"Sizemore, Susan - Laws of the Blood 3 - Companions" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sizemore Susan)

"So. Who's next?"

Selena carefully avoided her mother's gaze and the implication in the oh-so-innocent question that was ostensibly about cake. She was well aware of slyly amused looks directed her way from other parts of the room and had the good grace to offer a wan smile all around. A wedding shower was dangerous ground for a single woman in her early thirties to tread, and Selena couldn't just get up and leave. She was the hostess.

Doing her bit for the family cause, she'd made the pretty lemon and coconut cake her mother was dishing out to aunts, cousins, friends, and future in-laws of the bride to be. Her austere apartment was decorated with fresh flowers, silver bells, colored balloons, white lace, and pastel ribbons. There was a crystal bowl full of rumlaced pink punch nestled between cheese and veggie trays on the kitchen table. Presents were piled on the china cabinet. Thirty women, dressed to impress each other in soft summer dresses, crowed Selena's small Evanston apartment. Amid all the teasing, giggling, and female bonding, Selena had gradually relaxed until she was almost taken by surprise by her mother's attempt at sly innuendo.

"It's the rum, isn't it?" she murmured to herself.

"I heard that."

Mothers had the most amazing hearing, at least hers did. Downright preternatural.

Selena took her cake and sidled closer to the cousin who was the object of all these mysterious Midwestern female tribal nuptial rites. The wedding was scheduled for the Church of the Sacred Heart, the reception for one of the luxurious tour boats that sailed Lake Michigan out of Navy Pier. This shower was the first of many celebrations leading up to the Bride's Big Day. Selena had been reluctant to get involved with wedding plans at first, but after good long talks from both her cousin and her godmother, she took a deep breath, plunged in with both feet, and found that she was enjoying the whole family-bonding thing immensely. She guessed she had been too aloof from her roots as well as the ordinary world in the last couple of years.

"So, Karen?" she asked the bride to be. "Did I get it right?"

"Pretty good for an amateur," the bride acknowledged with a sweeping look around.

Okay, so she had not been the most social member of the clan in recent years. "At least you didn't say old maid."

"Detective Crawford, I know you have guns in the house." Karen's blue eyes returned to Selena's with a teasing twinkle. "We are playing party games, right?"

"I keep guns in the house."

"I want games."

Selena winced. "Not the toilet paper wedding dress thing. Please say you don't want to do that."

"It's traditional."

"I don't have any extra toilet paper."

"I brought a bag."

"Fiend."

Karen giggled. "It's my party."

"And I'll cry if I want to," Selena muttered around a forkful of cake.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," her mother add from the other side of the table.

How did she do that?

Her mother gave Selena a quick once-over look, and Selena knew exactly what she was thinking: that she'd rather see her daughter dressed as a bride than as a bridesmaid.

"I'm so glad you chose green for your attendants," Selena's mom said to Karen. "They all have the coloring for it. Especially Selena."