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“You seem pretty calm,” Autumn said to her friend, trying to buy some time.
The ceremony was set to take place in the next hour, in the hotel’s massive gardens. It was an all-inclusive kind of deal. The wedding party and a lot of the guests were staying at the hotel. Between getting ready in Jenna’s room at the crack of dawn, then the wedding and reception downstairs, it was elegant and convenient.
Just like Jenna. She was the only person Autumn knew around there. Not that she had many friends back home, either.
Scratch that. She didn’t even have a home. Not anymore.
Her mission tonight was to survive the reception and the dress, then grab a bottle of wine to take back to Jenna’s house and prepare for the next two weeks of limbo.
“I’ve been practicing on letting the little things go,” Jenna said with a smile. “On taking calming breaths. Nothing will rattle me today. I’m marrying the man I love.”
As if on cue, a frustrated squeal came from the bathroom, followed by a pretty redhead stomping into the suite in a huff of tears. Penny Diamond—introduced to Autumn earlier that morning—was by all accounts nice enough, but the fire in her voice hinted at another side of her.
“The zipper on my dress is stuck!” Penny said, turning to show the zipper snagged halfway up the middle of her back. “I just tried this thing on last night.”
“Well, what happened between last night and this morning?” Jenna asked.
Penny looked a little guilty. “Nothing.”
“Uh-huh. So that wasn’t you and Bass moaning in the coat closet last night?”
“Hey, he didn’t go near the zipper. We worked around that.”
Jenna pinched the bridge of her nose. “It’ll be okay,” she said, looking at where the zipper caught. She gave it a tug, but the thing didn’t budge.
“Oh no…”
“Jenna, I’m so sorry. I never meant to break the dress,” Penny said. Tears spilled out of her eyes, which had Jenna on the brink of tears herself and Autumn beyond the brink of uncomfortable. There were a lot of hormones flying around, and she didn’t know how to deal with this kind of thing.
A blonde in a matching pink dress burst through the suite door. “We’ve got a problem.” Ah, Lily McCade, the sister of the groom, and she had her son Alex in tote.
“What problem?” Jenna said, those “calming breaths” good and gone.
Lily motioned for her son to sit down and gave him a stern look. “Alex discovered that the archway is leaning a bit.”
The kid was in a tux, making explosion noises, holding a massive Tonka truck. Yeah, Autumn could figure how the arch might have mysteriously started leaning. Say…if a toy truck started smashing into it?
“And by leaning, I mean collapsing,” Lily finished.
“What?!” Jenna shrieked.
“It’s okay.” Lily held out her hands. “It’s still upright, it just…needs some work.”
“The wedding is in an hour.” Jenna burst into full-blown tears, which made Penny cry harder and Lily start to get misty.
Shit. Autumn was standing in the middle of a hotel suite with three crying women, a makeup artist who was inching toward the door, and a kid running his Tonka tires along the coffee table.
Yep, this was way beyond her expertise. But she could help in a different way. Hell, she had to earn her keep somehow, didn’t she?
“I’ll go fix the arch,” she said.
All three women looked at her.
Jenna shook her head. “But you’re not even ready yet.”
“All I have to do is take the curlers out and put that dress on. I’ll be back in time. Unless you want me to work on the arch while wearing the dress?”
“No!” Jenna shot out quickly.
