“Thanks,” she said, looking around at the rest of the room. “This is… This is just amazing, Tamara. Look at all these flowers! Thank you so much.”
She gave Tamara a big hug, which she wasn’t expecting. Kate didn’t normally hug people, but somewhere along the line, that had changed. Kate was opening up.
“I’m glad you like it,” Tamara said, “but everyone helped.”
Liz shook her head. “Some of us did a little bit, but Tamara did most of the work.”
Tamara was a little surprised at how generous Liz was being by sharing the credit. Given that her business was organizing special events, it must have been hard to admit how little she’d done in organizing this smaller one.
“Everything is wonderful,” Kate said as she admired the flowers that filled the room. “How did you even know it was my birthday?”
“We do pay attention occasionally,” Meg said.
Even so, Kate seemed a little stunned by all the attention.
Amy put on some music, and suddenly it seemed more like a party. Everyone was laughing and drinking, eating cake, and having fun. Kate admired her personally illustrated birthday card and said she would have it framed.
“Kate, do you remember the flowers you did for me and Jason?” Liz asked. “We were out there on the beach, and you brought flowers with you to scatter around so it wouldn’t just be plain old sand.”
Kate nodded. “I wanted to make it all beautiful. I’m trying to do the same for this new wedding. It’s such a special brief, I want to make it truly beautiful.”
“Have you got some ideas?” Amy asked.
“I’m finding a way to incorporate water lilies, among other things,” Kate said. “I think they’ll really work as a nod to Japanese culture, which is what they want.”
“We’re talking about work,” Meg said with a faint note of admonishment. “We shouldn’t be doing that.”
“What should we be talking about?” Jenn asked from the side. “Do you want to tell us how things are going with that hot rock star of yours?”
“Oh, he’s hot, is he?” Daniel joked.
As they talked, Daniel continued to take pictures until the music took over, and he and Jenn started twirling together in the open space that had become an impromptu dance floor. Soon, Liz, Jason, Travis, and Amy joined them. The dancing was still going on when a small, furry form shot between the dancers, jumping up at Tamara.
“Furface!” Nate exclaimed. “There you are.”
“What are you doing in here again?” Tamara asked, almost simultaneously.
“Oh, he’s so cute,” Kate said, putting out a hand for the dog to come to her. Surprisingly, though, he ignored her, staying close to Tamara.
Kate laughed good-naturedly. “Looks like it’s you he cares about.”
“He knows I’m in charge of the kitchen,” Tamara said, reluctantly picking up the dog and taking him to the back door. “Come on, you. You can’t be in here when we have a party going on.”
She tried to be firm, but she did give him a few dog treats once they were outside. She had to let the little dog know there were rules and regulations here. More than that, she couldn’t get too attached because, inevitably, he’d soon run off for good.
Tamara returned to the party, and everyone was talking about their families. Apparently, Kate had relatives in France, but over here, she was pretty much alone except for her work. Some of the others discussed their siblings, cousins, and friends, and a few funny family anecdotes were told.
“This isn’t exactly funny, but my mother called the other day,” Meg said. “She still hasn’t quite managed to bring herself to apologize, but it feels as if the ice is melting. At least she called Lucas by his name and not ‘that rock star’ for once.”
Tamara smiled at the fact Meg was sticking to her guns with her mother, which couldn’t be easy, given the fact that Mrs. Ashworth probably didn’t hear the word no very often.
Jenn and Daniel talked about the preparations for their upcoming wedding in San Francisco, although they were aiming for something a little less spectacular—and less expensive—than the average wedding at Married in Malibu. It sounded as if half the photographers in San Francisco would be attending, and the difficult part about that was going to be working out which of them would take the wedding photographs.
Amy raised the subject of her upcoming gallery show. She’d been painting constantly since coming to Married in Malibu, and the change of scenery had prompted a new burst of creativity. Well, that and her newly rekindled relationship with Travis. Travis mentioned a visit he’d made back to his old neighborhood, wanting to reconnect with family and friends. He was planning to work with a community outreach group to help kids in situations as tough as his own had been.
They even got Jason talking about his new novel, and he was surprisingly open about it all. Tamara was surprised by that. She had expected that a writer like him would be guarded about professional details.
“You’re not worried about giving away your ideas?” Kate asked.
