Page 88 of Bound To Be Mine

“I do.”

I was feeding him a strawberry, his tongue licking the whipped cream off my finger when the doorbell rang. We were seconds away from me spraying that whipped cream on him and licking it off—slowly.

“Expecting someone?” he asked.

“No.”

I walked to the door and found Sebastian and Bernadette.

“Hello,” I said.

“Hi!” Bernadette said. “I’m sorry to surprise you, but we wanted to talk to you.”

Briggs appeared behind me. “What’s up?”

“We have a question,” Sebastian said.

“It’s early for questions,” Briggs replied.

“Come in,” I said. “What’s going on?”

Sebastian looked at Bernadette. Bernadette looked at Sebastian.

“We want to know if you’ll plan our wedding,” Sebastian said.

I didn’t even know what to say. Yes, I did. They were family. That’s what family did.

“Of course,” I heard myself say.

I realized I had no idea when their wedding was. I already had a packed schedule, but I couldn’t exactly say no.

“It’s a lot to ask and you have a full calendar and we completely understand if you can’t,” Sebastian said.

“Let’s sit down and we’ll look at dates,” I said.

The relief on Sebastian’s face was immediate. “Six months. We’ve got the venue. It’s in New York. We booked it when we got engaged. That’s as far as we got. I don’t know if you do New York weddings, but we’d be so grateful if you would take ours on.”

“Okay.” I was already thinking. “What have you done beyond the venue?”

“The venue,” Bernadette confirmed. “That’s the complete list.”

“What do you want the reception to feel like?” I asked her.

They looked at each other. Sebastian nudged Bernadette. “Warm. Not fussy. I don’t want people to feel like they can’t touch anything. I want it more relaxed. Formal but not too formal.”

“I know exactly what you mean.” I nodded. “And what do you want?”

Sebastian looked slightly startled to be asked. “I want her to walk in and feel like it was made for her.”

They looked at each other again. Their love was palpable.

“Let me get my coffee,” I said. “We’ll sit down and come up with a plan. Six months is fast, but we can do it. How would you feel about featuring pieces from the new line? The décor elements, the table settings. We’re going to need showcase events for the launch and there’s nothing better than a real wedding.”

Sebastian looked at Bernadette, allowing her to make the decision. I loved that Sebastian, who was clearly very alpha, referred to her.

“That’s perfect,” she said.

“Full creative approval,” I said. “Both of you. Nothing goes in that room that you haven’t signed off on.”