Never Say Never (Lakeview Contemporary Romance Book 3)

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Never Say Never (Lakeview Contemporary Romance Book 3) Page 39

by Melissa Hill

Donnybrook,

  On Friday, September 25th

  and afterwards at the reception in

  The Four Seasons Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4

  “Oh, they’re really beautiful!” she exclaimed, putting a hand to her mouth.

  She was getting married. She was really getting married. Chloe had been dreaming about her own wedding for most of her twenty-eight years, yet she didn’t think that it had really hit her, not until then – not until she’d seen the words written down.

  Of course she’d done all the other things – reserved the Sharon Hoey dress, ordered the flowers, booked the hotel – but the dress was just a design, it wasn’t yet hers, and the flowers were just a ‘concept’ in the florist’s artistic little head. But here now, Chloe was holding in her hand tangible evidence of her forthcoming wedding, and she didn’t think she had ever felt so exhilarated in her entire life.

  “Are you alright?” she heard Debbie ask kindly.

  Chloe turned to her, blinking back tears.

  “You know it’s lovely to see a reaction like yours,” Debbie continued, when Chloe didn’t respond. “I’ve always thought that the wedding invite should be chosen with as much if not more thought as the wedding dress. After all, the invites herald the entire showpiece. Your guests get to see those before they get to see the dress, the flowers and the rest of it.”

  “Ah – I’m just being silly,” Chloe said, collecting herself. She really shouldn’t have let Debbie see her react like that. Now the woman would probably charge them a fortune.

  “It’s alright, dear,” Debbie said, obviously mistaking Chloe’s change of expression for embarrassment. “You don’t need to explain anything to me. Now do you want a cuppa while you pick the design you want, or will I just leave you to it?”

  “I think the design chose me,” Chloe said, unable to let go of the silver-embossed card she grasped in her left hand.

  “You’re sure? You don’t need to OK it with Himself or anything?”

  “No, it’s my decision and he’ll be happy to go along with my choice. Anyway,” Chloe added dismissively, “you know what men are like.”

  How dare the woman undermine her relationship. As if she would have to ‘OK’ it with anyone.

  “I do indeed,” Debbie agreed seemingly unaware of her customer’s affronted feelings, “but you’d be surprised. I had a couple in here last weekend and your man was calling all the shots and wouldn’t let the girlfriend get a word in edgeways. I tell you, he was one of the fussiest divils I’ve ever come across, enquiring about the origins of the paper we use, and the environmentally friendliness of the ink and all that. And the same fella was wearing a leather jacket. The misfortunate wife-to-be was mortified by the time they left the place.”

  How unprofessional. In Chloe’s eyes, the customer was always right, and she wasn’t too impressed to hear Debbie gossiping merrily about one Amazing Days Design client to another. Idle chitchat was no doubt a way of life down here in the country. Chloe would have preferred to employ a wedding-stationery designer from Dublin, but nothing in the city had come close to Amazing Days. Such unprofessional conduct was obviously the price you had to pay for dealing with a company in the sticks.

  She chuckled inwardly. Dan would murder her if she said something like that in front of him. Her fiance had been born and bred in Longford and was proud of it. Still well-educated as he was, his culchie roots didn’t show and to Chloe that was the main thing.

  Not that Mr & Mrs Hunt were farmers or anything like that – nothing of the sort actually. Although semi-retired, Dan’s father owned a construction company and Mrs Hunt had ‘supported him’ throughout his working years.

  Something Chloe wouldn’t mind doing for Dan once they got married. She hated her job as legal secretary to one of her father’s partners in his solicitor’s practice. Although she supposed there were some perks. Like taking time off on a Friday afternoon to choose wedding invites, for example.

  Chloe sighed as she studied the invite. She wouldn’t mind Dan getting just a teeny bit more involved in the wedding plans, but it wasn’t really his thing. Anyway, he was just too busy – especially at this time of the year. Most of the companies on the books of O’Leary & Hunt Chartered Certified Accountants had their accounts year-end in March, which meant that by the middle of April Dan was up to his eyes preparing profit and loss accounts and balance sheets. She could hardly expect him to traipse around after her at the weekends, or take afternoons off just to choose their wedding stationery.

  “Embossed Silver Hearts it is then,” Debbie said, writing the details in her order book, which Chloe noted seemed to be full of clients. She wasn’t surprised. The Lakeview company had really created a name for itself, and it wasn’t difficult to see why.

  It was a pity though that so many people seemed to have heard of them. Would Amazing Days Design invites be two-a-penny by the time their wedding came around, and would everyone poke fun at Chloe’s lack of originality?

  “The wedding is when – September?” Debbie said, a pen in her mouth. “And you said you want matching place-cards and evening invites too?”

  Chloe nodded.

  “OK,” she said, studying the order book, “I should have them ready for about the first week in July – how does that sound?”

  “I’d actually prefer earlier,” Chloe said quickly. “We’ll need them well before then.”

  First week in July indeed. That was four months away – how long did it take to run off a few invites?

  Debbie looked apologetic. “The card you’ve chosen is one of our newer designs for this year and unfortunately, stock for the full set won’t be available until early June. And I’ll need a few weeks from then to work on the inscriptions.”

  “Of course.” Well at least now Chloe knew that her chosen design would be original.

  “And because you’re ordering so far ahead,” Debbie went on, “I would always suggest that my customers leave it as close as they can to the wedding itself before deciding on final particulars, just in case anything needs to be changed in the meantime.”

  Chloe couldn’t help feeling affronted. “What would I need to change, for goodness sake?”

  Debbie spoke kindly. “Well, I’m just speaking from experience, Ms Fallon.You just never know. If anyone is ill, or things don’t go according to plan, or perhaps the date needs changing –”

  “Look, can we have them in June or not? If not I’ll have to go somewhere else.” Debbie looked taken aback. “Alright then, I’ll do my best.”

  “Fine. Give me a call when they’re ready for collection.”

  With a curt goodbye, Chloe lowered her sunglasses and breezed out of the store – her sample invitation clutched in her hand.

  The stationery designer raised an eyebrow as the door shut behind her latest client with a flourish.

  A madam if ever she saw one.

  And in this business Debbie thought with a sigh, she had seen plenty.

  End of excerpt

  Continue reading THE WEDDING INVITE.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  International #1 bestselling author Melissa Hill lives in Dublin and is one of Ireland's most popular female fiction authors.

  Her page-turning contemporary stories are published worldwide and translated into 25 different languages. Her titles are regular chart-toppers in Ireland and internationally and SOMETHING FROM TIFFANY'S (aka A GIFT FROM TIFFANY'S) became one of Italy's Top Ten 2011 bestselling books overall.

  One of her recent novels is currently in development with a major Hollywood studio.

  Want to be the first to learn about new Melissa Hill releases?

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  @melissahillbks

  melissahillbooks

  www.melissahill.info

  [email protected]

  ALSO BY MELISSA HILL

  Author Page

  Mulberry Bay (New)

  Lakeview

  The Heartbreak Cafe

&nbs
p; All Because of You

  Never Say Never

  Wishful Thinking

  The Guest List

  The Wedding Invite

  Christmas at the Heartbreak Café

  Escape to Italy

  Summer in Sorrento

  Autumn in Verona

  Winter in Venice

  Spring in Sicily

  New York

  A Gift From Tiffany’s

  A Gift To Remember

  Before I Forget (Christmas in New York)

  Diamonds From Tiffany’s

  The Gift of A Charm (The Charm Bracelet)

  Others

  Something You Should Know

  Please Forgive Me

  The Last to Know

  Short Stories

  Fairytale on Fifth Avenue

  A New York Christmas

  Box Sets

  Lakeview – Books 1 - 4

  Want to be the first to learn about new Melissa Hill releases?

  Subscribe to the mailing list

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Epilogue

  The Wedding Invite

  About the Author

  Also by Melissa Hill

 

 

 


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