Free Unexpected Bride by LISA CHILDS Page A

to compensate her efforts. But before he walked away, he kissed his mother's cheek. "You look beautiful today."
    That was the other thing his father would have done, the thing he'd never failed to do every day. Tell his wife how beautiful she was.
    Clayton's heart clenched as he remembered the depth of his parents' love. Maybe that was why Molly wanted time alone to figure out what she really wanted—she'd realized she didn't love Josh the way their mom had loved their dad. Or maybe she had remembered her mother's inconsolable grief when he'd died and she'd realized nothing was worth the risk of that much pain.
    A short while later, his fingers and his bank account in pain from paying off the DJ, the bartender and the photographer, he tucked his checkbook back into the inside pocket of his jacket. He scanned the reception hall for Abby, and came upon her daughter instead, near the cake. Tears welling in her huge blue eyes, Lara stared up at the top of the flower-studded tiers.
    "Hey, honey, what's wrong?" he asked, crouching down.
    She pointed toward the top of the cake, where the plastic groom stood alone in his black tux. "She's..." Her breath hitched. "Gone."
    The little plastic bride, as well as the real one. How appropriate.
    "I don't know where she is, honey."
    The plastic one or the real one, although he suspected Abby knew where his sister was. He had to get a look at the note Molly had left her, because he knew better than to trust that Abby Hamilton had shared everything her friend had written.
    "The boys say they have the bride," she said, her voice trembling, "and they're going to flush her."
    "Flush her?"
    "Down...down the toilet." Her breath hitched again. One tear spilled from her eye and trailed down her cheek.
    "Where are they?" Clayton wasn't all that upset that these two young hellions were not going to be his step-nephews. But without pressure from Abby, Molly might realize what she wanted was to marry Josh. And he'd have to learn how to deal with the rambunctious duo.
    "The boys are in...in...the bathroom."
    Clayton brushed her tear away wilh his thumb. "It's okay, honey."
    "They said she was me, that they're flushing me down the toilet."
    He couldn't remember what the little plastic bride had looked like. He hadn't paid any attention to the cake or anything else to do with the wedding—he'd only paid for it.
    Ah. hell, he didn't care about the money. He could make more. He knew how to do that, but what he didn't know how to do was make Lara feel better.
    Another tear spilled from an eye, clinging to her dense black lashes before dropping onto his thumb. The vise tightened around his heart even more. He looked away from her, turning his attention to the cake. The five-tiered cake—frosted white and adorned with red and white sugar flowers—rose high above them.
    "Honey, there's no way the boys got the bride down." They would have tipped over the table and knocked the cake to the floor. And not a single frosting flower had been disturbed. Then he peered closer and noticed that a few were missing from the bottom tier, miniature fingerprints left behind in the frosting.
    She blinked those thick lashes, dispersing her tears. "You don't think so?"
    "See how big the cake is?"
    She nodded, the carnations and lilies rustling in her hair as her curls bounced. "It's so pretty."
    Like Lara. And her mother.
    "If they had tried to get her down, they would have knocked the whole cake over, honey. There's no way they have her. They're just teasing you."
    Because boys lease girls they like.
    Was that why he'd been giving Abby such a hard time. why he'd always given her such a hard time? He'd like to think he was more mature than that now and that he had been even all those years ago. He'd like to think he was too smart to be attracted to her, too. But he couldn't keep lying to himself. Even now he knew if he lifted his gaze from her daughter, he'd start searching the crowded hall for Abby.
    "They were teasing me?" Her