friends in St. Louis.
Grabbing his cell phone, he dialed Jake’s number. His friend didn’t bother with pleasantries. “You were right. She’s here.”
Finally! A lead that might pan out. “Have you found anything?”
“Not yet. This one’s going take some time.”
Frustration built inside Connor. Although he trusted Jake and knew the man was a good P.I., Connor wasn’t used to relying on someone else. “We don’t have a lot of time here.”
“Hey, I’ve got this,” Jake said with typical confidence. “I’m just telling you, she’s not the type to spill all her secrets on a first date.”
Connor shook his head. He shouldn’t have worried. His friend had been in St. Louis for all of two days, and he already had a date with the former maid. “Call me when you’ve got anything.”
“Will do.”
Snapping the cell phone shut, Connor hoped Jake worked his cases as quickly as he worked with women. But he wasn’t going to sit around waiting for Jake; he wanted to find something on Dunworthy, irrefutable proof that the guy wasn’t the loving husband-to-be he pretended.
Scowling, he resumed pacing, lengthening his stride to cross the room in four steps instead of eight. Connor had never been one to back down from a fight, but some battles were lost before they’d even begun. Gordon and Charlene Wilson would never take the word of the kid from the wrong side of the tracks over their handpicked golden boy.
Dammit, he needed an insider. He needed someone the Wilsons trusted to break the bad news. He needed one of their own. He needed…Kelsey.
Connor laughed out loud at the idea, but damned if he didn’t think it might work. Kelsey hadn’t played a part in his past relationship with Emily. She was as unbiased a witness as he could hope to find. She had nothing at stake with Emily’s wedding, nothing riding on her cousin saying “I do.”
No doubt about it, Kelsey was his best shot.
The following evening, Emily twirled around the hotel’s atrium, her arms outspread like Sleeping Beauty. “You were right, Kelsey. This is the perfect place for the reception. Don’t you think so, Mother?”
She looked so beautiful and happy Kelsey half-expected cartoon animals to surround her at any moment. Smiling at her cousin’s unfettered happiness, she breathed a sigh of relief. Connor McClane was wrong, dead wrong. Emily and Todd were meant to be.
“It’s lovely,” Aunt Charlene commented without looking up from her mother-of-the-bride notebook. “I knew we could count on Kelsey to find the perfect place.”
“Um, thank you, Aunt Charlene,” Kelsey said, surprised and pleased by the compliment. Even after eight years, Kelsey and Charlene had a tentative, tightrope relationship that had yet to get past a disastrous beginning.
When Kelsey had first come to live with the Wilsons, she’d been overwhelmed by their obvious wealth, and her cousins’ beauty and grace had left her feeling outclassed. Especially when Charlene took one look at her and declared, “Someone must take this girl shopping.”
Looking back now, Kelsey realized her aunt had been trying to relate to her the same way she did to her own daughters, who loved nothing more than a day spent raiding Scottsdale boutiques. But back then, as an intimidated, awkward teenager, Kelsey had suffered the pain of being seen as an embarrassment by her new family.
She’d survived the multiple fittings and outfit changes—a living, breathing, silent mannequin—as her aunt and a shopkeeper went back and forth over which colors, styles and accessories best suited Kelsey. But when she stood with her aunt at the register, when she saw the hundreds of dollars a single item cost, a sick sense of disbelief hit her stomach.
How many weeks’ rent would that pair of shoes have paid for when she and her mother were living in tiny one-room apartments? How many months of food? How much better might her mother’s medical have been with that kind of money?
In a quiet, cold voice, Kelsey had told the saleswoman to put every item back, before marching out of the store.
Later, once Kelsey had calmed down and realized how ungrateful her actions must have seemed, she tried to apologize to her aunt. Charlene had declared the matter over and forgotten, but never again did she offer to take Kelsey shopping.
Their relationship had yet to recover from that day. By asking Kelsey to coordinate the wedding, Charlene had helped breach the gap, but Kelsey knew this opportunity didn’t come with second chances. This was her one shot.
“I’ve always thought this was an amazing place for a reception,” Kelsey said, hearing the dreamy wistfulness in her own voice. The glass ceiling and towering plants gave the illusion of being in a tropical paradise, and from the first time she’d seen the hotel, Kelsey had known it was perfect.
Perfect for Emily, she reminded herself.
Although between having so many of her friends working the wedding and Emily’s willingness to let Kelsey make so many of the decisions, the entire event was feeling more like Kelsey’s dream wedding.
Except the choice of groom…
The insidious thought wove through her mind along with images of Connor McClane…His rebellious saunter, his too confident grin, his…everything.
“I hope Todd likes it.” Emily lowered her arms, a small frown tugging at her eyebrows. “Do you think he will?”
“It’s a five-star hotel, one of the finest in the state,” Charlene said imperiously.
“I know, but Todd’s family is from Chicago. They have all those historic buildings and…Todd can be particular.”
Kelsey’s hand tightened on her day planner at her cousin’s hesitant tone. Suspicions planted by Connor’s too-pointed comments threatened to sprout into tangled choking weeds, but Kelsey ground them down. Finger by finger, she eased her grip before she left permanent indentations on the leather book.
Her cousin was a people pleaser. Of course she worried what Todd would think.