“ARE YOU SURE?” Verity asked for the third time as she set a stack of plates on the long table next to a cafeteria-size takeout container of enchiladas. “You’re sweet to invite me, but this is your life. I don’t want to interfere.”
Not that long ago, Renee would rather have had a root canal than invite her mother to hang out with her friends, but ever since the “giraffe incident” as she thought of it, Renee had found herself much more relaxed when it came to her mother. Maybe she’d just needed a few positive experiences to put things in perspective.
“You’re only in town a few weeks,” she said. “Once the show starts, you’re going to be wildly busy and I’ll never get to see you. The girlfriend lunches are a big part of my life. Of course I want you here.”
“Thank you, sweetie. I appreciate that. So how often do you have these lunches?”
“Mostly every week. We rotate through the locations.” Renee smiled. “When it’s Carol’s turn and the weather is nice, we eat out with the animals.”
“Did that bother you?”
“At first. They got a little close but I never heard their thoughts.” Something for which she would always be grateful. “When it’s my turn or Pallas’s turn, we eat here, at Weddings Out of the Box. Whoever is hosting provides an entrée. Everyone else brings what they want.”
Renee and Pallas had already set up a long table with enough chairs in the shade. There were pitchers of iced tea, along with lemonade.
Pallas walked in a few minutes before noon. She set down a nine-by-thirteen casserole dish and waved a large bag of tortilla chips.
“To complement your enchiladas,” she said. “Seven-layer bean dip. We are going to party today.” Pallas smiled at Verity. “I’m so excited you’re going to join us. This is fun.”
“Thank you for letting me participate.”
Wynn and Bethany walked in together. Renee made introductions all around, then poured drinks for everyone.
“I heard what happened with Carol,” Bethany said. “It’s so great how you were able to help her.” She paused. “Cade and I have some horses we’re concerned about. We have a horse ranch. Do you think you could come talk to them or am I asking too much?”
“I’d be happy to help if I can,” Verity said easily. “I get along well with horses.”
“Me, too, and I can usually guess what’s going on, but a little direct communication would be helpful.”
“You should open a satellite office here in Happily Inc,” Pallas teased. “Verity’s Animal Communication Network—East.”
They were all laughing when the rest of the women arrived.
Everyone met Verity and got drinks, then they put food on their plates and settled at the big table. Renee quickly realized she didn’t have to worry about her mother. Wynn sat on one side and Silver sat on the other and she had both of them laughing.
Carol was next to Renee. She leaned over and lowered her voice. “I hope you’re okay with us stealing your mom like we did.”
“Of course. She was thrilled to help.”
“Are you upset—I guess you wouldn’t be anymore—but when you were little, were you upset that you couldn’t do what she does?”
“What?”
“Her gift or whatever you call it. You don’t have it. That must have made you sad.”
Something Renee had never considered. She hadn’t wanted what her mother had, she hadn’t wanted her mother to have it. But Carol’s perspective was totally different. Not just because she hadn’t lived through what Renee had, but because she had a practical application for the information.
“I wasn’t sad,” Renee told her, not sure what else to say.
“So Hunter’s getting interested in girls,” Wynn announced, drawing everyone’s attention. “I can’t believe it. He’s only thirteen. I thought I had a couple of years left until I had to deal with that.”
“Thirteen.” Pallas looked shocked. “Don’t tell me that. I don’t want to have to deal with Ryan and girls for a while yet.”
“He’s barely six months old,” Silver reminded her. “You have a ways to go.”
“But still.” Pallas sighed. “My baby.”
“What did you do?” Renee asked. “Talk about it with him or lock him in his room?”
“I wish I could lock him in his room, but they frown on that now.” Wynn grinned. “I told him to talk to Jasper.”
Everyone burst out laughing. Renee chuckled as she thought of what she would guess was a serious case of panic on Jasper’s part.
“I have an announcement,” Bethany said. “I told my parents I’m pregnant.”
“Good for you.”
“Yikes, how did it go?”
“Oh, no. Poor you.”
Verity glanced around the table. “I’m confused. Why wouldn’t you tell your parents? Don’t they want grandchildren?”
“Oh, they want them. There was shrieking and tears and a thousand questions about my health, and that’s just from my dad.”
“Bethany comes from an unusual family,” Pallas told Verity. “How should I put this...”
“Oh, you’re the royal one,” Verity said. “Did I get that right?”
Bethany sighed. “You did. My dad is the king of El Bahar. Technically he’s my stepfather, but he adopted me and I’m the only daughter and my brothers are much younger, so it’s a lot of pressure. I wanted to tell them because they’re my parents and I didn’t want to tell them because he’s going to be overprotective and make my life a nightmare.”
“Ah, I see. He loves his little girl.” Verity nodded. “That’s lovely.”
“You say that now, but you’re not the one who’s going to have fifteen bodyguards and a cadre of servants making sure I don’t fall, trip or otherwise injure my delicate self and his very first grandchild.”
“It’s tough being royal,” Silver said. “Bethany, be brave and endure the pain.”
“Bite me.”
They all laughed again. Conversation shifted to different topics. Renee enjoyed the time with her friends and appreciated how easily her mother fit in. She couldn’t help wondering how everything would have been different if her mother wasn’t...special. In some ways, a lot of ways, life would have been easier. But Verity’s ability made her who she was and Renee knew that whatever happened, she wouldn’t want her mother to change for anyone. Not even for Renee herself.
JASPER HAD NO idea what Verity wanted, but she’d sounded upset on the phone. He drove to town and met her in the lobby of the Sweet Dreams Inn.
She was pacing anxiously when he walked in and immediately hurried over to him.
“Thank you for coming. Something’s happened and I just don’t know what to do.”
Jasper had just texted with Renee a couple of hours before so he knew she was fine. He led Verity to a quiet area of the lobby and pulled a chair close to hers.
“Tell me what’s going on.”
She bit her lower lip. “Odele, my producer, called. They’ve been brainstorming fun prelaunch ideas for my show. Something that would get the public’s attention and get them interested. Odele wants it a little gimmicky, but not off-putting. I was fine with all that and said she could reach me here if she wanted to talk.”
Jasper really wanted to hurry her along, but knew it was better to let Verity tell her story in her own way. Eventually she would get to the point.
“Odele called me this morning,” Verity admitted. “They’ve come up with what they think is a wonderful idea.”
He waited.
“A giant dog wedding.”
Her voice was thick with emotion and he had the horrifying thought that she might cry. How many dogs would there be in a giant dog wedding? Twenty? Fifty? And why did it matter?
Her lower lip trembled. “Odele knows where I am and she must have done research on the town because she wants to have the ceremony or whatever it is at Weddings Out of the Box!”
Ah, so there was the problem.
“You’re concerned Renee is going to be upset.”
“Yes. I just got my baby girl back. We’re getting along and she’s letting me into her life and now this! She’s going to hate the idea. What a nightmare. Dogs running everywhere, me talking to them, the TV cameras.” Tears filled her eyes. “I tried to tell Odele we couldn’t, but she was insistent and then she had to go. She’s very determined and I don’t want to jeopardize my show, but if I have to choose, of course I want Renee to be happy.”
Jasper knew the situation was more complicated than that. He also knew Verity really wanted to make her show a success and that Renee wanted that for her mother.
“Has Odele booked the, ah, event?”
“Not yet. She’s finalizing details before she calls. She said it would be a day to set up and a day to film. They’re talking midweek.”
“Then that’s a good thing. Pallas gets more business without a lot of work and none of the scheduled weddings get impacted.”
“You’re right. I hadn’t thought of that. I’m sure the production company is paying very well.” She brightened. “That will help. So all that’s left is for you to tell Renee what’s happening.”
“Me?”
“Please, Jasper. She won’t get mad at you.”
He knew that Renee was more than capable of getting plenty angry at him, but that wasn’t Verity’s point. She didn’t want to have to fight with her daughter now, when things were going well between them.
Damn, he thought grimly, seeing no way out of the situation. If he refused, he would upset Renee’s mother. If he said yes, he would upset Renee. Either way, he was screwed, because Renee wouldn’t like him upsetting her mother or herself so hey, no win for him.
“I’ll do it.”
“You will? Oh, thank you, Jasper.”
“Uh-huh. In return, you’re going to tell her how great I am until she’s done wanting to back the car over me.”
“I promise.”
PALLAS AND RENEE met weekly to discuss the upcoming weddings and share leads they had about future clients. While Renee generally enjoyed the breakneck pace of their days, she found herself looking forward to the last three weeks of January, when Weddings Out of the Box would shut down for vacation. She didn’t have any plans at the moment, but she was thinking somewhere quiet and peaceful with absolutely no brides or wedding parties or drama.
As Pallas reviewed the schedule, Renee took a second to wonder if Jasper would be interested in joining her for some of that time—just the two of them with no distractions except the ones they came up with together.
She had no idea if they were in a place where that was a question she could even ask. While he’d used the R word, she was less sure of their status. A relationship? But going away with him would be nice.
“You have it all under control,” Pallas said, closing the calendar program. “We’re also getting more and more busy. I used to have one wedding a weekend and I had the occasional weekend with nothing. Now we have at least two weddings or we have a wedding party booking us Friday through Sunday. I need to get serious about hiring help.”
“The work is very steady,” Renee said. “I would really like a couple of assistants on the days we have weddings. Someone to run and get things when we need extra thread or spot remover. I feel as if I’m forever racing back and forth across the property.”
“Of course.” Pallas nodded. “That would be easy enough. Most of our weddings are on Saturdays, so I could look at hiring high school kids who want a job on weekends. Of course they would have to be willing to give up their Saturday nights.” She smiled. “Let me write up a job description. Once you agree I’ve captured what you’re looking for, we’ll post it and start interviews.”
“That would be great.” Renee knew she could always rely on her vendors to pitch in, but she needed more help than that.
“I think we need another wedding coordinator,” Pallas said. “There are just too many weddings, and business doesn’t seem to be slowing down seasonally anymore. I’ve been keeping track of your workdays and there are weeks you’re here sixty and seventy hours. You should have said something.”
“It’s been a challenge, but you’ve been dealing with Ryan. I didn’t want to get in the way of that.”
“I’ll admit taking on another full-time employee scares me, but it’s necessary. If things keep going the way they have been, you’re going to burn out. Worse, I could lose you.”
Lose her? Renee wanted to blurt out that she had no plans to leave, but knew better than to say that. She loved working for Pallas, but she had to maintain a little bit of decorum. At least on the surface.
“I would like to work a bit less,” she murmured. “But I know hiring someone is a big step.”
“It is.” Pallas’s expression turned mischievous. “Which is why sharing the worry and pain is such a good idea. I’ve been thinking a lot about inviting you to be a partner in the business and I’d like to move ahead with that, if you’re still interested.”
Renee’s heart thundered in her chest. “With everything happening, I’d completely forgotten about that possibility. But I’m interested. Very interested.”
“Good. I’ve been talking with my lawyer.” Pallas wrinkled her nose. “I can’t believe I even have a business lawyer but I do. Anyway, she has come up with several ways to bring you into the business. First I’ll have a professional business evaluation done so we both know what the business is worth. Then we’ll discuss options. You can buy in outright or over time with a percentage of your salary going to the purchase. We’d detail the division of duties, so there are no misunderstandings.”
She paused, drumming her fingers on the table. “What else? Oh, the profits. Right now they would be shared based on a percentage of ownership, but also a division of labor. That means if you buy in 50 percent, then obviously you’d get 50 percent of the profits. But if you have to buy in over time, then you’d get your percentage and an added amount because you’re working more than me.”
She frowned. “I hope that makes sense. The legal stuff and the accounting rules do not come easily to me. Oh, and if we move forward with this, I’m granting you 5 percent ownership as soon as we sign the paperwork, so you’d own that right away, regardless of how we move forward.” She leaned toward Renee. “What do you think?”
Renee’s head was spinning. Not only was there was lot of information to take in, she also couldn’t believe this was really happening.
Pallas trusted her with her business. Pallas wanted them to be fifty-fifty partners! The concept was so impossibly wonderful that she couldn’t take it in.
“I’m excited,” she managed to say. “Yes, of course I’m interested. It’s a wonderful opportunity.”
“I’m glad you think so. You’ll need to get a lawyer to look over everything. Nick says I can’t recommend one because it would be a conflict of interest.” She sighed. “He’s such a guy. I’d say ask Wynn for a name. I’m sure she uses someone and I don’t think she and I use the same person, so that would work.”
“I’ll text her today,” Renee promised.
“And I’ll get going on both job descriptions. For the part-time person and the full-time wedding coordinator. I really liked the hiring service I used when I found you, so I want to go with them again.”
As they weren’t yet partners, Renee was fairly sure Pallas was sharing rather than asking her opinion.
“What do you think about opening the place up to midweek events?” Pallas asked unexpectedly. “Not more weddings. I’m not sure any of us could handle that, but other types of gatherings might be interesting.”
“Like corporate events,” Renee said eagerly. “That’s what I’ve been thinking about. Meetings or seminars. We have the space. If all we had to do was set up tables and chairs, that would be easy. Almost no work for us but some income.”
Pallas nodded. “That’s what I was thinking, too. We’d only need a couple of caterers to work with. They provide their own servers, they do the cleanup afterward, so we’re left with logistics and putting away whatever supplies we had to get out. I know our janitorial service would like more hours. We could find out if they would do the setup and takedown.”
“We’d have to get a cut of the catering,” Renee told her. “Because that’s where all the money is. I suppose we could set up different menus so everything flows through us. Oh, what about themed events? We have the decorations from all the weddings. Depending on the type of business, we could offer different packages. It would add an interesting element to the event.”
“A Star Trek–themed corporate getaway?” Pallas asked with a laugh. “I like it. You know, I was playing with this idea right around the time Nick and I got together. Then we fell in love and got married and I got pregnant and what is it they say? Life happens. I’m so glad you want to be a part of this.”
“Me, too.”
“Anybody home?”
Renee turned toward the open doorway. “That sounds like Jasper.”
She got up and called his name. Seconds later, he came into view.
“You’re not in your office,” he said. “But your car is in the parking lot. I was starting to think you’d been abducted by aliens.” He lightly kissed her, then waved at Pallas. “Am I interrupting?”
“We were just finishing up,” Pallas told him. “Are you here to steal her away for a few hours?” Her voice was teasing.
Renee immediately thought that why yes, she could make the time, but before she could say that, Jasper looked at her. The second she saw the combination of regret and concern in his eyes, she knew he hadn’t shown up to ask for a little naked time.
“What? I can see it’s something, so just spit it out.” She wanted to ask what her mother had done now, only she knew whatever it was Verity couldn’t be involved. Since arriving in Happily Inc, her mother had been sweet and helpful and just plain—
“It’s about your mom.”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s fine.” Jasper looked past her to Pallas. “This is kind of about you, too. Her producer has come up with a really fun idea to promote the show.”
Renee couldn’t imagine what that had to do with her or Pallas. Unless...
“Did she find out about the giraffes?”
“What? No. It’s a giant dog wedding.”
Renee turned to Pallas who looked as confused as she felt.
“I don’t know what that is,” Pallas admitted. “How many dogs does it take to be a giant dog wedding?”
“That was my question,” he admitted. “I guess we’ll find out when they get here. Odele, that’s her producer, thinks it will be entertaining and visual and give them something to promote that will get attention on social media.”
“Because ‘we have a woman who talks to animals’ isn’t enough of a grabber?” Renee shook her head. “Sorry. I don’t know the business and if my mom’s excited then it’s great that they’re—” The pieces came together.
“Oh, no,” she breathed. “They want to have the giant dog wedding here, don’t they?”
“That’s kind of the point of me stopping by. Your mom said things were good between the two of you and she didn’t want to mess that up, so she sent me instead.” He flashed her a smile. “This would be a good time to say don’t kill the messenger.”
Renee wanted to scream. This was so unfair. She and Pallas were in the middle of negotiating her joining the business. Talk about an off-putting twist in their relationship.
“It would be midweek,” he added. “Odele said the show will cover all the expenses and make sure the property is back to normal by close of business on Thursday. Apparently they’re willing to pay a premium for the use of the space.”
Pallas looked at Renee. “Premiums are always nice.”
“You’re saying you can be bought?”
Pallas grinned. “When it comes to the business, money nearly always talks.” She turned to Jasper. “I guess I need to speak with Verity’s producer.”
He pulled a business card out of his shirt pocket. “I happen to have her number right here.”