Diary of a Single Wedding Planner (Tales Behind the Veils Book 1) (24 page)

Saturday, December 14th

Well, I never did find out why Drago’s mama got shot, but I did eventually find out how. When I got to the dressing room Felicia told me Drago’s mom would just rest at home, and then she moved right into giving me more set-up items and explicit instructions about the favors. One of the photographers said the groomsmen told him it was a drive-by in the neighborhood. His mom just happened to be sitting out on the porch in the crossfire. I didn’t understand everyone’s calmness, though. Pretty much no one even mentioned her all day. But then one of the servers overheard someone say Felicia went berserk on everyone at the hospital. She told them the shooting would not overshadow her wedding and everyone better be focused on the happy occasion. I couldn’t help but imagine the poor groom’s mom lying home alone while her son got married without her.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time for contemplation because all my apprehensions about being a “day-of” coordinator rang true. The caterer, a friend Felicia assured me was a consummate professional, did not realize she had to bring skirted linen for the DJ table, gift table, place card table and head table. She only brought round linens for the guest tables. So I had to scramble to call around and get someone to loan us skirting for the night.

I so wanted to be like,
“Okay, Felicia, this is who you hired, and this is what she brought. So now you get bare-ass wood tables with banged-up metal edges and bent metal legs.”
But I couldn’t do it. I had to do whatever I could to make the event as flawless as possible. Not just because it’s what Lillian and Laura expect of me, but because I don’t know how to do anything else. It’s someone’s wedding. It has to be perfect. Or pretty freakin’ close.

That would be how I found myself at Target at nine o’clock at night buying every fork they had since the caterer forgot to bring dessert forks for the cake.

I called Cabe on my way there to say, “You ain’t gonna believe what happened now.”

He went all teenage groupie on me. “You gotta take a picture with him for me.”

“Um, no. I’m not walking up to Mr. Scary Dude whose mama just got shot and ask him to pose for a picture like some stalker girl.”

“Come on, Ty. I would kill to meet this guy. He’s freakin’ tough. Can’t you say you get pictures with all your brides and grooms or something?”

“I’ll see what I can do, Cabe, but don’t count on it. They’re not warm and fuzzy. Oh great, they don’t have one hundred dessert forks by themselves. I’m not buying full silverware sets just to get dessert forks. This is insane. Let me go so I can call this stupid caterer and see what we can come up with.”

“Okay, but get a picture. Or an autograph. Tell him you need him to sign some paperwork or something. Get me an autograph at least!”

With the chaos of getting forks and handling all the other crap that popped up at this event, I never gave Cabe’s request a second thought. Until I looked up and saw him standing by the railing along the dance floor, dressed up in slacks, a dress shirt, and a tie. I’ve seen him in a tie before, but not often. I was so dazzled by how handsome he looked that it took me a couple of seconds to wonder why he was standing there. I zigzagged along the outside of the dance floor making my way to him and trying not to get knocked out by the overzealous dancers.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Well, hey, Buttercup! Glad to see you too!”

“Yeah. Glad to see you. Now what are you doing here?”

He laughed and smiled his most charming, forgive-me smile.

“I couldn’t pass up the chance to meet Drago, so I thought I’d come help you with the wedding. There must be something I could do.”

“You can’t show up at somebody’s wedding, freak. Felicia’s going to go ballistic. She’ll probably have you arrested or something.” I looked around to see if her hawk eyes were already zoned in on him, but she stood with her back to us talking with guests.

“I’ll work. I’ll do whatever you tell me to. Just give me a job, and you’ll never even know I’m here. Then maybe introduce me to Drago before the end of the night.”

“Cabe, you can’t be here. Dude, not cool.”

With any other bride, it might have been okay, but not Felicia. I’ve bored him to tears with wedding details for years, so it would be nice for him to see first-hand. Not a wedding bordering on disaster like this one, though. I couldn’t risk him doing something to upset Felicia.

“Give me twenty minutes. Give me a job to do, and let me be here for twenty minutes. I just want to see him, and then I’ll go home. You don’t even have to do the autograph or a picture or anything. Come on, Ty. I’d do it for you.”

“Yes, except no one wanders into your office I would have any desire to meet.” I knew he was right, though. If the tables were turned, he would do whatever he could to get me in and help me meet someone. I bit my lip and plunged into the realm of unprofessional bad decisions.

“Okay, you want a job? Go check the bathrooms. Make sure they have plenty of toilet paper, paper towels, soap. Make sure the trash cans aren’t overflowing and that there’s no mess.” I crossed my arms and smiled at him, sure he would balk at doing it.

“Don’t they have employees to do that?” he asked.

“Aha, so you’re begging for a job and the first one I give you, I get attitude. Okay, time for you to go.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’ll do it;. I don’t care. I’m just surprised they don’t have employees to do that.”

“They do, but I have to make sure everything is taken care of. Which includes keeping an eye on the bathrooms.”

Cabe saluted me and headed toward the back of the building and the restrooms.

I scanned the crowd, relieved to find Felicia still smiling and in conversation. I went to check with the limo driver about the upcoming exit, and then to double-check the catering kitchen to make sure they were getting everything cleaned up in there.

Cabe came bouncing up to me with the hugest, goofiest grin I’ve ever seen him wear. Which is saying a lot because he has a lot of goofy grins.

“You’re the best! You’re awesome! I just met Drago in the bathroom! Did you know he was in there? Is that why you sent me? ’Cause I thought you were sending me to be a smartass, like to see if I would do it. Then I go busting up in there, and Drago is washing his hands in the sink. Do you have any idea what those hands are capable of? What they’ve done? What they can do? But there he was, lathering up with some pineapple scented soap. I tore off a couple of towels and handed them to him. I think he thought I was a bathroom attendant. But he said thank you. I wanted to like, shake his hand or something, but I figured that might be bad form. You know, in a bathroom, dude to dude. I mean, he had just washed and all, but still. You don’t offer a shake in a bathroom. His biceps are huge, Ty. Way more massive than I thought from TV. I thought television added weight, but I swear he looks bigger in real life.”

I noticed several servers standing around us by the kitchen entrance, all thoroughly engaged in Cabe’s bathroom story. I grabbed his elbow and led him away from the kitchen, trying not to laugh at his exuberance.

“Okay, so now that you met your crush, can you please get outta here before you get caught?”

I saw Felicia walking toward me in my peripheral and spun to face her with a huge smile.

“Felicia, how can I help you?”

“There’s no white wine at the bar. Why are they not offering white wine?” she asked without even a hint of the laughing bride I had seen minutes before.

“I will check on that right now,” I said.

“Who’s this?” she asked, looking at Cabe.

“This is my . . . um, associate, Cabe. He dropped off . . . some paperwork I needed to sign.” I looked from her to Cabe, hoping he didn’t say something stupid.

“Congratulations, you look stunning,” he said, taking Felicia’s hand lightly in his and bowing low to kiss the back of her hand. “We trust your evening has been all you had hoped.”

I nearly died. I could not believe he just opened the door for Felicia to list everything she found wrong with the wedding. But she smiled and coyly pulled her hand away.

“And then some,” she said, and I swear for a moment I thought she might even be flirting with Cabe. Apparently, no one can resist his baby blues.

“Cabe,” I said, putting myself between the two of them, “I need to go and check on the wine. Would you please retrieve those papers I signed? They’re in the kitchen.”

“I’m all over it,” he said before turning back to Felicia. “I wish you all the best in your new life together. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if there is anything else we can do to make this evening special.”

I glared at him, admiring him and wanting to kill him at the same time. Cabe excused himself and walked toward the kitchen as some guests came to tell Felicia they were leaving early, and I booked it over to the bartender to tell him to turn water into wine if he had to.

Felicia thanked me at the end of the night, telling me it couldn’t have gone better if she had handled it herself—a huge compliment coming from her. Of course, she had no idea how much the caterer had screwed up, or that the DJ had lost the first dance CD, or that a snake had been found in the bathrooms when the set-up guys arrived. And that’s why you hire a day-of coordinator, I guess. So you don’t have to deal with any of the crap that happens at the event. Or any of the sub-par vendors you hired.

Cabe stayed until the bitter end. I must admit, having him with me to pack everything up helped my stress level. Drago and Felicia thanked me again as I escorted them to the limo, and I think Drago might have attempted a smile. Cabe walked along beside us carrying Felicia’s bouquet and her overnight bag, beaming even more than the bride or the groom.

Silly boy.

Monday, December 16th

I spent the entire day yesterday Christmas shopping. If I’m going home this year, I need to be the best aunt ever and bring home stellar presents. Unfortunately, the most stellar presents must have all been purchased already. Probably by those insane people willing to give up sleep to shop on Black Friday. I traipsed all over town just to end up with some crappy mediocre toys and collapse in exhaustion as soon as I got home. Who knew shopping could be such a workout?

I had almost finished wrapping the gifts at my desk today when Charlotte said I needed to take a call because she didn’t know what to say. It did not surprise me in the least that she didn’t know what to say, but it still annoyed me. However, since I wasn’t doing anything other than wrapping Christmas presents, I couldn’t exactly refuse to take the call.

“This is Tyler, how can I help you?” I asked.

“You have a wedding scheduled this weekend for Travis Bradley. I thought you might like to know the groom is already married to someone else, and his divorce ain’t final yet. You can call the Tampa courthouse and ask for case number DRT7V-21Y697.”

“I’m sorry. Did you just say the groom is already married?” I asked in case I misunderstood.

“Yes ma’am. He’s fighting about the child support and alimony, and he refuses to pay for half the house. So he ain’t signed the papers and his divorce ain’t final. That wench he’s marrying don’t know it. You can call the courthouse. It’s public record.”

I wrote down the number and asked for her name.

“I’d rather not say. I’m trying to make sure he does the right thing by his ex-wife and his kids.” She hung up.

I took the memo to Laura, who called the groom, who quickly admitted the truth. He was none too happy we’d been alerted. He told Laura he didn’t see why it mattered since he paid his event in full and we were contracted to put on his wedding.

Laura explained we had to have a marriage license to have a legal ceremony, which he would not be able to get if already married. He could still have the party he had contracted, but there’d be no pronouncement of husband and wife.

He was furious. I’m thinking he’s going to be pretty willing to sign those papers now. Especially once his fiancée finds out he’s still hitched and can’t marry her this weekend.

Tuesday, December 17th

Dwayne called to firm up plans for when I’m home. He brought up Christmas again, which freaked me out a little. I mean, going to dinner with him where everyone and their brother would know about it was hard enough to contemplate. But to spend Christmas with him? Oh, good Lord, no! Way more than I want to bite off.

Spending the holiday together felt too fast and too forward. I wanted to be sure I was in control of what I was doing and not just going along with his plans. I opened my mouth to refuse, but he kept right on talking.

“This is our first Christmas since the divorce,” Dwayne said. “They’re gonna wake up here, then their mama will come get them around noon. It’s gonna kill me. I’ll tell ya the truth. I don’t know how I can let ’em go on Christmas.”

It still felt weird for me to think of Dwayne as a dad. We hadn’t talked a whole lot about his kids, but I could tell when he did mention the girls he was crazy about them. I got the feeling he’s a pretty good dad. I could hear the pain crackling in his voice when he talked about them leaving, and I felt sorry for him.

“Well, look at the bright side,” I offered. “At least you get to see them waking up with Santa Claus. That’s the best part, right?”

He didn’t answer right away, and when he did, it was heavy with emotion.

“Yeah, I guess. I can’t tell you how happy I am that you’ll be here. That’s going to keep me going, darlin’. Knowing even though they’re leaving, I’ll get to see you is at least a bright spot. Thank you,” Dwayne said.

I felt trapped. I don’t necessarily want to be Dwayne’s pacifier for Christmas, but I also can’t stand for anyone to be in pain. Especially not someone I care about, and the truth is whether I like it or not, I do still care about Dwayne.

“How’s your mama? I’d like to see her while I’m home,” I said to change the subject.

“Well, yeah, yeah. Of course. She wants to see you, too. We’ll take a ride over there. Hell, we’ll take a ride everywhere. You ain’t been home in so long you won’t even recognize a lot of things around here. I’ll have to give you a tour!”

We talked for a while about stores that had closed and businesses that had opened, people who had married and divorced. A new highway had been built through town last year, and it cut right across his daddy’s property. His grandmother had moved in with her youngest daughter.

It’s funny how things stay frozen in my mind the same way they were when I left. Yet life goes on there. Things change and evolve. Just because I’m not there doesn’t stop it from happening. I felt a twinge of anxiety about going back. Seeing what’s changed and what has stayed the same. I know I’ve changed. A lot. I don’t know if I’ll still fit in there, or if I ever did. I guess it’s only right that Dwayne be part of me figuring it all out. He’s part of home for me. So completely ingrained in that world of my past that I can’t separate the two completely. Not yet, anyway. It doesn’t mean I won’t ever be able to.