by Lucy Kevin
“I could check in with some friends about their availability,” Tyce offered. “And you could always get Rose to ask around. We know trying to put together your first wedding in two weeks while also getting the venue up and running is a lot to ask.”
The Rose Chalet already had access to great people, so of course it made sense to use them. Even RJ’s presence made sense—he might be one of the owners of the business, but he was also a tremendous help when it came to construction and renovation. But Rose was different. Liz didn’t like the idea of having to call her boss in for help. It felt too much like asking to be rescued. Anything Rose could do for her, Liz should be able to do for herself, shouldn’t she?
“Thank you,” Liz said with a smile, “but I need to check in again with Jason to see if Amber and Robert already have a specific band in mind before we hire anyone else. I’ll move it to the top of my list.”
Ah yes, the list. Liz had thought she’d gotten so much from Jason when she’d been over to his house to see him. Yet it turned out that there were still so many holes, so many places where they needed more information.
The list had started out as notes on Liz’s tablet, but she had transferred it over to pen and paper as it grew. She preferred a physical list, if only for the satisfaction that came when she was able to cross something off. Not that there were too many things crossed off so far, however.
After thanking Tyce again for all he’d done to help, Liz set off through the building to check in with the others. She found Margaret holed up in her office working on two big concept images that showed how the wedding could look. One was an Art Deco design with a jazz band and servers who looked like they had stepped out of a 1930s ballroom. The other design was much more modern—full of sleek lines, metal elements, and mirrors that bounced light around the venue.
“I like both of your ideas a lot.”
“I do, too,” Margaret said. “But…”
“You’re having trouble deciding.”
Margaret hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Sorry. I know that you need the final layouts as soon as possible.”
“Everything you’re doing is great,” Liz assured her. “But at this point, we should get a decision from the clients on which way they want to go. If you could finalize these designs today, I’ll present them right away and get an answer.”
“Great,” Margaret said with clear relief. “I’ll put them in a file for you right now.”
Liz headed over to Nathan’s office and was pleased to actually find him there. Although judging by the sawdust on his clothes, he hadn’t been sitting at his desk for long. Daniel was there, too, with one of his cameras connected to one of the computer’s USB ports.
“I had an idea while hooking up the lighting with RJ,” Nathan explained as soon as she walked in. “What if we were to project photo montages of the happy couple on screens around the venue before the ceremony starts?”
“I like it, but is that going to be easy to put in place in time?”
“We need to make sure our Wi-Fi is secure so that we’re not accidentally broadcasting to the whole world. And get some great photos to project, of course. But Daniel thinks that if we take photographs as the bride, groom, and their guests come in, we could have them ready to go up by the time the ceremony starts.”
“Obviously, those wouldn’t be the final images,” Daniel explained, “but it could add an interesting and unique element to the wedding.”
Despite her reservations about the time crunch, Liz knew to trust her team. After all, that was why she had hired them. Because they were the best.
After telling them to carry on, she headed for the kitchen where Jenn was going through recipe books and making notes for the menu. She had smudges of flour on her cheeks, but on Jenn, that looked perfectly normal.
“I’ve got a couple of different menu options,” she immediately offered, “and I think they’ll work really well, but do you happen to know how many guests are vegetarian, gluten-free, or dairy-free?”
“No, but I’ll find out right away.” LA might be full of beautiful people, but they didn’t stay that way without a lot of work. Celebrities could be the trickiest of all when it came to food, and no wedding venue serving such high-end clients could hope to get by without catering to the specific needs of every single guest.
Travis grabbed her on her way out of the kitchen. “After thinking things through more carefully these past few days, I’m going to need contact details for the guests’ security teams so that I can brief them on our procedures. I’ll also need to make it clear to everyone that on the day of the wedding, all security goes through me. That okay with you?”
“Absolutely, and I will get you that information as soon as possible.”
She stepped out into the gardens, which had been transformed by Kate’s efforts, with help from Phoebe. The tangled and overgrown sections had been replaced with lines of plants standing neatly in their pots, waiting to be transplanted into the flower beds.
“What do you need to know about the flowers for the wedding?” Liz asked.
“I was actually just about to come in to give you my list,” Kate said. “It would help to know whether they simply want roses or something more exotic. And, of course, what we’re going for with the designs inside. And if anyone has any allergies, because there are some blooms that are worse than others.”
Ten items later, Liz had to admit that Kate was very thorough when it came to her job. By the time Liz went back to her office, her list of new questions was so long that she could easily have panicked. Fortunately, she had dealt with similarly overloaded situations in her corporate work and knew that the best way to move forward was to simply push her panic aside, put her head down, and tackle one item at a time.
Bothering Amber was out of the question. Liz couldn’t add to the stress of her hectic filming schedule unless absolutely necessary. Especially not when these exact interruptions had been a big part of why she’d backed out of the wedding in France.
Which left only one person who could give her the information. Jason.
At his house, while she’d just barely escaped without kissing him, she hadn’t been able to avoid delving into their past. In truth, were it not for the frenzied pace of her job here, she would have been able to think of little else but the way Jason had looked as he’d said, “I was a wreck when you left. I was so broken up that I thought I’d never be able to put the pieces back together. I loved you more than anything, and you left without even letting me try to convince you to stay.”
“Just stick to the list, and you’ll be fine,” Liz told herself.
Even so, her heart rocketed around inside her chest as she called Jason, beating even faster when he picked up and agreed to come over in an hour. Just a handful of words from his lips—and knowing he was going to be close enough to touch again—threw her even further off her game.
Would he want to talk more about their past?
Or, even more terrifying, had he been serious when he’d said he wanted to talk about the sparks flying between them now?
* * *
By the time Jason walked into her office fifty-five minutes later, Liz’s entire body was thrumming with anticipation. And memories. Memories so strong that one look at his bristly chin was enough for her to guess, “You’ve been working hard, haven’t you?”
“I finished my book fifteen minutes ago,” he said with a smile. “Once I worked out what my hero wanted, it was easier than I thought it would be.”
“Congratulations.” Liz couldn’t imagine writing not just one book, but a dozen, as he had over the years. “Is this the final manuscript or still a rough draft?”
“I’ll start revising it after the wedding.” He sat down on the sofa, and he looked so good that she was grateful for the small barrier of the desk between them as he said, “Some things need time to settle so that you can look at them properly and really understand how to move forward.”
She was almost painfully awar
e of the sparks flying between them…and of the fact that he seemed not only to be talking about his book, but also about the two of them. Or maybe it was just that being this close to him again was making her a little crazy. Because by moving forward, he couldn’t possibly mean them, could he? No, surely he was just talking about his book.
“Thanks for coming so quickly. I’m desperate for more detailed information.” She hid her discomfort over her deeply emotional thoughts by getting out the design folders Margaret had prepared for her. “First, we need a final decision on the theme and color scheme.”
Jason took his time studying the two options before pointing to the arrangement with the Art Deco touches and the warmer colors. “Amber is looking for something classic, but at the same time she doesn’t want it to feel like the same wedding everyone else has. I think it will be just right for her.”
Yet again, Liz was thankful that Jason knew his niece well enough to make these decisions. He’d obviously built an incredible relationship with Amber in the wake of her mother’s death. Not everyone could have managed that; in fact, a lot of men would have run from it. But not Jason.
Jason wasn’t the kind of man who ran.
“Thanks for the quick decision. Knowing which way we want to go will make a lot of things easier.”
“That’s true of a lot of things, isn’t it?”
“Yes, well…” Liz had a feeling he was talking about the two of them again, so she desperately tried to keep the conversation on track. “We will pick the flowers to match the room design, but do you know if Amber has any strong preferences? A particular flower that she’s always loved?”
“If you can find something that manages to bloom beautifully in difficult conditions, that would be a nice touch.”
Trust Jason to look for the meaning in everything, even flower arrangements. “I’m sure Kate can come up with something amazing. Now, about the guests, do you know who will need their own security people, whether there are any allergies or other specific requirements for the food, and which guests will need us to arrange transportation from the airport or somewhere else?”
When Jason smiled before answering, she had a feeling that he was deliberately trying to put her at ease. Clearly, she was looking far too stressed out. “I believe Amber’s friend Hannah will have security with her, and possibly her current co-star, as well. I have contact information for both of them on my phone. Why don’t we give them a ring now and work everything out?”
Thirty minutes later, when the security issues had been taken care of, they went carefully through the guest list. Despite how nervous being this close to Jason still made her, Liz couldn’t help but be charmed by the way each name on the list came with a small anecdote or observation that brought it to life.
“Robert’s Aunt Petunia has decided to backpack all over the world,” he told her with a grin, “even though she’s seventy-three years old. She’ll probably complain that the food isn’t spicy enough, but if you made it the way she likes it, no one else would be able to eat it.”
“That isn’t a problem,” Liz said, already looking forward to meeting Robert’s aunt. “I’ll just get Jenn to make sure that her food is a lot hotter than everyone else’s.”
Liz loved the way Jason turned the people around him into stories. People she had never met became living, breathing individuals to her, simply because he was describing them so well.
Although it suddenly made her wonder, how did he describe her to other people? And what story did he tell? Was it a story of the time they’d spent together when things were good? Or was it a story about the way they’d split up?
Working hard to corral her focus, she said, “Nathan, our IT specialist, has an interesting idea of projecting photos of Amber and Robert and their guests around various points in the room. If you agree that’s a good idea, we’d like a few personal photographs to work with in addition to the shots we’ll take when everyone arrives, so that we can have those available at the venue shortly afterward.”
Jason thought about it. “It does sound interesting, certainly unique, but will it be secure? I know you would never give any of the photographs away or try to sell them to the press, but people are so good at stealing things online. Besides, I’ve never met a photographer who didn’t want to play with their pictures forever.”
“If you deliver the photos to us on a USB stick, we’ll store them in that form, and we won’t put them anywhere there could be outside access. And obviously, the photographs would just be early versions,” she explained. “But if anyone can take great pictures without needing to retouch them, it’s Daniel. I’m very lucky to have such a great team to work with.”
“I doubt luck had anything to do with it. I bet you went out and hunted down the people you really wanted, the best ones for the job. I know you, Liz. You don’t give up when you have your mind set on something.”
Only, she had given up, hadn’t she? The one time it really mattered…
“Thanks for agreeing to do this,” he said in a deep voice that set fire to her insides. “I know it’s a ton of work to get everything ready in time.”
Maybe she should have downplayed how much work it was, but with everything going topsy-turvy inside of her—from being in the same room with him, from thinking about the past, from going around and around inside her head with all the mistakes she’d made and how she wished she could have done things differently—she found herself saying, “The trouble is that there are so many different jobs popping up from moment to moment. I truly do have the best people on task, but even so, I’m wondering if we simply don’t have enough pairs of hands.”
“I can help.”
Liz froze. “No, I can’t ask you to help. I mean, you have your writing to take care of, and—”
“Like I said, the first draft of my book is done, and I don’t want to edit it right away because I need to let it settle for a while. Besides, right now, there’s nothing more important to me than making sure that Amber gets the perfect wedding.”
Okay, so maybe Jason did have the time, but that didn’t mean it was a good idea. “I know you want her wedding to be perfect—and I do, too—but it wouldn’t feel right for you to work with us when you’re paying us to do the work.”
“There must be something I can help out with—errands, manual labor, whatever you need. Come on, Liz. You just said you could do with some more help, with an extra pair of hands.”
She did need the extra pair of hands. But even more striking was that a man this successful, this wealthy, this famous, would actually offer to do menial errands and manual labor. She’d fallen in love with him for so many reasons, and again and again, she could see that those reasons hadn’t been wrong.
“All right,” she said. “Thank you. We could use the help.” She tried to make her response sound friendly, but not too friendly. Professional, but not cold. “I’ll get back to you soon with a list.”
She expected him to get up and leave then, but instead he continued to gaze at her. She could see his mind working…and what she saw in his eyes scared her. Scared her enough that she couldn’t figure out how to head him off at the pass. Couldn’t manage to get her feet to move her out the door, either.
“Thank you for telling me why you left, Liz.” She could hear the emotion in his voice, the same emotion she’d been trying unsuccessfully to tamp down ever since she’d left his house days ago. “It wasn’t easy to hear some of what you had to say, but you were right. I wasn’t ready to be with you then. We were just kids. I tried to convince myself that I didn’t need adventure, that I didn’t need to see the world. But I did. I wasn’t ready then—” She’d never seen him look more serious. “But I am now.”
Liz felt her mouth fall open. Had he really just told her that she’d been right to leave?
And…oh my God…had he also just said that he was ready to be with her now?
“Don’t do this, Jason,” she finally managed to reply, her voice barely above a whisper from the sh
ock of it all. “We’re here to support Amber and her fiancé. We need to focus on that. Let’s put together an incredible wedding for her, and then—”
“Go our separate ways again?”
Liz forced herself to nod. It was really hard, but she managed it somehow.
But Jason was already shaking his head. “No, I don’t want to do that—and I don’t think you do, either. Can’t you feel the heat, the electricity, the emotion between us?”
Of course she could, but she couldn’t admit that to him. Could she?
“Heat? Electricity? They weren’t enough to keep us together once,” she pointed out. “If it didn’t work before, what makes you think the second time would work any better?”
“Because we aren’t kids anymore. I can see that we’ve both changed a lot since those early days, but one thing hasn’t changed at all—how I feel about you. If we don’t at least try, then how will we know? And I promise, if you agree to try again with me, I’ll make sure I don’t overwhelm you.”
Liz had never been good at lying to herself, so she couldn’t possibly lie to Jason right now and tell him that she wasn’t feeling all the things he’d just said—the heat, the electricity, and the emotion. But at the same time she couldn’t see that it was a good idea to just give in to it all so easily. Not when she knew firsthand how quickly everything could get sucked into the vortex of their relationship—with every plan, every bit of focus, being swept away before she even realized it was happening.
