Free Wedding Duress (Events By Design Cozy Mystery Series Book 2) by Ally Gray

hair. “You will not talk about that girl that way! I knew you had something to do with this mess!”
    Mrs. Barber called out indignantly for help, but no one moved, not even her own father, who sat frozen in place as he watched in amused surprise. It was finally Brianna who took Christian pity on her mother and asked Mrs. Curry to stop, tapping the woman on the shoulder and helping her pat her carefully coifed hair back into place. Mrs. Curry smiled at Brianna and pulled her into a hug.
    “You cannot know how sorry I am. I had no idea your own mother could be capable of such a thing.” Brianna could only nod tearfully. They moved to leave the church through a side door, Mrs. Curry holding the younger girl close to her side in an embrace as they walked. The uniformed officer looked around confused before getting up and following them.
    As they passed Heaven, Mrs. Curry stopped and frowned, then softened her gaze and reached out to the girl. She dissolved in the woman’s arms, clinging to her as she cried. The three of them exited, leaving Ben to look sheepishly at the shocked crowd of guests.
    “Well, as you can imagine, there probably won’t be a wedding today. But the food’s paid for, so go eat up!” he called out with a sly smile. His teammates, filling the first ten pews in the massive church due to the fact that each row could only accommodate four or five of them, cheered loudly and led the charge to the outdoor reception. Ben followed after his mother, his sister, and the woman who was apparently his one true love.

Chapter 12
    T he bartender expertly slid a tray with another round of shot glasses on it down the gleaming mahogany bar, the amber Jack Daniels sloshing only slightly in the tiny filled-to-the-brim glasses. Jeremiah did the honors, passing the glasses around and quickly gathering up the empties and returning them to the tray. No sense in letting anyone try to count how many there were, even though at that point he doubted their ability to do basic math.
    “We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” Tori said, clinking glasses with Mandy. The assistant still sat stiff-backed in her seat, uninitiated as she was to the tradition of celebrating every dismal failure by partying together.
    “Here, here,” Stacy said, “although I have to admit, as tough weddings go, this one might actually be my favorite.”
    “How do you think so?” their chef droned in his nasally French accent, made all the more incomprehensible by the alcohol.
    “Well, this one actually ended in a wedding,” she said, brightening for the newly-married happy couple and raising her glass to them. Ben and Brianna returned the toast, clinking their shot glasses against their neighbors’, spilling more than they drank. “But as much as I do love to see true love win out and families reconcile…” she raised her glass again to her right where Heaven sat, grinning, “…my favorite part of the day had to be the look on Mrs. Barber’s face when Mrs. Curry came at her and latched onto her like a spider monkey. Play that one video again, the one where the camera angle shows Mrs. Barber’s tattoo.”
    Her friends and co-workers all hunched over their smartphones, punching in the search terms to find it online. “It’s already got over five hundred thousand views,” Tori said with a laugh.
    “Now Ben… Brianna… we never got to have the talk,” Stacy said, trying to keep her eyes from crossing as she attempted to sound professional. “I like to meet with all my young couples and give them advice that they will cherish for the rest of their lives. This advice is meant to help you steer the course of your journey together through rough waters and calm, through good times and bad.” Behind her, Jeremiah made blabby talking motions with his hands, choking back a laugh when Stacy turned and caught him.
    “Usually, we talk about these things at the final meeting before the rehearsal dinner, but since you two got hitched at the