The Matchmaker's Mistletoe Mission

by Jaci Burton

  “Probably. But it’s also going to be a party to end all parties. If he thinks I’m going to cancel, then spend that day crying over him, he’s wrong. Dead wrong.” Erin shrugged. “So, let’s party our butts off on my non-wedding day. We’ll call it the Bellini Party of the Summer, instead. What do you think?”

  “I’m in,” Honor said. “Whatever you want, you get, as far as I’m concerned.”

  Brenna nodded. “Agreed. It’s your day, Erin. So you get to do whatever you want to do. I’m in, too. Mom?”

  Their mother sighed. “Wait till your dad hears about this. I’m not convinced he won’t fly to Aruba and personally drag Owen back here to marry you.”

  Erin lifted her chin. “I don’t ever want to see him again, let alone marry him.”

  It took a few beats for her mother to answer. “Okay, then. We’ll throw the best party this venue has ever seen.”

  And Erin would drown her heartbreak in the finest wine the Red Moss Vineyards produced.

  It would be one hell of a party.

  * * *

  * * *

  Jason Callum drove the dirt road like the fires of hell were on his heels.

  He’d tried calling Owen’s number three times. Each time, his phone went directly to voice mail. Owen often turned his phone off when he was working back in the brewing area, but he knew for a fact that his best friend was off work for the next two weeks.

  Jason glared at his phone. “Because you’re supposed to be getting married in two days, asshole.”

  He tossed his phone on the console of his truck

  He should have never backed off three years ago when Owen said he wanted to ask Erin out.

  Then again it wasn’t like Jason was going to do it. He and Erin had been friends since they were kids. Just friends.

  You like her, dumbass. You’ve always liked her. You just didn’t have the balls to do anything about it.

  He gripped the steering wheel, trying to bite back the curse words that wanted to escape from his mouth.

  This whole thing was his fault—indirectly, but still his fault.

  Three years ago Jason could have told Owen to back off, that he was interested in Erin. Instead, he’d told Owen to go for it, and had swallowed the feelings he’d had for Erin.

  He hadn’t realized how strong those feelings were until he’d had a front-row seat to watch Owen falling in love with Erin.

  And who wouldn’t? She was strong willed and smart and capable and beautiful and the way she laughed could instantly make a guy fall crazy in love.

  So what the hell was Owen doing?

  He turned into the long drive of the Red Moss Vineyards.

  He hoped like hell he’d heard Erin wrong, that this was some kind of colossal mistake. Because his best friend wouldn’t do this to Erin, wouldn’t up and cancel the wedding with only two days to go. That just wasn’t Owen, and he knew him probably better than anyone.

  He pulled the truck along the side of the main house and got out, brushing off dust and animal hair that clung to his worn jeans. He’d changed out of the boots that he’d been working in and slid into another pair so he wouldn’t track cow shit into the Bellini’s house. He walked up the wide wood stairs and onto the oversized porch. He knew he didn’t have to knock. He’d known this family for as long as he’d been alive. He’d played out back with the Bellini girls since they were all kids.

  He walked through the front door and followed the sound of Johnny Bellini’s booming voice, some of it in English and some in Italian.

  “Dad, you’re not going to kill him,” Honor said.

  “Bastardo. He disgraced my daughter. That is just not done.”

  Erin rolled her eyes. “First, I am hardly disgraced. Pissed? Yes. Disgraced, no. And second? By the time I’m done talking to everyone about what he did to me, it’ll be his reputation that’s ruined. That’ll be enough.”

  “Hey,” Jason said, stepping into the room. “I was on the phone with Erin and I heard. I came right over to make sure she was okay.”

  His gaze shot to Erin, who looked as upset as he’d ever seen her. Erin was never flustered, never upset, never out of sorts. She was the one sister who always had her shit together.

  Today she didn’t have it together. Her dark raven hair was piled high in a crown on top of her head. Erin never let a hair fall out of place, but right now the crown sat a little lopsided and tendrils had escaped, framing her flushed face. The pencil she’d stuck into the bun on her head threatened to topple the entire shebang. And her normally sharp green eyes were clouded, as if she was on the verge of tears.

  Jason wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Erin Bellini cry. Not even when he’d pushed her off the slide when they were eight years old. She’d just gotten up, brushed herself off, then come over and punched him right in the jaw.

  He figured that’s when he’d first fallen in love with her.

  Now she just looked sad. But damn, she still looked beautiful, and he had no right to think that.

  “I’m not okay, Jason.” She walked over and leaned against him.

  He put his arm around her and held her close. “I’m sorry, Erin.”

  He’d do anything he could to take this pain away from her, including kicking the shit out of his best friend.

  “Have you heard from him?” she asked.

  “No. I tried calling him on my way over and his phone went right to voice mail each time.”

  “Damn. Has he said anything to you?”

  “About calling off the wedding? No. You know I’d have talked him out of it. What was he thinking?”

  She tried to smooth her hair into place, then walked back into the living room. “I don’t know. I wish I could talk to him.”

  “No. You will not ever speak to him again,” Johnny said. “I, however, have a lot to say to him.”

  “Johnny,” Maureen said, “you know you’re not going to say anything to him.”

  “What about his parents?” Honor asked. “Has anyone called them? Aren’t they supposed to drive in tomorrow from Dallas?”

  “They are,” Erin said. “I hadn’t even thought about calling them.”

  Jason pulled out his phone. “Let me do that.”

  Every set of Bellini eyes rested on him as he was about to call Owen’s dad. “I’ll just step outside.”

  The phone call with Owen’s dad was short, but just about as much of a punch to the gut as hearing Erin scream. When he hung up, he saw Erin standing just outside the front door.

  “They know?”

  He nodded. “But not for long. They just got off the phone with him about an hour ago. They’re in shock, Erin. They didn’t know anything before now.”

  She walked forward and took a seat on the front step, cradling her arms around her knees. She lifted her gaze to his. “Did he tell them anything?”

  He took a seat next to her. “Just that he changed his mind, and he knew what he was doing was wrong and would make a lot of people unhappy, especially you, and that he flew to Aruba because he needed some distance.”

  She sighed, and he felt the weight of her sigh as if he carried her pain himself. “I don’t understand any of this. Why didn’t he just talk to me?”

  “I don’t know. Why didn’t he talk to me? I’m his best friend. If he had second thoughts, you’d think he’d want to sound them out with someone. It seems to me like he didn’t talk to anyone. Not you, not me, not his parents. So I don’t get it, either.”

  “See, none of this makes sense to me, Jason. Owen and I always talked everything out. I mean, maybe we hadn’t done a lot talking lately, but with the wedding planning, my job, his job, we’ve both been busy.” She swept a stray hair away from her face. “I thought everything had been fine. He’d told me he was fine.

  “Clearly it had not been fine. Couldn’t he have said something to me? Like, ‘Hey, Erin, I don’t want to get married’?
That would have been a great start.”

  Jason read the anguish on her face and he wanted to pull her close, to comfort her. But he also read the tension in her body and knew now wasn’t the time.

  Damn. How could his best friend do this to . . . his other best friend?

  Erin straightened. “Well, anyway, screw him. I’ve decided we’re still going ahead with the reception.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. Everything is paid for and arranged and it’s not like at this late date we can cancel anything. So we’re going to have one hell of a party.”

  “You don’t have to do that, Erin. Everyone will understand if you want to cancel.”

  “But see, that’s the thing. I don’t want to cancel. I might not be getting married, but I’ll have the best damn non-wedding reception this town has ever seen. And I’ll expect everyone to be there. Well, not Owen’s family, of course. But everyone else should come. You’ll come, won’t you?”

  If there was one thing he knew about Erin Bellini, it was her determination. And he could tell from the look on her face that she was determined not to spend this weekend acting like the jilted bride. But there was no way to know how that non-wedding party of hers was going to play out. So he planned to be by her side. He wasn’t going to be the guy who let her down.

  “Hell yeah, I’m coming. And I’ll wear the damn tux, too.”

  He got up and held his hand out for her.

  She grinned and slipped her hand in his. “Good, because you and I, Jason? We are gonna dance Saturday night.”

  He was counting on it. Owen may have screwed her over, but Jason was going to show her that life went on.

  It might not be her wedding on Saturday, but Jason was going to make sure that Erin had the best night of her life.

  About the Author

  Jaci Burton is the USA Today and New York Times bestselling author of the Brotherhood by Fire series, the Play-by-Play series, the Hope series and the Wild Riders series, and part of several anthologies with Lora Leigh.

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