The Last Bride (DiCarlo Brides #6) (5 page)

Angela groaned. “You’re not going to give up, are you?”

“Nope. If you’re not down in three minutes, I’ll come after you with a pitcher of ice water.” Jonquil forced a glare before going out on the landing, shutting the door behind her. She hated being the bad guy. There was no help for it, though. Angela was her “guest,” so for Delphi’s sake, it was Jonquil’s job to make sure Angela toed the line. In their house, anyway.

She went back down the open stairwell to the kitchen and cleared a space to make Angela’s morning beverage. By the time Angela came down the stairs, Jonquil was stirring the espresso into the milk.

“That is one awesome machine. How did you get it?” Angela asked. “It’s like out of a restaurant or something.”

“Dad picked it up when he set this place up. We all decided it was to keep Rosemary from blowing up in the morning. She really needs her morning caffeine before she can be happy. Then again, she’s not the only one like that.” She set the mug on the counter. “Pull up a stool—that may be the only clear surface in the room.”

Angela winced a little. “I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t realize what a mess everyone made. Next time I won’t invite so many people.”

Jonquil grabbed another stool and sat on it across the counter from Angela. “We need to have a chat about that. Take a few swallows first, though, so that caffeine can start doing its job.”

Angela did, then took on a defiant expression. “Are you going to treat me like a naughty teenager because I had a party? Seriously, nothing got broken or stained or anything. They were all adults, allowed to drink. It’s not like it was a rave.”

“You’re right. It could have been worse, but we need to have a chat anyway. First: this is not your house. This is my house and Delphi’s house. You are a guest. A guest shows good manners by
not
inviting over three dozen friends to have a party. Especially since you never discussed it with us first. If you want to have a couple of friends over, you’re welcome to. If it’s going to be more than three, you need to speak with Delphi or myself before issuing invitations.”

Her chin turned stubborn. “You want me to ask permission?”

Jonquil felt like the meanest meanie ever, but she held her ground. “Yes, if you’re going to have a bunch of people over, I expect you to ask permission. This is what a good guest would do. Honestly, unless we’re having a family gathering, I wouldn’t have more than a few people over without checking in with Delphi anyway. It’s called good manners. We’re roommates, we have to be considerate of each other.”

“You think I have bad manners and I’m inconsiderate? I’m sorry I’m such a burden to you. I’ll go move into the barracks with everyone else.” Angela stood and turned toward the stairs.

Jonquil rolled her eyes. Everything had to be drama with her sister. “Sit down and talk like an adult, Angela.” Jonquil huffed, disgusted with herself for even a little capitulation. “You’re not a burden, you’re just not thinking clearly. You had a ton of people over until late. We had you turn down the noise twice—not counting when Delphi turned it down when we arrived home. They kept turning it back up again. Your friends left this place trashed and you didn’t clean up. We have regular jobs. I had my usual meeting at eight this morning. So did Delphi. We need to be able to sleep at night.”

“It’s the weekend.” Angela gestured with her hands now that she was more awake. “You worked like every day this week and you still had a meeting this morning?” Angela stared in surprise.

“We have one every morning. Once in a while I let my assistant manager handle it, but usually it’s all me. Delphi and I both work nearly every day, with an occasional day or afternoon off so we don’t kill ourselves, but the resort is demanding. We can’t slack or things don’t run like they should. There will be days when I work until eight or nine at night after being at the office by seven. That’s how it works. You need to respect that and let us sleep at night.”

Angela’s expression turned slightly contrite. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.”

“Well, now you do. And so you know, if you ever have a party again without getting permission first, I
will
kick everyone out.” Jonquil looked across the scattered garbage. “I’ll help you clean this up—mostly because I need to use the kitchen—but I’m not doing it all for you, and I better
never
see something like this happen again—or you really will be living four to a room in those tiny living quarters they offer the actors.” She took in a deep breath and tried to even her tone. “I’m glad to have you here. I want to be able to spend time with you and I’ll try to work my schedule around yours if I can, but you’ve got to work with us too.”

Angela scowled into her cup. “You’re bossy.”

“Only when you’re being a brat.” Jonquil let her lips twitch up into a smile.

Angela took another long swallow and finished off her cappuccino. “Okay, let’s get this place cleaned up. Delphi scares me.”

“She’ll be thrilled to hear it.” Jonquil pulled the box of garbage bags from under the sink, hoping that would be the end of that and things with Angela would run better from now on.

After helping Angela get the house back in order, Jonquil made more food to take over to the guys at Al’s. Angela had begged a ride to rehearsal that day, and when she realized they would be stopping to see the men, asked to go along. “Come on, you said the third friend is hot, and he’s supposed to be there, right? I need to meet some non-drama guys. They’re all so… dramatic.”

Jonquil shrugged to hide her discomfort with Angela’s interest in Gage. “It’s not that big of a deal. It’s not like he’s anything special. And I haven’t seen him date at all since we moved here.” Not that she would necessarily know, but he hadn’t had a date for any of the bigger events she’d attended, and if he dated occasionally, surely she would have heard about it from someone.

“Don’t believe her,” Delphi said. “Gage is terrific. They just haven’t managed to catch Dad’s vision yet.”

Jonquil threw Delphi a dirty look. Their dad’s vision had been Jonquil and Gage together in happily wedded bliss, like he’d seen the other girls with their men. Bringing it up wasn’t very nice—especially since Angela didn’t know about any of that.

Angela didn’t have a chance to ask what she meant though, since Delphi asked, “Cami’s bringing dessert?”

She wore tan capris and a pale pink blouse—far more casual than her usual button-down business suits. Even her short cap of blond hair seemed somehow softer than usual. She checked the chicken salad sandwich filling Jonquil had made.

“Yeah, courtesy of the grocery store bakery, I think,” Jonquil said. Cami was as useless in the kitchen as Delphi.

“Good. Come on. You can drive.” Delphi led the way out to the garage.

Jonquil wondered if the reason Delphi let her drive was because she was afraid some of the food would get spilled in her own car. Usually Delphi liked to be in control.

When they arrived at Al’s, Gage, Jeremy and Vince were crouched on the roof, pounding nails and looking completely edible—or at least one of them was. When she stepped out of the car, Jonquil took a long moment to watch Gage and appreciate the flex of muscles beneath glistening skin. His dark hair fell over one eye as he lifted the hammer. Vince looked over and said something and Gage looked up, his brown eyes staring right at her, a little scruff darkening his chin. The familiar flutter in her chest started again and she made herself look away.

“Oh,
yum
.” Angela sounded like she’d come to an all-you-can-eat dessert bar. “I noticed Vince and Jeremy were good-looking when they came to our place, but all three of them are H. O. T. hot without shirts on.”

“Take a salad and go inside.” Jonquil shoved one into Angela’s hands and propelled her toward the door before grabbing the bag of crescent rolls.

Delphi smirked at Jonquil, then turned to Angela. “I’ll introduce you to Gage.”

Jonquil wanted to strangle her, but reminded herself that she was just becoming non-enemies with Gage. There was nothing between them and there probably never would be.

Cami’s car pulled in while Jonquil stood on the doorstep and they waved to her. Cami’s auburn hair glistened in the sun from the front seat of her convertible with the top down—as she always did if the weather was even half decent.

Jonquil waited for her on the porch. “How are you doing?”

“Good. Did your sister clean up the kitchen?” Before Jonquil could ask how she knew, Cami continued, “Delphi whined to me this morning.”

“Yeah. It’s clean and she did most of it. The joys of little sisters.” She shot Cami a teasing glance. “Of course,
you
have the best little sisters on the planet. None of us made a big mess of the house for you to clean us, did we?” Cami was the eldest of the sisters but had only grown up with Lana.

“No, but only because you were afraid of Rosemary and Delphi.” Cami breezed past and into the house. Jonquil couldn’t argue—Cami had a point, the other two could be a little intimidating sometimes.

Vince showed up a moment after Jonquil entered the house. He pulled Cami close for a quick kiss, then moved toward the food. Jeremy and Gage weren’t far behind him.

Delphi introduced Angela to Gage and Jonquil noticed the way Angela eyed him up. “Now, I know Vince is married to Cami, and Jeremy and Delphi are engaged, but how about you? Are you attached to anyone?” Her voice held an unmistakable teasing, flirty tone.

“No, I’m happily single. You?” He didn’t sound disinterested.

“Free and easy. School eats up all of my dating time usually. I really like summer breaks.” Angela’s smile was flirtatious.

Jonquil didn’t believe it. Angela had always been a social butterfly, and there was no way she didn’t date during the school year.

Gage looked at the food the girls had set out and asked Angela. “Did you make any of this?”

“No,” Delphi said. “She spent the morning cleaning up after herself. You’ll have to thank Jonquil for everything.”

“Hey, I helped. The macaroni salad is my specialty.” Angela smiled up at Gage again.

Jonquil wanted to barf. Of course baby sis would zoom in on the one guy Jonquil wanted. Not that Angela knew how she felt. Jonquil reminded herself that Gage didn’t owe her anything and smiled at Al. “Do you think the guys have been working hard enough to deserve lunch?”

“They’ve been at it since eight o’clock. The neighbors can attest to that.”

“Great. Then I guess we’ll let them eat.” She sometimes felt like the odd-man-out when she came to events like this. She wasn’t hooked up with any of the guys, and hadn’t dated anyone for a while. And now, as she watched Gage and Angela talk and flirt, even hoping their improving relationship might go somewhere eventually seemed pointless. Could he be any more clear about the fact that he wasn’t interested in Jonquil?

She made the most of her time at lunch, talking with the others, and hauled Angela out of the house as early as she could. Besides, Angela had rehearsals to attend, right? Rushing her out of there had nothing to do with the man she’d been absorbed in for nearly an hour.

Jonquil wished she could believe it.

Jonquil had offered to climb onto the roof and help the guys that afternoon—she’d done tougher work to help out at home in Philly, but the guys said no thanks. She wondered if they thought she would ruin their guy conversation or if they thought she was too delicate for the work.

She pushed the thought back and cleaned up the kitchen from making the guys’ lunch. The weather was lovely and called to her, but looking at her overflowing laundry basket, she decided maybe she better get on it before she ran out of clothes for work.

She hadn’t heard from her mother recently, other than a quick text asking if Angela made it there safely on Monday afternoon. Jonquil pulled out her phone and speed-dialed home.

“Jonquil,” her mother answered. “How are things going there? Angela seems to be enjoying herself.”

Jonquil thought again about the way her sister had been flirting with Gage. “Yes, she sure does.” She pushed the image away. “How’s Dad doing?” Her stepfather had worked in a coal mine for years and stopped a few years earlier when they found he had lung cancer. He had beaten that but now struggled with emphysema and COPD. He did what he could, but his health had been steadily deteriorating for several years.