She spotted Pallas Mitchell, her boss, walking toward her. It was nearly ten on a Saturday night and Pallas, a pretty brunette only recently returned from maternity leave, yawned widely. When she spotted Renee she held up her hands, palms up.
“What can I say? I’ve been home with an infant. These wild late-night hours are going to take some getting used to.”
“No one’s judging,” Renee told her. “As I said at seven, at eight and again at nine, go home. I can handle this. You’re barely back and you need to give yourself time to adjust to the schedule.”
“You’ve been running things for nearly six months. You need a break.”
In truth, Renee was a little ragged around the edges, but she’d loved handling Weddings Out of the Box while Pallas had been gone. She’d enjoyed the challenges each unique wedding presented and watching all the details fall into place on the big day.
“I had lots of help,” Renee pointed out. “Hiring college students on summer break was a good idea.” And what they’d lacked in experience, they’d made up for in energy and enthusiasm.
“Now that I’m back, things can return to normal,” Pallas said, covering another yawn.
“Go home,” Renee urged. “Please. I can handle things here. I promise.”
“Okay. I will. Thanks. Don’t you dare come in tomorrow.” Pallas’s voice was firm. “For once, we don’t have a Sunday wedding. Enjoy the break.”
“I will.” Renee would probably pop in to do a little paperwork, but she wouldn’t stay long. “Are you coming to The Boardroom on Monday night?”
In a wedding destination town, the rhythms of the residents were determined by weekend weddings. Happily Inc’s workweek started on Wednesdays as the businesses geared up for the dozens of nuptials that occurred in multiple venues. Which meant the town’s Friday night was actually on Monday.
The Boardroom, a local bar, hosted game nights on Mondays. Board games ruled and tournaments were heated and fun as friends crushed each other at everything from Candy Land to Risk.
Pallas shook her head. “I’ll admit to being a bit of a worrier. When we went a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t stop thinking about Ryan. He’s only five months old. It’s too soon to leave him at night.”
Renee held in a smile. “Sure. I get that.”
“I know you don’t, but thank you for pretending. Have fun for me, too. Oh, Jasper’s back, so tell him hi, if you think of it.”
Jasper was back? Renee hadn’t heard. She liked knowing he’d returned from his big book tour. Not for any reason in particular, she amended hastily. Sure, he was nice, but there were a lot of nice guys in the world. There was just something about Jasper. Maybe it was because in addition to being good-looking and just a little dangerous, he wasn’t a forever kind of guy.
“I saw that!” Pallas grinned. “I totally saw that. You did the predatory smile thing I was never good at. You want to use him for sex! Did I know this?” She stomped her foot. “Did this happen while I was on maternity leave? What else went on while I was off having a baby?”
Renee laughed. “You’re reading way too much into my smile. I’m happy he’s home from his book tour. That’s all.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Jasper and I are not involved. I doubt we’ve had more than a three-sentence conversation.”
Not that it took many sentences to ask Your place or mine? And while the description of predatory was nice, it gave her too much credit. Would she stalk him and pounce? Not even on her best day. Would she say yes if the man asked? She smiled again. Oh, yeah, she would. Definitely. Okay, probably. If she was feeling brave. Because while she worked her butt off to give her couples their perfect happily-ever-after day, she knew it was never going to happen for her. Those who could—did. Those who couldn’t became wedding planners.
Avoiding relationships might be the smart choice, but it was also a lonely one. She knew Jasper was into the long-term, monogamous, not-serious kind of thing and she was pretty sure she could handle that. Assuming she was his type and he was interested. They could have some laughs, lots of sex and walk away completely unscathed in the heart department. Where was the bad?
“There’s something going on and you can’t convince me otherwise,” Pallas said. “You have depths. I’m very impressed. Okay, use Jasper and then tell me the details because hey, he’s got to be great.” She yawned again. “I’m such a lightweight. I’m leaving now.”
“Good night. Hug Ryan for me.”
“You know I will.”
Pallas walked out of the reception hall. Renee continued to circle the space, looking for any forgotten handbags or phones, and noting how long it would take the cleaning service to return the huge room to order. Doing her job and not thinking about the fact that Jasper was back—that was her.
A loud whoop got her attention. She turned and saw three teenaged guys running through the fountain at the far end of the big, open room. Each of them jumped, trying to touch the arc of water dancing overhead.
The younger brother, she thought as she made her way toward them. And his friends. No doubt they were bored after so many hours with not very much to do. Regardless, she was not going to have them disrupt the reception when it was so close to being over.
As she approached the running, jumping teens, she saw both sets of parents, along with the bride and groom, still dancing. They swayed in time with the music, oblivious to the fountain and the idiots messing with it. Then several things happened at once.
The younger brother started an extra long run toward the fountain. Jim let go of Monica and spun her out the length of their arms. Monica bumped her mom, who stumbled a little. Dad grabbed Mom, moving all of them closer to the fountain and the younger brother running, who had to swerve suddenly to avoid them. As he swerved, he lost his balance and slipped, tumbling into the fountain mechanism. One of the hoses broke free, wiggling and spraying water everywhere.
Renee saw it all happening and knew there was no way she was going to allow her beautiful bride to get soaked. She lunged for the hose, caught it and held it tightly against her chest as the bride’s father rushed to turn off the water to the hose. It took only seconds, but by then the entire fountain had spilled over and Renee was drenched, shivering and had water up her nose even as she wondered if she looked half as ridiculous as she felt.
The new Mrs. Martinez hurried over. “Renee, are you all right?” She turned on her brother. “How could you? This is a wedding, not a water park.”
Aware that end-of-wedding exhaustion could easily lead to emotions spiraling out of control, Renee quickly faked a smile.
“Monica, it’s fine. Don’t worry. Keeping you and the rest of the wedding party dry was my only concern.” She glanced at the water draining onto the floor and realized part of the fountain was still pumping out water. That couldn’t be good. If she couldn’t get everything turned off, she was going to have to call in one of those companies that took care of disasters like flooding. “Really. It’s no problem.”
“You’re dripping and the water’s rising. My dad went to find the main shutoff.”
Renee wrung out her hair and hoped her makeup wasn’t too badly smudged. Then she realized the water level in the reception hall was indeed climbing and hoped Monica’s father found the shutoff soon.
She was just about to go help him when he returned.
“All turned off.” He glanced at the mini flood. “Sorry about this.”
“It’s fine,” Renee lied, her tone soothing, because that was part of her job. To pretend all was well even when they needed to be figuring out how to build an ark.
The rest of the guests were heading out. Nothing like the threat of an unexpected flood to get people moving, she thought, trying to find the humor in the situation.
“I’m so sorry,” Monica told her as she held her dress out of the water and slipped out
of her shoes.
“Don’t be. You had a wonderful wedding and reception. Why don’t you and Jim start gathering your things? I have a spare set of clothes in my office. I’ll get changed, then help you make sure you have everything.”
As she spoke, she noticed the water seemed to have settled at about the six- or seven-inch level. Yup, she was going to have to call someone. No doubt she would be here all night. Oh, joy.
“I’m really sorry,” Jim said. “We thought we’d planned for every contingency.” He glared at his new brother-in-law. “Except for stupid.” He turned back to her. “Let us know the cost of cleanup. We’ll pay for it.”
“Thank you. I think the deposit should take care of it but I’ll let you know if there’s a problem. Now if you’ll let me go get changed, I’ll be back with you in ten minutes.”
Monica nodded.
Renee slipped out of her shoes and walked through the ankle-deep water. When she reached her office upstairs, she carefully closed the door behind her before undressing, then slipped on jeans and a T-shirt. Not exactly professional, but she wasn’t going to worry about that right now. Before she returned to her bride and groom, she looked up the local disaster cleaning service. The number was in her files, but wasn’t one she had had to use before.
They picked up on the first ring.
“Happily Inc CleanUp. This is Hilde. How can I help you?”
“Hi. I’m Renee Grothen at Weddings Out of the Box. We had a firefighter wedding tonight with a big fountain. There was an accident with one of the hoses and now our main reception hall is flooded.”
There was a pause. “Um, did you say firefighter wedding? Never mind. How much water?”
“About six inches.”
“That’s a lot.”
“It was a big fountain.”
“Give us thirty minutes and we’ll be there.”
“Thank you.”
Renee hung up, gave herself a second to catch her breath, then headed back to deal with the bride, the groom, the flood and anything else that might happen tonight. Because with a wedding, it was always something.
CHAPTER TWO
SIX DAYS INTO pet ownership, Jasper had no idea how he was doing. He and Koda—a name that had just kind of shown up in his brain and seemed to suit the dog—appeared to be getting along okay. Koda had slept most of the drive back, waking up for meals and for easy walks while they both stretched their legs. Along the way, Jasper had bought dog beds, some toys and more food. Koda’s appetite was good and he looked better every day.
Once they’d reached Jasper’s mountain home just outside of Happily Inc, Koda had explored the house before quickly settling into a routine. When let out to do his business, Koda didn’t stray far from the house and he seemed to prefer to be inside rather than out. They took a couple of walks a day, going slowly, Koda sniffing and Jasper thinking. Koda slept quietly while Jasper worked. When they left the office together, Koda brought his favorite toy—a stuffed rabbit—with him.
From Jasper’s point of view, Koda was pretty easy company. He slept on his dog bed in Jasper’s bedroom at night. Once, Jasper had awakened from a familiar nightmare, to find the dog on the bed, pressed hard against him, as if offering comfort. As Jasper got his bearings and was able to slow his breathing, Koda hopped down and returned to his own bed where he quickly went to sleep.
Jasper had installed an electronic doggie door so Koda could come and go as he wanted without Jasper having to worry that local wildlife could also wander into the house. Koda had figured out how to work the doggie door in about ten minutes. They had a vet appointment later in the week and Jasper had downloaded a book on having a dog as a pet to make sure he had it all covered.
He still didn’t know why he’d brought the old guy home—nor did it matter. Koda was here now and Jasper would take care of him. He had to admit, the quiet company was nice.
“I’m going into town,” he told Koda as he set out the bowl of kibble mixed with canned food. “It’s Monday night and I like to hang out at The Boardroom. It’s a bar that caters to locals. On Mondays they have board game tournaments. Most of my friends go.”
He had no idea why he was explaining any of this to the dog—it wasn’t as if Koda could understand him. Still, he couldn’t help going on.
“I won’t be that late,” he continued. “You have water and your bed. I’ll leave the radio on that classical station you like. There’s the doggie door if you need to go out.” He paused, not sure what else to say.
Koda finished his dinner, then looked at Jasper, as if processing the information. After a couple of seconds, the dog retreated to his bed in the family room and lay down.
“All right.” Jasper put his food bowl in the sink. “I’ll see you when I get back.”
He got in his truck and started down the mountain. The road was familiar and when compared with the RV he’d been driving, the 4X4 truck was practically sporty.
The thought made him smile. The long book tour had been good for him. The RV had given him a home base. Although his publisher had offered to rent a fancy bus with pop-outs and an onboard washer and dryer, Jasper had decided to buy an old, used RV instead. He’d thought he might want to use it again, for a tour and maybe a trip of his own. He’d liked being on the road.
As he headed into town he wondered if Koda would enjoy another trip or if he’d been too traumatized by what had happened to him in San Antonio. He supposed he could take an overnight trip and see how it went. Although any time away would have to wait. He was getting back into his book and had a deadline looming. For the next few months, his primary focus would be getting the story right, then getting it down on paper. Well, not paper, exactly. He used a computer, but the concept was the same.
He reached the main part of town and turned into The Boardroom’s parking lot. He saw plenty of familiar cars and smiled. His friends would be there, as would other local residents. He would kick a little ass on the board game front, have a beer and a burger, talk to his buddies, then head home. A perfect evening.
Four years ago, if someone had told him he would settle in this quirky wedding-based town, he would have said that person was crazier than him, but here he was—doing better than anyone could have expected. Forward progress, he thought as he made his way inside. It beat getting left behind.
“Jasper! You’re back.”
“Hey, stranger. How was the book tour?”
“When’d you get home?”
The calls came from every corner of the bar. Jasper nodded at his buddies, waved at a few people he knew by sight and scanned the room, looking for an open spot at the tables set up for four.
Mathias Mitchell, an artist who worked with glass, walked past him, a beer in one hand and a glass of wine in the other.
“Hey, man, you made it. Good to see you.” Mathias nodded toward a table. “Come sit with us. Carol’s friend, Renee, is hanging out with us, so you’d make a fourth.”
“Will do.”
Jasper walked around for a few minutes, greeting his friends and giving a brief account of his three-month book tour. When a gong sounded, giving the ten-minute warning before the game started, he walked to the bar and ordered himself a beer. He figured he would get the burger later.
As he took his drink, he glanced around the room and caught sight of a petite redhead talking to Carol, Mathias’s wife. Renee Something, he thought. The woman Mathias had mentioned. She was maybe five-one. Despite her slight stature, there was something powerful about her. As if she would do whatever was necessary to get what she wanted.
He held in a grin. Right. Because he was just that good at assessing women. The truth was he knew nothing about her, which was fine. Even though it had been nearly a year since he and Wynn had ended their not-quite relationship, he wasn’t looking for anything else right now. Still, there was something about a woman with long hair. Especia
lly long, red hair.
As if aware of his scrutiny, Renee turned toward him. For a brief second, their eyes met. Jasper was about to offer a wave when Renee surprised him by flushing slightly and looking away. As if she’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t.
He glanced around, trying to figure out what could have caused her discomfort. When nothing obvious showed itself, he figured he’d simply misinterpreted the situation. Hardly a surprise—he wasn’t just a guy, he was a guy who knew diddly about women. A fact proven by his inability to create a love interest for the hero of his latest novel. He knew the guy needed a woman in his life—it was a great way to wrap up the series—but he had yet to figure out who she was and how she fit into the story. Or how to write her. So far the only sentence he’d managed to write and then not delete was: She was tall, with short, blond hair. Oh, yeah, the royalty checks were going to roll in on that one.
He was still chuckling when he approached the table. Carol rose and hugged him.
“You made it back! Welcome home. Did you miss us?”
“I did.”
Mathias held out his hand. “Good to see you. How was the tour?”
“Good. Long. Plenty of stops.”
“And adoring fans?” Carol asked, her voice teasing.
“There were some.” Jasper turned to Renee. “Mind if I join you?”
She smiled and waved to the empty chair. “Please. Your reputation precedes you, so I’m happy to be on the same team.”
Whatever weirdness had existed before—or hadn’t existed—was obviously gone.
He raised a shoulder. “I haven’t played board games in a few months. I’m probably rusty.”
“I doubt that,” Carol said as she sat down. “Speaking of rusty, I want to warn everyone that this is my first night away from Devon. I’ve been away during the day, but never at night.”
Jasper wanted to ask how one was different from the other, but knew there was no point. Her reasoning might be based on the fact that her baby was maybe five months old, or it might be a female thing, or it could be something everyone else understood intuitively.
Meant to Be Yours Page 2
