Read an Excerpt
Wedding Bell Blues (The Piper Cove Chronicles)
Chapter One
A sundae meeting was called for. Even though it was Wednesday, Alexandra Butler had put out the call to her friends. With a nostalgic smile at the celebration tradition that, like their friendship, had survived since high school, she pulled her Mercedes coupe into the parking space in front of the Piper Cove Country Club.
As of this morning, she had only one final payment to make on the loan that had subsidized her decorating business, one payment between her and financial freedom from her banker father's tight rein. To celebrate, hot chocolate and whipped cream were waiting inside, along with her bosom buddies.
Thank you, Lord, she prayed, grateful for the freedom, and her friends.
She needed her friends for more than a celebration. Her sister Lynn, whom their father called his little surprise when she was born twelve years after Alex, had called from a weekend trip to New York to announce her engagement to John Astor Whitlowe, Jr., a financial wunderkind just out of grad school. The couple was so excited, they'd even picked out Lynn's dress at a Fifth Avenue boutique. Alex's father, while overjoyed about the match, was determined to impress Lynn's future in-laws. They were not only from old money, but John's father was president of Mercantile One out of Bethesda, a large banking corporation that was taking Piper Cove Mercantile into its network. In other words, John's father was soon to be B. J. Butler's boss.
"I want us to nip in the bud that old notion that Eastern Shore men across the Chesapeake Bay are web-footed hicks," Benjamin JamesButler—known as B. J. by the locals—had told Alex earlier that morning. "Which is why we are gonna plan the finest shindig my money can buy. You've got a knack for making a pig's ear look like a silk purse, and Lynn's so aflutter with love and finals that she won't be much help to your mama, so I'm depending on you, Alex."
I'm depending on you, Alex. It was probably the first time Alex had ever heard those words from her father, and satisfaction hardly described the emotion overwhelming her. Usually B. J. Butler assigned duties like a commander, expecting them to be carried out because he said so, not because he needed anyone.
As Alex swung open her car door, a male voice interrupted her thoughts. "Alexandra, allow me."
Alex lowered her sunglasses, peering over them. "Thank you, Will. Taking the day off, or are you headed to a business luncheon?"
Will Warren had graduated two years ahead of Alex's high school class and now worked for her dad's bank as head of the mortgage department. He made no secret of his ambition to replace B. J., and Alex knew full well that Will's flirtation was nothing more than a potential rung on his ladder to success. It was futile, of course. Her father would give up his position only when they patted him in the face with a spade.
"Business . . . unfortunately," he added, his voice lowering in suggestion. "Believe me, I'd much rather spend an hour with you."
If her father heard that comment, or rather, its innuendo, B. J. would have shot Will on the spot. Alex kind of warmed to the idea, but she was forced by the restraint of the law to use verbal ammo on the would-be Romeo—
"Will Warren, if an hour's all you have to offer," a familiar voice interjected in a honeyed drawl, "a woman would as soon skip as bother."
As for stinging shots, that one would do. Alex grinned. "Hi, Suzie Q."
"Mrs. Wiltbank, good to see you," Will answered stiffly, as Sue Ann Quillen Wiltbank, of the Ocean City engineering Wiltbanks by marriage and the Piper Cove Quillen Realtors by birth, sashayed toward them in a smart black pantsuit, cut to accent her voluptuous curves. Although Alex's friend had gained a good twenty pounds since high school, it had all gone to the right places. "Tell Daddy I said hi, Will," Alex said, leaving the banker flushed from his white starched collar to his thinning brown hairline.
Suzie smothered her in a perfumed hug. "Alex!"
"You're bad," Alex chastised under her breath.
"That pig has had his nose stuck up my"
"I know," Alex interrupted her, steering her toward the lighthouse-styled apex of the L-shaped building.
As one of Piper Cove's richest citizens, Sue Ann could say anything she wanted and not worry about reproach. Not that that had stopped her when she was merely an affluent realtor's daughter. Hers was the mouth always in gear, whether her brain was or not.
"Tush. I was going to say tush." Sue Ann's mischievous blue eyes twinkled like the genuine gemstones clustered on one of her many rings.
"Of course you were." Alex linked arms with her friend and ushered her through one of the double glass doors with a "Thanks" to the exiting customer who held it open for them.
"Why, Bobby McMann, aren't you the sweetest thing?" Sue Ann called over her shoulder to the man.
Alex could have reminded Sue Ann that Bobby was married and a practicing Catholic who'd perfected procreation by having six kids. But Sue Ann knew that. She simply couldn't help herself. Men brought out the flirt in her, no matter their age or shape. If Bobby had been sixty and balding, instead of a rugged, thirtysomething contractor, Sue Ann would have treated him just the same.
To the left of the entrance was the dining room, reflecting the formal elegance of Chesapeake Bay living. Alex steered her companion to the Coffee Café on the right. Its wildfowl theme and hunter green and beige color palette was in keeping with the natural habitat the area was known for. This room said smell the coffee, while the other suggested high tea served on the club's custom-designed china.
"There they are." Sue Ann pointed to a corner booth, where a brunette in a tank top and jeans jumped up and whistled.
Wedding Bell Blues (The Piper Cove Chronicles). Copyright © by Linda Windsor. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.