Sisters in White Read online

  “The dresses are so gorgeous. I can hardly believe we’re getting married. Me and Kaylie. I never would have dreamed that we’d get married at the same time, much less in the same wedding,” Danica said.

  “Kaylie thinks the world of you. I think she’s honored that you’re sharing your special day.” Max looked carefully through each dress.

  “Really? Gosh, I’m not sure about that.”

  “Perfect. Every dress is perfect.” Max smiled at Scarlet. “You are a lifesaver, Scarlet. Thank you.”

  “It is my pleasure. Danica and Kaylie’s special day is special to us, too.”

  The door to the large office opened. “Hey there,” Treat said as he stepped into the room. “Everything okay in here?”

  Max’s eyes were locked on Treat. She didn’t just look. She didn’t leer. She flat-out stared at the big, handsome man with the deep, soothing voice. It took Danica a minute to realize that she’d better step in.

  “Treat, hi. This is Max, Chaz’s wor—uh, assistant, and our friend. Max”—she turned her back to Treat and opened her eyes wide, mouthing, Say hello—“Max, this is Treat Braden, Blake’s cousin.”

  Treat reached for Max’s hand while his eyes consumed her from head to toe. “We’ve met, a few times over the telephone.”

  Max lifted her hand and managed, “Yes.”

  He kissed the back of her hand. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Max.”

  Max blinked several times, then pushed her glasses up onto their perch again. “Treat. Hi. I’m sorry. It was a long flight. I must have jet lag or something.”

  Something like you’re hungry for a tasty Treat.

  A second later, Max pulled herself together with finesse. It was no wonder Kaylie trusted her to be in charge. “Thank you for everything you’ve done. Scarlet has been a dream come true.”

  Scarlet stood demurely by the rack of dresses.

  “Scarlet is a dream. I’d be lost without her.”

  Danica felt Max deflate beside her. This ought to be interesting.

  Kaylie burst into the room, looking at the rack of dresses. “Sorry it took so long. Geez, you’d think—” She was so busy looking at the dresses that she bumped right into Treat. “Oh, sorry.”

  Their eyes locked.

  Kaylie looked away.

  What the hell is going on?

  Treat pointed at Kaylie, and for the first time ever, Danica watched her sister shrink toward the wall, like she wished she could become a part of it and disappear altogether.

  “I know where I’ve seen you before,” he said.

  “No, we’ve never met,” Kaylie said quickly.

  “You went to UC Davis, right?”

  “Um...Yeah.”

  Oh shit. Please tell me you didn’t fool around with him! Danica couldn’t help but notice that Max was hanging on to every word that passed between the two, just as she was.

  “There was a party, though I have no recollection whose party it was, and you were there.”

  Oh God.

  “I went to a lot of parties,” Kaylie said with a spec of arrogance.

  “Didn’t we all?” He laughed. “I was looking for my sister. Yes, I’m sure that’s where I saw you.”

  Kaylie feigned a laugh. “I don’t remember, but yeah, probably.”

  My ass, you don’t remember.

  Kaylie leafed through the dresses and changed the subject. “These are gorgeous, aren’t they, Max?”

  Max looked from Treat to Kaylie, clearly processing the odd interaction. “Yes. They’re perfect,” she said.

  “Well, I just wanted to make sure you had everything you needed. I’ll be off, then. Max, it has been a pleasure working with you, and I hope we find more occasions to get together.”

  Kaylie stilled.

  Max blushed.

  Danica cursed under her breath.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Do you mind telling me what the hell that was all about?” Danica and Kaylie were in the ladies’ room washing their hands. Max and the other girls were waiting for them with the seamstress.

  “What?”

  “Kaylie? All that tension between you and Blake’s cousin? Treat?”

  “Nothing. I saw him at a party at college; that’s all there is to it.” Kaylie fluffed her hair in the mirror. She straightened her white tank top and looked at herself from the side. “I can’t believe I was as big as a house two years ago.”

  “You were pregnant with twins,” Danica said with a sigh. “Did you sleep with him?”

  “Who?”

  “Kaylie!”

  “Are we still on Treat? Geez, Danica.” She leaned against the sink and looked dreamily up toward the ceiling. “I saw him at a party and we had...a moment. We never even spoke to each other.” She looked down her nose at Danica. “We didn’t kiss; we didn’t touch; we didn’t do a-ny-thing.”

  “Thank God for little favors. Then why were you so uncomfortable?”

  “I didn’t say I never wanted to do anything.”

  “Kaylie!”

  “Not now! Then! I crushed on him for a few weeks. So what? I was in college. I was supposed to be crushing on guys, and you have to admit, he’s pretty crushworthy.”

  “So, why are you uncomfortable around him now? Please tell me you’re not still attracted to him. You’re about to get married to an incredible man. The father of your children.”

  “Don’t you know me better than that by now? A few years ago? Maybe. Before Chaz, not after. Now? No way. I was just shocked, that’s all. I had no idea if he felt the same moment as I did, and I still don’t. But he did remember me.”

  “Why do you sound so proud of that?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe because I’ve been wondering ever since Marie mentioned his brother two years ago.” She touched Danica’s arm. “Come on, Danica. You know the feeling. You see a hot guy across the room, and he’s looking at you; then he leaves, and you’re left with only a mental image to play with and manipulate as much as your horny little mind desires.”

  “You’re going to be the death of me.”

  “I doubt it. If anything, it will be that crazy wild sex you’re having with your man.”

  Danica glared at her. “What?”

  “I happened to pass by your room the other night, getting ice or something, I can’t remember. Anyway, there were some loud moans coming from behind that door.”

  Danica felt her cheeks flush. She turned her back to Kaylie and crossed her arms, wishing she could shrivel up into a tiny ball and roll away.

  “You don’t have to be so embarrassed. Sex is good. It’s healthy. Besides, it’s about time you had some fun.”

  Danica spun around. “But you heard us? I mean, really, did you hear us?”

  Kaylie smiled. “No. But now I know you are having wild, crazy sex.”

  Danica groaned and covered her face.

  “Are you really that repressed, sis? Come on. It’s me you’re talking to. I mean, Chaz and I have great sex. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do with him.” She looked up at the lights. “To him. For him. Mm-mm.”

  “Kaylie!”

  “It’s sex, Danica, not drugs, for God’s sake. You’re telling me that there are do’s and don’ts in your bedroom?”

  Danica swallowed hard and remained silent.

  Kaylie gasped. “Oh, no, sister sister. Come talk to Mama Kaylie.” She put her arm around Danica as Danica shrank away.

  Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.

  “Listen, the way I see it, we’ve got one chance to have a little fun, and after tomorrow, we’ll have one man to have that fun with. For the rest of our lives!”

  “So?”

  “So, you know. Spice it up. Have some fun. Role play. Get some toys. Do all the dirty things you read about in Fifty Shades of Grey and all the things the porny girls do in movies.”

  “You watch those?”

  Kaylie shrugged. “Only sometimes. With Chaz.”

  Danica pulled away. “Well,
I have no interest in watching porny girl movies.”

  “So get porny boy movies.”

  “You’re sick.”

  “I’m liberated. I own my sexuality.”

  “Whatever.”

  “All I know is that you have a fine specimen of a man who is soon going to be your husband. He chose you out of all of the other women who you know paw at him all the time. He loves you. He desires you—and God knows he’s always flirting with you, touching you, kissing you. I mean, it’s like, Get a room already! The man oozes sensuality. And so do you.”

  Danica screwed up her face in protest. “I do not.”

  “Oh baby, yes, you do.” She spun Danica around in the mirror.

  “Look at yourself.” She dug her fingers under Danica’s mass of curls and clenched fistfuls of her hair, then pulled. “Your hair is the perfect, Oh baby, yes, more, hair.” She released her hair and stood behind her, grinding her hips into her sister’s behind. “Look at that ass. Perfect. And your hips.” She splayed her hands on Danica’s hips and pressed her breasts against her back, then moved her hands up toward Danica’s breasts. “Oh baby, yes, more, more, touch me, lick me, fuck me.”

  Danica shook out of her sister’s grasp. Embarrassed to admit that the idea of Blake seeing her that way turned her on.

  Kaylie laughed. “Really, Dan? I say, go for it. Live out your every fantasy with that man.”

  “And what if he leaves me after I’ve done all those dirty things? He’ll say I’m a tramp. He’ll know I’m a slut. He’ll—”

  Kaylie’s face stopped her cold. Her sister’s jaw hung open. Kaylie pointed at her, then covered her mouth with her hand.

  “What?”

  “You’re afraid, too. It’s not just me. You. The ex-therapist. Little Miss Get Over It Already.”

  Danica lowered her eyes in shame.

  “Oh, you poor girl.” Kaylie’s sweet tone drew Danica’s eyes to Kaylie’s image in the mirror. She was shaking her head, her eyes filled with love and compassion. “That’s the worst feeling in the world, isn’t it? I hate it. I hate Dad.”

  “Kaylie, what are we gonna do?”

  “I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna get married to the man I love; then I’m gonna have crazy, wild, animalistic sex while Mom watches the kids.”

  Danica laughed through a groan. “What are you gonna do about Dad? I mean, you can’t go your whole life hating him.”

  “Why not? It’s worked well for me so far.”

  “Three reasons. Trevor. Lexi. Lacy.”

  “I do love Lacy. She’s so quiet and so not me, but she’s so frisky and funny in her own little demure way.”

  “Welcome to life with a little sister.”

  “Dan, I’d worry more about your sex life than my issues with Dad. If you’re hung up on Blake leaving, how’s your marriage ever going to work?” Kaylie asked.

  How is my marriage ever going to work if I’m hung up on the possibility of his leaving? How did Kaylie get so wise?

  Kaylie took Danica’s hand and laid it on her own forearm. “Shall we? We have dresses to try on. You taught me well, Yoda.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The hostess led them to an enormous private room in the back of the restaurant, decked out in gold, pink, and white, the colors of the wedding. The long cherry table had a glorious floral centerpiece, and every chair boasted ringlets of the same colorful ribbons.

  Danica hugged Blake’s father again. “I’m so pleased that you were able to come. I know it was a really far trip.”

  Harry Carter looked just like the old movie star Clint Walker: thick and wide chested, with leathery skin from too much sun, thick hair that must have once been as dark as Blake’s and was now more salt than pepper. His voice was as gravelly as Clint Eastwood’s. Danica had instantly liked him when they’d met last year, and watching the way he looked at Blake, like he was the proudest father in the world, endeared him to Danica even more.

  “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. He’s a good man, Blake is.”

  “He sure is.”

  Kaylie walked in arm in arm with Weston, Chaz’s older brother. He was every bit as handsome as Chaz, though he wore his thick, dirty-blond hair shorn close to his head, and his face had begun to show the effects of his high-stress life as a surgeon, with fine lines across his forehead and at the corners of his eyes.

  “I still can’t get over my baby brother getting married before me,” Weston said.

  “We’ll find you a wife, Weston. Leave it to me,” Kaylie assured him.

  Great. Kaylie’s matchmaking service. Danica turned to thank the hostess. On the wall behind them were life-size photographs of Kaylie and Chaz and Blake and Danica kissing, in various stages of laughter, and gazing into each other’s eyes, obviously taken since they’d been at the resort.

  “When did Treat do all of this?” Danica gaped, in awe of the vibrant, sharp images and the blatant elation that gleamed in their eyes.

  “That’s Treat for you. He never holds anything back,” Blake answered, as he took in the photographs. “He and his brothers have always been competitive, but I guess Treat brings his best to everything in his life.”

  “Wow, that’s just amazing!” Kaylie gushed.

  “You look stunning,” Abby, Chaz’s younger sister, said to Kaylie. Abby was in her mid-twenties, like Lacy, but she had idolized everything about Kaylie since the day they’d met.

  “Aw, you’re too sweet,” Kaylie said, pulling her into a hug.

  “Oh my God! Look, Kaylie, that’s you!” Marie said.

  Kaylie raised her brows and opened her eyes wide. “Really? Is it?” she mocked.

  Everyone laughed, except Chaz’s mother, Elise. She scowled and surveyed the room in her prim, chenille suit. Her stiff white shirt covered her wrinkly neck like a religious collar.

  “It’s a little strange, having a rehearsal dinner without so much as a wedding rehearsal,” Elise said with her chin tilted up, her eyes looking away, and a wave of her hand, pinky pointed at the ceiling, like she was part of the royal family.

  Danica watched her mother swallow a retort, her eyes narrowing in a stalking-her-prey manner, reminding her of Kaylie on more than one occasion.

  “It is kinda weird that you’re not rehearsing anything. I mean, she’s right. It is a rehearsal dinner,” Astrid, Chaz’s older sister, said innocently. Astrid was practical, and beautiful in an old-fashioned way, with straight blond hair and a slightly rounded, though not heavy, figure, and each time Danica had seen her, she’d been dressed primly, with neatly pressed lines and perfectly polished shoes. Even so, she didn’t exude an ounce of privilege. She was a kind and warm woman.

  Kaylie glared at Chaz, and Danica snickered silently as he shrugged, clearly unable to control tonight’s outcome where his mother was concerned.

  “Kaylie didn’t want to rehearse the wedding, so we figured we’d make the best of the gathering and still celebrate the night before the wedding with a nice family dinner,” Max said confidently, leaving no room for if, ands, or buts.

  The rehearsal had been the only bone of contention between Danica and Kaylie. Kaylie felt that the wedding should be spontaneous. She didn’t care if the kids froze as they walked down the aisle, or if the bridesmaids came down in the wrong order. She believed that whatever was going to happen, happened for a reason, while the ever-practical Danica had wanted to know what to expect. Danica had known the lack of a rehearsal would cause conflict with Kaylie’s very traditional future mother-in-law, who already alluded to Kaylie having “trapped” her son. Danica secretly wondered if perhaps Kaylie refused the rehearsal to goad Elise, staking her claim to their life as husband and wife. Silently telling Elise to butt out. So Danica backed off, and the compromise they made had worked out well. Max created a full outline of every aspect of the wedding, which Danica had spent the previous two months memorizing.

  Now, as everyone moved to find a seat, Danica’s pulse raced again. She watched the teens
settle in at the far end of the table. Chaz’s family sat to Chaz’s right and Sally, Nancy, and Max sat across from them, followed by Lacy and Madeline. Chaz and Kaylie sat with two high chairs in between them, and Danica sat on Kaylie’s other side.

  Her sister was nestled far enough away from the remaining chairs that being near her father shouldn’t be an issue. Danica watched Blake’s father pull the chair out at the head of the table for her mother; then he sat down beside Blake. Her father settled into the only seat left in the room, beside Madeline and to the immediate left of her mother.

  Danica hoped her interpretation of what she’d witnessed between her mother and father earlier in the day had been misconstrued. She breathed a sigh of relief once everyone was seated and the meal was served.

  “Dane didn’t make it?” Lacy asked.

  “He wasn’t expected to come to the dinner,” Blake explained. “He had a business meeting most of the afternoon and evening. He’s still hoping to make it to the wedding, though. Treat may stop in at some point, but he’s so busy, I wouldn’t count on it.”

  Danica was pretty sure Blake didn’t pick up on Lacy’s disappointment in his answer, but she could not ignore the lackluster way that Lacy now picked at her food.

  Chaz’s mother looked at Chaz, though she was addressing Blake. “What kind of family doesn’t make it to a rehearsal dinner?”

  “Mother,” Chaz said sharply.

  “That’s okay,” Blake said with a seemingly sincere smile. “Dane does a lot of international work and fundraising. He has to take his meetings and calls when his clients allow. He’s a remarkable person, really, with the work he’s doing.”

  Lacy listened with wide eyes and bated breath. “He’s been on a humanitarian project in Belize, tagging sharks and raising money to help save them.”

  “Sharks?” Elise made a harrumph sound.

  “Mom, did you know that Blake’s cousin Treat, Dane’s brother, owns this resort?” Astrid winked at Blake as she engaged her mother in a conversation about the elegance of the hotel.

  Danica’s father and Madeline had been murmuring quietly all night in between his conversations with her mother. Now Danica’s father looked at her uncomfortably, like he had a mouth full of rocks that he couldn’t quite spit out.