A Newport Christmas Wedding Read online

  Rumor was, Gigi didn’t have a penny to her name. Nate and Amelia had to pay the funeral expenses, including the wake before the funeral and the repast after it. So Dorie had offered the catering ser­vices of the Blue Crab, free of charge. It was the least she could do. So what if she had to scrimp.

  She dismissed the two girls who’d helped with the setup and sent them back to the restaurant to set up for dinner. It was the last Saturday of the season, and there would be a handful of tourists to be fed.

  She pulled her cell phone out of her apron pocket. Something she had been doing all day. She’d gotten the message from Suze that she was on her way. Nothing from Van. She wasn’t surprised, but she was disappointed. Fool that she was, even after all these years, she’d expected Van to come.

  Things had begun to unravel for Whisper Beach all those years ago. And it hadn’t stopped. Maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe she’d just have to sit back and watch all those young lives swirl right down the drain.

  It was already too late for the likes of her, but she’d made her bed a long time ago. And all in all, it wasn’t such a bad place to sleep.

  Dorie dropped the phone back in her pocket, grabbed a hot pad, and pulled a tray of freshly browned Italian bread slices out of the oven. She placed the pan on a trivet and was just reaching for the bowl of tomato bruschetta when the door to the hall opened and Kippie Fuller slipped in and closed the door behind her.

  “What? Out of shrimp bites already?”

  Kippie shook her head. “You’ll never guess who I think I saw at the funeral.”

  Kippie was big and moved slow, but she had a quick eye for gossip.

  “Who?”

  “I’m pretty sure it was her.”

  Dorie began to feel a glimmer of—­not hope—­exactly, but interest. Yes, interest, nothing more. She waited for Kippie to expound on the subject. She would; she always did.

  “I didn’t get a good look, but Pete Daly said it was her.”

  “Huh.” Dorie untied her apron and threw it on the counter. Patted her hair, freshly blond from Lucille over at Sea Breeze Beauty.

  “Well, don’t you want to know?”

  “Sure.” Dorie checked her lipstick in the coffee urn. Smacked her lips a ­couple of time.

  “Robbie Moran’s daughter. What’s her name.”

  “You mean Vanessa?”

  “Yes, that’s the one. The one who ran off and left her daddy alone, poor man.”

  Short memories, Dorie thought.

  “Poor soul, I hear he’s pretty bad off.”

  “Kippie, Robbie Moran was born bad off and went downhill from there. And he brought it all on himself.”

  “The idea of her coming back after letting everybody think she was dead all these years.”

  Nobody who bothered to look for her, thought Dorie.

  “Whole family’s a little wacko if you ask me. Including that daughter of his. She’s got her nerve showing up like this. There’ll be trouble. You mark my words.”

  About the Author

  SHELLEY NOBLE is a former professional dancer and choreographer. She most recently worked on the films Mona Lisa Smile and The Game Plan. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Romance Writers of America.

  www.shelleynoble.com

  Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

  Books by Shelley Noble

  Whisper Beach

  A Newport Christmas Wedding

  Breakwater Bay

  Newport Dreams

  Stargazey Point

  Stargazey Nights

  Holidays at Crescent Cove

  Beach Colors

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Excerpt from Whisper Beach copyright © 2015 by Shelley Freydont.

  A NEWPORT CHRISTMAS WEDDING. Copyright © 2014 by Shelley Freydont. All rights reserved under International and Pan-­American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-­book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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 hereafter invented, without the express written permission of Harper­Collins e-­books.

  EPub Edition DECEMBER 2014 ISBN: 9780062362940

  Print Edition ISBN: 9780062362971

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