Soldier's Choice by Morgan Blaze Page A

fridge. “Can you plug the blender in?” she said as she pulled out a bottle of Kahlua.
    “Got it.”
    Just as Syd lined up the last of the ingredients, the basement door opened and her father poked his head out. “Oh, it’s you two,” he said. “Thought I had a couple of loons in my kitchen.”
    “Nobody here but us chickens,” Sydney said. “Hey, Dad.”
    Bill came in the rest of the way. “Hi, honey,” he said, leaning over to peck her cheek. Then he walked to Luka and kissed her too. “Hi, honey.”
    She grinned. “Hi, Pop. How’s your frog collection?”
    Syd glanced at her, and they burst out laughing again.
    “Okay. I don’t want to know.” Bill smiled and circled the counter to grab a beer out of the fridge. “I’m going back to my cave. Goodnight, ladies—Sydney, don’t let your mother drink too much. I want to get lucky tonight.”
    “Dad!” She grabbed a handy potholder and threw it at the closing door, then turned back with a sigh. “I swear, they’re trying to scar me for life.”
    “I think it’s sweet,” Luka said. “Your mom said we could watch the honeymoon video when the kids go home.”
    “Eww.” Syd made a face.
    Luka fell silent for a few minutes while Sydney filled the blender and pureed the hell out of the contents. When the drinks were poured, she lifted her glass and said, “Here’s to you, Sydney my love.”
    “Right back at you.” Syd clinked with her, and they drank. “Hm. Needs more chocolate.” She grabbed the bottle of syrup.
    “Hey, Syd?”
    “Yeah.”
    She hesitated a minute, not sure how to say this. “Nobody here seems to upset about… the cast change for your wedding.”
    “Lot of people aren’t.” She shrugged and stirred her drink. “But some people are. They won’t show up tonight, and maybe they won’t come to the wedding.”
    “Yeah, maybe not.” Cam Thatcher’s reputation around town wasn’t exactly sterling. Worse than hers, not quite as bad as her brothers’. He’d been the angry hermit who snubbed the town for years before his fight with the Lowells. “Doesn’t that…bother you?” she said. “I mean, people are going to talk trash about you now, too.”
    “Probably. But I know they’re wrong.” She smiled at nothing in particular. “I don’t care what people think,” she said. “He makes me happy.”
    Must be nice. The flash of bitterness didn’t last very long. She took another sip of her drink, and helped herself to the syrup bottle. “You’re right,” she said. “Not enough chocolate.”
    Sydney gave her a strange look. “Luka, you don’t think—oh, shoot. Hang on.” She pulled out her phone, then tapped the screen and held it to her ear. “Hello?...Hi, Mark. Is Luka’s phone off or something? She’s right here…oh.” A slight frown creased her brow. “Okay,” she said slowly. “Just a minute.”
    “What’s wrong?” Luka half-whispered.
    Syd covered the bottom of the phone. “Nothing’s wrong. I just have to get something… be right back.”
    Luka stared at her as she left the kitchen through the back door. Why would Mark need to talk to Sydney? That didn’t make sense.
    A few minutes later, Syd came back, slipping the phone in her pocket. “He forgot the dimensions for the archway,” she said. “You know, the one they’re building for the wedding.”
    Luka frowned. “Right,” she said. “Mark losing track of numbers. That doesn’t sound suspicious at all.”
    “I guess I asked for a really weird size.” Syd shrugged, almost too casually.
    She narrowed her eyes. “Those morons better not be planning anything to embarrass me. I swear to God, I will sacrifice your cake to get back at them. Well, three layers of it, at least.”
    “They’re not. Honest.” Syd smiled and put an arm around her. “Let’s get back to the party before my mom hyperventilates.”
    “All right.”
    She calmed down fast. If Syd said it was nothing, then it was nothing. Right now, there was a party to