Julie did the best she could at fixing her hair and makeup. The champagne had gotten everywhere.
She took a deep breath and stared at herself in the mirror. This was what happened when she let loose and tried to have fun. She lost her damned mind. With his charm and sex appeal, Seth had seemed sweet, but it turned out he was just another jerk. She was so mad that she’d fallen for it that she could just scream.
But that would have to wait until later, alone in her apartment with her tabby cat. She had a wedding to save and less than two hours to do it.
She could do this. She straightened her shoulders and her jacket. Time to face the music.
Julie opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.
Stacey met her. “I’m waiting for return calls about the champagne.”
“Hopefully something can be done,” Julie said. “If not, we’ll be toasting with wine from the cellar and it’ll cost a fortune. What about everything else? Reception table decorations? The blown amp? The food?”
What should have been a ten-minute break had thrown her completely off her game. She wasn’t sure about anything right now.
Stacey looked up from her clipboard. “The decorations are finished. The caterer should arrive any minute, and everything is finalized for the ceremony and ready for the reception.”
Julie could see the staff preparing for the cocktail hour. Everything was working like a well-oiled machine. The wedding had gone on according to schedule. The schedule she’d set up, granted, but she hadn’t had to stand over everyone to make sure things got done. This is what came from her preparations—it was her dream. Perfection.
The smile slipped from her face. In the end it wasn’t chance that ruined the wedding. She had been the one who ended up ruining the perfection by letting a hot guy get the better of her.
Stacey stopped. “Are you okay? I know it’s none of my business, but the freezer . . . ?”
“I’m fine.” Julie forced a smile of reassurance. “Just a little sticky from the champagne, but once the reception gets underway, I’ll sneak upstairs to clean up a little better.”
“If you want to talk about . . . anything . . .”
Julie could hear what wasn’t being said. Or rather who wasn’t being mentioned.
Seth had told her he’d make sure something went wrong. He told her he would do it. She naïvely believed she could stop him by staying with him, by distracting him, but she hadn’t even considered what he’d already set into motion.
A little bluebird sat on the table next to the door to the garden. She stopped and stared at it. What if she hadn’t egged him on from the beginning? Sending him after imaginary butterflies? If she’d left him to his own devices, would he have felt the need to get so creative?
From his point of view, he thought he was helping those other weddings. What if what he’d originally planned was a lot less disastrous than a box of exploding champagne?
She’d let herself get so caught up in his flirtation that she’d messed up. It had felt so real. But was it just to keep her from finding the champagne? Had he really wanted to spend time with her? She’d practically thrown herself at him. She held her hand over the squeezing ache in her chest. Her lips still felt swollen from his kisses.
She shouldn’t be analyzing this now. She had a wedding to get through. Family to greet. She’d make the best of this situation, and maybe afterward she could try to make sense of the whirlwind attraction that Seth had awakened in her. Later she could deal with the consequences of trusting a guy who she never should have trusted.
***
Seth had a plan. He just hoped it wasn’t too late.
Across the garden, he saw just the coconspirator he needed. If there was anyone who could help it’d be her.
“Stacey?” he said as he approached Julie’s assistant.
The young woman spun on her heel with a smile ready, but as soon as she saw it was him, her smile faded. “Oh, it’s you.” Her lips pressed into a thin line of disapproval. “Is there something you need, Mr. Downing? Pictures are on the front lawn.”
Seth raked his hand through his hair and gave her his best I’m-sorry-I’m-an-ass smile. “I do need something. I need your help to make this right with Julie.”
“Ms. Winter is working a wedding right now.”
“Yeah.” He looked over his shoulder and saw Julie striding with purpose across the garden toward the photographer. Confidence oozed off her. “But back there, in the freezer, we had a moment—”
“I saw.” Stacey raised her eyebrows as if to say get on with it.
“Look, I really like her.” Seth thought back over the past few hours. Her smiles and laugh, that devious little mind of hers, her kisses. It had definitely felt like the beginning of something. Something he wasn’t ready to let go of yet. “And I think she liked me too.”
Stacey glanced down at her checklist. “Why are you telling me this?”
“I’m not exactly on her favorites list right now. I could use your help to patch things up.”
“It won’t be easy. Seeing her have fun for once, especially at a wedding, was fantastic.” She glanced over at Julie. “You’ll have to earn her trust back.”
“Would you help me?” He placed his hand on her arm. “Please, Stacey?”
She raised a brow. “What’s in it for me?”
“How about a couple of cases of Cristal, chilled?”
“Where are you going to get that? The nearest town with champagne is an hour away.”
“Leave it to me. I’m not sure if I can get her to forgive me, but this is at least a start, I hope. Will you help me?”
Seth saw in her eyes the moment her inner romantic started to side with him. A weight lifted off his stomach. He wasn’t out of the woods yet, but hopefully he wasn’t lost forever.
“What do you need me to do?”