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“Really?” My spirits lifted. Maybe I could pay the bills this month after all.
“And she wants to rent the entire inn out,” Maisy said. “Isn’t that wonderful? However, she said there’s a time factor. She wants to do it the first weekend of October.”
That was three weeks away.
Mentally, I ran through my list of booked rooms. If I recalled correctly, I didn’t have a single room rented that particular weekend. “This is great,” I whispered without hiding my glee at the possibilities before leaving Maisy to head for my office.
I found a tall woman with gleaming brown hair waiting for me in my small office just off the lobby. She stood as I entered and held out her hand. The first thing I noticed was the gigantic diamond on her wedding ring finger. I had no idea how many carats, but it was the width of a nickel and sparkled like the Christmas star. “I’m Arianna Bush. Are you Jamie?”
“I am. Pleased to meet you.” We shook hands before I went to sit behind the desk and encouraged her to have a seat as well. I darted a few quick glances her way. She looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place where I knew her from.
She crossed her long, tanned legs. Why was it rich people were so often good-looking? I smoothed my plain black skirt over my knees and scooted closer to the desk. “Maisy tells me you’re interested in booking the inn for your wedding?”
“Yes, for the ceremony. We’ll have some guests staying here and some at the lodge. But I just adore the intimate feel here at the inn. My fiancé wanted to marry at the lodge, but I’m not feeling it.”
“Were you thinking inside or outside?” I asked, taking out my notebook to jot down details.
“I have something very specific in mind, actually,” Arianna said. “You see, my parents married in this inn—or the one that burned down—thirty-five years ago.”
“But it wasn’t an inn then.” I knew that what had once been a mansion for the famous wedding dress designer, Annabelle Higgins, had not yet been turned into an inn thirty-five years ago. At the time of my arrival, it had sat empty for a few years. The structure had needed a lot of work, thus I was able to buy it for less than its true market value. I’d spent the better part of a year returning it to its formal glory, only to lose it in the fire after only being open a few weeks.
“Right,” Arianna said. “My mother had known the people who lived here. When my father asked her to marry him, she insisted the wedding be held here. There was a gazebo then, and that’s where I want to marry Rob. Here, I have photos.” She rummaged in her designer handbag and pulled out several black-and-white photos.
I took a good look at them, anxious to see what it had been like thirty-five years ago. There was indeed a gazebo surrounded by roses. Standing just inside the gazebo were a bride and groom. “This is your parents?”
“Yes, on their wedding day.” She reached back to take the photographs, obviously wanting to keep them close. “It’s one of the only things I have left of my mother. She died when I was only five.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “That’s terrible.”
“It was. My father remarried when I was ten to a nice woman, but she wasn’t my mother, you know. No one could replace her for me.”
“I see. You want to marry in the same location that they did? For sentimental reasons?” When talking with customers I kept my voice low and calm.
“Precisely. I want it to look just like this.” She tapped the photo to indicate the gazebo.
I had no gazebo and no rosebushes. “It doesn’t look like that any longer.” I explained about the fire and that the gazebo must have been removed long before I ever bought the place. “We have a lot of other pretty locations on the property. If there are none to your liking, we could have the ceremony and reception in our great room inside the inn.”
She was shaking her head and her mouth puckered as if she’d tasted something sour. “That’s just the thing. I want it to look exactly like it did back then. I want to stand under that same gazebo and marry the man I love just as my mother did thirty-five years ago. It will be on their anniversary. Or what would have been, anyway.”
“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t possibly build one in time.” My heart sank. I couldn’t do what she asked. In debt up to my neck, even with the insurance policy replacing most of what I’d lost, I couldn’t afford to build anything more. I’d bought the inn after saving every penny I could from the time I was fifteen until just two years ago. Regardless, I still had to take out a mortgage to finance my dream. Now I was looking at losing a very lucrative wedding weekend. What could I do, though? It wasn’t as if I could construct a gazebo and put in a stone patio in three weeks’ time. “Even if I had the money, which I don’t, three weeks isn’t enough time.” Why the hurry, I wondered? Why not next year instead? “Would you be able to postpone the wedding until next year?”
“No. Rob wants to marry now. He’s tired of waiting.” Arianna tossed her silky hair behind both shoulders and fixed her gaze on me. I felt a little as though we were playing chicken with our eyes. “I’ll pay you a hundred thousand dollars if you do it for me, on top of whatever it costs for the labor and materials.”
I almost did a double take, like a cartoon character. “Are you kidding me?”
“Money’s no object. I’m a very rich woman marrying an even richer man.”
“I see.” My mind was scrambling to keep up with her proposal. How would I find someone to build something so quickly? What about the materials? I’d need a good contractor, which was hard to find.
However, a hundred thousand dollars? I could pay down some of the mortgage with that money and actually buy a decent car and still have some to put in savings. “I could try to get it done quickly, but I’m not sure it’s possible.” Why didn’t she come up with this idea before now? How long had she been engaged?
“Can you do it for that?” Arianna asked. She was a woman used to getting what she wanted. That much was obvious.
I cleared my throat, uncomfortable.
“Well?” She stared at me, unblinking.
“I can do my best.” This was nearly impossible, but I had to make it happen.
