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I wondered how willing she might be—or not—to let me consult with her on this wedding design. I was sure Madeleine would help me with anything I asked, in general, but the bridewasher uptight, overbearing older sister. I suspected there was a reason she’d turned down the gig in the first place, besides just being too busy with her interior design clients.
I glanced up as Mom came in. She smiled when she found me poring over her wedding plans. Hiring me on to help with the wedding and seeing me in my dress today really seemed to please her.
I realized I felt a little warm about pleasing her and then got annoyed with myself. I really thought I’d stopped worrying about pleasing Mommy when I moved away.
“Jacob’s got a little work to do in his office tonight,” she explained, wine glass in hand. “Mind if I join you?”
“Of course not. It’s your house.”And if I wanted to avoid you I’d hide in my room or leave.
Mom kicked back on a chaise in front of the windows with her wine and a book—which had a very muscular, shirtless man on the cover. I tilted my head to get a better look at it. The cover guy had meaty pecs, bulging abs and a beard, and he was holding an ax. There was a forest and a log cabin behind him.
“Uh, Margot?”
“Hmm?”
“What the heck are you reading?”
She met my eyes over her book, then glanced at the cover like she forgot what was on it. “Oh, Jacob bought it for me. One of the ladies at my golf club turned me onto this series.”
“I didn’t know you read romance.” Not that Mom wasn’t a romantic… I just never in a million years would’ve thought she’d find a man with a big beard and an ax up her alley.
“Jacob is very passionate in the bedroom,” she said simply, and my ears started to bleed. “I want to make sure I can keep up with him.”
I stared at her, struggling to unhear what I just heard.
She shrugged. “He enjoys it when I read my steamy books and come to bed feeling a little extraamoureuse.”
“TMI, Mom,” I groaned, shaking my head. “TMI.”
I refocused on the wedding plans, leaving her to her steamy book.
Like Mom said, there wasn’t much left to do. But I could’ve easily filled my time from now until the wedding having fun—tweaking the design. If I wanted to.
And I kind of did.
When I’d asked about the design budget at dinner, Jacob had told me that there was no budget. As in, he’d pay whatever it cost to give Mom the wedding she wanted.
And what she wanted was now pretty much whatever I recommended. Unless she vetoed any of my ideas. There was definitely some wiggle room for me to put my own spin on the existing design. Mom even seemed pleased when I’d suggested it to her at dinner.
I’d never had an opportunity like this. The weddings I’d worked on so far had all been pretty tight in the budget.
Mom and Jacob were having a destination wedding up in Whistler because Whistler was special to them; Jacob had proposed there, they’d had their engagement party there, and they went up every year to celebrate their anniversary. So Mom’s previous designer had really leaned into the Pacific Northwest vibes, incorporating a lot of wood and local foliage and flowers. It was high end, warm and elegant, but I really thought something a little more glam would suit Mom and Jacob better, not to mention the dress Mom would be wearing. And we could definitely pull in a little more of that classic red that she seemed to love.
“Mom? Are you okay with me changing out the flowers? And switching out some of the decor?”
She looked at me. “Can we do that?”
“We can do anything we want. As long as there’s time.”
“Well, sure, Jolie. As long as there’s time. I don’t want any stress about last minute changes, and I don’t want Jacob to have to worry about a thing,” she said seriously. Which was actually pretty hilarious, because Jacob wasn’t gonna worry about anything to do with the wedding unless Mom started melting down or something.
“We’ll be fine, Mom. I promise. I won’t take any crazy risks. I’ll make sure we have backup plans for everything, and I will for sure run everything by you before making any final decisions on purchases.”
“Okay, then.”
I returned my attention to the piles of paper in front of me and dove into my next task: double checking that all the RSVPs were in so that I could help Mom finalize the seating chart.
“You know, maybe this is actually a blessing,” she said happily as she watched me work. “My daughter gets to help plan my wedding after all.”
