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    The Bridesmaid: A Sexy and Fun Contemporary Wedding Romance
    The Bridesmaid: A Sexy and Fun Contemporary Wedding Romance
    The Bridesmaid: A Sexy and Fun Contemporary Wedding Romance
    Ebook127 pages1 hour

    The Bridesmaid: A Sexy and Fun Contemporary Wedding Romance

    By Julia London

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Readers love The Bridesmaid:

    "Sexy and fun"

    "Entertaining"

    "Fun, quirky, and romantic"

    "Great characters, fast pace, and a sweet romance"

    Getting her to the wedding on time is the least of his worries...

    Kate Preston just moved to New York, but she has to get back to Seattle in time for her best friend's wedding. Joe Firretti is moving to Seattle, and has to get there in time or risk losing his new job. But fate's got a sense of humor.

    Kate goes from rubbing elbows on a plane with a gorgeous but irritating stranger (doggone armrest hog) to sharing one travel disaster after another with him on four wheels. Joe thought he had his future figured out, but sometimes fate has to knock you over the head pretty hard before you see what opportunity is standing in front of you...in a really god-awful poufy bridesmaid dress.

    Praise for Julia London:

    "London knows how to keep pages turning...winningly fresh and funny."—Publishers Weekly

    "London's ability to draw real-life characters and settings is superb...her characters cope with life's curveball's and keep on trucking."—RT Book Reviews, 4 ½ stars

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateOct 1, 2013
    ISBN9781402283888
    The Bridesmaid: A Sexy and Fun Contemporary Wedding Romance
    Author

    Julia London

    Julia London is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than forty romantic fiction novels. She is the recipient of the RT Book Reviews Award for Best Historical Romance and a six-time finalist for the prestigious RITA award for excellence in romantic fiction. She lives in Austin, Texas.

    Read more from Julia London

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    Reviews for The Bridesmaid

    3.5/5

    13 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Kate Preston is on her way back to her family home in Seattle to attend her cousin's wedding. She hasn't lived in New York very long, but she loves it there. Her new job as assistant editor is her dream job. So her trip to Seattle will be a quick week-end get away. Joe Firretti is from New York and is headed to Seattle for his dream job. He had gone out the night before to attend a "Congratulations!! going away party" his friends threw for him and is now battling a hangover. The new job is truly a wonderful opportunity for him doing what he loves to do and making a great salary. Kate and Joe end up sitting next to each other in the plane. Joe sleeps and Kate eats some peanuts and all is well....until the captain gets on the intercom and explains that they must make an unscheduled landing. There is a huge blizzard in the middle of the country and all air transportation seems to be getting re-routed. This is a well written, fun, and romantic novella. It brought to mind "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" but with a romance thrown in. The characters were great and I loved Kate's family. The ending was the icing on the cake. A good read!!
    • 4/5
      I’ve been a fan of Julia London for years and she never disappoints. In Bridesmaid, Kate Preston is flying from NY to Seattle for her cousin’s wedding. She shares her row with Joe Firretti who is going to Seattle for a new job and is a tad hung over. Kate and Joe spend most of the flight trying to outdo each other in getting the armrest so they aren’t exactly in a cooperative mood when the flight is grounded for engine problems and they both need to get connecters to Seattle. When Joe beats Kate out at the car rental place, he decides to be the nice guy he really is and invites her to join him. This is the start of a wonderful relationship.I really enjoyed this book as both of the lead characters are funny and nice people. They actually talk to each other on the road even with a few jabs thrown in. Things don’t get hot and heavy until a long way through the book and by then there was so much chemistry between the two that it was even better.The other important character in the book is “the ugliest, most hideous, god-awful poufy piece of taffeta in the history of the world’. This is Kate’s description of the peach colored monstrosity she will be wearing as a bridesmaid. The dress practically needs its own seat on the plane and takes up the entire back of the car they rent. The dress has a recurring role through the whole book along with Lisa the crazy bride with a terrible case of bridal jitters.This book is a nice sweet read that will make you say aww… when you finish it.

    Book preview

    The Bridesmaid - Julia London

    frontcover.jpgtitlepage.jpg

    Copyright © 2013 by Dinah Dinwiddie

    Cover and internal design © 2013 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

    Cover design by Nicole Komasinski/Sourcebooks Inc.

    Cover illustration by Tom Hallman

    Cover images © Karen Massier/iStockphoto.com, Ecobo/Dreamstime.com

    Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

    The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

    Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.

    P. O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410

    (630) 961-3900

    Fax: (630) 961-2168

    www.sourcebooks.com

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file with the publisher.

    Contents

    Front Cover

    Title Page

    Copyright

    Chapter 1

    Chapter 2

    Chapter 3

    Chapter 4

    Chapter 5

    Chapter 6

    Chapter 7

    Chapter 8

    Chapter 9

    Chapter 10

    Chapter 11

    Chapter 12

    Chapter 13

    About the Author

    Back Cover

    Dedicated to every traveler stranded with me for eight hours when O’Hare International Airport shut down because of storms. Except the guy who took up two seats with his backpack and carry-on, and three plugs for his computer, cell phone, and iPad. Not him. Everyone but him.

    Happy travels, Julia

    Chapter 1

    It was bad enough that the dress was a poufy plantation ball gown number, complete with a sash and apron in a disturbing shade of peach, but it also wouldn’t fit in Kate’s suitcase. Which meant she was going to have to carry it on the plane. Which she had explained to Lisa when they’d shopped for the bridesmaid gowns six months ago.

    "But I love it!" Lisa had said, and had made Kate turn around one more time on the little pedestal in the bridal salon.

    It was puzzling to Kate. Lisa was her cousin and her best friend. She was pretty and so very stylish. Kate had always wished she were as stylish as Lisa. She’d always admired the way Lisa went after things she wanted, her generosity and kindness, her fabulous sense of humor. But Kate did not care for the way Lisa tended to flip out at the first sign of pressure, or the way she’d latched on to a vision for her wedding that defied logic.

    Lisa wanted a plantation wedding. In Seattle. And of course Lisa had bought a slinky mermaid wedding gown for herself. But for her sister Lori, and Kate, her maid of honor, she’d insisted on the peach monstrosities, with clunky platform shoes. Plus, she had the most appalling idea that Kate and Lori would wear their hair in French twists from which peach ribbons would cascade. Like morning mist, Lisa had said dreamily.

    Like morning puke, Kate’s little sister Cassidy had bluntly countered.

    Kate had complained to her mother, whose sister had given birth to Lisa and Lori. But Kate’s mother was only mildly sympathetic. It’s Lisa’s wedding. If she wants that kind of dress, she can have it. When you get married, you can make her wear purple or something.

    As there was no prospect of that in sight for Kate, revenge purple didn’t seem like a real option.

    And besides, I happen to like peach, her mother had added.

    Kate hated the dress, but this morning, she hated it with a passion so strong she might have launched missiles, because she couldn’t even get the damn thing into the garment bag—the pink garment bag—for the flight from New York to Seattle. It was too poufy.

    Kate glanced at the clock; she had an hour before a car arrived to whisk her off to the airport. She still had so many things to do. She was not the most organized person on the planet.

    She was shoving another pair of shoes into her suitcase when her cell phone rang. Hi, Mother, she said, hurrying to turn down the TV blaring in the background. Can’t talk long, a car is coming.

    I was calling to see if your flight was on time.

    Yep, Kate said as she frantically sorted through her jewelry box. At least she thought the flight was on time—she hadn’t gotten any alerts on her phone. Why?

    I’m worried about that storm.

    Storm? What storm? Kate turned around to her TV. The weatherman was gesturing to a big swath of purple across the middle of the country. It was nowhere near New York. Are you talking about that? Kate asked, pointing to a TV her mother couldn’t see. That’s Kansas. Or Missouri. One of those corn states.

    It’s a huge late-season snowstorm between you and us. Everything is shut down. It’s global warming, you know. Greenhouse emissions.

    Every inch of rain, every snowflake was now classified as global warming by Kate’s mother. Nevertheless, the storm was not in New York. It’s okay, Kate said impatiently. They’ll just fly over or around it. Not to worry, Mom! I’m on my way!

    I hope so. It would be devastating if the maid of honor didn’t make it. Lisa would explode and die, I think. And it seems like every time you fly home, something happens.

    I have flown home once since I moved to New York, and there was a thirty-minute delay. That’s just part of flying these days. Kate had moved to New York six months ago to take a job as an assistant editor at a big publishing house. It was a dream job for an English major. Kate had dreamed of being in publishing since high school, when she’d read A Clockwork Orange. Until that book, she hadn’t understood how lyrical and powerful storytelling could be, and after that book, she wanted to be a part of it. The pay for assistant editors sucked, but Kate loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it. And she loved New York. Listen, I really have to go, she said.

    We’ll see you at the airport. Have a safe flight, honey.

    Kate clicked off and threw her phone and charger in her purse. And then, through some miracle of physics, managed to shove the bridesmaid dress into the hanging bag, which ballooned to twice its size. Kate cursed Lisa once more, slung her tote bag over her shoulder, wrangled the unwieldy garment bag under her arm, and began to lug her suitcase down to the street from her third-floor walk-up.

    ***

    Missy Weaten gave Joe a kiss on the cheek. Call me when you get back to New York, okay?

    You bet, Joe said, and half fell, half stood from her car at the train station. Bleary-eyed, he watched her as she drove away. He wondered what exactly had happened last night between them. He was fairly certain nothing had, given his high state of inebriation several hours ago, but then again, he was Joe Firretti. He was a red-blooded man, and when opportunity presented itself—even when Missy Weaten presented herself—sometimes, things happened.

    He noticed an elderly couple staring at him. He gave them a half smile, ran his fingers through his hair, then straightened his suit coat. He pulled his bag behind him into the train station.

    He was not really the type to get wasted the way he had last night. But his pals from work had taken him out for a spectacular send-off. He was on his way to a new job, a fantastic job. A job that came along once in a lifetime. Joe knew it. The financial firm where he worked knew it. The financial firm in Seattle that had extended the very generous offer of employment knew it. Joe would be heading up the technology side of a major international bank.

    He had not intended to leave quite this soon for Seattle, but then the bank’s head honcho had flown in from Switzerland, and they’d told Joe it was imperative that he meet the CEO while he was available. So Joe had moved his departure up a week. He’d put a deposit down on an apartment and had arranged to have his things picked up and moved to Seattle the next week.

    Hoozah.

    He stepped up to the ticket machine, rubbed his face

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