“Maybe we’ll actually survive this affair, after all.”
Bonnie laughed and pushed a weary hand through her tousled blond hair. “Don’t speak too confidently. We still have tonight and tomorrow to get through.”
“We’ll make it. All we have to do is keep our brother from throttling the mother of the bride,” Kinley said in a stage whisper, one eye on the open office doorway.
“Or keep the bride from doing so,” Bonnie said in the same low voice, her eyes lit with a rueful smile.
Kinley couldn’t help but imagine the humiliated look on Serena Sossaman’s face when she’d dragged her mother away that morning. “That, too.”
Bonnie toyed with the open lid of the favors box. “I’m sorry I had to cut your lunch outing short. If I’d thought there was time, I’d have waited until you’d had a chance to eat to call you.”
“You did the right thing,” Kinley said firmly. “There’s no way we’d have finished in time if you hadn’t.”
“I know. But still—it’s too bad you didn’t get to have lunch with Dan.”
Kinley wasn’t at all sure she and Dan would have gotten around to having lunch if Bonnie’s call hadn’t interrupted them—not that she had any intention of admitting that, of course. “We already had this talk, Bon. No matchmaking, remember? I’ll stay out of yours, you stay out of mine.”
Bonnie gave a little huff of exasperation. “But he’s so nice. And so cute. And so obviously taken with you. If you’d just make a little time for him…”
“I don’t have time,” Kinley said, as much to herself as to her sister. “I’m working two jobs and barely fitting everything in as it is. Maybe his job allows him to just take random days off when he likes, but I don’t have that luxury. And you know how long guys usually stay around once they figure out I’m not going to just drop all my responsibilities to cater to them. Not very long at all.”
“You do have a knack for running them off,” Bonnie agreed with a sister’s candor. “I’ve started to wonder if you push them away to avoid dealing with the risks.”
“You know what we really don’t have time for right now? Amateur analysis.” Kinley looked pointedly down at her tablet. Both Bonnie and Dan had now suggested that her divorce had left her afraid of future involvement. They were wrong, of course. The disaster of a marriage had left her more embarrassed than devastated. Perhaps it had reinforced her lifelong aversion to failure, but it hadn’t left her brokenhearted.
“You’re right,” Bonnie conceded grudgingly. “We’ll talk later.”
But not about Dan, Kinley vowed silently. She needed to come to terms with her own thoughts and feelings about him before she could even begin to discuss him with her sister.
She heard the front door open, heard voices in the entryway, and she stood to greet the arriving guests. Balancing the open favors box in front of her, Bonnie turned to hurry out of the office. She rushed through the open doorway—and straight into a tall, solid man who was approaching from the other direction. The resulting collision sent box and Bonnie tumbling to the floor.
Kinley leaped forward in response to her sister’s startled cry. There was a moment of pandemonium as the newcomers gathered around Bonnie, who looked thoroughly embarrassed as she assured everyone she was unharmed. With the help of the apologetic man she’d barreled into, she gathered the scattered bottle stoppers.
“They’re fine, Kinley,” Bonnie said, still kneeling on the floor as she carefully placed the stoppers back in the box, checking each one for signs of damage. Fortunately, they were all still wrapped in the plastic packing, so there were no scratches from the incident.
Kinley shook her head. “Forget about the stoppers, are you hurt?”
“I’m okay. Really.”
“I’m so sorry,” the tall man said again, bending to offer Bonnie a hand.
Her smaller hand was swallowed by his. She made a funny little sound, then laughed somewhat breathlessly when he helped her to her feet. “Static electricity,” she said. “I got a little shock.”
“I felt it, too,” he assured her.
Kinley lifted an eyebrow slightly in response to the rather dazed look on her sister’s face. Bonnie must have been quite flustered by the accident. Either that, or her reaction to the nice-looking man’s touch wasn’t all due to static electricity.
“Honestly, Dad.” A pretty young woman stepped forward with a teasingly disapproving shake of her strawberry blond head. “I can’t take you anywhere.”
Dad? Kinley mentally adjusted the man’s age up about a decade. She’d have guessed him to be in his early thirties, but his daughter wore a big engagement ring on her left hand and was obviously no child.
Bonnie bent quickly to pick up the box, her face momentarily hidden by her thick blond hair. When she straightened again, she wore a bright smile that gave no clue to her thoughts. “Perhaps we should start over. I’m Bonnie Carmichael, and this is my sister, Kinley. We’re the owners of Bride Mountain Inn.”
The younger woman spoke again, beaming in Kinley’s direction. “Hi, I
’m Cassie Drennan. We spoke on the phone?”
“Of course. You’re the bride-to-be. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”