A Wedding Tail

by Casey Griffin

  She felt a sharp jolt, some rocking. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes, wondering if she’d find herself in a hospital. Maybe her mind had blocked out the rest of the tragedy. But all she saw was the delivery truck’s grill and her completely intact van.

  Trembling, she leaned forward and glanced up through her windshield at the truck driver in his cab. He removed his Sharks ball cap and ran a hand through his thinning hair. For a moment, they just stared at each other in silent communication, like, Holy shit. Did that just happen?

  The oddly serene moment was broken when Zoe’s door squeaked open.

  “Zoe!”

  She jumped at Levi’s loud voice in the sudden quiet. Where the hell did he come from? Did he follow her all this way?

  “God! Are you okay?” Levi leaned into the cab, automatically reaching out for her.

  Rattled and confused, she moved into his embrace, only to realize that he was reaching for the drive shaft. He threw it in park and turned off the engine. He reached down to push the parking brake.

  “It doesn’t work,” she told him.

  His wide eyes took in her expression, searching her face. “Are you okay?”

  “I-I don’t know,” she stuttered. “I think so. The brakes wouldn’t work.”

  “Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”

  Zoe didn’t argue as he unbuckled her and helped her out of the van. Since her limbs were as sturdy as cooked ramen noodles, her knees buckled and she slid toward the ground.

  Levi caught her, wrapping his arms around her. She let him support her weight until they were safely on the sidewalk. Sinking to the curb, she sat with her head between her knees and took deep breaths.

  Something fell around her shoulders and she looked up to find Levi wrapping a leather jacket around her. She hadn’t noticed she was shivering, but now the cold began to set in. But there was a heat wave going on. Numbly, she realized it must be shock.

  Turning her face to the side, she inhaled the scent of cologne imbedded into the silk lining. Cinnamon and wood. It felt strangely comforting. So did the feeling of him touching her hair as he swept it to the side so he could zip up the jacket.

  He grasped her shaking hands in his hot ones and it felt like they’d been tucked into her mother’s freshly baked anpan bread.

  “Put your hands inside the jacket,” he said. “Keep them warm. I’ll be right back.”

  There was something in his expression as he stared at her. A look that made heat creep across her cheeks. With his scent lingering in the air and his jacket hugging her, it made her feel as though his own arms were around her.

  His look softened, like she was something fragile to be taken care of, not the strong, independent woman she was. Obviously, it annoyed the crap out of her.

  However, instead of taking charge of the situation, she realized that, at that moment, maybe she should let someone take care of her. As a compromise, she took a deep breath and stood up. She stumbled slightly and had to brace herself against a lamp post, but she felt a little less like a weakling.

  People were starting to crowd around, getting out of cars to help out. Or maybe they stopped because they had no other choice—Zoe’s van and the delivery truck were blocking the entire street.

  She watched as Levi weaved through the people and jogged back to her van. Easing himself onto the ground, he wormed his way along the pavement until his upper body was beneath the van.

  Someone stepped out from the crowd, holding a cell phone to their ear. “Hey! You should wait for the police to come,” he told Levi, even as the sirens began to wail in the distance.

  “I’m not touching anything,” Levi said. “I’m just having a look.” Slipping his phone out of his pocket, he shone the light from the screen around the dark undercarriage.

  The truck driver approached Zoe, looking almost as shaken up as she felt. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. “I think so. You?”

  “Yeah. You scared me half to death.” And she could believe it, because he still looked a little pale. “What happened?”

  “That’s the question of the day.”

  Levi got to his feet, wiping his hands on his jeans as he returned to the sidewalk. His brow furrowed, and his mouth turned down.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked him.

  That concerned look was back, stronger than ever. For a moment, Zoe wondered if this time, he really would hug her. And strangely, she wanted him to.

  “Someone cut your brake lines.”

  9

  Howling Mad

  Zoe tapped her blank “I do” notebook with a pen that was becoming increasingly gnarly with her anxious teeth marks. She glanced at her watch again. The expo doors had been open for an hour already. Saturday was supposed to be the busiest day of the whole weekend, and yet none of the customers who had found their way to her far, far, far little corner had shown any interest in her booth.

  Her hopefulness for that weekend’s results had turned to desperation overnight. The expo started out as a way to finally buy her own home, to feel like the responsible grown-up she was trying to convince her mother she was, to advance her business. Now those desires had mutated into needs.

  She needed to buy a home to prove to her mother she was a success. She needed to get out of that arranged marriage without causing her mother stress. She needed to undo the negative word-of-mouth created by Juliet’s wedding.

  There seemed to be so much more than her pride riding on that weekend. If only there wasn’t someone out there possibly trying to sabotage her. Or kill her.

  Between Juliet’s tantrum and Chelsea’s scheming, she was desperate for anyone to stop by her table. Things hadn’t been a total bust, though. There were all those business cards that Natalie had handed out the day before. Maybe one of those interested people would pop by that morning.

  At the thought of her assistant, she checked her watch again, like it was going to be drastically different from two minutes ago. Ten o’clock and still no sign of her.

  Zoe knew she had to have a serious talk with that girl. Either that or she was going to have to get a new assistant. Zoe added it to the growing list in her head.

  Replace assistant

  Find new dress for Piper

  Buy new wedding supplies

  Find out who’s trying to kill me

  Zoe stared off at nothing in particular, the beats of her pen growing louder and faster. The strum of a guitar interrupted her fretting. Levi perched on the edge of her table, directly in her line of sight.

  “Zoe’s eyes sparkle like bay.

  A smile from her blows me away.

  But I don’t get one today.

  Because she seems kind of gray.

  Hey, hey, hey…”

  Zoe cut Levi’s crooning off. “Did anyone ever tell you that your tunes are cheesy?”

  “They’re not cheesy. They’re honest.” He feigned offense, but considering the ease with which he played around on his guitar, something told Zoe there was a lot more talent he was hiding beneath his cheap rhymes.

  “Did you have a chance to listen to my demo CD?” he asked.

  “No. I didn’t exactly have time between my mother landing in the hospital, someone trying to sabotage my business, nearly dying in a car accident, and answering police questions until one in the morning.”

  He didn’t let her sarcasm rattle him. “Right. Well, I’ll forgive you. This time.”

  “Look. We don’t need a musician for the wedding,” she told him flatly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a booth to run.”

  Zoe turned, as though she expected someone to approach at any second. It was mostly so she didn’t have to get sucked into another flirt session with Levi.

  After waking up from yet another steamy dream about the musician, she was done entertaining his advances. An hour, three vibrators, and a cold shower later, she was ready to strangle him—no matter how illogical it was.

  Maybe it was simply the stress of the night befo
re. Or maybe it was the memory of his hands on her body, the concern in his eyes after her van careened out of control. Or was it the fact that he hadn’t held her once he’d discovered she was okay? Or more concerning, that she’d wanted him to.

  However, that didn’t explain all the other times she’d failed to climax in the past week, since she’d been unable to think of anyone but him. Not even Ryan Reynolds was doing it for her. Everyone’s face ended up transforming into Levi’s.

  As the pressure on her business was building, so was the pressure inside her already too-full bottle. And for some reason that she couldn’t—or rather refused to—explain, her one release was, well … not releasing.

  She felt ready to explode. She just needed to get through that weekend and everything in her life would go back to normal. Without Levi Dolson.

  Levi glanced both ways down the aisle, taking in the complete lack of customers vying for her attention. “Don’t you have an assistant to help you?”

  “I’m supposed to, but she hasn’t exactly been very reliable lately.”

  A woman turned down their quiet corner. Her eyes shifted over the row of booths before finally landing on Zoe’s. Recognition passed over her face and she headed that way. She was probably one of the people who Natalie gave a card to the day before, Zoe thought.

  Zoe sat up straight and pointed. “See? There. A customer,” she told Levi in an ‘a-ha’ tone of voice. “I have a customer. Now if you’ll excuse me.”

  Levi returned to his chair, guitar resting on his chest as he strummed at random, but she could tell he was paying close attention.

  As the middle-aged woman approached, Zoe smiled. “Hello. Can I help you?”

  Her eyes darted around Zoe’s display, as though still not sure if it was the right place. “Actually, I wanted to talk to the other wedding planner that was here yesterday.”

  So did Zoe, but she imagined for different reasons. “Actually, I’m the wedding planner for Plum Crazy Events. That was probably my assistant you were speaking to yesterday. I’m sure I can take over where she left off with you.” Zoe gripped her pen and held it eagerly over her notebook. She wrote down the date, just to make it official.

  “Plum Crazy?” The woman frowned. “Actually, I’m looking to hire the girl who works for Enchanted Events. I spoke to her here yesterday. Her name was Natalie.”

  Zoe blinked, trying to make sense of what she was saying. “Natalie is the name of my assistant, but I can assure you this is the booth for Plum Crazy Events. If you’re looking for Enchanted Events, that booth is somewhere over there. Way, way, way over there.” She gestured vaguely. “But my services are quite competitive. I can give you a quote to keep in the back of your mind for comparison sake.”

  The woman stared at her like Zoe was playing some kind of trick on her. “No. I’m certain this was the right booth. I remember that ugly wedding dress.” She pointed at Zoe’s mannequin.

  Zoe’s eyebrow arched in annoyance, but she kept the smile on her face in the hope of at least one interested customer that weekend.

  The woman rifled through her purse and pulled out a pink business card. “Here it is!” She waved it in Zoe’s face like I told you so. “Natalie. Natalie Evans.”

  Zoe gaped at the card. After a second, she reached out. “May I see that?”

  The woman handed it over, all smug. Zoe could feel Levi reading over her shoulder, but she didn’t care. The words on the card were all she could see.

  Natalie Evans. Enchanted Events. At the bottom was her title: Wedding Planner.

  Zoe read the silver embossed lettering three times before it began to sink in. By the time she was finished, her hands were shaking.

  “See? She was at this booth offering her services yesterday.” The woman tapped Zoe’s table insistently. “Are you a smaller affiliate or branch company?”

  Zoe’s eyelashes flickered at the unintended slight. A sort of cold calm blew over her, but it felt more like the eye of a storm.

  Natalie hadn’t been lying when she said she’d handed out two-dozen cards. It just wasn’t Zoe’s cards. It had been her own. Natalie was jumping ship. And not just to anyone’s ship, but Chelsea’s.

  She thought back to the day before when Natalie showed up late with a bouquet of flowers from the opposite end of town from where she should have been. Had her car really broken down or had she been placing an order for a wedding she was planning? Is that where she is right now? It was Saturday, after all. And she’d used her florist.

  Zoe didn’t know why that fact cut at her the most. People were free to use any florist they wanted, but Zoe had been using that one for years. She used them almost exclusively in exchange for a VIP discount. And Natalie was probably benefiting from that discount, since they knew she worked for Zoe—or rather, had worked for her.

  Zoe had taught Natalie everything she knew, showed her the best retailers, how to get the best deals, all the industry secrets. And she’d taken those secrets and run straight to her competitor with them.

  The betrayal was like a garter toss shot to her face. It stung.

  Zoe’s mind ran over the last couple of months. The private phone calls, the weddings she hadn’t been available to assist for, the tardiness.

  Her fist clenched around the pink card, crushing it.

  “Hey, I need that,” the woman complained.

  “Trust me. You don’t.” Zoe tossed it in her purse. “Anything would be better than Enchanted Events. And everything Natalie knows, she learned from me.” She stood up so fast she knocked her chair over. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have to go find someone.”

  Zoe wasn’t aware of anything else but her hatred for Chelsea or the feeling of soft fur in her hands as she dug desperately into her purse for the solace of her Fuzzy Friend. She couldn’t focus on the booths she passed, the potential clients watching her storm by, or Levi following close behind. He was saying something, but she couldn’t hear him over her anger. All she saw, all she knew, was red.

  When she’d turned down the main aisle and Chelsea came into view, Zoe squeezed the life out of Gentle Giraffe. But it had little effect at the moment.

  Strangely, as their eyes met, Chelsea looked as furious as Zoe felt, which was pretty difficult, since Zoe was irate.

  “You!” Zoe said like it was an accusation. “You’re trying to ruin me.”

  Chelsea planted her fists on her hips. “Really? And how the hell am I doing that?”

  Zoe risked letting go of Gentle Giraffe to count on her fingers, if only to keep her hands busy so they didn’t find their way around her rival’s neck. “First you stole my booth. Then you stole my potential clients. And now you’ve stolen my assistant.”

  “Oh that.” Chelsea waved it off like it was old news. “Obviously she wasn’t happy with you. She moved on to greener pastures.”

  This brought Zoe up short. It was hard to imagine Natalie not being happy. Zoe treated her not like just an employee but almost like a friend. She’d gone to her grandfather’s funeral to show her support, and even helped her move when her boyfriend was treating her like crap. Zoe gave Natalie regular raises, Christmas bonuses, paid vacation.

  Confused by the sudden betrayal, Zoe narrowed her eyes at Chelsea. It felt so personal. “What did you say to her? What did you offer her?”

  “Just some independence,” Chelsea said. “Her talents have been smothered under you. I’ve given her a position as wedding planner. She’s overseeing one as we speak.”

  “She’s not ready for that,” Zoe said. “She can barely show up for work on time.” Heck, she thought, she could barely tell the difference between a horse and a donkey.

  The memory of Juliet’s wedding was the final puzzle piece. She inhaled sharply. “Did Natalie sabotage the Fisher-Wells wedding?”

  Chelsea shrugged a bony shoulder. “How would I know about that? I was nowhere near it.”

  Zoe’s body became rigid with fury. If that wasn’t an “I can’t be held culpable” statement,
she didn’t know what was. But how was Zoe supposed to prove she was set up, if that’s even what happened? There were so many ways Natalie could have accomplished it without leaving so much as a fingerprint of evidence behind.

  Chelsea’s earlier anger seemed to return. She crossed her arms. “So is that why you retaliated? To get back at me for stealing Natalie?”

  “Me?” Zoe laughed. “What did I ever do to you?”

  There was a gasp and murmurs of surprise behind her. She spun to see those around them all facing the same direction, snapping photos, or whispering behind hands.

  “Oh, my gosh!” someone said. “Is that Holly Hart?”

  Zoe’s glare landed on her other least-favorite person. The platinum blonde swept down the aisle as though she could smell a story brewing. Her hairless Chinese Crested sniffed the air from Holly’s arms as though she could smell it too.

  Holly’s sights honed in on Zoe and Chelsea, her sharp gaze flicking between them. The moment suddenly interrupted, Zoe realized Holly wasn’t the only one paying close attention. Being in the best location at the expo, their argument had attracted quite a crowd.

  “My drama radar is going off,” Holly said. “Do I detect a story here?”

  Chelsea ran to her side, grabbing her arm. “Holly Hart. Holly Hart. I’m so glad you’re here.”

  The dog growled, bearing its fangs like back off, bitch. She seemed as mean as her owner.

  “Watch the suit.” She shook her off. “It’s Gucci.”

  Chelsea patted the bun on top of her head, making sure every hair was in place for the camera. “Have I got breaking news for you.”

  “I’ll determine what’s breaking news,” Holly said, petting Jasmine. “What happened here?”

  “Sabotage. That’s what. By Zoe Plum.” Chelsea’s face looked as though it was lit from within. As though this was the moment she’d been hoping would come along.

  Zoe rolled her eyes, but by the confidence in Chelsea’s expression, she was almost too afraid to ask what she was talking about.

  Holly looked like she was practically salivating. “Ohhh, delicious.” She twirled her finger in the air and Hey, You materialized from seemingly nowhere, his camera aimed at Zoe.