Twenty-Two

 

The alarm blared, pulling Clay from a deep sleep. He groaned and hit snooze. It was too early to think about getting up, but he had no choice. They had four weddings to pull off in one day, thanks to last weekend's blizzard. Dakota needed him more than ever.

He forced himself out of bed, but his eyes still refused to open. He felt around the nightstand and turned off the alarm before it could pierce the air again.

At least he was exhausted for a good reason. His date with Dakota on the beach had been wonderful. She hadn't uttered a complaint about the food or the cold. It had been the best date of his life—riding his bike and eating under the stars. Then once it had gotten too cold to sit there any longer, he took her back to her car.

He'd been tempted to give her a goodnight kiss—he'd never wanted anything more—but he held off, not wanting to ruin the evening. He had jumped the gun before, kissing her without restraint after the snowstorm, and that had blown up in his face. Both she and Sullivan had ended up angry with him.

Clay was going to take things slowly this time. Dakota made him feel things he'd never felt before, and he didn't want to do anything to mess that up. He'd waited his whole life to meet her, so surely he could wait a little longer to kiss her again.

He showered quickly and headed to The Chateau. The parking lot was already fuller than usual. Inside, everyone bustled around.

Marcel ran up to him. "You don't happen to know another photographer, do you?"

Clay shook his head.

"The other one called in sick. I'm good, but I can't do four weddings in one day!"

"Does Dakota know?" Clay asked.

"No. I just got the call."

Aria came up to them and looked at Clay. "Did Charlotte get ahold of you?"

"Charlotte?" Clay exclaimed.

"Don't ask me. She couldn't reach you or Dakota, so she called me. Now you know. I have to get across town. The bride is practically in tears over a wilted rose." Aria ran off.

"You don't know any photographer?" Marcel asked. "Not even a novice? Someone who can step in as an understudy?"

"Sorry," Clay said. "I have to find Dakota."

"Last I saw her, she was in the main reception hall."

"Thanks." Clay hurried in that direction.

Marina stopped him. "I thought you fixed the wiring last night."

"I did. Everything was working perfectly."

"It's not now!"

Of course it wasn't. "I'll look at it in a minute."

She glanced down at her tablet. "You'll need to because I have to get to City Hall. They don't know where the cake is."

What a day for everything to go wrong. He rushed by other distracted people and went into the main reception hall. Dakota was nowhere to be seen.

A slender girl with long brown hair came up to him, her eyes wide. "Are you here to fix the wiring?"

"I'm going to have to. Do you know where Dakota is?"

"In the kitchen. One of the ovens won't turn on."

Clay stared at her. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, everything's going wrong today. I'm glad I came into help out. I'm Freya." She held out her hand.

"Oh, Dakota's sister. Nice to meet you. I'm Clay."

Her expression softened. "Oh, you're Clay. Very nice to meet you."

"I'd better get to the wiring. Then I need to help Marcel and call—"

"What does Marcel need help with?" Freya asked.

"The other photographer didn't show."

"Oh, no! Sometimes I help him. You just worry about the wiring. Tell Dakota I'm going to help Marcel."

Clay threw his jacket on a chair and headed for the nearest speaker. Everything was in place. He went to the next one and found a loose wire hanging down.

"At least that's an easy fix," he muttered and put it back in place. He checked the rest of the speakers, not finding any issues. Next, he tested the microphones, finding that they and all the speakers worked perfectly.

His phone rang. It was Charlotte. He glanced around the room. Everyone seemed to have everything under control. He hurried back to Dakota's office and took the video call.

"Hi, Charlotte. How's it going?"

She wore a black cape and had foil all over her head. "We need to talk." Those were four words that he hated. Anytime he'd ever heard them from a woman, it always meant trouble. Charlotte's tone didn't give him any reason to believe she meant anything else.

"Oh?" he asked, trying to keep his expression and voice light.

"The date is getting closer, and we need to go over all the details."

"We have four weddings going on right now. Can we discuss this in a few hours?"

She frowned and poked at piece of foil. "But I have time now."

Clay took a deep breath and considered his words carefully. "Dakota and I have been hard at work on your wedding. We're really excited about it and we're anxious to talk to you about it. It's just that now is a bad time with four weddings happening simultaneously."

"I'm not going to have time later." She looked away from the screen. "How long will this take?"

"With as complicated as this is, four hours."

Charlotte turned back to Clay. "I've got four hours, then I'm talking with a producer about my own show. I won't be available once that starts."

He ran his free hand through his hair. "What about after that?"

"I'm shooting a commercial."

Noise drifted from down the hallway. He heard his name. "Maybe I can talk to Sarah when I'm free, but I can assure you we're working hard for you, Charlotte. If we have any concerns, we'll let you know right away."

Dakota appeared in the doorway. Her ponytail was falling loose and stray hairs stuck out around her face. "There you are! What's going on?"

"Charlotte." He held up his phone.

Her eyes widened. "I have to run home to cook some things in my oven. You're needed in the main wedding hall—right now."

"I'm on it." He turned back to Charlotte. "If I get a break, I'll give you a call. If you're already busy, I'll talk to Sarah."

"There's no one else I can talk to?" she asked, sounding bored.

Was she just bothering him because she had nothing else to do? Irritation rose, but he pushed it down and forced a smile. "Not right now. We have twice the workload due to last week's storm. Everything should calm down after this."

She scowled, obviously not used to being told no. "Fine. If you insist."

"I'm sorry I can't talk now, but everything is great on our end. If you'd like to schedule a time to come down here, that would be ideal."

Her eyes widened. "I thought my dress was all taken care of."

"It is, but—"

"I'll call you when I can."

The call ended.

He put his phone away and turned to Dakota. She'd already taken off. His heart sank. He'd hoped for even just a moment with her.

Freya appeared in the doorway. "Dakota wanted me to make sure you know to—"

"Go to the main wedding room. I'm on it. I was just dealing with bride number five."

Her eyes widened. "A fifth one?"

"She's not getting married today."

Freya let out a relieved sigh. "Good. They're having some kind of mini-crisis in there. I don't know what it is, but I have to help Marcel across town."

"I've got it. Thanks."

The rest of the morning went by in a blur. Clay fixed one catastrophe after another until both wedding rooms and reception halls were in top shape, ready to marry the eager couples.

By the time Dakota arrived with heated food, both bridal parties had arrived. She took the bigger party and directed Clay to handle the smaller one. Luckily, all the morning's chaos seemed to have died down. He managed to get the wedding party ready for the ceremony without a hitch.

Everything came together nicely, and the bride was thrilled with the way everything had turned out. Once all the guests had cleared out and the two rooms were cleaned, he went to the larger wedding to see if Dakota needed any help.

She was busy getting the bride and groom ready for their limo out front, so he handed out little bubble containers to the guests to blow them as the happy couple made their exit.

A group of kids started blowing them inside. Just after he'd convinced them to wait until they went outside, a toddler pulled off the top and moved his arm sideways, about to dump out the bubble soap. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as he ran for the girl. He stopped her just in time.

"Let's find your parents."

She pointed them out, and then Clay directed the guests out front, so the bride and groom could run to their limo through a wall of bubbles.

After the limo pulled away and the guests slowly dispersed, Clay realized how exhausted he was. A rough workout was never this tiring. He forced his legs into action and helped the staff clean up the main reception hall.

Dakota came over. "Thanks so much for helping out. It got pretty hairy at the end."

Clay shrugged. "That's just how kids are. I was probably ten times worse."

She smiled and wiped her brows. "Thanks again for everything. Is everything okay with Charlotte?"

He threw his head back. "I still have to call Sarah. Yeah, I think our famous bride just wanted to go over her checklist."

"Good. I'm glad she's thinking about it. Hey, I'm starving. Want to grab something to eat? My treat this time."

"How can I say no to that?" The corners of his mouth curved up.

They went through the building and then locked up once they were sure everyone was out. They climbed into Dakota's car, and Clay sunk into the seat, every muscle aching. "I hope it's not always like that."

She pulled out of the parking spot and laughed. It was such a nice sound. "No, you were initiated into the worst of the worst. I've never seen so many things go wrong in one day."

"That's good news. You think Charlotte's will go off with as many issues?"

"Now that wouldn't surprise me, but at least we'll have all four of us on duty for the one wedding. The entire building is reserved for Charlotte and Hugh's guests. That reminds me, I need to double-check and see if my brothers still want to help work security detail that day."

"You sure that'll be enough?" Clay asked.

"She has her own people who will also be here. I was mostly finding a way to sneak them in since they wanted to be here."

Clay chuckled.

Dakota pulled into a nearly-empty parking lot at a steakhouse. "Looks like we beat the dinner rush."

"Finally, some good luck."

She met his gaze and smiled. "I'd say so."