Kiss the Bride by Lori Wilde Page B

been cut to the quick by one fickle female; the last thing I want is to see my grandson get hurt again.”
    “You were engaged to someone else when you met Leo,” Trudie reminded her.
    Lucia thought of Frank Tigerelli, the wealthy man her family had wanted her to marry. He’d ended up going to prison in some real estate scam. Thank God for her Leo. He’d saved her from making the gravest mistake of her life.
    “If something goes wrong and Nicky gets hurt, I’ll never forgive myself,” Lucia said.
    “We’re just putting them together and letting nature take its course,” Trudie assured her. “If they meet and the whammy doesn’t strike, no harm, no foul.”
    Lucia nodded and took a deep breath. Her grandson needed something to jar him out of his doldrums.
    “Will you tell me the story again about how you knew Leo was the one?” Trudie asked, absentmindedly twirling her boa. “I love that story. Look at me. I had to go through three husbands before I got it right, and then Artie up and dies on me. Men.”
    Lucia smiled. “Our first meeting was such a cliché, I don’t get why it fascinates you so.”
    “You know why. Tell the story.”
    The truth was Lucia loved telling the story as much as Trudie loved hearing it. “I had just turned eighteen. A friend and I had been invited to a party thrown by a man in our office where we both worked as secretaries. The party turned out to be very dull. I looked at a clock on the wall and it was only nine-ten. I wanted so badly to leave, but my girlfriend who’d given me a ride didn’t want to go. She’d found a fellow to flirt with.”
    “Not much of a party girl, were you?”
    “No.” Lucia smiled. “I seriously doubt that you and I would have been friends if we’d met back then.”
    “Probably not,” Trudie agreed. “So then what happened next?”
    “I was about to call my father to come get me, when Leo walked into the room. And then it hits me. A bolt from the blue. The whammy.”
    “What did the whammy feel like?”
    “My heart started pounding and I wanted desperately to run away, but at the same time I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Nor he me. He comes toward me and the crowd parts like the Red Sea. I’m barely breathing.”
    Trudie sighed happily.
    “Leo introduces himself and we start talking and talking and talking. The room gets less crowded and quieter. We find a seat and keep talking. My friend shows up and wants to leave. Leo tells me he’ll give me a ride home so I tell my friend to go on without me. Finally we’re the only ones left at the party. Even the host went to bed. I looked at the clock and it says nine-fifteen. I’m starting to think I’m caught in some weird waking dream and then I realize the clock has stopped. It stopped the minute I saw Leo.” Lucia’s voice broke and tears sprang to her eyes.
    “Aw, Luce, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have prodded you to tell that story,” Trudie fretted. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
    “It’s all right.” Lucia swiped at her eyes. “Even though it hurts, I like remembering Leo.”
    “See, don’t you want that kind of love for Nick?”
    “Of course I do.”
    “Then let go of your fears and put your trust in the magic that stopped that clock the minute you and Leo met. If Delaney Cartwright
is
Nick’s soul mate, they’ll know it.”
    “And if she isn’t?”
    Trudie shrugged. “She’s still a whiz at staging houses.”

Chapter 4
     
    J ames Robert, what is this?”
    Jim Bob Cartwright glanced up from the
Houston Chronicle
Sunday crossword puzzle he was working to help him fall asleep and saw his wife, Honey, standing in the doorway, holding something out in front of her as if it were going to give her a disease. Jim Bob pushed his reading glasses up on his forehead to see what she was talking about.
    “Looks like a wedding veil.”
    “Exactly.” Honey’s lips were pressed together in a tight, disapproving line. If she hadn’t just had a round of Botox, Jim Bob