First Love - [Bridesmaid's Chronicles 04]

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  First Love

  Julie Kenner

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  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

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  Don't miss the other books in The Bridesmaid Chronicles, available now!

  First Date

  First Kiss

  First Dance

  Praise for the novels of Julie Kenner

  "Julie Kenner always takes you on a wild, funny ride!" Stephanie Bond

  "Fast-paced suspense and sparkling, snappy dialogue action that literally doesn't let up till the last page should keep readers returning for more."

  Publishers Weekly

  "Julie Kenner just might well be the most enchanting author in today's market."

  The Romance Reader's Connection

  "What fun! The characters were well developed, sympathetic and lovable, while the supporting cast was fabulous [A] wonderful read."

  Scribes World (5 Stars)

  "Amusing fantasy romance a fabulous tale."

  BookBrowser

  "Witty and fun [a] wonderful book by a fabulous author." Huntress Reviews

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  SIGNET

  Published by New American Library, a division of

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,

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  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  First published by Signet, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  First Printing, September 2005 10 987654321

  Copyright © Julie Kenner, 2005 All rights reserved

  REGISTERED TRADEMARKMARCA REGISTRADA

  Printed in the United States of America

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  PUBLISHER'S NOTE

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

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  Chapter One

  Don't rush your wedding savor it. Overcome the cliche of the stressed-out bride by focusing on your secret weapons time and planning. Pick a date that will allow you to blossom along with your plans, each step in the planning process bringing you one calm, smooth and organized step closer to that final, wonderful day .

  from The Guide to the Perfect Texas Hill Country Wedding , Summer 2005 Edition

  "I'm screwed," Julia Spinelli said miserably. "Absolutely, totally and completely screwed."

  Across the table, Sydney stabbed some sauerkraut onto the end of her fork, then looked at it dubiously. "Maybe it would have been smart not to fire your wedding planner."

  Julia shot her sister a scathing glare, then rocked forward, banging her head rhythmically on the picnic table and the bridal magazine she had open in front of her.

  Maybe if she banged hard enough, she'd wake up and realize this was all a dream. It wasn't really five days to the weddingit was five months. And instead of a laundry list of details still to attend to, she'd awake to discover that everything was ready and in place, and all she had to do was have a facial, shave her legs, buy something sexy for the wedding night and then go marry the man she loved.

  She opened her eyes, clinging to the hope that this was a bad dream and she had more than five days, five hours and thirty-two minutes to pull together the ultimate wedding. But instead of a reprieve, all she saw across the table was an amused pair of brown eyes. The sauerkraut, she noted, was back in the dish, having never made it past her sister's lips

  "Damn it, Syd," she said. "This isn't funny."

  Syd's mouth curved up into a smile, but she was smart enough not to laugh. As Julia's big sister, she knew well enough that any misplaced chortle could easily earn her a kick in the shin. "You're right," she said. "Not funny at all."

  Behind them, children frolicked on the playscape that dominated this corner of Market Square, a lovely little park with a small museum, a charming garden with an arbor, and lots of covered picnic tables. After a morning of prowling through the Main Street shops for welcome-basket goodies, Julia and Syd had grabbed takeout bratwurst from Auslander Biergarten and walked the short distance to the park. She didn't really have time for a break, but Julia knew that if she didn't eat, she'd probably pass out. Of course, if she continued to eat bratwursta wonderful sausage that had never crossed her lips back homeshe'd have to add finding a new wedding dress to her list, because the one currently scheduled for delivery tomorrow would rip to shreds the second she tugged it over her ever-widening hips.

  Since the dress was the one part of her wedding plans that had yet to dissolve into disaster, Julia didn't intend to tempt fate. She'd eaten just two bites, then pushed the sausage away to pick at the garden saladwithout dressingthat she'd bought as an afterthought.

  Syd , Julia noticed, didn't try to talk her little sister into consuming anything more nourishing than wilted leaves of iceberg lettuce. In fact, once it was clear that Julia was done with the salad, she'd reached across the table, nailed the sausage with her fork and started to chow down.

  Julia scowled, ignoring the blatant food theft. She pushed the magazine across the table, her manicured nail tapping o
n the article that had plunged her into this bout of misery. "Right there." She tapped the page. "See? I'm supposed to be savoring." She repeated the word for emphasis: " Sa-vor-ing . Instead, I'm suffering."

  Syd took another bite, then closed her eyes, doing a good impression of someone entering nirvana. " I'm savoring," she said.

  Julia rolled up the magazine and smacked her sister.

  "Hey! Don't take it out on me! I'm not the one who got engaged and set the wedding date for just barely a month later. And I'm not the one who set you up with a wedding planner with an agenda."

  "It wasn't his agendait was Kiki's."

  "Exactly. Too bad your future sister-in-law is a little overexuberant."

  Julia raised an eyebrow. "Overexuberant? She had Breckin wasting hours researching destination weddings instead of following up on my list. It took him ages just to rent the tables and chairs, and he was absolutely no help at all with the photographer or with finding me a morning-of makeup artist and hair designer."

  "You're going to design your hair?" Syd looked completely baffled by the concept. "You've spent the last twenty-some-odd years putting your hair into every possible style. What could anyone do better than you can manage yourself?"

  "Syd"

  Her sister held up her hands in surrender. "Whatever."

  "My point is that Breckin was spending so much time doing Kiki's bidding, he wasn't focusing on me." At first, Julia had been patient because she did need the help. Putting together a wedding with over three hundred guests required a ton of planning especially a whirlwind wedding. But she'd reached the end of her rope when Breckin admitted that he hadn't confirmed the photographer because Kiki'd had him running interference for her wedding. If Kiki hadn't already stepped up to the plate and arranged for Vera Wang gowns for the bridesmaids, Julia might have had to throttle Roman's little sister.

  "Despite all her trouble, though," Julia had to admit, "Kiki did come through in the end." In fact, at the moment, Julia considered Keeks a goddess, since she hadn't been blowing smoke about the Vera

  Wang thing. The dresses had already arrived at the same shop in Austin that Julia was using for the groomsmen's tuxes, and Syd and Viv had already been fitted, and Kiki was bringing her dress with her. Fabulous, sleek gowns in peacock blue silk with spaghetti straps and plunging necklines. If Julia hadn't already fallen madly in love with another dress in a San Antonio shop, she would have snagged a Vera Wang gown, too.

  "She did good by the gowns," Syd agreed. "But overall, you have to admit that by comparison, I've been the voice of reason from the beginning."

  "Voice of reason? Have you gone mental? You wanted me to call off the wedding!"

  Syd looked only slightly abashed. "Well, yeah, but I thought that was reasonable at the time."

  "You thought Roman was some sort of con artist! You thought I was being flighty and naive." She tried for a light tone, really she did, but her voice held more accusation than good humor. She'd forgiven her sister for trying to sabotage her engagement, but the incident still stung.

  "I had justification," Syd said, getting her back up and slipping into her know-it-all persona. "You hadn't even known the guy a month, and suddenly you were making wedding plans? Of course I was concerned. How could you fall in love so fast? Be so sure that he was the one?"

  "You did," Julia pointed out, thinking of her sister's recent tumble into l'amoure . And her sister's fall had given Julia such pleasure. Not only was it poetic justice after the way Syd had doubted the strength of Julia's feelings for Roman, but Julia was genuinely happy for her big sister. Syd might be a real pain at times, but Julia loved her anyway.

  She flashed a grin. "Yes, indeed. I'd have to say that the ever-stalwart and reasonable Sydney Spinelli fell hard and fast."

  It was Syd's turn to scowl, but the sour expression was marred by the light shining in her eyes. "Yeah, I did. But," she added, sitting up straighter and sliding easily into big-sister mode, " I don't have a history of collecting men."

  " Collecting men ?" Julia repeated. "God, Syd, you make me sound like Hannibal Lecter. And for the record, I never 'collected.' I dated. And also for the record, Roman's the first man I've been in love with. If you'd put any thought into it before you rushed from Jersey to Texas to save your poor helpless little sister, you would have realized that I'd never been engaged before. Roman's the first and the only and we're getting married with or without your approval or Pop's approval or anyone else's for that matter."

  "Touchy much?" Syd countered, without a hint of remorse.

  Julia huffed, feeling a little martyred, but, damn it, ever since she'd told her bridesmaids about the wedding, everyone seemed to be planning sabotage. First Syd, then Kiki, then most recently Julia's best friend Vivien. It was enough to give a girl a complex.

  "At least tell me you understand," she finally said. "And that you approve."

  "I do, and I do," Syd said, and despite her lousy temper, Julia smiled.

  "Practicing?" she asked.

  "I take the Fifth," Syd answered, but her eyes told another story, and Julia wondered if Alex had popped the question yet.

  Across the table, Syd leaned forward and took Julia's hands. "Seriously, Jules, I do understand how you fell so hard so fast. I didn't when I came, but I do now. You know that, right? That I only wish you the best?"

  "I know." It had been a little rocky when Syd had first barreled into town. But after a few missteps, they'd finally come to terms, and now Julia was genuinely grateful her sister was in town to help with the wedding details and, well, to just be a big sister.

  "Then don't take this the wrong way." Syd took a deep breath. "But maybe you should postpone the wedding. Get married at Christmas instead of next Saturday."

  "Are you insane? Kiki already tried to manhandle us into a winter wedding, and we are so not doing that." A fresh jolt of anger cut through her. "Damn it, Syd, every time I think you're on my side"

  "I am on your side, sweetie. You're the one who said you're stressing out. You're the one who said there's no way you can get everything done in a week"

  "Less than a week," Julia cut in morosely.

  "And you're the one who's going to have to deal with Marv when he gets here."

  Julia sighed heavily. She loved her father, really she did, but Marv Spinelli was Jersey born and bred, living proof that all cliches and stereotypes had some basis in fact. If Julia didn't know better, she would have easily believed that Joe Pesci had used her father as a case study when he'd boned up on his character for My Cousin Vinny . And Julia knew with absolute certainty that Marv's brash, bull-in-a-china-closet manners weren't going to blend seamlessly with the Southern charm of the small Texas town. Left unattended, Marv would clear a path through Fredericksburg as wide as Sherman had cleared through Atlanta.

  "If you think you're going to be able to focus on wedding details with our father stomping around town, then the Texas sun has seriously fried your brain."

  Obviously, Julia didn't intend to leave her father to his own deviceswhich meant she had to add "Babysit Pop" to the top of her list of last-minute wedding tasks.

  "I almost wish I hadn't told him. Or that his memory wasn't so long." Marv hadn't been thrilled when she'd called yesterday to finally tell him about the whirlwind wedding. But what had really smoked his goose wasn't the short engagement, but the identity of the groom.

  Marv had never met Roman, but he'd butted heads with Robert Sonntag, Roman's father, over a real estate deal some fifteen-odd years ago. That wouldn't have been a problem if Marv had won the battle, but he hadn't. Not only had Sonntag managed to hold on to his property, but he'd also won in court. Always a sore loser, Marv had bought a neighboring parcel of land and plunked a Marv's Motor Inn at the corner of Main and Orange, a reminder to everyone in the town that what Marv Spinelli wanted, he got.

  The irony, of course, was that if he hadn't later shipped his youngest daughter off to manage that very motel, Julia would never have met and fallen in l
ove with the enemy. Fate's twist amused Julia, but her father hadn't seen the humor. As soon as he'd heard the Sonntag name, he'd barked into the phone that he'd be out there soon to "smash some sense into that dreamy-eyed blond brain of yours." Nice, Pop.

  His plane was scheduled to land in Austin the next morning, which meant that Hurricane Marv would be arriving before lunch. One more day of sanity, and Julia intended to savor it. Of course, she'd considered expanding that to two days by spending tomorrow at Rivercenter Mall in San Antonio for a little credit-card therapy, but she'd talked herself out of it. She was a grown-up now. And grown-ups stayed for the fight.

  "You had to tell him," Syd pointed out reasonably. "You want the big wedding, right? That means that the father gives away the bride."

  "The Elvis chapel in Vegas is looking better and better," Julia muttered.

  "Would to me, too," Syd saidthen added, "Seriously, why don't you just postpone? Roman's the one, right? It's not like you have to get married before the love wears off."

  "No, it's not like that," Julia admitted. "But I'm not going to France as Roman's girlfriend." Roman's business was wine, and he'd recently scheduled a long trip to the south of France to meet with a group of vintners. The trip was important to Roman, and that made it important to Julia. "I'm going on the trip, and I'm going as his wife. And that's all there is to it."

  As Julia lifted her chin defiantly, Syd nodded, resigned. The one truth throughout their childhood had been that what Julia wanted, Julia got. This wedding wouldn't be any different. She might suffer a few bumps and bruises along the way, but in the end, Julia would be exactly where she wanted to be: smack-dab in the middle of a fairy-tale wedding with several hundred guests admiring the efficiency, grace and classy elegance of what would surely be the most fabulous social event in the history of Fredericksburg, Texas. Or South River, New Jersey, for that matter.