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Me:This again? I really think you need reading glasses.
West:Do you have a professor fantasy? I can keep you after class and give you a stern lecture.
Me:Will that lecture include some spankings?
West:Fuck, you want that?
Me:Yes please.
West:Then the next time I have you alone, I’ll have to bend you over my knee until you promise to be a good girl again.
Getting back into my routine was hard, so much harder than I’d thought. I’d never really taken a vacation over the last three years, and even if I had technically been working during the expo, the evenings with West had felt like a vacation.
I couldn’t stop smiling whenever I thought of him.
I still felt guilty for being happy, and I wasn’t about to make any long-term plans. However, I didn’t want to push him away and hide. I wanted to give us a chance.
Once I put my phone in a drawer to stop looking for more of West’s dirty texts, I worked my way through some of the emails I’d received from visitors to my expo booth. I’d barely made a dent when Abby burst into the office we shared.
“Did you see it?”
“See what?”
Abby handed over her phone, and I saw it was an email, one to the address I used for word-of-mouth recommendations and not the generic one for events.
I hadn’t checked that inbox yet, but as soon as I read the message, I stopped breathing. It took a second for my brain and mouth to start working again. “Zara Jones wants to hire us.”
Abby raced over and hugged me around my shoulders. “Yes! She was impressed with your proposal and charmed by the location. Her fiancé even said he loved the working dairies and farms nearby, making it more authentic.”
I stood and hugged Abby again. “I can’t believe it!” I leaned back to look at Abby’s face. “We’re going to plan a wedding for a movie star!”
As it hit me how ridiculously huge that was, I sat back down. Abby sat on the edge of my desk and said, “You’re going to have to start hiring more people, Emmy. There’s no way the two of us can do it with only a few caterers to help, not even with your workaholic tendencies.”
Since it was true, I didn’t deny her words. “Thank fuck her wedding is next year. It gives me some time to figure things out.”
Abby frowned. “But didn’t you catch the part where she wants to move it forward to September this year? Apparently, there are reasons she wants it sooner rather than later. I wonder if she’s pregnant and wants the wedding before she shows too much.”
I scanned the email again and true enough—she’d added it right at the bottom:
I hope you can manage the wedding by the end of September at the latest. It’s short notice, but something has come up, and we need it by then. Let us know ASAP if it’s possible.
A wedding this important in less than three months? I wanted to scream it was impossible. And yet, this was the biggest break of my life.
Abby kicked her foot against mine. “Emmy.” I meet her gaze again. “We can say no. But if you want to say yes, we need to hire and do it soon. They want a gazebo built for the ceremony, several arches, and even a custom-built stage, in a rustic style. Not to mention the flowers we’ll need to order from Maria in the next few weeks. Plus there’s the catering, and most importantly, meeting with Zara and her fiancé. What do you want to do?”
“Of course we’ll say yes. And before you ask, yes, I’ll hire more people to help us.”
I even had in mind a certain guy who was rather skilled with power tools to build things for me.
Would West want to help me, though? Mixing business and pleasure could be a disaster of epic proportions. And yet, it could be the best thing ever. Besides, he could use the extra money for his kids. Of course I’d ask him.
I pulled up a blank document on my computer and drafted my response. “I’ll send her a reply, schedule a time to go over the contract, and start making lists. As soon as the contract is signed, I need you to arrange the flowers and start hiring help for the day.”
“And building the things they want?”
“I’m going to ask West if he’ll do it.”
I held my breath to see if she’d say it was stupid. But Abby nodded. “He likes that kind of stuff. Nearly as much as raising cattle.”
