by Stacy Gail
Dedication
To Cynthia Horton and Lance Shoeman, otherwise known as the coolest siblings in the world. Well, except for the underwear thing and that unforgettable incident with the Christmas tree…but otherwise, the coolest!
Chapter One
“The Texas Hill country is such a romantic backdrop for a wedding,” Claire Pomeroy told Rachel Pelly, her client and bride-to-be. “Serenity Springs Resort blows the competition away when it comes to wedding venues. It’s spacious enough to handle all three hundred of your wedding guests, while providing gorgeous facilities and top-notch service. You can have your fantasy garden wedding in the formal gardens, and then have the reception in the Grand Ballroom no more than a few steps away.”
“This place is so much better than Matt’s idea of getting hitched during halftime at a Spurs playoff game,” Rachel said, their footsteps echoing against the lobby’s Spanish tiles as they headed toward the resort’s main garden. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m as much a fan of professional basketball as anyone, but I can’t imagine how freaky-crazy it would be to pull off an entire wedding during a fifteen-minute NBA halftime.”
“Of all the weddings I’ve coordinated, that has to be one of the most original suggestions I’ve ever heard,” Claire admitted, then shot Rachel a smile as they moved into the sun-washed garden. “But I think I could have done it.”
“Ugh, please don’t tell Matt that. Call me picky, but I would like to have my wedding scented with roses and magnolias, rather than jock sweat and stale beer.”
“Your wedding wish is my command.” Claire kept her professional mask in place when what she really wanted to do was snort out loud. When Rachel and Matt had first walked into the offices of As You Wish Weddings, it was obvious the couple had a terminal case of truly-madly-deeply—in short, her favorite kind of client.
“According to the resort’s event coordinator, this expanse of lawn can accommodate up to five hundred seats, and considering they hosted a senatorial election party last November, I’m confident the wait staff is capable of handling a heavy census.” Claire picked her way onto the lawn, careful not to turn an ankle in her usual four-inch open-toe heels. Reaching the height of five feet four only if she stood at attention, she did her best to make up for her unimpressive stature by putting together a look of elegant professionalism in both her work and appearance. The one lesson she’d learned as a wedding planner was a simple one—she was only as good as her reputation, and it was a lesson she made sure she never forgot. “So? Is this the sort of setting you’d like for your wedding?”
“Wow.” Rachel took in the well-tended garden while the sun shone down on her coppery red hair. She was a tall, slender woman whose peaches-and-cream complexion was so perfect it didn’t look real. Claire, with her porcelain-pale skin and long brown hair, felt pasty in comparison. “This is what I’ve always dreamed of, Claire! Can’t you just picture it? A month from now the flowers will be in full bloom as the sun smiles down on our family and friends, and Matt and I will exchange our vows…oh, my God.” She suddenly gasped as if stuck with something sharp. “What if it rains? What if it pours?”
“Then you’ll have your choice of reserving the adjoining Majestic Ballroom, or I can arrange to cover the outdoor ceremony site for roughly the same amount of money.”
“I think it’d be easier to make a nice little blood sacrifice to whatever anti-rain god there is, and let the chips fall where they may.” Rachel chewed on her lip a moment before she shook her head. “Why am I sweating the small stuff? Every bride-to-be is entitled to a bit of luck on her wedding day, right?”
“Just as long as that luck is of the good variety.” Snagging up her smartphone, Claire scoped her list of contacts that might be sweet-talked into giving her a deal on wedding canopies. When it came to solving problems, she was a firm believer in making her own luck. “Next on the agenda, of course, is the finalization of the wedding party. Have you settled on numbers of bridesmaids and groomsmen?”
“Three apiece, plus the matron of honor and best man.”
“I love a bride who prefers not to have an hour-long taffeta parade,” Claire approved. “If you’d like, you can email me the names and measurements of the wedding party. The people I work with are standing by, so I can set up fittings straight away and have it all done by the end of the week. I know you’ve chosen the green-and-white dresses for your bridesmaids and matron of honor, but what about Matt? Has he decided on what he wants for his side of the aisle?”
“Um…no.”
With the sixth sense of a mother faced with a shifty teen, Claire looked up from her phone. “What is it?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I uh…I was just thinking about why Matt’s not here with us now.”
“I was wondering about that. Usually your fiancé likes to know what’s going on with all the wedding preparations.”
“He does, and hopefully Matt will be able to join us by the end of the walkthrough. But he had plans today to ask his closest buddy to be his best man, so I’m not sure he’ll be here in time.”
“Matt’s left it this late?” A warning bell went off in Claire’s mind. “Does he understand the wedding is a month away?”
“Oh, he knows. And he’s not dragging his feet, it’s just…”
“What?”
“Matt’s best friend can be a little unpredictable.”
The word trickled an ominous shiver down Claire’s spine. Wedding planners the world over had a severe allergy to unpredictable. “Oh?”
Rachel loosed a gusty sigh. “Look, I really don’t want to sound like some crazed bridezilla ripping on her fiancé’s friends. No matter how insane this wedding eventually makes me, that is the one thing I have vowed never to do.”
“You’re a long way from slipping into bridezilla-mode, but I do need to know, Rachel—is there a problem between you and Matt concerning his choice of best man?” Weddings had gone the way of the dodo for less.
“No, no problem. It’s…more of a personality thing. But it’s not a problem.” Rachel gave a quick little laugh. “Everything will be fine, really.”
Claire nodded, but in her mind she wondered why Rachel’s comment had the ring of famous last words.
“How does it feel to be back home in good old San Antonio?” Matt Guthrie asked over the mingled roar of the wind and rev of the engine. On such a perfect spring day, there was no way the Mustang’s ragtop was staying on. “Did the three months up in Dallas turn you into a Mavericks fan?”
“The only reason I’m not hitting you for that unforgivable slur is because you’re the guy behind the wheel.” Grinning up at the brilliant blue sky, Ryder Price took the time to simply enjoy a powerful car taking a sharp bend in the road. “I’m just glad that museum job is a done deal. When I decided on commercial architecture as a career, no one warned me there were crazy feng shui curators out there in the world who would insist that load-bearing walls messed with the natural flow of chi. I know I’m no feng shui expert, but I would think having the roof fall on your head would screw up the chi flow one hell of a lot more than a handful of internal supports.”
“Now, now, you know better than to bring logic into what a client wants.” Matt’s grin was unsympathetic as he downshifted. “At least you now have a couple weeks off to get back into the swing of things. Nice of your boss to give you some vacation time.”
“After months of jumping through feng shui hoops, it’s more like decompression time than vacation.”
“Got any plans? Besides decompressing, I mean.”
“Hell yes, I have plans. I’m going to do epic amounts of nothing, with a side order of sleeping until noon.”
“Lucky bastard.”
“Luck has nothing to do with it.” It
had been a long, hard slog up in Dallas, Ryder thought, settling deeper into the seat with a sigh. What at first had been a source of amusement had quickly become all-out drudgery, and putting up with the constant interference had worn on his very last nerve. There hadn’t even been a way to blow off steam, except to call his boss and rant whenever he couldn’t take it anymore. He hadn’t been able to knock around the city with the few people he had met up there, as everyone had spouses and families to get back to at the end of the workday. Skyping with Matt had given him some respite, but his best friend had been pretty scarce lately, spending most of his free time with his girlfriend, Rachel. For the most part, Ryder had been left with nothing to do except wander back to a lonely hotel room and obsess on his impossible client’s demands until he wanted to scream.
Small wonder he was feeling fried.
It should be easing up though, he mused, brows pulling together. Somehow he’d managed to pull off a freaking miracle in Dallas. He’d gotten the job done on budget and on time, all without murdering his impossible client. But for some reason the restlessness was still there. He couldn’t explain it, this gnawing sensation of dissatisfaction. It was almost like he had forgotten to do something important and now there was a gaping hole somewhere that was in danger of swallowing him whole.
Maybe his chi was out of whack.
“So? What do you think?”
Ryder looked at Matt and hoped he didn’t appear as blank as he felt. “About what?”
“Glad to see you’re hanging on my every word,” Matt muttered, shaking his perpetually mussed curly brown head. “Let’s try this again. Bottom-lining it, I’ve asked Rachel to marry me, and since she was crazy enough to say yes it looks like I’m heading down the aisle. If it doesn’t interfere with your important plans of sleeping and doing nothing, how do you feel about being my best man?”
Ryder went still. “You’re kidding.”
“No, I’m serious. We’ve been best friends since our freshman year in college, and you’re closer to me than my own brother. Why wouldn’t I want you as my best man?”
“No, I mean…you’re getting married?” Feeling like he’d gotten sucker-punched by King Kong, Ryder stared at him. This had to be a joke. A seriously bad joke. “You?”
“Is it so hard to believe? Rachel and I have been together for over a year, and I was crazy about her long before that. It’s about time we make it official and settle down for real, don’t you think?”
“Settle down?” Ryder could only stare at him as the edgy restlessness gnawing away at his insides cranked up another notch. “You guys are already settled down. Why would you want to screw everything up with something as outdated as marriage?”
“Not everyone looks at marriage the way you do, pal.”
“The world would be a happier place if they did.”
“Rachel and I belong together, like two halves that make up a whole,” Matt said, clearly ignoring what Ryder thought were words of profound wisdom. “When we’re apart, I can’t wait to get back to her. When we’re together, I never want to leave her side. With Rachel, I always have a place where I can go and be loved and accepted. Wherever she is, that’s my home.”
“Did you get that off a greeting card?”
“I’m serious, dude.”
“You must be, if you’re throwing the M-word around.” A headache the size of Alaska bloomed behind Ryder’s eyes as Matt pulled into a large, tree-ringed parking lot. He barely noticed. He was too wrapped up in trying to pick his teeth up off the floor. “Damn. I leave you alone for a few months, and look what happens.”
Turning off the engine, Matt shot him a searching look. “Does that mean you don’t want to be my best man?”
“Matt, it’s not that I don’t want to be your best man. I’m honored you thought of me. That’s not the problem.”
“So what is?”
“Marriage,” Ryder said, stunned he even had to point it out. “Have you forgotten? You were the one who coined our motto—eat, drink, and not marry, for tomorrow we grind.”
“I believe I was still technically a teenager when I came up with that particular gem. I’d like to think I’ve grown up a little since then.”
Ryder shook his head and tried to find the words that would stop his friend from driving his life off a cliff. “Let’s think about this for a second. You and I both know you’re the greatest party-animal to walk the face of the earth—”
“Aside from you, of course.”
“—and you want to throw all that away now? For one woman?”
“Not just any woman. The woman.” Matt glanced toward the cedar-and-glass chalet-style building they’d parked in front of, only to perk up when he caught sight of Rachel heading toward them with a smile that rivaled the sun. “She’s definitely the one for me.”
“You have been reading too many greeting cards,” Ryder muttered. “Matt, think, okay? How do you know a year from now you’re not going to come across another woman who’s the one? Like her, for instance.” He gestured toward a cute little blonde in a tennis outfit heading around the corner. “What if you met up with her, and it hits you like a bolt from the blue that she’s the one you’re meant to be with? Or her,” he added, nodding at a dark-haired woman with the heart-stopping bustline of a young Mae West and an aura that was the definition of feminine elegance. Despite his determination to get through to Matt, Ryder’s gaze lingered on the woman’s legs, made that much more spectacular thanks to the ankle-busting stilettos she wore. No man with a pulse could be blamed for fantasizing how it would feel to have those supple legs locked around his waist like a vise. “Look at her, Matt, she’s perfect. What if you—?”
“What if I’ve already met the one woman who was perfect for me, and I was smart enough to figure that out?” With a short sigh, Matt opened the door and slid out as Rachel neared. “The fact is there will never be anyone else for me, Ryder. I’m not the party-animal I used to be, and I don’t need to look any further than Rachel to get my thrills. When you meet the right woman, pal, everything changes. Especially you.”
Ryder could do nothing more than stare at him in horror. Somehow, Matt was on the verge of becoming one of the countless zombie minions who fell for the sucker promise of love everlasting. How in the world had this happened? Distracted, his attention drifted back to the elegant woman with the long dark hair and dangerous curves, now sliding those wowser legs and spank-me-now heels into the car. She really was a breathtaking piece of work, but he couldn’t let himself be sidetracked by feminine perfection. What was important now was Matt. His best friend was trying to throw his life down the crapper, and he was doing it with a smile filled with impossible dreams of happily ever after. It was sad. It was awful.
And by God, it had to be stopped.
Chapter Two
The sky was a brilliant blue the next day as Claire drove down the oak-studded drive leading to the Hill Country home of Rachel and Matt. Her backseat was filled with heavy portfolio books needed for another client consult later that day, a bridesmaid dress that had to be dropped off at the seamstress and several centerpiece options for Rachel and Matt to mull over via the laptop.
She would count herself lucky if she saw home before midnight.
Nothing else could be expected this time of year, Claire cheered herself, smiling. Spring was the wildest season for any wedding planner determined to earn a reputation. Everything had to go off without a hitch, and that was what Claire prided herself in the most—offering up a flawless day when two people made the promise to become one. That was why she’d named her business As You Wish Weddings. Short of pulling down the moon for her clientele, Claire found a way to make their special day perfect.
“Claire! Long time no see.” All smiles, Rachel skipped down the wide limestone verandah steps as Claire opened the passenger-side door. “Thank you so much for coming by. I know this could have been done via email, but I feel better if you’re here to hold my hand.”
“That’s what
I’m here for.” Professional smile in place, Claire shouldered her work-tote and chose not to tell Rachel her schedule would be enough to make Hercules cry like a baby. Things like a jam-packed appointment book didn’t matter. What mattered was making Rachel’s wedding dreams come true. “Like I told you in my text, I have six fantastic centerpieces to show you and Matt. Oh, and the revised invitations have finally come back from the printer’s, so you need to look them over for any mistakes. If you feel they’re okay, and barring any additions or subtractions from your guest list, I’m ready to send them out for you, unless you’d like to do that yourself.”
“At this point, I’m ready to drop everything into your capable hands.” Rachel sighed, rolling her eyes. “I feel like I have more on my plate than I can handle right now. We have had, shall we say, an incident.”
“Oh?” As they walked into the house, Claire kept her tone neutral while internal warning bells began to clang. A gush of possibilities went through her mind, from bounced checks to a groom’s change of heart. “What’s happened?”
“Matt’s best friend is going to be staying with us for a couple of days.”
“I see.” It didn’t take a genius to figure out from Rachel’s flattened tone that this was a less-than-spectacular turn of events. “Is this the same one we discussed yesterday?”
Rachel nodded. “He’s an architect who’s been away for a few months on a job up in Dallas, which was the main reason why Matt hadn’t asked him to be his best man until now.” The strain in the redhead’s smile spoke volumes. “Matt said that was something he needed to do with his friend face to face.”
Claire frowned, not sure what to say. “And…this friend is now staying with you? Does he not live here in San Antonio?”
“Oh, he does, but when he got home from his trip he discovered his house had been invaded by a colony of bees. He’s having the little critters removed, and then having the place fumigated just to be on the safe side, so obviously he can’t stay there. Matt insisted he couldn’t stay at a hotel when he’d just spent three months in one, so…”
