Page 59 of Bride By Committee

Sunny settled her party hat at a more rakish angle. “You mean Harry didn’t tell you? Iwas sure he’d have done it by now. I’ll have Bartholomew speak to the boy. We can’t have anything but absolute honesty in your marriage. Principle number seven, in case you’re interested.” Leaving the couch, she crossed to Madison’s side and slapped The Principles of Love into her hand. “Try reading it this time. Maybe if you’d done it the first time I asked, you wouldn’t be having all these problems.”

“Sunny?”

“Yes, love?”

“I’m lucky to have you for my grandmother.” Her gaze shifted to the rest of her relatives. “I’m lucky to have all of you. Thank you for taking me in.”

Sunny twinkled up at Madison. “Oh, piffle. We’re the lucky ones. Where would we be without you?”

“Lost,” Aunt Dell chirped up. “Totally lost.”

Madison smiled through her tears. “You have that reversed, Aunt Dell. Iwas the one who was lost.”

“Yes, yes. And now you’re found.” Sunny pushed her toward the front door. “We’ll all have time for a big, mushy group hug after you apologize to Harry and explain why you’ve been such an idiot. We’ll put your birthday party on hold. Bring him back for cake and ice cream after everything’s settled.”

Rosy snorted. “Yeah. Like there’s gonna be any left. Of course if there is…” Her eyes widened. “Ice cream! What a great idea. I’ve got a new instruction for Harry.”

Madison yanked open the front door. “Too late. He thought of that one ages ago.”

Harry answered the door on her second knock. He was dressed in prime intimidation mode—suit, tie, lion-colored hair slicked into order. “What can I do for you, Madison?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded, brushing pasthim.

He stepped aside. “Please. Come in.”

She retreated to the living room before turning on him. “Why didn’t you tell me that my blueprint was almost identical to your principles?”

He folded his arms across his chest, his expression more remote than she’d ever seen before. “Why didn’t you read my book? Then I wouldn’t have had to tell you.”

Darn. “Okay, you’ve got me there,” she admitted.

“How did you find out that your blueprint and my principles matched?”

“I read your book. I’ve been sitting outside your hotel crying my way through it for the past two hours.”

“It wasn’t meant to make you cry.”

“Well, it did. Though now that I think about it, Ihave to admit that I messed up on principle number ten. It wasn’t anywhere on my blueprint.” The bluster went right out of her and she looked at him with total frankness, holding nothing back. “Maybe if I’d thought of it, instead of having to live through it, Iwouldn’t have wasted so much time or caused such heartache. I’m sorry for that, Harry. Ishould have read your book sooner. It would have saved us a lot of trouble. Of course it would have caused all sorts of other problems.”

His eyebrows shot up at that. “What problems?”

She shrugged. “Considering I thought your father had written Principles, I’d have probably dumped you and fought my grandmother for him.”

For a moment she thought she’d gone too far. Then he growled a word that brought the color flooding into her cheeks and snatched her into his arms. “You drive me insane.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered into his tie. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“You damned well should be.”

She shoved at his shoulders. Not that it did any good. “Don’t get too happy,” she warned when he refused to release her. “There’s something I haven’t told you. Something you should know about me.”

“Your blueprint told me everything I needed to know.”

“You’re wrong.” She released her breath in a long sigh, struggling to find the right words to tell him about her past. Not that there were any right words, just the truth. “You said last night that you thought we were alike, but we’re not. There’s one major difference between us.”

“And what’s that?”

“I’m not ethical like you. I’m every bit as bad as my cousin Linc. Worse, Isuppose.”

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