Million Dollar Christmas Bride - Holly Rayner Page 0,47

had one of his staff members handle it, she thought.

She thought bitterly of his personal assistant, his secretary, and his housekeeper. All were women that Jackson seemed to feel comfortable calling on for a helping hand.

Now he can add me to his list of employees, she thought, with a pang of discomfort. And I’d better remember that’s all I am to him.

Nothing more.

He made that abundantly clear.

“Well, even so,” Nicky said. “I think you’re crazy. I didn’t work on the day before my wedding. I took the day off to get a mani and pedi.”

“You, at the nail salon?” Bianca asked incredulously. She just couldn’t imagine the woman before her sitting in one of those reclining chairs, being pampered. Nicky chopped off her frizzy black-and-gray hair about once a year, when it started getting in her face, and never wore a speck of makeup. Beauty salons were not her cup of tea.

“But you never fuss about things like that,” Bianca said.

Nicky chuckled. “Getting married is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I figured if I was ever going to get pampered, that was the time. The truth is, it was kind of fun.”

She stepped off of the chair with a grunt. “Now—you’ve been awfully tight-lipped about this wedding. What’s the deal? Aren’t you excited?”

Bianca didn’t answer. Nicky held up the container of tacks. Bianca grabbed two and stuck them into the garland.

“Come on now,” Nicky said. “You’ve always been so humble. But when a girl lands a guy like you did, she ought to brag! I don’t mind. You think I’m going to be jealous of you? My Mikey might be an oaf, but I love him, and I always will. I’m just happy for you that you finally found a good man for yourself after all those losers you went through. It’s about time…”

She continued to chat as she moved over to the table to browse through a box of assorted ornaments. “I guess all that waiting paid off, though, because boy did you hit the jackpot. You scored the hottest, richest man in Memphis! Heck—maybe even in the whole world!”

She smiled and turned, something green in her hands. “What do you think, a little sprig of mistletoe over the door?”

Bianca scrunched up her nose and shook her head. “I don’t think we want to give Mr. Sanders another reason to try to kiss any of the ladies. Did you know I had to go talk to him two days back? Poor Donna stopped by his room to ask to borrow a towel. All of hers were in the dirty laundry. Well, he handed her a towel all right, along with a smooch on the cheek.”

Nicky lowered the mistletoe. “Right. Good thinking.” She started digging through the box, looking for an alternative. “So come on, spill! I want some juicy details about your upcoming nuptials. Don’t worry about bragging. Let it out!”

Bianca stepped down off of the chair. She bit her lip. “Umm…”

To buy some time, she walked across the room and pretended to be completely absorbed in assessing the tree. But from the corner of her eye, she could see that Nicky was watching, waiting for an answer.

“It’s actually not going that great,” Bianca said softly. She picked up a blue bulb ornament from one of the boxes at her feet and hung it by a hook on one of the tree’s fake evergreen branches. “We had… well… an argument last week.”

“Oh, pff,” Nicky said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “That’s normal. It would actually be incredibly abnormal for the two of you to sail through wedding preparations without having one fight. What was the spat about?”

Bianca reached for another ornament. There was no way she could tell Nicky the details of her falling-out with Jackson.

She gazed distractedly at the engagement ring on her left finger. It was a replica of a diamond; a piece that Jackson had purchased online, for the sake of their act. At first, she’d enjoyed wearing it. But now, the ring felt clunky and ill-fitting on her finger. In fact, it was slightly too big, as Jackson hadn’t known her ring size when he ordered it. When she had it on, she had to curl her left hand into a fist whenever she gestured so the thing didn’t fly right off of her finger.

“Something personal, hm?” Nicky guessed, reading into Bianca’s silence.

“Mm-hmm,” Bianca said.

“Well, I know how that is,” Nicky said. “And I totally get it that you don’t want to blab about what