“But you just got out of the hospital. I shouldn’t have let you do this wedding after the accident. You look awful.”
“Gee, thanks a lot. It’s not like I landed on my face, you know. Can you see the stitches in my hair or something?”
“No, but you hardly got any sleep last night, and you’ve been working all day. You look exhausted.”
“I didn’t have a choice. This wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I couldn’t cancel out on them just because of the concussion.”
“Once-in-a-lifetime? I thought you said this was a second marriage.”
“Okay, fine. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, then.” She lowered her voice. “The Carringtons are very important in this city. They have a lot of money and a lot of influence. They could make or break my business, so I have to make them happy.”
“I don’t like to see you pandering to these snotty rich people.”
“It’s not pandering. And anyway, I would’ve crawled off my deathbed to make this happen even if my clients had purchased the minimum package. I think every girl deserves the wedding of her dreams.”
Scotty pursed his lips to the side. “And what about you? Are you going to have the wedding of your dreams? Why are you rushing it all of the sudden? You barely know this guy. I don’t even know his last name.”
“McCall. Jaxon McCall.”
“So why are you rushing things.”
“Trust me Scotty, I know what I’m doing. Now shut up about it—here he comes.”
*****
Jaxon hadn’t felt this bone-tired since he ran his marathon in February. No, he was even more exhausted than when he crossed the finish line. It wasn’t just a lack of sleep and being on his feet for twelve straight hours. His brain was fried from trying to understand Elyssa’s directions about the flowers. She spoke a foreign language. And the intern she’d hired for the day turned out to be as clueless as he was, having evidently fudged on her application with the temp agency. It was a good thing he and Scotty had been there to help.
He found Elyssa and Scotty in close conference. “Hey. What now? It seems like almost everyone is gone.”
“Now we have to pack everything that belongs to me and take it back to the shop. The bride’s family paid for some of the vases, but some are mine,” Elyssa answered, somehow looking beautiful despite her obvious fatigue.
“Why don’t you sit down and rest, while I take care of it?”
“You don’t know which ones are which.” She shook her head, stretching her arms over her head, and then wincing with pain. “Ow! I keep forgetting that hurts.”
“So are you ready for this?” asked Scotty, his sweeping gaze indicating the lavishly decorated ballroom. “I still don’t approve of you getting married in two weeks. I was just telling Elyssa I think you’re rushing things.”
“You’re probably right,” Jaxon agreed, jumping on his opportunity to escape. “There’s no reason to hurry. We’ll just take things slow.”
“But… but I thought you loved me. I thought you wanted to spend the rest of our lives together.” Elyssa bit her lip, her chin trembling.
“I do. But don’t you think—”
“Did you pretend you wanted to get married just so you could kiss me? Or was it part of a big plot to steal my building?”
Sweat beaded on Jaxon’s forehead as Scotty seemed to loom over him.
“Yeah, what’s your game, Jaxon?”
“There’s no game, Scotty. I was only agreeing with what you said about rushing the wedding.”
“Don’t worry about it, Jaxon. I won’t make you marry me.” She was glorious in her anger. “It’s officially over.” She swirled, flinging her dark shiny tresses over her shoulder in a gesture of disgust.
Scotty clapped him on the shoulder, chuckling. “I think you just got dumped, but that’s much more like the sister I grew up with. Sorry about that, but it was inevitable.”
“Yeah.” He was off the hook. Why wasn’t he relieved?
*****