The Wedding Party And Holiday Escapes Ultimate Collection. Кейт Хьюит
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a dead sleep. She tried to open her eyes but the room was too bright.
What time was it?
She squinted at the clock. They’d been sleeping for a whole three and a half hours.
The pounding stopped, then immediately started up again. Beside her, Dillon groaned and stuffed the pillow over his head.
She gave him a poke. “Someone is knocking on your door.”
“No kidding,” he said, his voice muffled and cranky. He never had been a morning person. Of course, they hadn’t gone to sleep until after seven, so this was technically like the middle of the night. “They’ll go away.”
They didn’t. Whoever it was pounded harder, then Dale called, “Dillon, wake up! It’s important!”
Dillon mumbled and cursed. He flung the covers off and rolled out of bed, naked and beautiful. She couldn’t have asked for a better view. A full moon in the morning.
She watched as he grabbed his robe and shoved his arms through the sleeves, then stomped to the door. He flung it open and in his cranky voice asked, “What?”
“Have you seen Blake and Deidre?”
“Of course not. I was sound asleep.”
“Well, they’re not here,” Dale said. “No one knows where they are.”
“And you think they’re in here with me? You picked a hell of a time to pretend you give a shit about your brother. They probably went out to breakfast or something.”
“I don’t think so. They left yesterday afternoon, and they haven’t been back.”
Ivy sat up in bed, instantly awake.
“Are you sure they haven’t been here?” Dillon asked. The crankiness was gone and concern had crept in to take its place.
“The rental car was gone all night and their bed wasn’t slept in.”
Fear lodged in Ivy’s gut. Deidre had been in pretty bad shape the other night. Ivy should have checked on her yesterday. She should have made sure she was okay.
What if she’d had another meltdown? What if she was in a hospital somewhere?
“I thought Ivy might know where they are,” Dale said, “but I can’t find her, either.”
“I haven’t seen her,” Dillon lied.
Something was definitely not right. Deidre wouldn’t just take off. Not without telling someone.
Ivy wrapped herself in the sheet and joined Dillon at the door. “Did you try calling her cell?”
It was almost funny the way Dale’s mouth fell open, how he looked from her, to Dillon, then back to her.
“Oh, there you are, Ivy,” Dillon said, acting surprised to see her. “How did you get in here?”
She shot him a look, then turned to Dale. “Did you call their cell phones? Deidre always keeps hers on and charged. She’s fanatical about it.”
“I tried calling them both and the calls go straight to voice mail.”
“Did you try calling your parents?” Dillon asked.
He shook his head. “I didn’t want to worry them.”
“Something isn’t right,” Ivy said.
“You know my brother. With our parents flying in tonight, there’s no way Blake would just take off.”
“Give us five minutes to get dressed,” Dillon said.
“Then we’ll figure out what to do.”
“The only thing left to do is call the police,” Dillon told everyone an hour and a half later.
They had called everyone they could think of who might possibly know where Deidre and Blake went. Friends, family, coworkers. They called the local hospital to see if anyone matching their descriptions had been admitted, and checked CNN just in case any accidents or unidentified tourists had been found. They had covered all the bases, and they had come up with nothing.
Deidre and Blake were gone.
“We shouldn’t be so quick to jump to conclusions,” one of the Tweedles said. Dillon still couldn’t tell them apart.
“Yeah,” the other one added. “I’m sure they’re fine.”
Everyone else was worried, while those two had done nothing but sulk. Probably because the attention was no longer focused on them.
Ivy was handling it the worst. She couldn’t sit still. Dillon would convince her to sit down and relax, and she would be back up again in a minute or two, peering out the window for a sign of their car. Checking her cell phone for a missed call, even though it hadn’t once left her hand.
“We should make the call,” Dale said, and Calvin nodded in agreement.
Dillon flipped open his phone and was getting ready to dial when they heard a car coming up the driveway.
Ivy dashed to the window. “They’re back!”
Relief hit Dillon hard and swift, like a sucker punch in the gut. He snapped his phone shut and slipped it back into the holster. Blake had better have had a damned good excuse for scaring them all half to death.
Tweedle number one followed Ivy to the window and peered out. “See, I told you they were fine.”
Ivy turned and shot her a look. One that would have scared Dillon had he been on the receiving end.
“She’s got a lot of nerve just taking off,” number two said indignantly. “Does she think we actually want to be here?”
No, Dillon thought, they had made it pretty clear they were there under duress.
Ivy didn’t say a word, but he could see her temper rising. Her cheeks were getting red and blotchy and her fists were clenching and unclenching. And her foot was tapping. Bad sign. If those two knew what was good for them they would quit while they were ahead. Especially with Ivy standing within swinging distance. He knew from experience that you could only push her so far before she blew, and she looked as though she was more than halfway there already.
“Enough, Heather,” Dale said.
They actually had names. Go figure. And he was getting kind of attached to Dum and Dee.
“Why are you getting mad at me?” Heather snapped back. “I’m not the one with the problem. You should have seen the way she flipped out the other night.”
“Yeah,” number one agreed. “It’s not our fault that she’s too fat to fit in her dress.”
The last word had barely left her mouth and Ivy was already in midswing. Dillon scarcely had time to cringe before she connected. One quick, solid right jab, and Tweedle number one was on the ground, holding her jaw.
Everyone else stood in stunned silence. Even number two, aka Heather, didn’t seem to know what to say. Or May be she just didn’t want to be the next one to go down.
Then the door flew open and Deidre burst through, Blake close behind. “Hi, everyone! We’re back!”
Fourteen
Is the new man in your life pressing for a commitment? Consider wisely. When it comes to relationships, three out of four women make the same mistake twice.
—excerpt from The Modern Woman’s Guide to Divorce (And the Joy of Staying Single)
They had eloped.
Apparently, the dress incident had been the last straw. When Deidre pulled herself together she’d told Blake that if they didn’t get out of there, if he didn’t make some serious changes, the wedding