Always the Wedding Planner, Never the Bride

by Sandra D. Bricker

  After reserving the table and leaving the flowers with the restaurant hostess, she made a quick run up to the third floor to check in on Brittany. A make-up artist and hair stylist worked busily on her when Sherilyn arrived, so she sat down on the edge of the bed and spoke to Brittany through her reflection in the mirror.

  "Are you all set?" she asked. "Ready to be a bride?" "I'm ready to be a wife," Brittany replied with a gentle smile. "The bride part isn't exactly about me. Or hadn't you noticed?"

  She didn't know quite what to say, so she simply squeezed her shoulder.

  "Oh, it's not like it won't be a dream wedding," Brittany told her. "Just not my dream, or David's."

  "No? So what would be different? I mean, your dream wedding. What would it be?"

  "I don't want to sound pathetic here," she replied. "I love my dress, and you've done a beautiful job putting it all together, Sherilyn. Oh, and that cake!"

  "Emma Rae outdid herself."

  "She's amazing," Brittany exclaimed. "But I think David and I might have gone a lot less formal in some areas. Maybe not a whole sit-down spectacle for dinner, with charger plates and . . ." She contorted her face, very high-brow as she said, ". . . grilled salmon and lobster thermidor."

  Lobster hadn't made the final menu, but Sherilyn didn't figure she needed to correct her.

  "And that orchestral extravaganza she has playing at the reception! They don't even know our song. Can you imagine? We can't even have one dance to our special song!"

  "What's your song?"

  "You'll Accompany Me."

  Sherilyn brightened and laughed. "Bob Seger!"

  "Right. It was playing when we met, and David played it on his guitar and sang to me the night he proposed."

  "It's a classic!"

  "I know! Right? But even if Beverly's symphony escapees did know the song, I imagine she might keel over if they played it."

  She and Brittany cackled with laughter at the mere thought. Even the hair stylist began to snicker, and Sherilyn figured she must have already met Beverly Pendleton.

  Brittany changed gears as she asked, "Oh, hey! Do you know who I saw in the restaurant this morning?"

  "Who?"

  "Russell Walker! Can you imagine?"

  "I heard he checked in last night."

  "He gave me an autograph, and he was just as charming as I knew he would be," she gushed. "He's one of my favorite

  actors on the planet. And you know, he didn't seem nearly as crazy as people say he is."

  "No?"

  "Sherilyn, he's so hot."

  She giggled. "Do I have to remind you that you're about to be a married woman?"

  "Married. Not comatose."

  Sherilyn grinned at her. "Listen, I have dinner downstairs with my fiancé. Afterward, I'll be back to check on you before the ceremony."

  "Thank you."

  "Anything you need, you call my cell, all right?"

  Brittany nodded. "If I don't remember to tell you later, you did an exquisite job."

  "And you are going to have a dreamy wedding."

  "Promise?"

  "Of course!"

  Sherilyn checked the time on her new BlackBerry before tucking it into the pocket of her chocolate brown trousers. She'd chosen the champagne satin blouse to wear to dinner because it was one of Andy's favorites, and she smoothed it in the elevator before hurrying across the lobby.

  "Everything is all set for dinner, Miss Caine," the hostess told her as she crossed into the restaurant. "Your guests have just arrived."

  "Thank you."

  Andy stood as she approached the table, and he pecked her cheek and held out the chair next to his. "You look stunning," he whispered in her ear, and she squeezed his hand.

  "Hi, all. I'm sorry I'm late. I have an excited bride upstairs. Did everyone see my beautiful flowers? Andy sent them to me this morning."

  "Gorgeous!" Emma exclaimed.

  "Fine," Sean taunted Andy. "Make us all look bad."

  "Well, I don't think you have anything to feel bad about," Fee told him. "I mean, you know . . ." And she raised her left hand, wiggling the large round rock gracing her ring finger. ". . . Some women get flowers, others get diamonds."

  Emma and Sherilyn's collective gasps set off a wave of questions, comments, and congratulations.

  "You two met like twenty minutes ago," Russell said. "Sean, you're ready to invest in forever?"

  "No question," Sean told them.

  "And you!" Russell exclaimed, pointing at Fee. "You know nothing about this fella. He could be some born-again, bigamist serial killer with a family in eleven different cities and four bodies in the trunk of his car."

  "I'll take my chances," Fee beamed. "I know everything I need to know."

  "Well, Andy and I can't very well say anything. He proposed on our tenth date!"

  "You were counting?" he asked her.

  Sherilyn shrugged and gave him a loving smile. "Well, speaking of engagements . . ." she began, but Jackson and Emma whispered something to one another and popped with laughter. "What?" she asked them.

  "Well, Fee sort of stole our thunder," Jackson replied, and he lifted Emma's hand from her lap and waved it at them.

  "What!" Sherilyn cried, leaping to her feet and grabbing Emma's hand to inspect the flashy diamond that graced her ring finger. "Why didn't you tell me?"

  "I was going to," she said. "But when you invited everyone to dinner, we thought it would be a perfect time to share our news with all of our friends."

  "And you too, Russell." The serious expression on Jackson's face melted away to a grin, and Russell crackled with laughter.

  "Speaking of stealing people's thunder," Andy said softly.

  "Yeah, it might not seem so big to everyone in light of all of these other announcements of marital intentions," Sherilyn announced. "But Andy and I have set our wedding date. That's why I invited you all to dinner."

  "Ohhh," Emma cried. "I'm sorry."

  "No, no," Sherilyn reassured her. "This is perfect. All three of us with news to share!"

  Russell hopped to his feet, threw both hands on his hips, and glared down at J.R. "And you with no diamond to offer? Hmmph!"

  "Oh, sit down, silly," Sherilyn teased.

  "So when is the big day?" Emma pressed her.

  "Midnight. New Year's Eve."

  "No way!" Fee exclaimed. "Dude, that's when we're getting married!"

  Sherilyn's hand slapped against her heart, and she felt the blood rush out of her face. "What?"

  "Kidding. Congratulations."

  Sherilyn grinned and deflated into Andy as he slipped his arm around her.

  "Well, Jack," Russell said. "When you decided this would be a wedding-themed hotel, you really started something, didn't you? You sure aren't a bloke to mess around!"

  Andy sat in the very back row of chairs, Sherilyn at his side as Brittany Lund exchanged vows with David Pendleton. When the mayor pronounced them husband and wife, and Sherilyn slipped her hand into Andy's and smiled up at him, it was another one of those moments where she completely took his breath away.

  The bride reached out and squeezed Sherilyn's hand as she and her groom passed them.

  "Thank you so much," she said softly. "For everything." Sherilyn looped her arm through Andy's on their march through the doors. "Wait until she sees the surprise I have for her."

  Andy didn't have the opportunity to ask her what she meant before she grabbed the clipboard she'd stashed under a ficus in the hall. "The reception is in the English Rose ballroom at the far end. Go ahead and get back to Jackson, and I'll meet you at the door in an hour? Don't be late, okay?"

  Jackson had invited him to kill some time up in his office while Sherilyn tended to wedding business. When Andy arrived, he had an impressive carved ivory chess set erected on his desk.

  "Do you play?" he asked.

  "Not in years, but I used to love the game." Andy sat down across from Jackson, picked up the rook, and examined it.

  "T
his is a pretty cool set."

  "It was my grandfather's. He taught me how to play." At the end of the match, Andy glanced at his watch and realized he'd gone over by a few minutes. "Ah, man," he said, "Sherilyn told me not to be late. She's got some big surprise planned for the bride."

  "What kind of surprise?"

  "No clue, but I'd better get a move on."

  "Later then," Jackson said as he set the chess pieces back into place on the marble board.

  "Hey, Jackson. Congratulations to you and Emma. We're really happy for you."

  "I should have asked her a long time ago," he admitted.

  "Well, you asked her now."

  Jackson smiled and tilted into a shrug. "You better take off, buddy."

  Andy didn't bother to wait for the elevator. He took the staircase down to the main floor and jogged across the lobby. Sherilyn stood waiting at the entrance to the ballroom when he turned the corner, and she rolled her arm at him.

  "Come on, come on!"

  The minute he reached her, Sherilyn snatched his hand and tugged him behind her into the ballroom where Russell stood on the stage with a microphone.

  "So that being said," he told the bride and groom, seated at a long table with the rest of the wedding party, "I hope you'll allow me to give you a little gift in return for welcoming me when I crashed your wedding."

  He replaced the microphone to the stand and picked up the acoustic guitar leaning against the piano. He climbed up on a stool and adjusted the microphone as he said, "Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Mr. and Mrs. David Pendleton to the floor for their first dance."

  Sherilyn muffled her squeal with both hands before she grabbed Andy's arm and shook it. "It's their song," she whispered to him. "And the mother-in-law wasn't even allowing it to be played."

  "So you recruited Russell," he said with a smile.

  Sherilyn stepped in front of him and leaned back against Andy. He wrapped her up in his arms, and they swayed to an astonishingly great rendition of Bob Seger's song, "You'll Accompany Me," as the bride and groom danced across the floor in front of the stage.

  When the song came to a close, the room erupted with applause, and the bride took off at a full run toward them. When she reached Sherilyn, she threw her arms around her and repeated "Thank you, thank you so much!"

  Sherilyn held her by the arms and grinned from ear to ear.

  "You deserved to have your first dance to your song, Brittany."

  "But Russell Walker," she cried. "It's just too much. You so ROCK!"

  "Standing at the back of the room," Russell said into the microphone, "along with our beautiful bride, is the woman who asked me to come and play for the first dance. Let's give it up for Sherilyn Caine, the wedding planner here at The Tanglewood."

  Andy joined in the applause as Sherilyn turned fifteen shades of crimson.

  "At the risk of taking over your day, David and Brittany, would you indulge me just one more song?"

  Brittany raised both hands into the air from the back of the ballroom and shouted out a resounding, "Yes!" The rest of the room ignited in thundering applause as the bride hurried back toward the stage.

  "This song is especially for one of the coolest young women I've ever met," Russell told them. "Sherilyn Caine, your best days are certainly not behind you. Come on back, girl. Rock 'n' roll never forgets."

  And with that, Russell took that guitar to town and belted it out in a way that Andy felt certain would have made Seger himself proud. The lyrics seemed tailor-made for Sherilyn as Russell sang about how she'd become much less bolder with age.

  Sherilyn covered her face with her hands, turned toward Andy, and peered at him through her fingers. By the time the lyrics declared a teenaged Sherilyn was now in her thirties, Sherilyn's laughter sounded to him like part of the song. And when Russell hit the bridge, reminding her that rock 'n' roll hadn't forgotten her, she grabbed Andy by the hand and rushed toward the stage, already surrounded by throngs of people, all

  of them clapping to the time of the song. When she joined them in cheering Russell on, Andy did too.

  He couldn't help but wonder for a moment what the mother-in-law had to say about what Russell Walker and the wedding planner had done to the dignified wedding reception she'd counted on for her future-governor son. But when he saw the sheer joy in his fiancée's gorgeous face, Andy couldn't have cared one iota less.

  "Oh, Em, it was such a kick!" Sherilyn exclaimed. "You should have seen Brittany and David. They had the time of their lives. And all of their guests were tearing it up!"

  "I wish I'd seen it, but after Andy left, Jackson and I went over to tell my parents our news and show them the ring."

  "Speaking of which," she grinned, "let me have a closer look at that baby!"

  Emma extended her hand and curtsied. "Isn't it perfect, dahling?"

  A single princess-cut diamond, a couple of karats at least, surrounded by tiny twinkling rounds. Sherilyn traced the platinum diamond-encrusted band with her finger.

  "It's exquisite. But more importantly . . . how did he ask you?"

  The two of them giggled like schoolgirls as they ran to the micro suede sofa and dove in.

  "This is like the old days," Emma observed. "All we need is the nail files and polish!"

  "What did he say?"

  "Oh, it was better than I even hoped," she exclaimed, "and I was totally surprised. I mean it, you could have knocked me over with the flick of your finger. We were having dinner at

  this new Italian place in Buckhead, and when the dessert cart came, they had a sugar-free red velvet cupcake! Well. Come on. That was almost too good to be true!"

  "He must have hunted for that place for a month!" Sherilyn said, laughing

  "So of course I had to try it. He knew good and well I was going to! And when they brought it to the table, it had this gorgeous, glittery decoration on the top. When I looked closer, I realized . . . It was a diamond ring! And when I looked over at him, he'd gotten up from his chair and was down on his knee in front of me!"

  "Ohh, that is too delicious!!"

  "Ah, Sher, I made a total idiot of myself and cried like a dork! And he finally said, 'Emma Rae, will you give me an answer, please?'"

  "And that's when you said yes."

  "No. That's when I told him I'd let him know after I ate the cupcake."

  "You didn't."

  "Come on. A sugar-free red velvet cupcake, Sher."

  They leaned into one another and laughed until Sherilyn could hardly catch her breath. When she did, she sputtered, "Speaking of cake . . . did you bring the wedding cake sketches?"

  "Yep, they're on the table."

  Emma hopped over to the table and brought them back to the sofa, spreading them out on the coffee table in front of them.

  "You have five to choose from," she said. "And you know you don't have to pick any one of them. I can do whatever you want with them."

  The sketches looked like artwork on an eclectic gallery wall.

  From florals to elegant and classic to quirky art deco, Emma had outdone herself once again.

  "I was thinking about a groom's cake," Sherilyn told her as she examined each sketch again.

  "A groom's cake? With only fifty guests, you want a wedding cake and a groom's cake? You'll be eating cake until your tenth anniversary!"

  "Your point?"

  Emma chuckled. "You don't need a groom's cake, Sher."

  "I know," she replied, somewhat deflated. "But I wanted to do something special for Andy. Maybe I should get him a gift; something extraordinary!"

  The doorbell rang before they could brainstorm the idea, and Sherilyn raised a finger. "Hold that thought," she said, and she padded toward the front door.

  She jumped the very moment that she opened the door as Claudia Boyett—Aaron's mom from down the street—jammed the end of a leash into her hand.

  "Take this!" she demanded. "You have to take this dog back. He's horrible, just horrible. I won't have him in
my house another night."

  "Well . . . what . . . What happened?" she asked as Henry looked up at her, panting/smiling, looking just as innocent as could be.

  "What didn't happen!" she cried. "This dog has eaten the television remote, the cordless handset, two rugs, and the edge of my patio door. You have to take him back. You just have to."

  "I'm—"

  "No!" she interrupted. "I won't take no for an answer. I won't take that dog home. If you don't want him, you'll have to find another sucker to take him in. I won't do it," she said

  as she backed down the sidewalk. "Don't follow me! I mean it. I don't ever want to see that creature again."

  Sherilyn stood there looking at Henry, and he swiped her hand with his juicy tongue.

  "Don't try to get into my good graces, mister," she said, and he licked her again, this time more timidly.

  Sherilyn closed the door and led Henry by the leash, down the hall and into the living room. When Emma looked up and saw them both standing there, she burst instantly into laughter.

  "Well, you said you wanted an extraordinary wedding gift for Andy. I'd say God dropped one right at your door."

  "More like propelled him straight through the door."

  Two hours later, after Emma had gone, Andy came home to find Henry sitting next to Sherilyn on the sofa, surrounded in yards of red ribbon.

  He laughed and asked, "What's this?"

  Henry bounded toward him, happily jumping on him, trailing ribbon all the way back to the couch.

  "Your wedding present!" Sherilyn exclaimed. "I had him wrapped up all pretty for you, but he ate his way out of it before you got home."

  Made a Believer Outta Me

  Lyrics & Music by Russell Walker

  I've been searching the world over—for something that

  could change me.

  Looking for some truth—that would come and rearrange me.

  And just when I come down to—I'm gonna pack it in,

  they come across my path, you know—these two just do me in.

  Never believed too much in God before,