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“Um, all right. I didn’t expect wedding planning to be a part of my job, but I guess it’s better than bookkeeping.”
Sarah cocks her head and raises an eyebrow. “If that’s how you want to do it, Jack, that’s how you want to do it. Come on, then, Lily. I’m sure you can keep me from doing anything too stupid with Jack’s money.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I’ll finish wrangling the rest of the horses. This is all I expect of you for the night, Lily. Thank you.”
She nods. “No problem.”
Lily awkwardly follows Sarah into the ranch house, leaving me standing alone.
I laugh to myself, appreciating the absurdity of the situation I had just created. I wished that it was Sarah helping Lily plan her own wedding, instead of the reality.
At least I have the horses to keep my mind off things for a bit. That distraction wouldn’t last too long, but hey, at least it’s something.
3
LILY
“Would a country band be too on the nose?” Sarah muses aloud. “Just because we’re out here in the West doesn’t mean we have to go with that, right? What do you think Jack likes?”
I shrug. “I haven’t heard him play much music in the time I’ve been here. Shouldn’t you already have an idea of that, since you’re the one about to marry him?”
Sarah is furiously typing and clicking away at her laptop as we sit at the ranch house dining table. “He hasn’t really talked about that much. He hasn’t really talked about much of anything, to be honest.”
This was one awkward job Jack had put me on. As much as I’m enjoying his company, it’s not like I know him well enough to go and plan his wedding.
“He doesn’t talk about anything actually. The man’s an enigma wrapped in a mystery,” she says with a smile. “But his heart is good. I know that much.”
I take a sip out of my can of soda. “How can you be so sure?”
“He didn’t hesitate when I proposed.”
I cock an eyebrow. “You proposed?”
Sarah laughs. “Yes. He had brought up wanting to bury the hatchet on this whole feud thing. Asked me out on a date to do so. Said he was hoping that I had more sense than my father. I told him that I was hoping I had more sense than my father too.”
“Your father doesn’t approve, I take it?”
She shakes her head. “No. He thinks I’m being played. Then he suggested I go and try to backstab Jack.”
“Backstab him? By marrying him?”
“Insist on some insane prenuptial agreement and then divorce him as soon as I’m legally able to. Search his ranch to find something to get him arrested on, and if I can’t find anything, plant some illegal evidence somewhere.”
I grit my teeth. “So your father is not against playing dirty, I see.”
“His awfulness made me wake up to the fact that I needed to make changes in how I approach things. I can’t just keep carrying on his legacy like this.”
I sink down in my chair more. Their relationship is so weird. They respect one another. They have common goals. There is no passion, and that just weirded me out. Was I just being hopeful that maybe I still had a shot with Jack? Or maybe I’m just oblivious, and some relationships are just like this? Not everything works like it does in a romance novel. People get married for a whole bunch of other reasons besides love.
Sarah stops, looks toward me, and cups her chin with her hand. “What color theme should we go with? I was thinking of something red, orange, or pink. Like the sunsets over the vast fields of our ranches.”
“Those are nice. That’s definitely something you should go with. Tie it together with both of your histories.”
“Yeah, good idea. I’m going with that. I always wanted to be a wedding planner, but I guess the world has other ideas for me.”
With my soda can empty, I toss it to the recycling. “I think you got this without me. I’m going to go check in with Jack before I call it a night for myself.”
“Hey, just having someone to bounce ideas off of is invaluable sometimes. You helped, even if it felt like you didn’t.”
