CHAPTER ONE

"How's the guest list for the wedding coming?" Farley asked, then clenched her teeth and tried to keep her fingers on the tablet keyboard while the Kazner limo careened around another corner. Nothing like a mad dash at seven in the morning in order to get to Atlantic Aviation, one of New Jersey's primo private airports. 

When this crazy ride was over, she planned to have words with Tim, the driver. Getting last minute work done before their CEO jetted off to the UK was no time for him to pretend he was in the Indy 500. 

On the leather seat across from her, CK stared out the window, apparently oblivious to her question. 

"CK?" Farley asked, blowing an annoying strand of dark hair out of her eyes. 

After a moment, her friend, who also happened to be her boss, turned toward her. "Um...sure." 

The limo took another insane turn, and Farley nearly choked on the shoulder strap of her seatbelt. Bracing her hand on the door to keep from falling to the floor, she studied CK and wondered for the thousandth time in the last month what was wrong. 

CK came out of her fog and finally focused on her. "The lab called. They finished up last night." 

"I already FedExed samples of the face cream to the UK for launch." Farley added a few more notes to the document she had open. "And the guest list?"

CK turned back to the window. What the heck was going on? She was usually so focused. Her family business, Kazner Incorporated, was her life. Until she fell in love with her marketing CEO and long-time friend, Ryan Anderson, that is. 

CK and Ryan had been buddies since college, but it wasn't until CK's eccentric grandfather told her that she had to get married or lose the company that things had started heating up between them. When CK hired Ryan to teach her how to date, the attraction that had always been there exploded. But even with all of that, this level of distraction was way outside of the norm. 

The limo screeched to a stop in front of a private airport, and only her seatbelt saved Farley from falling into her friend's lap. CK pushed her auburn hair out of her face, unbuckled and slid forward.

"Ryan's parents, the Captain and Winston are fine," she said as Tim hurried around the front of the limo and headed for their door.

"Four people? I can see it now. 'Kazner Heiress Marries. Or Did She? Because No One Saw It or Knew Anything About It'." Farley started typing notes. "The wedding's eight months away, I'm sure I can put together at least a hundred of your closest friends. Plus a few celebrities."

"Um, about that." 

"Got it. Sorry Oprah." Farley backspaced, erasing the list she'd already started compiling. "What about the Waylands?"

"Plans have changed."

Farley looked up, suddenly alarmed. "Don't tell me the engagement's off." She'd never seen two people so happy to be getting married. 

They were so perfect for each other. Watching their courtship unfold, and having a small hand in it, had even revived her belief in happy endings. For other people, at least.

The fingers of CK's right hand tapped against her thigh just before she self-consciously clasped her hands together. A sure sign that she was nervous about something. When Tim opened the door and she hustled out like her skirt was on fire. 

Something was definitely up.

The glass double doors of the building opened and an airport concierge emerged, fresh and dapper, the thin ring of gray hair around his head as neat and orderly as the rest of him. He calmly handed CK a tablet and stylus as he signaled for the porters to load her luggage. "The rest of your party arrived an hour ago, Ms. Kazner. They've already boarded." 

Farley fumbled to get her seatbelt undone before her friend escaped. "CK, what's going on?" 

Her friend finished signing the electronic forms and handed the tablet back to the concierge. "You're not going to like it." Her cheeks flushed pink and Farley's concern shot sky high. "We need to get married on Friday. Right after we get back from the product launch."

"What?" Farley's stomach went cold and plummeted like a runaway elevator. "But...your fairytale wedding. The one you always wanted."

CK glanced away as if the men loading her suitcases was the most important thing happening on the planet. "We changed our minds."

"You can't do that."

"I'd rather have something simple, anyway. And Ryan's parents already bought their plane tickets."

"But there are standards. Wedding of the century and all that."

CK tugged the edges of her curve-fitting business jacket together. "Something came up." She turned toward the airport.

Farley's panic mounted. She gave the seatbelt a frantic tug and the blasted thing finally released. "Has Ryan even picked a best man?" 

CK paused and turned toward her, a wince flickering across her face. "I'd rather not say."

Farley knew that look. It meant her friend had bad news that she wasn't going to like hearing. Ryan had four close friends and they were all in town to visit. Any one of them could be his pick. Unless...

A sudden, horrible realization slammed into her stomach like a fist. "Not Brad. Not this week." She tried to swallow against her suddenly dry throat as her heart rate shot into overdrive. 

"We can't delay any longer, ma'am," the airport concierge said to CK as he motioned to the porters to take the bags inside.   

Surprise knocked Farley's worry off balance when CK darted forward and gave her a quick hug. "I know the two of you will put together something absolutely wonderful."

"The two of— No. Absolutely not. Have you ever noticed how shifty his...well, admittedly gorgeous eyes are? Trust me. He'll make a terrible best man."

Her friend pulled away from her, gave her a sassy, knowing grin and dashed for the airport. "I'll be in touch," she called, waving cheerfully as she pushed through the doors and was gone.

Farley stared at the shiny glass doors and felt that somehow they'd just sealed her doom. Scooting back into the limo, she tried not to think about the task that lay in front of her. Not just facing Brad again, but planning the kind of wedding CK deserved — with no other bridesmaids to help her and no time to do it. 

"This is what comes of switching to decaf. She's damaged her ability to reason," she muttered as Tim sauntered up.

The chauffeur rested his arm on the opened door and grinned down at her. "Afraid you might lose your super efficient executive assistant and best friend badge if you can't pull it off?" he teased.

"And to think I was worried about how to tell her who HR had assigned as my new assistant." Definitely not a conversation she was looking forward to.

"Only two things to remember in order to pull off any dream wedding," Tim said. He held up his fist and stuck his index finger in the air. "Unlimited." He stuck out his thumb. "Budget."

Farley rolled her eyes and buckled herself in. "You forgot miracle."

"You'll figure it out."

Pulling her smartphone out of her purse, she started the first search of what would probably be many on her tablet. "Yeah. I'm screwed."

"My wife tells me that's the usual way." His grinned deepened as he shut the door.

What the heck was that supposed to mean? Farley wondered as she scrolled through the results of her search and prayed she could find vendors willing to work with her on such short notice. She had bigger problems than figuring out Tim's cryptic crap.

A society wedding by Friday while dealing with a best man she really didn't ever want to see again.

 CK had lost her mind.

*  *  *

Brad ate steadily through his stack of pancakes as the noise of the restaurant and his friends' conversation flowed around him. Having Todd, Jackson and Ajax in town at the same time had turned what would have been a miserable week into a party. He'd never tell them that, or they'd start asking questions he was never going to answer, but still, it was good to have them there. Maybe the week wouldn't be too bad after all.

He glanced around the table. They'd been friends since college and Ryan was the most recent of them to take the plunge into marriage. Since they all loved CK like a sister, everyone was pretty satisfied with the situation. Plus it gave them a whole new layer of material when they wanted to give him a hard time. When a guy at Ryan's die-hard player level finally settled down, it was worth at least ten years of ball and chain jokes. 

Yup. One little redhead comes along, and it's all over.

Brad washed his food down with a swig of coffee and pushed away the twinge of regret trying to take hold in the middle of his chest. Other than the happy ending part of Ryan's story, he knew exactly what that felt like. 

His smartphone buzzed next to him and he glanced at it. Speak of the devil. "Hey, Ryan, forget your toothbrush?" he said when he picked up.

"I need a favor," his friend said on the other end.

"Nope. Only on my second cup of coffee. Too cranky for favors." Brad drained the contents of the generic white mug and watched Ajax digging into his scrambled eggs. Where such a skinny guy put all the food he ate was something they'd all speculated about since college. Hollow leg? Hollow head?

"I want you to be my best man," Ryan said.

The coffee hit the back of Brad's throat and decided to take a detour. A coughing spasm grabbed onto him and everyone at the table looked up. 

When Jackson raised a brow, Brad held up his hand and tried to catch his breath. He had not just heard what he thought he had. 

"You okay, man?" Todd asked, his eyes reflecting concern behind his round, wire-rimmed glasses.

Brad smiled and tried not to cough as he got up from the table. He covered the phone with his hand. "Business call."

He turned and headed toward the front of the restaurant. "Are you...nuts?" he coughed into his phone.

"Magic 8-Ball says, 'yes definitely'," Ryan replied.

Ryan sure sounded cheerful after dropping something like this on him. "Hell, I'm honored. But the guys—" He took a breath. "Why don't you just rip their hearts out and be done with it?" 

Then another thought hit him. One so terrible, he was sure some key areas below his belt had just withdrawn in fear. "Wait a minute. CK only has one girlfriend."

 Brad reached the hostess stand. When the pretty hostess gave him a questioning look, he winked at her and turned back toward his table. "Absolutely not. I'm not working with that woman. Not after Atlantic City." Spotting one of the coffee stations, he headed for it and tried not to think about why he was actually in New York this week. 

"That was three months ago," Ryan said.

"I still have nightmares."

"What could be so bad that you won't even talk about it?"

Brad grabbed a pot of coffee at the server's station on his way by. He scowled, inspiring the approaching male server to detour to another drink station. "Tell CK to pick someone else."

"Sorry, man. Farley's her choice and you're mine."

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