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“I threw myself into planning our wedding. I consulted with multiple florists and reception sites, dance instructors, caterers, bakers. You name it. I loved the organization of it, and the lists.” Her smile revealed both dimples. “Ah, the lists.”
“Some things didn’t change, I see.”
“The lists stayed.” She took another drink from her glass before she continued. “About eight months into our engagement, I’d started talking about wanting to go into event planning as a career. I had recently offered my services for a friend’s baby shower, and another friend’s birthday party. I had been bitten by the entrepreneur bug. Louis saw my working as beneath us. He wanted to be seen as the husband who provided for his wife, and he found it embarrassing that I would stoop to, as he put it, ‘serve others’. Shortly after, he called off the engagement.
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Trick grumbled, disliking this Louis guy more and more by the second.
“I was sheltered. Everyone else thought Louis was right for me, so why shouldn’t I? I didn’t know any better than to blindly accept the life presented to me on a silver platter.”
He reached for her hand and stroked her fingers with his. “Your ex sounds like a complete troglodyte.”
She surprised him by laughing. “He was more taciturn than caveman. I’m not sure he’d ever been passionate about anything before he was passionate about menotgoing into business for myself.”
“I’m sorry.” Trick meant it. It was a shitty reason to end a relationship.
“I was sad that it ended, but mostly I was angry. Do you know how many non-refundable deposits I’d paid? Which, yes, was Louis’s money, but it felt so wasteful. I’d carefully vetted everyone from the band members to the sommelier. And now, because I was damn good at what I did, I was supposed to let it go to waste?”
Damn, Trick liked hearing her talk like this. With enough passion to blaze a fiery trail through the center of town. When she described her abilities and talents, she came alive. She gestured with her hands, pulled her shoulders back and elevated her chin. Rylee was proud of what she’d accomplished—then and now. She should be. No way in hell would Trick attempt to plan anything as complex as a celebrity wedding—no matter how much help he had doing it.
“A friend of mine ended up pregnant, and was in a rush to be married before our entire community wasscandalized. Can you believe that? In our modern society?” Rylee rolled her eyes.
He could believe it. Modern society could, at times, be downright ancient when it came to traditions.
“I asked her if it would be strange for her to take my entire wedding package, since the arrangements were already made. Free of charge, of course. I offered to help her with the details. The only thing she had to do was show up in a white dress.”
“And she said yes,” he concluded.
Rylee held up a finger. “Not at first. She’d voiced concerns that I was heartbroken and would regret handing over my wedding plans. I assured her that while I wasn’t happy about being dumped, I had known deep down that Louis wasn’t right for me. Eventually she said yes. If she hadn’t, she would have run out of time to conceal her baby bump.
“The wedding was incredible and, ironically, suited to my friend’s tastes. I thought I had been making choices based on whatIliked, but I realized I had been making them based on what others expected of me. Now I make decisions based on my own needs. No one else’s.”
He admired her moxie. She could have gone the other way and abandoned her dreams and goals in order to stay married to that toad. Or she could have allowed her doomed engagement to make her doubt herself. Instead, she’d grown a Jack’s beanstalk of a business from one humble little bean.
“At the reception for my friend’s wedding, I was approached by her cousin and a bridesmaid about their future weddings. They wanted to hire me to be their planner. I agreed on the spot, had some business cards printed and started my business. I moved from Texas to LA, and have been working nonstop ever since.”
“God, Rylee.” Awed, he shook his head.
“What?” Her smile was tremulous.
“You’re incredible.”
Her fair skin stained pink. She looked down at her wineglass. “I traded a fiancé for a career. I don’t know if that makes me incredible, but it does make me scrappy.”
Hell yes, it did. He had friends who would curl up and die if they’d had a fiancée dump them a few months before the wedding. And he had at least one other friend who would have trashed his future rather than embrace the newfound freedom and the opportunity to grow.
Rylee had gone from being a distractingly attractive rule-follower to a plucky, do-whatever-it-takes woman. She was take-charge and in-charge. She might have started out following her family’s plan for her life, but she’d ended up chasing her own dreams. He was enamored. Enthralled.
Turned on.
“So, there it is. My tale of a passionless engagement and recycled wedding plans. And now you know I’m one of the snobby rich.” She cupped her wineglass but didn’t drink from it.
She was waiting for him to make a joke, perhaps at her expense. Instead he did what he’d wanted to do since they sat down at this table.
He leaned in and kissed her.
Nine
One minute Rylee was trotting out the scandalous and sordid tale of how she’d ended up planning the Noble-Ramos wedding, and the next she was being kissed thoroughly by the man who’d intended to crash it.
