Julie had spent the past two years of her life creating a reputation for perfect weddings. Crisis aversion had become her specialty. When most of a wedding party got food poisoning at the rehearsal dinner, she helped make it work with some tea and mints and kept them from looking overly pale in the photos. When alterations on bridesmaids’ dresses had gone wrong, the whole morning had been devoted to fixing them. The disaster possibilities were endless. Pictures taking too long. Running out of drinks. The DJ playing a song off the no-play list. A bridal gown zipper that refused to zip. She’d even had a few missing vendors and last minute replacements.
And she’d fixed every one of them. But she’d never misplaced the maid of honor before.
She was beginning to question the sanity of letting Seth help her as they moved from room to room. Every room had something he had to comment on.
Seth pointed to the antlers above the window in the Garden Room. “Should we take a moment of silence for Bambi’s mother?”
“Those would be from Bambi or Bambi’s father. Not his mother.”
“Poor Bambi. I really thought him and Flower would make it,” he said.
She kept her back to him so he couldn’t see her smile as they entered the library.
“Since when do a few bookshelves determine something to be a ‘library’?” He even used air quotes for library.
She tried in vain to keep her mouth from turning up at the corners as she faced him. “Are you going to do something helpful or just be annoying?”
“For a smile, I’d do a little of both.” He wiggled his eyebrows like Groucho Marx.
He was trying to make her relax. If she weren’t on the job, it might have worked. Who was she kidding? It was working. She liked his stupid comments. She liked his quick thinking. She liked him.
As the thought sank in, Seth closed the distance between them. Her breath caught.
“Did you try her cell phone?”
Rolling her eyes at him, she said, “Of course. Unfortunately because of the mountains, reception isn’t great out here. The call wouldn’t go through. So we have to do it the old-fashioned way, room to room. If you could manage to contain yourself, I’d like to keep the rest of the family from realizing something is wrong.”
His eyes glinted with mischief and he closed the distance between them. “So if I started shouting her name at the top of my lungs? That would be bad.”
“Yes, that would be bad.”
“And how would you stop me?” He wiggled his eyebrows at her again.
She raised an eyebrow and contemplated him. “Baseball bat?”
He clapped his hand over his heart as if she’d shot him. She gave him a smile, brushed past him, and continued out of the library and through the Lounge. Her shoulder tingled from the close contact. Three more rooms and the kitchen to search on this level. The second level was only half the size of the first. And then there were the basement and wine cellar. And not enough time.
“What do you do for fun?” Seth’s voice was directly behind her.
“I don’t spend my free time trying to ruin someone’s wedding or drinking myself into a stupor.”
“That’s a shame.”
“Why is that a shame?”
“It’s odd that when asked what you do for fun, you start with what you don’t do.”
She stopped at the door to the Drawing Room and turned to face him. “I have fun.”
“Sending ushers on missions for nonexistent butterflies?” His crooked grin was all sorts of cocky.
“Only when they deserve it.”
His gaze dropped to her lips. “Oh, I deserve it.”
The only place filled with butterflies was her stomach. The air around the two of them thickened. Another time and a different place and she might give him exactly what he deserved. A good kick in the shin for starters. But for now, she needed to remain calm, cool, and composed. After all, she was hired to deal with the stressful aspects of running a wedding. Like missing maids of honor.
Julie knocked on the door of the Drawing Room.
The best man, Blake, opened the door. “If it isn’t the woman I plan to romance into giving me a dance this evening.”
“I don’t dance at weddings.”
He held the door open wider for her to enter. “You just haven’t danced with me.”
A handsome, flirtatious best man wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. But Julie had all the flirting her body could take from Seth. Seth closed in on her like a heat wave until her back was scorched from his nearness.
So she zeroed in on the one man who definitely wouldn’t flirt with her today: the groom. Graham stood near the windows looking out onto the courtyard of the driveway. “Do you need anything, Mr. Downing?”
Seth piped up, “How about a little Jack to help with your nerves, nephew?”
Graham strode forward and pulled Seth into a one-armed manly hug. “How’s it going, Uncle Seth? I figured you’d be somewhere setting off the sprinklers or something.”
“Not today.” Seth glanced over at Julie. “Though I may have a few tricks up my sleeve, your wedding planner is keeping a very close eye on me.”
Julie could feel the blood rushing to her face. “Just doing my job.”
Graham punched Seth in the arm. “Don’t make her mad, Seth. We need her.” He turned to Julie. “I know we can count on you. How’s Tessa?” Graham’s face lit up when he mentioned Tessa. It never failed to amaze Julie, how much devotion the grooms showed their brides. It made her feel hopeful that someday she could find someone who would light up when they mentioned her.
“Tessa is beautiful. You are going to have a great day.” Julie smiled because she meant it. “Have either of you seen the maid of honor?”
Graham looked at the best man, who shrugged. “I’m afraid not,” Graham said.
“Then we’ll let you get back to preparations.” Julie grabbed Seth’s arm and dragged him out of the room.
Whatever happened in the end, two people who loved each other would be bound together. One perfect day to start their marriage, to keep the flame of their love alive for years to come. She always got a warm feeling in her heart when she thought about it and how she could make that happen for them.
And they would never know about the mess that happened behind the scenes.
***
“Can you believe that guy?” Seth said as they climbed the wooden stairs to the second story. The other rooms had given no clue of Renata’s whereabouts. Not too long ago, the groom and his best man had kept a running tally of women. They practically had a written playbook. He wasn’t convinced they’d left it behind. “Shamelessly flirting with you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The best man?” The vein throbbed in Seth’s neck just thinking about Blake all over Julie, but he couldn’t tell the pretty wedding planner that the groom and his friend were players. “Blake’s not . . . the right guy for you.”
She turned and put her hands on her hips. “All he did was ask for a dance. Didn’t you ask me to dance with you?”
“Yeah, but it was the way he looked at you when he said it. Guys like him are only after one thing.”
Seth could see his words weren’t having the desired effect when she rolled her eyes at him.
“Aren’t you after the same thing?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. This wasn’t going the direction he’d hoped. “I’m a gentleman.”
He had nothing and he knew it. His stomach hardened. Blake was a smooth guy. He got a lot of women, but he shouldn’t get Julie.
“Blake isn’t right for you,” he repeated.
Her eyebrows raised in surprise. “How would you know who’s right for me?”
With her on the step above him, they were level. Eye to eye, lips to lips. His jealousy dissipated, replaced by the desire that had been burning within him since the wine cellar. The desire to kiss her. He restrained himself long enough to say, “You need someone spontaneous. Someone who won’t bow down when you try to assert your control. Someone who’ll treasure every moment in your presence. Someone who you can have fun with without scheduling every moment.”
“How do you know what I need?”
He lifted his gaze from her lips to her eyes. “I just do. And I know you need this.”
Reaching for her nape, he pulled her in until their mouths met. For a second she softened beneath him. He felt sparks ignite at the touch. He expected her to melt against him.
What he hadn’t expected was for her to shove his chest and mumble against his lips, “What do you think you are doing?”
He broke the contact.
When he opened his eyes, her eyes weren’t dewy with love or lust, but they weren’t angry either. Had his boyish charms finally failed him?
She was waiting for an answer.
The sweet taste of her lips was still on his, so he shrugged. “I was seizing the moment?”
She fairly bristled but didn’t back away. “This was a ‘moment’?”
Before she bit it off, he pulled his hand back. “I thought it was.”
“Obviously it wasn’t.” Her eyes flashed with fire.
This was not good. “I can see that now.”
It hadn’t really been a kiss. Merely a meeting of their lips. It had been like touching a live wire. The sting of electricity was too quick to keep hold of.
Her eyes softened and her mouth curved into a small smile. And the knot in his chest loosened.
“Look, I’m supposed to be working.” She brushed his hair with her fingertips. “I can’t just go around kissing my client’s relatives. It’s bad form.”
A little jolt of hope seared through him. “So if I disown my nephew, we can kiss again?”
She chuckled. “Right now, there are more important things to do, like—”
“Find a closet to duck into for an hour.” He caught her hand in his.
“Like find the maid of honor,” she said. Her fingers curled into his.
Warmth flooded through him at the sparks that ignited between their palms as he looked at their joined hands. Maybe that hadn’t been the moment, but there would definitely be a moment. Seth could wait. “Let’s go.”