Mission: Impossible to Wed: Impossible Mission, #5

By Jacki Delecki

She's the family peacemaker…

 

Fashion designer, Lauren Harrison, dreads nothing more than yet another wedding—particularly that she has "agreed" to design the dress for her half sister during the Christmas season.

 

He's her sister's ex…

 

Gabe Griffin, the best man to his multimillionaire scientist brother Gavin, would rather return to the field as an elite Delta Force soldier than think about marriage—especially between his brother and some self-absorbed, status-seeking woman like Tiffany. But the task of delivering the dress and the designer has fallen into his hands.

 

Alongside Lauren's bridezilla sister, the country wedding only gets worse when she is forced to interact with Gabe, her secret crush, as he transports the dress and her to the venue, due to the raging blizzard. Sparks fly, but will the close proximity change their minds about love? Or will Gabe's mission to prevent his brother's wedding with her help thwart Lauren's high school fantasies?

 

Enjoy this contemporary romance of holiday fun, set against the backdrop of the remote Eastern Washington countryside!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Doe Bay Publishing LLC
• Release date: Apr 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9780998527666

Book preview

1

Gabe Griffin checked the flight monitor for an update on her arrival from JFK. He gritted his teeth as he held in the swear words he acquired in the military. Had to look good for the civilians.

Weather had delayed her flight for an hour. And, to make it worse, their connecting flight had been canceled because of the snow. Of course, what could you expect when you had to have a Christmas destination wedding in a remote location in the mountains of Washington?

God, would his Delta buddies give him shit if they heard of this mission. It was worse than any he had been assigned by Uncle Sam, including infiltrating Iran’s nuclear plants.

His phone buzzed. Looking at the screen, he swallowed his favorite four-letter word. Mother Earth was messing with him big-time today.

Just saw you, dude, Gabe grumbled into the phone. Miss me already?

No, jackass. Saw the weather canceled all flights to Winthrop. Wanted to see if you needed a place to crash, Aiden Foster’s deep bass voice bellowed over the line. You can head up with us on Thursday. I owe you after your help with the little problem in Vegas.

Only a fellow operator would call taking down a tech billionaire sociopath trying to sell security codes to military drones a little problem.

I can’t. I’m in charge of transporting the wedding gown. Gabe waited for his friend’s LMFAO. And, as expected, the loud hoot followed. He moved the phone away from his ear.

Gabe had commiserated with Aiden during their downtime in Vegas about the complications of his older brother’s upcoming wedding. Aiden was planning his own wedding to Jordan Dean, daughter of one of the richest men on the planet, and strange as it seemed for the silent operator, Aiden had a handle on the intricacies of wedding planning, which baffled Gabe, a confirmed bachelor, now more than ever. His last mission left him wondering if he could ever return to civilian life.

Not sure why elite spec forces have been charged with procuring the wedding dress. It seems like poor use of resources and overkill. Unless the dress is a state secret?

Man, I don’t know if it’s a secret. My brother asked me to help.

"I thought your goal was to talk your brother out of marrying the woman?"

Gabe had given Aiden all the details of what a social-climbing B the bride-to-be was. An insufferable woman that Gabe had dated for five weeks in college before she decided Tyler Brown had bigger connections on campus. And now Tiffany Turner was engaged to marry his brother, who incidentally was about to step into the role of CEO of their father’s million-dollar company. Their Nebraskan farmer father had built a global company developing genetically modified strains of corn and soybean for the world market.

Haven’t had a chance to have the sit-down yet with Gavin. Hard to discuss on the phone. I started but he shut me down. His mother, wanting alliteration, had given all four brothers and one sister names beginning with G.

We can fly the dress out on Dean’s jet. Jordan and I are flying over on Friday for the rehearsal with plenty of time to spare. Come stay with us.

Jordan Dean had gone to the same Swiss private boarding school as Tiffany. Though they hadn’t much in common—Jordan was all about science and Tiffany was all about clothes—they’d remained connected on social media. Tiffany would never do anything to ruin a relationship with a Dean daughter. And even though Jordan hadn’t said it, they’d accepted because of Gabe’s connection to Aiden. Gabe and Aiden were brothers in the things that mattered.

Thanks for the offer. But I’m at Sea-Tac to pick up Tiffany’s half sister and the dress. Lauren, the designer, is bringing the dress from New York. I can’t believe my brother is buying into all this bullshit. The dress has its own first-class seat.

No wonder you’re single. It’s not buying into bullshit. It’s doing anything to make your woman happy.

Gabe took the phone away from his ear and stared at it. I’m checking my connection. Is this Aiden Foster…the Aiden Foster who used to tear the sheets up in every country we were stationed?

Hey, asshole, talk like that and your invite is rescinded. I don’t want Jordan to hear trash talk.

You tell her you were a monk or something? Now it was Gabe’s turn to enjoy getting Aiden’s skivvies in a knot.

No, but she doesn’t need any reminders of what a bastard I was.

Relax, dude. I’d never hurt Jordan’s feelings. She’s a sweetheart. Not sure what she sees in you, but…

Why can’t the half sister go ahead with the dress on her own?

Gabe recognized misdirection. Gabe flashed on a memory of Tiffany’s younger sister—tall, thin, with big green eyes and blond hair, and very quiet when around Tiffany. But then no one got to talk when Tiffany was holding court.

It’s more of a courtesy kind of thing. I guess it’s bulky and she has a lot of luggage. My brother asked since we’re both on the same fight out of here.

What are you going to do now that your flight is canceled? Will you drive? You’ll need four-wheel drive to get over the mountain passes. The roads will be treacherous.

Man, what have you done with my kickass buddy? This wedding stuff is making you soft. Driving in a heated SUV versus on horseback over mountain passes without being shot at by the Taliban sounds like a slam dunk.

But, smart ass, you’ve never been in charge of a wedding dress. Aiden chuckled and then in low rumble said, Later.

Gabe stuck his phone into his pocket and walked toward the main terminal. He needed a rental car, a haircut, and a shave in that order. Since he had at least two hours, he had time for mission prep. And plenty of time to think of a way to sabotage his brother’s wedding.

Lauren Harrison steadied herself with a hand on the overhead bin before reaching for her bags.

Allow me. Roger Thornaby, software company CEO, lifted the largest of her two bags. His perfectly fitted Ermenegildo Zegna jacket moved smoothly and seamlessly, reflecting the fine wool and the quality of workmanship in the three-thousand-dollar jacket. A waft of Creed’s Green Irish Tweed cologne hung around her, making it hard not to gag. Normally she loved the scent, but right now, chocolate would turn her stomach.

I can help you get all of this—he gestured with a perfectly manicured hand at the garment bag on the next seat and the two large bags—to your next flight. I’m in no rush to get to my hotel. You’ve a lot to carry. And you’re looking a bit shaky.

Shaky was a polite way of saying she was two sheets to the wind. She’d had one glass of champagne during the six-plus hour flight, but it might as well have been a magnum.

With no time to eat or sleep, she was running on empty. The last few days had been exhausting as she and her assistant pressed to finish the entire trousseau, pack, and FedEx the thirty boxes to her half sister.

The champagne went straight to her head, or rather her mouth, as she poured out to trapped Roger every dirty detail of bridezilla’s wedding and Lauren’s challenging family. If a conglomerate of two self-absorbed parents who thrived on high drama could be called a family.

She had two half sisters and three stepmothers as the result of her father’s need to upgrade his wife every five years or so. Her mother was behind in the race with only two husbands after her marriage to Lauren’s father, providing Lauren two stepfathers and two half brothers, totaling twelve relatives of sorts. Not including the stepsiblings she’d lost contact with, none of whom she felt close to and none of whom she would choose to spend her Christmas with, especially her older half sister, Tiffany, the bride from hell.

"Thanks. I appreciate the help, but I have