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Category: Romance
Description: Sarah Sullivan Winslow Jones, struggling artist, is getting married--for the third time. Who best to be her bridesmaid again but her elder sister, Maddy Sullivan. Maddy doesn't mind being a bridesmaid for her younger sister for the third time. After all, as a divorce lawyer who's own sister is her best customer, she is disillusioned with love and marriage. Maddy has different goals and has no time for romance. Griffen Lorimer has been too busy taking care of the family business to fall seriously in love. But that was before he met Maddy Sullivan.
eBook Publisher: Hard Shell Word Factory, 2002
Hard Shell Word Factory Release Date: July 2004

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [156 KB], ePub (EPUB) [164 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [137 KB], Portable Document Format (PDF) [947 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [153 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [169 KB], Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [191 KB], hiebook (KML) [395 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [218 KB], iSilo (PDB) [125 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [157 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [201 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [209 KB]
Words: 47818
Reading time: 136-191 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Portable Document Format (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"WILL YOU BE my bridesmaid?"

Maddy Sullivan looked doubtfully at her eighteen-year-old sister, Sarah. "You're getting married? To Peter Winslow?"

Sarah beamed. "Yes. We'll have the most wonderful wedding in the world. Champagne and roses, wedding vows by moonlight. It'll all be so romantic."

Maddy took several sips of water from the water bottle she carried everywhere with her. Her brain needed reoxygenating to cope with Sarah's news. "Isn't Peter, well, maybe just a little old for you?"

"He's only forty-two. In the prime of life."

"Over the hill," Maddy muttered under her breath. At twenty-three, five years older than Sarah, she couldn't imagine tying herself down for life. Especially not to a stuffed shirt like Peter Winslow. "But what about college?" she asked. "I thought you were determined to go to art school even though Mom and Dad have refused to help you pay for it."

She shifted uneasily on her seat. Their parents were paying for her education without complaining. An Ivy League law school was just what they considered suitable for their daughters. Luckily for Maddy, all she wanted to do was to practice family law.

Sarah, however, refused to consider law. She had always wanted to paint and paint she would, even if it meant she had to starve.

"Peter knows how important my painting is to me," Sarah said. "He's already agreed to send me to art school."

Maddy was shocked. She had never thought Sarah was mercenary. Flighty and impulsive maybe, but not a gold-digger. "You're marrying Peter for his money?"

"Of course not." Sarah sounded truly horrified. "I would never marry anyone for his money. I'm in love with Peter. Wildly, madly, passionately in love with him. I will love him forever."

Maddy sighed. If Sarah was truly in love with Peter, then everything would be all right. For Sarah's sake, she would try her best to love her new brother-in-law. "I would love to be your bridesmaid," she said.

"WOULD YOU be my bridesmaid?"

Maddy Sullivan looked doubtfully at her sister, Sarah Sullivan Winslow. "You're getting married? To Casey Jones?"

Sarah beamed. "Yes. We shall have the most wonderful wedding in the world. We'll exchange our vows in Casey's studio and then take off for a painting honeymoon in Hawaii."

Maddy took several deep breaths and touched her left ear with her right hand to re-coordinate the two hemispheres of her brain. This was just the kind of time when she needed the strength of both hemispheres. The logical side to analyze the information that she had just been given and the creative side to come up with possible solutions. "But your divorce to Peter was only finalized last week. Aren't you getting remarried in rather a rush?"

"My marriage to Peter was over two years ago. It was a huge mistake. I don't see why I can't remarry just as soon as I like."

Maddy had to agree with Sarah. Sarah's first marriage had been a huge mistake. Peter Winslow had had a predilection for young girls that his marriage to the eighteen-year-old Sarah hadn't managed to satisfy.

Maddy, even more than Sarah, had been shocked when Peter was caught in a compromising position on the couch with the sixteen-year-old girl who lived next door. Sarah had immediately filed for divorce and retained Maddy, fresh out of law school, to negotiate her settlement.

Furious with her soon-to-be-ex-brother-in-law, Maddy had demanded, and won, a more than generous settlement for Sarah.

"What will the two of you do when you return from Hawaii? Has Casey found a job?" She wasn't hopeful. No one in his right mind would hire Casey. Not unless he removed at least a couple of his nose rings and started washing his clothes regularly.

"He doesn't need to find a job. The settlement you got for me from Peter will be enough for the two of us to live on until the rest of the world recognizes Casey's genius. Then we shall be rich. Not, of course," she added after a short pause, "that Casey cares about money."

"Of course," Maddy said. Casey didn't need to care about money. He would get plenty when he married Sarah. For the first time she regretted the large settlement she had managed to squeeze out of Winslow.

"I won't make you wear a pink satin dress with huge bows this time," Sarah promised. "Casey thinks that white wedding dresses are hopelessly clichéd and bourgeois. I will wear midnight blue instead. Leather. With zippers."

Great, Maddy thought to herself. She wouldn't even get to wear a decent dress at this wedding. With her luck, Casey would have her dress up in thigh high combat boots and a leather bustier covered in metal studs. "Are you sure you are doing the right thing?"

"Of course I am. I'm in love with Casey. Wildly, madly, passionately in love with him. I will love him forever."

Maddy sighed. She had heard Sarah say something like that before.

"Wonderful," Maddy said out loud. "I would love to be your bridesmaid."

Three years later

"MADDY, WILL YOU be my bridesmaid?"

Copyright © 2002 by Kate Adair