Rules of Engagement

by Kay Lyons

  He didn't like it. Now that he'd set his sights on Eliza, he wanted to follow through. Pursue. Step up and go after the life he wanted for him and his baby girl. He felt like a racehorse being held in check when all he wanted to do was run. "What else?"

  The question came out as a grumble.

  "Once the wedding is over, don't charge at Eliza like a bull in a china shop."

  Had Lincoln read his thoughts?

  "You heard what Mac said about her ex. She's skittish and with good reason. So take it slow. One of the decisions Amelia made today was to accept Mac's offer of having the wedding here in his new backyard. Amelia and I are meeting with Eliza tomorrow evening. If you'll behave yourself, you're invited to come have dinner with us. Help Eliza out if you're around when she's here doing whatever she's going to do. Just do it with no expectation of getting something from her in return."

  "I would've helped her with the arbor regardless," Carter said. He might have made some costly mistakes in his past, but he wasn't that guy.

  "I know you would've. But by asking her out the way you did, you tainted the experience and you'll have to start over with her because of it. She's probably got her guard up now."

  That she did. Prickly was a good way to describe her.

  Carter wiped a hand over his face yet again. Why did women make things so difficult? Take offense so easily? "Fine. I'll do it. And you're welcome to use my yard, too. There's not much in it, so it has room for a tent or something if you need it."

  Lincoln sat back in the chair. "Thanks. I'll let Amelia know. All she's talked about is that wedding she went to on Friday and how they had a tent and pillows and some kind of couch… I don't know. But she liked it."

  "Whatever you need. Just tell me what else should I do with Eliza," Carter said, liking what he was hearing and wanting to get Lincoln back on track. At first he'd thought Lincoln meant for him to avoid Eliza altogether, but hanging out casually and letting her get to know him was a better idea.

  "Keep Piper out of it."

  The words brought out a frown. "Eliza knows I have a kid. Piper was with me on the beach. Besides, of all the women I've dated, Eliza's the only one I'd actually trust around Pip." He wouldn't have handed Piper off to Eliza to get ice cream had that not been so.

  "I know. But if things don't work out between you and Eliza, Piper will be the one hurt the most. Keep her out of it. Let them be friends. Piper will see Eliza here in the future as part of the wedding and Marsali's friend, but keep her out of your personal life. Piper doesn't need to be put in the middle."

  Carter got up and stalked to the edge of the tiered patio, staring off toward Lincoln's pool and the lights flickering beneath the water.

  He needed to think, to plan and come up with a strategy of approach that wouldn't scare Eliza away or have her building her protective walls higher, one that would allow her to see him as a good guy.

  One who doesn't cheat.

  "What's rumbling around in that head of yours?" Lincoln asked from behind him.

  Carter turned to face his brother and shook his head. "Just thinking maybe the cavemen knew what they were doing when they'd see a woman they wanted and claim her."

  Lincoln chuckled at Carter's audible frustration.

  It was true, though. Something inside of him had clicked the moment he'd first set eyes on Eliza. He wanted to know her secrets, what made her laugh. Protect her from the jerk who'd abused her trust and broken her heart.

  "Just remember what I said. Going after Eliza means risking your friendship with Mac should things go badly. Make sure you're prepared for the fallout."

  Carter shoved his hands into his pockets as he stared at his brother and slowly nodded. He understood the risks.

  What he had to figure out was how he could convince Eliza to trust him and give him a chance.

  Chapter 7

  After a long and exhausting weekend of weddings that ended with a blessedly small but decently lucrative one on Sunday evening, Eliza walked to the kitchen table in Lincoln's house the following Monday a little before six and set down the many tote bags she carried.

  Each held an assortment of wedding regalia, from invitation samples to table favors to popular color schemes and what could be done with them, her portfolio of photos including flower arrangements, food selections, and options. The list was endless.

  Over the years, she'd accumulated quite a bit of leftover wedding supplies, given to her by brides who didn't know what to do with it all afterwards. Her three-bedroom home in Carolina Cove consisted of her bedroom and two storage rooms she could barely walk through.

  Organizing her "stash" had been on her long list of to-dos forever, but she'd never found the time to make it happen. And though business had slowed due to her breakup with James, she'd filled the time with networking events in an attempt to salvage her career.

  Eliza had just pulled the packs of invitations from the logo-ed material as the first item to go over with the happy couple when she looked up at the sound of a high-pitched squeal.

  Piper played in the pool—with her gorgeous daddy. Her shirtless, tattooed, and impossibly muscular daddy.

  "Like what you see?" Amelia asked softly.

  Eliza flushed and ducked her head so that her hair hid her face, rummaging around in the bag to unload the rest of the samples. "Just checking o-on her. I heard her scream."

  "Mmm," Amelia said. "I told Lincoln you were here. He's on a call but will be in as soon as he can. Oh, these are beautiful. It's going to be hard to choose," she said, flipping through the invitation sets.

  "Since it's happening quickly, simple is best, but you definitely want to do something more than an e-vite."

  "Yes. Absolutely."

  "Did you give any more thought as to your color scheme?" Eliza asked, taking a quick peek out the window and struggling to not swallow her tongue.

  Apparently playtime was over because father and daughter were now exiting the pool. Water sluiced down Carter's hard, muscled body, and his biceps bulged when he raked his fingers through his wet hair, the act delineating every taut muscle in his abs.

  He had tattoos on both arms, though one of them snaked up his shoulder and onto his upper chest.

  "But then maybe we could just have everyone come naked and bring in a Mariachi band."

  "Mmm." Eliza blinked, her brain replaying Amelia's words and homing in on the last part of the sentence. "I'm sorry, what?"

  Amelia grinned and shook her freshly highlighted head at Eliza.

  "He's a really nice guy. Just so you know," Amelia said.

  Eliza forced her attention away from the window and shook off the awareness Carter's nearly naked body had brought about. "I'm not looking."

  "Oh, yeah, you were."

  "No, I mean… I suppose I was looking," she said, her face flaming hot, "but I'm not interested. In Carter o-or dating. That's not my focus right now."

  "I see. Well, if you change your mind, just know that he's one of the good guys."

  "I won't," Eliza said, settling on dumping the contents of the last bag she'd carted in. "Let's start with invitations, shall we? I brought ten of my favorites, but if those aren't to your liking, I have plenty more to look at."

  "No, I like all of these. Especially… this one, I think," Amelia said, holding up a card featuring various pearlized seashells and starfishes, with gold seahorses, with silvery-gold script. "It's elegant, understated, and perfect for a coastal wedding."

  "Awesome," Eliza said, lowering herself into a chair so she could open her wedding bible and begin Amelia's packet of information. Every detail went into the packet Eliza carried with her so that she was never without the bride's information and no mistakes would be made. "I have plenty of those on hand and can have them printed quickly. So you have had a chance to pull addresses for your guest list?"

  "I have, but, um, about that. Lincoln and I both have more friends and associates we'd like to include. Will that be a problem?"

  More people m
eant more tables, more chairs, more flowers, more supplies, more invitations. "What are we talking?"

  As though summoned by his fiancée speaking his name, Lincoln entered the kitchen from somewhere in the house.

  "Eliza, good to see you again. Thanks for coming."

  "Hi, Lincoln," Eliza greeted. "My pleasure. The sooner we can make decisions on all of this, the better."

  "Lincoln, do you have any idea on how many guests you're up to now?" Amelia asked. "Mine went up by twenty-two."

  "Oh, probably the same number at least," Lincoln said.

  At least? When the rule of thumb was always to round up, twenty-two equaled twenty-five. And twenty-five times two… "Fifty… on top of the forty we'd discussed?"

  Carter and Piper entered the house, and Eliza found herself struggling to breathe once more. Didn't the man own a shirt? He had a towel wrapped around his neck, but it didn't cover nearly enough of him.

  Add that to the guest list mushrooming at such a rapid rate, and she wondered if the tiny spots in front of her eyes were from stress or lack of food.

  "Hey, you ready for a snack, sweetheart?" Lincoln asked his niece.

  The little girl nodded before she spotted Eliza and came running over to her.

  "Piper, you're wet," Carter said, his tone one of warning.

  The girl gave her a damp hug, and Eliza welcomed the distraction since it gave her time to regroup from the change in numbers on a wedding that already pushed her physical limits. "It's fine," Eliza said. "Hugs are precious, damp or not." And she'd take all the hugs she could get right now if it would temper the anxiety rising inside of her like a tsunami.

  She never wanted to disappoint a bride, especially not someone so integrated into her inner circle of friends the way Amelia was as Marsali's client and Mac's neighbor. But they hadn't even started planning and the guest list had doubled.

  Eliza felt Carter's gaze on her, but she wasn't quite able to make eye contact.

  "I went to school again today," Piper said.

  "You did? How did it go?" she asked, focusing on Piper's sweet face.

  "Great! But Mason fell down and hurt himself and he cried."

  "Oh, well, I hope he's okay," Eliza said, unsure of what else to say.

  "He is. He got a big Band-Aid, though. It had turtles on it."

  "Piper, let's let Eliza work while we get that snack," Carter said. He placed a large hand on his daughter's shoulder and gently steered her toward the fridge.

  Eliza tried not to focus on the fact that, as he did so, she was on eye-level with his abs.

  "Well, one thing to mark off the list is the venue. We're having the wedding here," Amelia said. "Well, at Mac's. He's offered us the use of his yard."

  "Carter, too," Lincoln said to Amelia. "Which made me think of how much you liked the tent at that wedding on Friday. There's plenty of room to do that there."

  "Oh, there is!" Amelia said.

  "Maybe we could have dancing around the pool here, the wedding in Mac's yard, and a tent with food in Carter’s?"

  Lincoln made it sound so easy, but he was talking about three different stations that would need setup, and… a tent? That tent? The fourteen-months-to-plan tent?

  It wouldn't have been such a demanding thing to consider had she not lost yet another of her part-time employees to James's new business venture as her competitor. She'd have to find help, and—

  "That would be perfect!" Amelia said. "I hadn't had a chance to tell Eliza about Mac's offer, but how great would that be? We won't have to scramble to find a venue, and I could get ready here in the house. We could store everything here or maybe Carter's as it arrived? I hate to impose but—"

  "Fine by me," Carter said from his position across the room.

  "Eliza? What do you think?" Amelia asked.

  She thought it was fourteen months of planning squeezed into less than two weeks. The venue change was nice and worked in their favor, but securing tents for the date could be tricky depending on scheduling, not to mention catering since they weren't using a hotel…

  "Wasn't that wedding huge?" Carter asked. He'd lifted Piper onto a stool, where the little girl now ate a banana. "Kind of over-the-top?"

  "Yes," Amelia said, "but we wouldn't do anything nearly that elaborate."

  Eliza inhaled and forced herself to gather her dwindling energy reserves. "I will do whatever you need me to do," she began, "but I need definitive numbers. And you'll have to choose a menu by the end of tonight so I can contact caterers, and once that's established, there's no changing things without serious cost increases." And stress.

  "What if we didn't do a sit-down dinner," Lincoln said. "Make things more casual?"

  "She still needs numbers," Carter said.

  Eliza made eye contact finally and realized with a pinch in her heart that he was taking up for her. Trying to get the happy couple to realize the time crunch was definitely an issue. The problem? She didn't need his help. "Hors d'oeuvres would be easier," she said. "And give us a lot more breathing room to make any last-minute changes because we could supplement shortages from local restaurants."

  "I like that," Lincoln said. "I always try to support local businesses."

  She exhaled and managed another breath as the tightness in her chest eased. "Well, going that route, we could actually set up something with a few waiters roaming with edibles and champagne," she said, thinking on her feet.

  She could probably hire waitstaff from the restaurants themselves, people looking for extra cash for a couple of hours' work. "That wouldn't require a full dinner menu, which would require renting plates and utensils and the like."

  "I like the sound of that," Lincoln said. "So long as Amelia agrees."

  "Yes," Amelia said immediately. "Especially the part about the ease of adjusting for changes. The more people find out, the more they express an interest, and I hate to be the one saying, 'No, you can't come.' Especially when one of them is Oliver Beck."

  Marsali's Oliver? Interesting.

  And great publicity. But his presence would mean less likelihood of no-shows because attendees got to rub shoulders with the A-list actor.

  That kind of free publicity could definitely increase business.

  And since paid publicity wasn’t something she could afford right now, it made getting this wedding just right all the more important. "Okay, that would definitely be the best way to go. So we're thinking a tent for Carter's yard, standing tables intermixed with regular, and three hundred chairs to scatter between the three yards with emphasis in the ceremony and tent area?"

  "Yes, that sounds perfect," Amelia said, her expression filled with bridal excitement. "What's next?"

  Eliza inhaled and braced herself. "Menu. What are eating at this reception?"

  Chapter 8

  Carter made himself at home in Lincoln's kitchen and set to work on fixing dinner. The steaks had been set out earlier, and by the time the food was ready, he figured Eliza would be due a break.

  He wasn't sure how she did what she did, but as a contractor who'd spent more than his fair share of time going over house plans with clients who constantly changed their minds or saw some great new thing they wanted to add due to Pinterest—something that happened a lot with his job these days—he empathized with Eliza.

  Amelia wasn't demanding in any way, but one glance at her expectant expression made it clear Eliza was having a hard time setting boundaries due to the time crunch. She wanted to keep her clients happy—always a good thing—but there had to be limits.

  He noticed a break in the conversation and took advantage of it. "Eliza, how do you like your steak?"

  Her head jerked in his direction, and he watched her gaze drop to the platter piled high.

  "Oh, you don't have to—"

  "We planned to," Amelia said. "Dinner for all of us. Mac and Marsali are coming over later."

  "Amelia, we have a lot to go over," Eliza said.

  "And you will," Carter said. "But you have to eat."
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  "Yes," Amelia said. "So we will feed you while you ask us questions."

  Eliza seemed to take a moment to come to terms with the dinner plans and finally shrugged.

  "Okay, thank you. Um, medium to medium well," Eliza said.

  He nodded and grabbed the platter to head out the door. Piper hopped down from her seat and followed him with her bottle of water. While he opened the door for Piper, he caught Eliza's gaze on him and felt a surge of pleasure. Maybe he was egotistical, but he could tell she liked what she saw, even if she pretended otherwise.

  By the pool, he opened the grill he'd started before going inside and got to work, his thoughts on the plans being made. He'd never had a big to-do like the one Amelia and Lincoln were planning, and it made him wonder what Eliza's dream wedding would be like. Big and fancy? Small and intimate?

  Doing what she did, it made sense that she'd want something like no one else. She was unique, after all, and having planned so many weddings and made so many brides happy over the years, she'd no doubt given a lot of thought to her own and deserved to have something fancy for herself.

  A bit later, Carter sent Piper in to tell the adults the steaks were about ready and rolled the corncobs one more time. He couldn't wait to see how Eliza ate hers. Delicate little nibbles? Cut it off and eat with a fork? Dig in and chomp down?

  The door opened onto the screened-in patio, and everyone emerged carrying something. Plates, glasses, drinks, utensils.

  Eliza carried one of her three-ring binder books, and when he joined them, he realized it had Lincoln’s and Amelia's names on it. "Had to bring it with you, huh?"

  "Every minute counts," she said.

  They settled in around the teakwood table on the screened porch. Carter walked around the group, delivering their custom cooked meat.

  "These look fabulous," Amelia said. "And the corn? Yum."

  "Dig in," he said, using the fork to place Eliza's on the plate in front of her. "Medium with a shade of well."