Introduction

As the wedding grows closer, it seems the entire affair is cursed. A chewing gum fiasco forces Nikki to cut her hair and go platinum blonde. Then Derek's old college buddies, along with an assortment of old flames and frustrating family relations and their wives, show up to work Nikki's last nerve. But when Nikki's hairdresser is shot as he walks her down the aisle, and one of Derek's friends is found dead in a wine tank, Nikki realizes that she has to find a matrimonial murderer before her wedding becomes someone else's funeral.

INCLUDES RECIPES & WINE PAIRINGS!

Praise for the Wine Lover's Mysteries: "The full-bodied characters, sweet romance, crisp plot, and dry wit will have you reaching for a refill."-Jessica Conant-Park

"All the sparkle, complexity, and romance of a fine Champagne."-Nancy Fairbanks

Editorial Review

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Excerpt

Chapter One

Do you believe in fate? Sincerely, Moros Apate Thanatos.

Nikki stared at the old photo beneath the note-a newspaper photo of a bride and groom. Her groom-Derek Malveaux smiling at the camera, arm around ex-wife Meredith Malveaux on their wedding day.

Nikki shook her head and crumpled up the piece of paper and photo. She checked the postmark. Nothing. No return address. She frowned as the phone rang. Oscar The Grouch was singing something about trash in the background. She glanced at her little charges who appeared to be entranced by the show.

If this was another one of those blocked caller calls, she thought she might come undone. For two weeks now, she'd been getting one to two phone calls a day. Of course after receiving what she just had in the mail, she had to wonder if it was Meredith who'd caught wind that in a few days Nikki and Derek were to be wed. But she didn't see how that was possible. Meredith was in prison for murdering Gabriel Asanti, the former wine maker at Malveaux. Not to mention she and her half brother had tried to murder both Nikki and Derek. No. The only way that Nikki could see Meredith or even the disturbed woman's brother Cal Winters as sending her the ominous note and making phone calls where no one answered her hellos was if they had someone on the outside doing it for them. But what for? The two of them were locked up for life.

Nikki grabbed the phone off the Spanish tiled kitchen counter, checking the caller ID first. She sighed. "Hi, Simon. Violet is fine. I haven't corrupted the poor girl yet, but if you don't stop bothering me, I might," she said. She opened up the garbage disposal and threw away the note and photo.

"You're such a peach. Listen Snow White, I want tails on my tux. As your best man, I mean maid of honor…" he giggled, "I think tails are necessary. They're elegant, royal, regal and totally appropriate."

"No. No tails." She glanced up to see what the toddlers were doing.

"Oh no! No, no, no, baby!" She dropped the phone and dashed from behind her kitchen counter and into the family room where the little ones were getting into things they shouldn't have been. She had a fleeting vision of her favorite pinkberry lipstick smeared on the cream colored floor rug.

She took her purse from her friend Alyssa's three-year-old son Petie.

"Petie wants the purse," he whined. "Petie wants your purse, Aunt Nikki."

"No honey. This is Aunt Nikki's purse. It's not a toy."

Then two-year-old Violet stuck out her lower lip, crocodile tears filling her eyes. "Oh, sweetie girl. No tears." Nikki picked her up. Violet Nicole Malveaux was the newest family member to join the vineyard.

Nikki's best pals Simon and Marco had come home from China with Violet a little over a month ago. Simon was not only Nikki's BFF, but was soon to be her maid of honor and her brother-in-law. Both Simon and Marco had wanted to be parents badly. They'd been jumping through the hoops within the U.S. system, but because they were gay they faced even more issues adopting than straight couples did. No one ever spoke out loud about "these issues," but they had become obvious to her dear friends after nearly eight months of getting nowhere. The guys had even asked Nikki to be a surrogate, but there was no way she was down for that. Nikki wanted a child with Derek, and they'd been trying to conceive for some time now. They both felt that the sooner they started trying to have a family, the better. And the doctors had told Nikki she would likely have some difficulty getting pregnant due to endometriosis.

Two couples wanting to become parents-and Simon and Marco had done just that. Since they didn't think they were ever going to adopt a child from their own country, and since a surrogate looked to be out of the question, they decided that maybe pulling a Brangelina and adopting a child from another country would be the way to go. And it had been. They both fell in love with little Violet at first site. She was pretty much impossible not to fall in love with, with her big brown eyes, her dark hair hung in wisps around her sweet face, and her precious laugh that could put a smile on even the most jaded of people. Now Violet was a Malveaux and Nikki would be a Malveaux in a matter of days because this coming Saturday was her wedding day! Tomorrow friends of Derek's would be arriving from out of town and there was so much left to do.

But before she could get back to the wedding plans, she needed to take charge of the toddlers in the house. Why she'd agreed to babysit both Violet and Petie she wasn't sure. Well, yes she was. She loved kids. Petie's mom Alyssa had gone in for the final fitting of her bridesmaid's dress, and Simon headed in with her for his final fitting on his maid of honor tuxedo. Yes, Simon was going to be Nikki's maid of honor, and Marco was to be Derek's best man. A little bit unconventional maybe, but not much went on at the Malveaux vineyard that could be considered conventional or, for that matter, even really functional. But they had a lot of damn fun.

"Nikki, Nikki…"

"Oops. Come on gang." She walked back into the kitchen where she'd dropped the phone, forgetting all about Simon and his tirade over the fact that he wasn't going to be wearing dress tails.

He was screaming her name into the phone. "Nikki!"

"I'm here." Violet leaned her head against Nikki's shoulder and wrapped her arms around her, entwining her fingers into her hair. The baby had taken to playing with Nikki's hair and many times it helped her fall asleep. Simon stopped by on occasions when he couldn't get her to go down for a nap and asked if she could play with her auntie's hair in order to lull her. They joked about Simon needing to get a long haired wig. "Just a sec, Simon. Petie sit down at the table okay, and Auntie Nikki will get you snack. Hold on for one minute."

Petie smiled. "Okay. Petie wants a snack." He batted his lashes over his big brown eyes. Oh, boy, the kid was going to be a heartbreaker.

"I know. Hang on." Nikki picked the phone back up. "Hi. Sorry."

"What in the world is going on there?" Simon sounded like he was hyperventilating.

"Nothing. Petie got into my purse while talking to you and he took my lipstick out and dumped most of my purse onto the floor. No worries. I'll pick up the mess in a minute. I think Violet is falling asleep on me. She's tired from playing all morning. I need to put her down, and Petie is waiting for a snack."

"Why didn't you put your purse up in the first place, Snow White?" he asked, referring to her by his pet name for her. "I mean, seriously. You have babies there and God knows what could be growing in your purse. Or what if one of them took out a pen or pencil and stabbed themselves in the eye? The possibilities are endless. I can't believe you would be so irresponsible."

"I don't have time for one of your lectures on parenting right now. You can scold me later. If you hadn't called with your drama in the first place, I wouldn't be irritated with you and having to pick up the contents of my purse." Nikki knew those contents ranged from umpteenth receipts, candy and gum wrappers, a lipstick or two, business cards, and some loose change. She was notorious for dumping anything and everything in to what Derek called her abyss instead of her purse. Thus, Simon wasn't completely off base with his accusation of things possibly growing in there.

"Speaking of my drama. I want those tails," he demanded.

"No. It's my wedding. I said no, and now I have to go. Bye bye." She hung up the phone and then turned the ringer off. "Ha ha. Too bad, so sad." She faced Petie. Violet's fingers were still wound in her hair, but she'd grown quiet and become dead weight against her.

She needed to put her down, but would have to walk into the guest room where her play pen was and Petie had started banging his fists on the kitchen table. "Snack. Petie wants snack. Petie wants snack."

"Shh, Petie. Violet is going night night. I'm getting you a snack." Balancing the toddler in her arms, she went to the kitchen pantry and took out a box of animal crackers, and got him a glass of milk. "I'm going to go put Violet down now."

"No, no. Petie wants Aunt Nikki here. You sit. You sit right here with Petie. Please." He smiled.

How could she refuse? "Okay. I'll sit."

They shared the animal crackers and when Petie was finished with his milk, they went to the couch where they sat back and fell asleep watching the rest of Sesame Street. The show was Petie's favorite and Elmo was Petie's favorite muppet. On the show Elmo always refers to himself in the third person, as in, "Elmo wants", or "Elmo likes." Thus, Petie had become Elmo's copycat.

He was an adorable little boy who'd been through a great deal in his short life. He had a rare heart condition and for the first couple of years of his life, he needed a transplant. He had finally gotten one last year, and since then he'd grown stronger and precocious, which was good all the way around.

It was Ollie, Nikki and Derek's Rhodesian Ridgeback, who woke them when he came bounding into the house, the sound of his nails clicking against the hard wood floors, with Derek in tow. Nikki opened her eyes to see Derek leaning over her, his green eyes warm and happy, his smile bright. "Look at you. You look good like this."

"Like what?" she asked, sleep on the edge of her voice.

He touched Violet's dark head of hair who stirred at his touch. Petie's head was in Nikki's lap, still asleep.

"Mommied out. You are in the mommy zone, and I am liking it. Except the mess is kind of…" He made a face.

"I know. They dumped out my purse."

"Want me to pick it up?"

"No. I'll get it."

He leaned in and whispered in her ear. "You know what? You like this makes me wanna practice those baby making techniques."

"Easy does it there. We have wedding plans to sum up and I think we should wait to practice on our wedding night."

"I disagree, but don't have time to argue. Just got a call from my friends from out of town, my college buddies and their wives." He made another face likely realizing that his news would not be exactly welcomed. "Sorry, honey, looks like they decided to come in a day early before everyone else gets in. I have to run out now and head into the city to get them at the airport."

"What? No. No. I'm not ready for guests. Not yet. Look at me. I have peanut butter on my jeans and…"

"You're great. You're gorgeous. Absolutely, positively gorgeous. And it'll take me time to get into the city, pick them up and come back. That should give you plenty of time to change your jeans. Don't worry about a thing. They're staying at the hotel and I've already talked to Marco. He'll have their suites ready for them by the time they get here. You don't have to do a thing."

"I think I need to do a little more than change my jeans. What about dinner? I need to go to the store. We don't have a thing for me to fix."

He shook his head. "Stop worrying. I've already taken care of that too. It's all good. This is our week. Relax. This will be the best week of our lives." He bent down, traced her check and jaw with his finger. "I love you. And I still think we should negotiate the baby making practice. I really do. We'll talk. Or other things." He kissed her, melting the worries away for a few seconds until he said goodbye and walked back out the door.

Ollie plopped down at her feet. "Easy for him to say. No worries. I haven't even told him that Simon wants to wear dress tails." The caramel colored Ridgeback thumped his tail. "You wouldn't want to wear tails. Seriously, what normal guy wants to wear tails? Oh wait, though. We are speaking of Simon." Ollie lifted his head and turned toward the door.

"I heard that." It was Simon, gallivanting his way through the hall and into the family room where Nikki was beginning to feel a bit weighted down by team toddler. "Normal is passé, and I am hip and hot."

"Tails are passé."

"Never. Not in a million years. Lookie here. How cute. I just passed the blushing groom-to-be. Uh oh. I see my bride is not blushing. What gives?"

Nikki didn't get a chance to explain about Derek's friends coming into town on top of the note and photo, because Violet woke up and heard one of her daddies. She called Simon "Daddy," and Marco, "Papa." "Daddy," Violet said.

Simon reached his arms out. "There is my little rosebud. How is Daddy's little girl? Come here, Vivi."

Violet tried to pull her hands from Nikki's hair to go into her father's arms. "Ouch," Nikki said. Violet whimpered. "What?"

"What is it?" Simon asked.

"I don't know." Violet kept trying to free her hands but couldn't, and she began to cry. "I think her hands are stuck in my hair."

"Was she playing with glue?"

"Of course not."

Simon reached behind Nikki's back. "Lean forward a little."

Nikki did so. "What's the problem?" Now Violet was starting to really cry and Petie was waking up.

"Hmmm."

"What is it?"

"Um, Snow White…" he clucked his tongue. "It appears we have a bit of a sticky situation." view abbreviated excerpt only...

Discussion Questions

1. Nikki questions who Derek's friends are and what they're all about. She even considers that his old friendships might indicate some kind of trouble in the future between them, as his friends aren't the kinds of people Nikki would typically choose as friends. Do you think her line of questioning is valid? Are Nikki's feelings about Derek's friends a good enough reason to question the relationship? How important are a significant other's friends to the relationship?
2. What has Nikki always wanted in life? If you've read the entire series, how has she evolved and changed?
3. How does Simon's role as Nikki's best friend play into her thought process? Does he have a lot of influence over her?
4. When Nikki's hair is cut and dyed, do you think she over reacted?
5. When Andrés comes back onto the scene and Nikki questions everything with Derek, do you think she made the right choice?
6. Did you guess who the killer was? And if so, at what point did you guess?
7. What were your favorite scenes?
8. Will you try any of the recipes in the book? If so, which ones?
9. What is Ollie's role in this series? Is it comic relief? Is he just the dog who saves the day? Or does Ollie teach his humans something with each installment of the series, or in specific in A TOAST TO MURDER.
10. Did you think that Nikki would wind up with Derek, or was there some point where you thought she might wind up with Andrés?
11. Nikki Sands Mysteries are always light and fun, but were there deeper themes that you found at any point with this book?
12. What did you think of the sub-plot of Simon and Marco adopting Baby Violet?
13. Did you find the Greek Mythology portion of the book interesting, and did you see how it would all tie together, or were you taken by surprise?
14. Would you pick up another Nikki Sands mystery? Would you like to see the series continue?

Weblinks

»	Publisher's Book Info
»	Author Michele Scott's web site
»	Food Fiction web site A website by Michele Scott and Jessica Park where mystery readers can sign up for a monthly newsletter that features new authors, recipes, contests, and other fun stuff.

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