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Iwoke up before my alarm, still reeling from what Will had said before he’d left the night before. He’d called me special. He’d said I was the special one, not Ethan. After I’d thought he must have been looking at me like a sad and pathetic loser, he’d turned around and said that. It was crazy.
I thought about it the entire time I got ready for work. I tried not to, but then I’d have a break in my thoughts about the wedding at the venue that night and his words would seep back into my brain.
“You’re the special one, not him.”
Did he have any idea what that simple sentence would do to me? He must. After all, he was the one who’d rejected me, not the other way around. He had to know how I felt about him even though we both now knew he didn’t feel the same way. So how could he drop something on me like that, knowing how much I’d overanalyze it?
As I finished swiping a pale-pink lipstick over my lips, I stared at my reflection. No, I had it wrong. Will hadn’t said anything major when he’d told me I was special. Paul had basically told me the same thing when we’d talked on the phone. He’d said it wasn’t my fault and that Ethan had trust issues. He’d told me it was better I found out he was a jerk now, rather than later. He’d said I deserved better. At the end of the day, both Paul and Will had told me basically the same thing: it was Ethan’s loss, and it was him, not me. Nothing more, nothing less.
By the time I stepped into my office on the main floor of the B&B, I’d managed to banish all thoughts of Will and his parting words from my mind. It was time to get down to business. I had a wedding to prepare for in less than eight hours, and I didn’t have time to concern myself in matters of the heart. Matters of my heart, anyway. This day was all about the bride.
I sat down at my desk and opened my binder for the Howie wedding. Jason Howie was the son of one of Bluffton’s wealthiest families, and they had pulled out all the stops for his wedding to Vanessa. Traditionally, the bride’s family paid for the wedding, but Vanessa didn’t come from the kind of money Jason did, and he wanted her to be spoiled like a princess on their big day.
The Howie binder was stuffed full of elaborate plans. It was common for my two-inch binders to look slim on day one of planning and then full by the wedding day, but they’d booked so many extra offerings that I’d had to switch to a binder with bigger rings just to fit it all without busting it open when I tried to flip through it.
With a hawklike focus, I went over my checklist for the day. First, I’d need to walk the grounds and make sure there weren’t any issues for the groundskeepers to take care of before setup. The setup process itself would need to be overseen, and I was glad I’d chosen comfortable shoes today since I’d have a ton of extra pieces of the puzzle to put together for this one.
Vanessa and Jason had both a live band and a DJ, a dove release, a sundae bar, their cake, both an appetizer buffet and servers with trays, a chocolate fountain, a frozen daiquiri machine, a photo booth, a video guestbook booth, and carriage rides around the pond. And that was just for the reception. Each of these things would need its own area, and I’d need to make sure no one set anything up in the wrong place. Not only that, but their selections meant I’d have three times as many vendors to deal with than usual. Being the point person for all those vendors was daunting, but I knew I could handle it.
Things like place cards and table settings were easy to eyeball once they were laid out, so I fit that task into my mental lineup for after I’d dealt with the rest. By then, most of the reception would be set up, so I could do one more walk-through to make sure it was all in order.
Once the bridal party arrived, I’d help get them settled in the two bridal suites we’d prepared for them in the main house. This was where the real fun would begin. There was always drama in at least one or both of those rooms on the big day, in one way or another. It was my job to handle those things with professionalism and speed so we could get on with our day without further incident.
After that, it was just a matter of conducting the orchestra–figuratively speaking, though they did reserve a string quartet for the ceremony, too. I’d be putting out little fires all night, to be sure, but once the wedding started it was usually a lot more fun than the stuff leading up to it.
The reason for this was twofold in my mind. One, because I knew the ride was almost over, and since I loved weddings with my whole heart and soul, I made it a point to enjoy it before it ended.
The second reason was because I knew that at the end of the night, once the couple was off to their honeymoon suite and all the guests were gone, I could finally relax. I could congratulate myself on yet another beautiful and successful wedding at my family’s property, and I could slide their binder onto my special shelf reserved for completed weddings. In their case, I’d heave it on there with a forklift, but still. It was the intoxicating feeling of a job well done.
Realizing that I was burning daylight by continuing to go over my notes for so long, I hefted the binder closed and headed outside to do a sweep of the grounds. But no sooner had I clipped down the stone steps at the back of the house than I looked up and saw a horrific site before me.
“What in the world?” I said, eyes bulging at the picturesque landscape. Or what was supposed to be picturesque, anyway.
The pebbled road that wrapped around the property’s large pond had deep tire tracks in it, a sweeping green river of grass clippings running right through it. It appeared that a groundskeeper had driven his lawnmower down the path with the hatch open, letting its contents spill out along the very spot where the bride and groom wanted to position the horse and carriage. I knew it was prime real estate for photos, and now the perfectly raked path had a bright green stripe down the middle of it.
“Are you kidding me?” I asked no one as I tromped over to the path.
I stared down at it, seeing the way the cuttings mixed in with the pebbles. How the heck were we supposed to brush all of that out of there without taking the pebbles right along with it? And if the pebbles weren’t there, my pretty track for the horse and carriage was nothing but a patchy dirt road in some spots, and a manicured path in others. It wasn’t like they could take out the pebbles from the entire quarter-mile loop, and I absolutely hated the idea of having a big hole right here in the reception area.
Furiously, I took out my phone and called the head groundskeeper. An unfamiliar voice answered on the third ring. “Groundskeeping.”
“Um, hi,” I said with a furrowed brow. I knew everyone who worked here better than I knew my own family thanks to how much time I spent on the property, and this was a voice I didn’t recognize. “This is Aria Bristol, the event coordinator. Who is this?”
“Trevor Morgan. I’m the new head groundskeeper.”
I quirked a brow. No one had told me about the change in staffers, but I supposed it wasn’t really my area. I didn’t much care who was employed to look after the property as long as they did it well. And this mess in front of me was definitely the opposite of that.
“Hi, Trevor. Would you mind meeting me in the reception area near the pond? We have a little problem.”
“Sure. I have some things to finish up here, so I’ll meet you in about an hour if that works?”
My lips pulled into a thin line. Trevor didn’t know me. It wasn’t his fault. Clearing my throat, I squared my shoulders. “Sorry, but no, that doesn’t work. I have a wedding at the property today and one of your groundskeepers has made a huge mess in the absolute worst place. So I’ll need you to meet me now.”
Trevor let out a disbelieving laugh, then he sobered. “Wait, you’re not kidding?”
“No, I’m not kidding.”
