Royal Engagement

by Chance Carter

  “You were weird when I told you I was going to ask her, too,” he said. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

  “Like what?”

  He gave me a flat look. “You know what I mean.”

  We stared at each other for a long moment before I decided it was time to get the feelings off my chest. I hated fighting with my brother, and this was a fight I’d been avoiding for a long time. Perhaps too long.

  “You know that I think Valerie is a great girl,” I said. “Don’t you think you should wait a little longer though? You’ve only known each other two years, and her family...”

  Garrick’s eyes hardened. “What about her family?”

  I stepped over to the bar and poured myself a drink. Whiskey. Neat.

  Garrick folded his arms and glared at me impatiently.

  “You know exactly what about her family,” I said.

  Garrick rolled his eyes and let out a sigh of frustration. “Why do you need to make it so dramatic? They’re a rival brewery, Levi. It’s not like we’re on opposite sides of a gang war.”

  I had many faults, but a penchant for drama was not one of them. Valerie’s family had a long track record of coming to blows with ours. The rivalry between their Feisty Fox Brewery and our Black Mountain Brewery was one of Portland’s many inside jokes. It was a little like the Coke versus Pepsi debate, except it often played out on a personal level. For example, I’d gone to high school with one of Valerie’s cousins, Josh. He dedicated an almost stalkerish level of time and energy to finding out which girls I was interested in and beating me to the punch. A reasonably harmless obsession, sure, but I didn’t relish the idea of welcoming that kind of crazy into my family.

  Nevertheless, I suspected I’d gone too far and tried to backtrack. “I just think we should be careful with them is all. “

  Garrick ran his tongue across his top teeth and shook his head. “Why didn’t you mention any of this before?”

  “It wouldn’t have changed your mind.”

  “No, you’re right, it wouldn’t have. And it still won’t. Why bother telling me now?”

  I took a sip of my whiskey and it burned down my throat. “You asked.”

  It was the wrong thing to say. Garrick’s nostrils flared, and he started to pace the room.

  “I shouldn’t have to ask, Levi! I thought you supported me. I feel like a goddamn idiot.”

  “I do support you,” I said, leveling my gaze at him. “I just want you to be careful. That’s all. I don’t think it would kill you to take a little more time to think about it.”

  He rolled his eyes like I was the most tedious person he’d ever met. “We are so beyond careful, Levi. This woman is my soulmate. I love her so much I feel like I can’t breathe when I’m not with her. There’s not a thing in the world I wouldn’t do for her.”

  His countenance shifted as he spoke, and the same smile he’d worn when he first came to tell me the news flickered across his mouth.

  I raised my glass to my lips, muttering into my drink. “Who’s being dramatic now?”

  Garrick’s features fell flat again and a chill crept into the air. My brother was one of the happiest, bubbliest people on the planet, but when the frosty winds began to blow, even a polar bear would have a hard time enjoying the weather.

  “You need to get over yourself.” He stormed to the door, glancing over his shoulder at me with his hand on the door handle. “You know, I was going to ask you to be my best man.” He opened the door. “I guess I’ll have to find someone who cares.”

  With those words still hanging in the air, Garrick slammed the door behind him and stomped all the way down the hall.

  I couldn’t count how many times we’d had arguments like this. He was a dreamer, a believer in all that was light and good. I was a realist. The problem with dreamers is they’re prone to violent reactions to reality. Popping a dreamer’s bubble could end with them popping something of yours.

  Our roles in the family business reflected our different personalities. I managed the finances as CFO, while Garrick schmoozed business contacts and ran the public face of the company. Hell, he was the public face of the company. Garrick was training to take over as CEO when my dad retired, and I knew he was going to be great at it. Between the two of us, we could accomplish anything—even if we didn’t always see eye to eye.

  I flopped onto the couch with a sigh and turned on the TV, flicking through until I found a football broadcast. I liked to watch sports when I needed to think. It helped to calm me down and work out the kinks in my brain like a cerebral massage.

  Sure enough, a few minutes into watching and the guilt flooded in with a vengeance. There was no reason for me to be so cruel to my brother. He made rash decisions sometimes, but Valerie wasn’t in the same category as all his other mistakes, and I shouldn’t act like she was. She wasn’t a bad As-Seen-on-TV shopping habit or a hair-brained scheme to throw a rager his first weekend home alone in high school. Valerie was a person. A good one at that. Garrick thought she was, anyway, and I trusted him, probably more than I trusted my own judgment when it came to women.

  I swore, flicked off the TV, and threw my head back against the cushions. A second later my phone was in my hand.

  Garrick didn’t pick up right away, and I thought he might ignore me out of spite, but he soon answered.

  “What do you want now? Are you going to critique my taste in music next?”

  Again, I was the dramatic one?

  “I want to apologize,” I replied. “The things I said were uncalled for. I’m happy for you. I really am. You know I can be a little overprotective sometimes.”

  He sighed. “I’m not your kid brother anymore, Levi. I pay taxes and everything. I don’t need you to protect me.”

  Everybody needed a little protection here and there, but now wasn’t the right time to argue that point.

  “I know. Can I still come to dinner?”

  It bludgeoned my ego to have to ask, but sometimes that was the only way to mend things.

  “Of course you can still come. You’re my best man, aren’t you?”

  Garrick was always quick to forgive. It was one of his finest qualities and another that brought him and my father closer together while my mother and I lurked from the shadows. A smile tugged my lips.

  “If you’ll have me,” I said.

  “I wouldn’t want anyone else to stand up there with me on my big day. You’ll have to be on your best behavior though, can you do that for me?”

  “I’ll be good, I promise.”

  “We’re meeting at Carlucci’s at seven. See you there.” Garrick hung up, and I dropped my phone beside me on the couch.

  My brother deserved a better best man. The realization pricked, but maybe that was a good thing. It would make it harder to forget.

  I had a bad habit of thinking I knew what was best for people, but Garrick was right that he wasn’t my kid brother anymore. He was smart and capable, and if he loved Valerie, that was all that mattered, I supposed. I just couldn’t stand the thought of him getting hurt. Especially if I’d been able to prevent it.

  I might not be thrilled about the match, or about the dinner ticking closer by the minute, or about the fact that all of the people I liked the least in Portland would be at this wedding, but that didn’t change one simple fact. Garrick deserved better, and I needed to be better.

  I sighed and lifted myself from the couch. With one last look at the fading daylight beyond my window, I went to my room to pick out a suit for dinner.

  Chapter 3

  Frankie

  The first time I discovered Huber’s Cafe, I knew that I would be happy in Portland. I’d been on the fence about it before then, but that day I let go of my anxieties and embraced my new life.

  I chose Portland for two reasons.

  One: if my crazy idea for a business was going to work anywhere, it would be Portland.

  Two: my life needed a makeover, and moving to the other side of the country
seemed like the best way to do it.

  So I moved. I changed. I held my breath and launched Always the Bridesmaid.

  I almost didn’t get anywhere. Apart from the event planning experience from my college student union, I had little background in the field. I held onto my dream with a death grip for those first few shaky months, even though doubt kicked me at every turn. In retrospect, it seems a little insane that I thought I could go from being a straight-laced New York accountant to an out-of-the-box wedding planner overnight. It was a wonder I made it at all.

  My first client, Gia Flynn (now a card on my wall), was a fabulous star who defied definition as a stereotypical middle-aged woman. She was planning her third wedding and was completely nuts about the guy. Her first two marriages had been complete busts from the start, and now that she was older, wiser, and a lot richer, she wanted to start off her third marriage with a bang. She came across my blog and called me right away. She didn’t care that I had little experience or that my fledgling company was one misstep away from a nosedive—Gia just wanted me to take her on a ride.

  We met in Huber’s Cafe, Portland’s oldest restaurant. It was her favorite in town because she liked to watch the bartenders craft their famous Spanish coffee, a process that involved as much theatrics as it did fire. I preferred to stare at the ceiling, a high, curved mosaic of colored glass. Light poured through it and filled the space with life—filled me with life. I had my first client. There were going to be bumps on the road to come, but I knew Portland and I were going to work.

  Huber’s became my preferred meeting place for clients. It always reminded me of how far I’d come. There was also the added benefit that if things were awkward, I could order a Spanish coffee to break the ice.

  I arrived to my meeting with Valerie a few minutes early and waited at the bar like I told her I would. She arrived right on time. I knew it was her because I was the only person at the bar, and the second she saw me, Valerie lit up and came over to wrap me in a tight hug.

  “Hi! You must be Francesca!”

  Clients didn’t usually hug me right off the bat, but her enthusiasm was infectious. I hugged her back, adding a little squeeze before letting her go.

  “Call me Frankie. And you’re Valerie, I presume?”

  She nodded, grinning. I stepped back and took a good look at her.

  Valerie was gorgeous. Her teeth were enviably straight and even. She had a swinging blonde bob and blue eyes that glittered like sapphires against her creamy cheeks. We were about the same height, though that was probably the only similarity between us.

  Her willowy frame looked like it wouldn’t be out of place at an Olympic swim meet. My first love had been, and would always be my mom’s ravioli. Though high school had put me at odds with my curves, I’d come to love the way my hips flared and my butt jiggled. Still, I admired her graceful form. I was already picturing her in an elegant princess gown.

  “Let’s grab a table.” I found a waitress, and she sat us in one of the back booths, where we could have a little more privacy to chat.

  Today was a day to get to know each other more than anything else. There would be minimal wedding talk, which often surprised clients, who came ready to pin down everything from flower arrangements to seating plans in one fell swoop. My process took a little longer to get rolling than the average wedding planner, but there was no way my kind of business would work unless I got to know these women as more than just brides.

  “Tell me about yourself, Valerie. What made you choose Always the Bridesmaid?”

  “I work as the communications head for my family’s brewery,” she said. “You’ve probably heard of it—Feisty Fox?”

  I smiled sheepishly. “I’m afraid I’ve always been more of a Black Mountain girl, though you guys rock a great IPA.”

  Valerie tipped her head back and laughed, and when she didn’t stop after a few seconds, I began to wonder what I’d said that was so funny.

  “Sorry,” she said, catching her breath. “You probably think I’m unhinged. The wedding is a bit of a Romeo and Juliet situation, you see. I’m marrying the son of Black Mountain’s CEO, Garrick Wheeler.”

  “No way.”

  She nodded. “Way. He does a lot of publicity for his company, so we often ran into each other at events. It started with a little flirting and then...” She shrugged. “One day I knew I couldn’t wait until the next event to see him, so I pulled him aside and asked if he was ever going to stop dragging his feet and ask me out.”

  “You’re a real go-getter, then.”

  She smiled. “I’ve been called that. My dad often uses the word demanding.”

  Yikes. A bride who knew what she wanted and was determined to get it wasn’t always a bad thing. It was a lot better to have a decisive bride than it was to have one who would call several times a day to change the color of the table runners, but the demanding brides were the ones with the potential to turn into bridezillas. Bridezillas were challenging. It was hard enough dealing with one as a wedding planner, but being the best friend of the bridezilla was a whole new kind of fun.

  Valerie laughed again. She pointed at my face. “I just watched your eyes light up with panic.”

  “I’m not panicking!”

  “She said in a panicked voice,” Valerie mocked. She laid a hand on my arm. “Relax. I swear I’m not going to be a nightmare. I want my wedding to be light and breezy. That’s why I came to you.”

  The waitress arrived with our drinks, and I took a quick swig of my beer before I spoke.

  “I’m honored,” I said. “It means a lot that you would trust me with your big day. I promise that you’re going to have an amazing time, and I’ll make the planning as stress-free as possible.”

  “Thanks.” Her eyes filled with warmth. “I thought I was going to have to do this all on my own, you know. Sure, I could hire a wedding planner, but I wanted to have someone to share the experience with.” She looked down at her cocktail, and for the first time her exuberant glow flickered. “The only other girls my age I spend time with are my family’s ‘society’ friends. So not my type. And I’ve had a hard time making friends in the past because some people can find me a little...” She glanced up, smirking. “Intimidating.”

  “I have no idea where they could get that from,” I joked. This time, we both laughed.

  “Do you mind if I invite my fiancé and the best man to join us? I want you to meet them too.”

  “I think that’s a great idea.”

  Valerie texted her fiancé, and we chatted while we waited.

  I found it funny how different we were in so many ways, but how well we got along. Valerie grew up the only child in a rich family on the west coast. She loved the outdoors, and hiked on the weekends, surfed in the summer, and skied in the winter. I grew up the second youngest of four in a poor Italian family on the east coast, and the most outdoor activity I got was the seasonal skating rink in Rockefeller Center. I was happiest with a pen or a book in my hand, though cooking with my mom was always one of my favorite childhood activities. Val didn’t get to spend much time with her parents until she started working in the family business, and even now they rarely shared a meal together.

  “I’m so jealous of Garrick’s family,” she admitted. “They do everything together, and Garrick’s brother is his best friend. It’s just me in my family, and sometimes I feel like they see me more as an employee than their daughter.”

  My heart went out to her. I took my family for granted and didn’t talk to my brothers and sister nearly as often as I should.

  “And what about your relationship with Garrick’s family?” I asked. “You know, since you’re sworn enemies and all. How do you fit in?”

  Valerie’s smile returned. “Gerhart and Molly are the best. They’ve treated me like one of their own since day one. Levi, on the other hand...” She scrunched up her nose.

  “Is that the brother?” I asked.

  Val nodded, but before I could ask what Levi’s prob
lem was, her eyes caught something across the room, and she waved.

  I turned to look and my heart caught in my throat. Two of the most attractive men I’d ever seen were walking right for us, one of them with a broad grin on his face, the other looking like he smelled something rancid. I figured he was Levi.

  Both were tall, though Levi was taller by an inch or so at around 6’3”. They were broad too. Even with the high ceiling, they seemed to take up all the space in the cafe. They shared the same thick, dark brows, and full mouths, but beyond that, they look like they came from different worlds. Garrick’s hair fell past his ears in dark, messy curls. He sported a tidy beard and wore a plain woolly sweater and jeans.

  Levi was like the job interview version of Garrick. His hair was short and combed neatly back from his forehead. He had a strong chin and high cheekbones, features I presumed Garrick shared under all his scruff. His crisp suit and long black peacoat reminded me of a Wall Street banker.

  One look at these brothers and I had a million questions. This wedding promised to be one of my most interesting yet.

  Val stood to welcome her fiancé, who greeted her with a lingering kiss on the lips and slid down next to her in the booth. Levi realized he was going to have to sit next to me and gave me a once-over. If the set of his brow was any indication, his assessment wasn’t favorable. He sat but didn’t look at me or introduce himself, and I had no problem believing that he made Valerie feel unwelcome.

  “Garrick, this is Frankie,” Val introduced.

  Garrick shot his hand across the table and shook mine heartily.

  “And this is Levi.” Val pointed to the surly man beside me.

  To his benefit, Levi did offer up a polite smile and a firm handshake. The moment he dropped my hand, however, I ceased to exist.

  I could tell he was going to be a challenge, but I could handle it. I’d picked up the ruined pieces of my life and lugged them across the country to start fresh. How hard could one grumpy groomsman be?