Carrying the Lost Heir's Child (18 page)

Prologue

“I
'm sorry.” Briana Harper interrupted her business partner in the middle of their weekly meeting. “Did you just say we've booked the Missy Kline and Ian Lawson wedding?
The
Missy Kline and Ian Lawson?”

Natalie, the wedding planner and office manager, looked up from her tablet, her brow furrowing in mild irritation at Bree breaking her flow. “Yes,” she said with a heavy sigh. “What's the big deal with that? We have plenty of celebrity weddings.”

Bree shook her head and returned to tapping absently at her own tablet. “I'm just surprised, that's all.” That wasn't all, but she wasn't going to tell her best friends and business partners that. One of the most important rules at From This Moment was to remain professional at all times. It didn't matter if the ring bearer knocked over the wedding cake, a guest spoke up during the dreaded “if anyone has any reason why these two should not be wed” moment or the groom was your ex-boyfriend. So Bree kept her mouth shut.

“They're all over the magazine covers at the grocery store checkout lines,” Gretchen added. “I don't know how you could've missed it. Apparently she's pregnant, too.”

“I guess I've been eating too much takeout,” Bree muttered. Pregnant. The bare-midriff pop queen was going to have Ian's baby. For some reason that bothered her. A lot. How could she have missed this news?

Natalie flung her dark brown hair over her shoulder and continued on with her Monday morning briefing. When Natalie was focused on the job, there was no room for joking around or unnecessary drama.

Each Monday, the four owners of From This Moment met to discuss new clients, business issues and the previous weekend's wedding.

From This Moment was a one-stop wedding venue that catered to the discriminating Nashville bride. Anybody who was anybody got married at their facility. In just six short years, college friends Natalie, Amelia, Gretchen and Bree had gone from being nobodies with a dream to members of the Nashville business elite.

Together, they were a powerhouse of wedding perfection. If they couldn't do it, they knew someone who could. Anything the bridal couple wanted, they made it happen. No request was too complex, and they built a reputation on that. That, and a policy of strict confidentiality.

Natalie was right; they did have their fair share of celebrities marry here. Missy Kline was just one more star they could add to their roster of famous clients, but Bree couldn't care less about her. She was far more interested in Missy's groom—Nashville music producer and owner of SpinTrax Records, Ian Lawson.

Once upon a time, Ian had been the center of Bree's universe. They had met as freshmen at Belmont University in Nashville and for more than a year, they had been inseparable. He had been the sexy coffee shop musician with the long hair in his sleepy eyes and the smile that could charm her panties off. When he'd played his guitar and sang to her, all was right in the world. And then he had stopped playing and everything went wrong.

“Bree?”

Bree's head snapped up. The other three ladies were looking at her. She'd obviously missed something. “Yes?”

“I said,” Natalie repeated, “will you be able to do the engagement portraits this Thursday and still be back in time to cover the rehearsal dinner for the Conner wedding on Friday?”

Now it was Bree's turn to frown. “Why wouldn't I be back in time? It only takes a couple hours for an engagement shoot.”

“The bride wants to do the photo shoot at the groom's cabin in Gatlinburg.” Amelia repeated the detail Bree had missed.

“That should be fine.”

“Okay, good.” Natalie made a note. “I'll get you the address of the cabin. Plan to arrive around noon.”

That was that. Once Natalie noted something in her tablet, it was virtually signed in blood. There was no getting out of it now. Bree would finally come face-to-face with the man who had haunted her thoughts and dreams for the past nine years.

And his new bride.

Copyright © 2015 by Andrea Laurence

ISBN-13: 9781460344675

Carrying the Lost Heir's Child

Copyright © 2015 by Jules Bennett

All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical,
now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.

www.Harlequin.com