“Not funny, Ty. I’m creating a picture here. If you don’t understand what’s going on, how can you help?” Zane’s right eye twitched faster. He reached to still it. “She’s been mad enough to kick a dog since I told her Ginny put me in charge.”
“And you’re the dog,” AJ finished for him.
Zane nodded.
“Can’t say I blame her. It’s got to be tough thinking she’d be taking over and then have you waltz in,” Ty said.
“I’m getting tired of everyone questioning my ability to run this company.”
“Sorry, pal. Didn’t mean to hit a nerve. We know you can, but weddings are a whole new scary world.”
Zane smiled at his friends and rubbed the back of his neck. “From the time Ginny told me she needed surgery, I said she couldn’t leave McKenna in charge, but she was so danged stubborn. If she’d agreed sooner, she could’ve broken the news to McKenna. It would’ve gone better coming from her.”
“Everyone wants to shoot the messenger,” Coop said.
“At least tell me I was right. That I couldn’t let my grandmother trust her business to someone she’s known three months.”
“Of Course you couldn’t,” Ty said.
“That’s how people lose a company and their savings,” AJ said, and Cooper nodded in agreement.
“Your grandmother’s a smart businesswoman. I’m surprised she’d do something that risky,” Cooper added.
“But what do I do about McKenna?”
His friends stared at him as if he’d asked them to build a rocket and take him to Mars.
“After seeing how hiring Cheyenne and Cassie went for me and Ty, all I’ve got is a warning. You’re definitely in trouble,” Cooper said.
Chapter Five
As McKenna ateher lunch of chicken salad and fruit at her desk the following week, she reflected on the disastrous morning. Instead of her and Zane settling into a routine, the chaos had grown out of control. Since word of his filling in for Ginny spread through Wishing, every unattached woman found a way to tag along with a bride hoping to catch Zane’s eye.
If he wasn’t in, the women pelted McKenna with questions. Where was he? When would he be back? Could she call him to ask so they could catch up? When she informed them she didn’t know his whereabouts, his schedule, or his cell number, they whined. They pouted. They moped. They made her life miserable.
But this morning Zane sat working on the accounts when Cora Little arrived for a tasting. Instead of bringing her groom, four bridesmaids accompanied her. Upon spotting Zane, the women erupted into giggles and squeals as they raced to Ginny’s office. When one bridesmaid tripped, a petite woman of ninety pounds soaking wet, the others almost trampled her to reach Zane. McKenna stared in horror at her first bridesmaid stampede. After two futile attempts to corral the bridesmaid gaggle, she gave up. She and Cora completed the tasting and finalized the menu alone.
Clearly, she needed to develop a strategy to deal with the outrageous single women they now found themselves dealing with, but could she do that on her own? Probably not, which meant she’d need Zane’s input. After all, she could only do so much if he didn’t back her and discourage the women. She checked the time and realized that task would need to wait until after her meeting with Mayor Timmons’s daughter Susannah and her maid of honor. Maybe she could talk to him after that appointment and before she met Grace and the police chief at the Horseshoe.
Normally, McKenna wasn’t involved in selecting bridesmaids’ dresses, but Susannah wanted dresses from New York designers, but insisted she lacked time for a New York trip with hereightbridesmaids.
After much discussion, McKenna suggested she order one of each potential dress. Now that the garments arrived, Susannah and Campbell would select one. Then McKenna, who’d contacted the other bridesmaids for sizes, would order dresses, because of course, Susannah had to return to Dallas and her job as an advertising exec. And, as the bride informed McKenna, wasn’t seeing to tasks she lacked time for why they’d hired Lucky Stars?
Big city or small town, the rich lived a different life than common folk.
To make the afternoon special and memorable, McKenna ordered finger sandwiches and petits fours from JoAnn’s Café to be served on Ginny’s delicate Irish bone china. In addition, she prepared sweet tea. Simple, but a nice touch.
After plating the food, McKenna arranged the serving pieces on the coffee table in the bride’s dressing room. Then she returned to the main office to wait. Arriving fashionably late, as expected, Susannah blew in complaining about her long to-do list and how everything had taken longer than planned. Dressed in slim tan slacks, a lightweight sweater, and cute tan ankle boots, her perfectly highlighted blonde hair flowing around her shoulders in waves, she looked nothing like a woman who’d been running errands.
When Susannah paused for air and noticed McKenna’s face, she recoiled in horror. “Oh goodness, how can you go out with those injuries? I’d have to stay home until it faded.”
“I appreciate your concern.” When the other woman smiled and nodded, McKenna had to bite her lip to keep from chuckling over the fact Susannah failed to realize she hadn’t offered concern. She motioned to the wingchairs near Ginny’s office. Once settled, McKenna said, “I’m here because if I wasn’t, we’d have to reschedule.”
“That wouldn’t do. Daddy’s still mad we’re having the wedding this New Year’s Eve rather than next year. We have to remain on schedule, and everything has to come off to perfection, or he’llkillme.”
Considering the hefty budget Mayor Timmons gave his daughter, she obviously got whatever she wanted, and McKenna doubted he’d kill her. Despite those thoughts, she rushed to reassure the nervous bride. “We’re actually ahead of schedule in terms of decisions and planning, even considering the extra time involved with the dresses.”
“He’s also concerned with Ginny’s absence. When we signed the contract, we weren’t told that you, rather than Ginny, would be in charge of my wedding.”
