“Yes,” I answered.
It was the seafood restaurant I owned on the waterfront. It was one of the best places in town and was very exclusive. I never worried about getting a table. In fact, I had a private dining room. With the paparazzi always looming, I had to get creative if I wanted to take someone out to dinner. Amber wasn’t thrilled with the privacy and preferred eating in the limelight. The private dining room would be perfect for me and Cherie to catch up without worrying about anyone bothering us.
I was taken to the back of the restaurant, passing through the kitchen to avoid the front of the house diners from seeing me. It all felt very cloak and dagger, but I really liked my privacy. The kitchen staff was used to seeing me sneak in and out of the place.
I was seated at my table and offered a glass of wine while I waited. I settled in, feeling a little nervous. It was almost like a first date.
Not a date. I was engaged. I was meeting with an old friend and my wedding planner. It wasn’t a date.
When the door opened, my heart did a little happy dance. I got to my feet, ready to properly greet Cherie. “Amber,” I blurted out the name. I looked around the small room as if I had something to hide. “What are you doing here?”
She strolled in on heels that put her even with my six-two frame. “I finished the shoot early. I was hoping to surprise you at home, but your assistant said you were meeting the wedding planner here tonight. I figured I should be here.”
“Yes,” I quickly answered. “Absolutely.”
She gave me a kiss on the cheek. “I knew you were probably drowning in wedding planning. I’m here to save you.”
I forced a smile. “Good. Great.”
“I’m parched. Where’s the waiter? You know I hate eating in here.”
I cleared my throat. “I didn’t know you were coming, or I would have arranged for something else.”
The waiter popped his head in, making eye contact with me. I gave him a brief nod, the signal to come in.
“I’d like a bottle of champagne,” Amber said. “None of the cheap stuff. I want the Dom.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he quickly answered.
Amber turned her back to me, my signal to help her with her coat. I did as expected, putting the coat on the back of her chair before pulling it out for her. The first thing she did was pull her phone from the pocket. She laughed as she scrolled through her Instagram feed, quickly tapping out quirky replies. It was how it always was with her. She was with me but not ever truly with me.
The door opened again, the waiter coming through with the requested champagne, and Cherie was right behind him. I got to my feet like a true gentleman. She stopped walking when she saw Amber, head down, eyes glued to her phone. She looked at me. I gave her a look that said “sorry” before drinking in the sight of her.
She was wearing a black dress with a wide belt around the waist, giving her an hourglass shape. Her full hips blossomed below the belt, and her bountiful breasts with a slight amount of cleavage bloomed above. Her hair was left loose, falling around her shoulders in the thick waves I had loved so much back in the day. If I closed my eyes, I could still remember what the silky strands felt like between my fingers and the smell of her shampoo—something with apple.
“Hello,” Amber said, looking up. “You must be our wedding planner.”
“I am,” Cherie said, quickly recovering. “Cherie Sanders.”
She stepped forward and extended her hand to Amber. Amber, without getting up, extended her hand as if she were royalty. I quickly pulled a chair for Cherie before we all sat down again. My night of playing catch-up had been turned upside down.
“Thank you for meeting us earlier than next week,” I said. “I hope it wasn’t too much of an inconvenience.”
“Not at all. With this short timeline, the sooner the better.”
Amber put her phone away and sipped her champagne. “I hope you have something to present to us,” she said to Cherie. “My fiancé tells me you were working on some ideas. I doubt he was able to communicate what I want and will probably have to send you back to your drawing board.”
Cherie maintained her smile. “I do have some ideas for the Luxury Love theme. I would love to hear what you would like to see at your wedding.”
“More importantly, let’s talk venue. Evan said something about you checking to see what’s available. That doesn’t work for me. I’m not taking scraps.”
“Of course,” Cherie acquiesced. “I do have some ideas.”
“Let’s see,” Amber said.
“Can I pour you a glass of champagne?” I asked Cherie, irritated with Amber’s rudeness.
“Yes, please,” Cherie quickly answered. I poured her a glass while she pulled out her iPad. “The first idea we put together was an elegant, luxurious black and white theme with lots of diamond influences. Lots of white twinkle lights with crystals and—”
“No,” Amber cut her off. “That’s been done a million times.”
Cherie cleared her throat. “Okay, you’re right. We also put together an evening of understated luxury with tones of beige, champagne, and lots of gold accents.”
Amber groaned and looked at me. “Didn’t you tell her it was going to be on Valentine’s Day?”
“Yes,” I answered.
Amber turned her attention back to Cherie. “We hired you to put together a Valentine’s Day wedding. You’re giving me basic stuff. I don’t want basic. We’re not a basic couple. The them is Luxury Love on V-Day. Where’s the V-Day influence?”
Cherie remained calm. “Why don’t you give me some specifics and then we’ll see what we can put together? Are you wanting red tones?”
“Of course! It’s Valentine’s!”
Cherie smiled, picking up her stylus. “All right, red it is.”
“I want it to look like we are in our own kingdom. I’m thinking we can ride in on elephants and have subjects carry us down the aisle. I want lots of red and gold. We are building our kingdom and I want our guests to walk into that. I want belly dancers and crowns, thrones, temples. All of it.”
Cherie was staring at Amber, her mouth slightly agape. I felt the same way. “What?” I asked.
Amber scowled at me. “I told you our wedding had to be unique. It can’t be the boring same old thing everyone else does.”
“You want to ride in on an elephant?” Cherie asked.
“Yes. I want something big and majestic.”
“I’m not sure where we could find elephants. In Miami.”
Amber cocked one very plucked eyebrow. “We have money. We can find anything we want.”
“I’ll look into it,” Cherie answered.
“I want there to be several areas with different rooms depicting our kingdom,” Amber went on.
Cherie popped her head up. “Your kingdom?”
“Yes,” Amber answered. “The ceremony should be decked out in red and gold with lots of velvet and silks hanging.” She made odd gestures with her hands that did nothing to clarify her vision. “We’ll receive our guests and their gifts in another room while sitting on our thrones. Then, I want the reception to have a bit of a nightclub slash fairy forest look.”
I stared at Amber, wondering if she was joking. The way Cherie was looking at her told me she had the same thought. “You want three venues?” Cherie asked.
Amber rolled her eyes. “No. One place. We can’t shuffle our guests all over the place. Maybe we should rent an island.”
“You want to rent an island?” Cherie asked, almost shrieking.
Amber shrugged. “Well, I don’t know. You’re the wedding planner. I’m telling you what I want. I’m trying to help you figure out how to make that happen.”
Cherie pasted on a smile. I had to bite back my laugh. It was the same smile I had seen on her face before she ripped into a girl back in high school. The girl had been making fun of Cherie’s big boobs bouncing around while playing volleyball. Cherie had laid into the girl, cutting her to pieces with her ton
gue without ever laying a hand on her.
I had a feeling she was about to let Amber know exactly how she felt about the way she was speaking to her. Amber was being condescending and rude. Her treatment of Cherie was about the way someone would treat a stray dog begging for scraps.
“Amber, I think narrowing it down would be better,” I said, hoping to diffuse the situation.
Amber turned to look at me. “No. This is us. As if budget matters.”
“What you’re asking for is going to be extremely expensive, if it is even possible at all,” Cherie advised.
Amber turned to look at her with a smile on her face that reminded me of a pit viper. “Honey, when you have as much money as we do, anything is possible. I understand that is difficult for some people to understand, but we don’t have the typical confines of ordinary people. We can do anything we want, and no one is going to say a word about it.”
I cringed, unable to hide my disgust with the way Amber was behaving. Cherie looked at me and I could see her judgment of me based on my fiancée.
I didn’t like it.
Chapter 8
Cherie
I wanted to ask Evan what the hell was wrong with him, but I kept my cool. He had changed a lot more than I realized. He was an arrogant snob with a soon-to-be wife that was a rich bitch. I was glad I wasn’t on track to be Mrs. Billionaire. I never wanted to be like her. I would never talk to anyone like she was talking to me.
“It’s your money,” I finally said.
Amber smiled. “Yes, it is. Now, we are planning for two-hundred people, but I think that number will grow.” Her hand gripped the champagne flute, showing off the ring on her finger. The stone looked like the one that had been tossed into the ocean by the lady in Titanic. It had to have cost a small fortune.
“Grow?” I repeated, pulling myself back to the matter at hand. “We need to nail down a number in order to properly prepare seating and catering.”
Amber shrugged. “Plan for more. It’s not hard. If we only have two hundred show up, we’ll have extra seats.”
“Extra empty seats,” I pointed out.
“We’ll have the empty seats removed before the wedding. I don’t want my pictures to have empty seating.”
“Of course not,” I mumbled.
The wedding was definitely worse than the South Beach extravaganza. It was ridiculous and over the top. I guessed maybe if I had ten million to burn, I would ride in on an elephant. No. No, I wouldn’t because I was a rational person.
“Amber, I think we could skip the elephants,” Evan tried to reason. “I think I would prefer to walk. I don’t want to risk an elephant hurting one of our guests.”
Amber scowled at him. “They’re trained. There will be trainers on hand to manage them.”
“Don’t you think we could scale it back a little?” he asked.
Amber finished the glass of champagne before holding it out to him. He dutifully refilled it. After another drink, she looked at me and then back at him. “Evan, dear, our friends and the public are going to expect something over the top. The press is already trying to predict what we will do. We can’t let them down.”
Everything I remembered about Evan was different from the man I saw sitting across from me. He slowly nodded, giving Amber the go-ahead to carry on with her outrageous requests.
“I’ll check into the elephant thing. As far as venues, I might know of one place that is big enough to accommodate your requests. Although I’m not sure it would be available on that date.”
Amber laughed. “Tell them you’re working for us and I guarantee you it will be available. I’d like to have the beach close by. Not too close because I don’t want sand everywhere, but I want to hear the waves and I want to see the ocean.”
I smiled. “Of course.”
“Can you handle this?” Amber asked me directly.
It was my chance to get out of what I was comparing to a three-ring circus. It was going to be a nightmare job. Working with Evan wasn’t going to make it any better. I could feel Evan watching me, waiting for my response. “I can handle this. I will make sure to give you the wedding you’re looking for.”
Amber smiled. “Excellent.”
I was probably going to regret keeping the job, but I reminded myself that if I could pull it off, my life would change for the better. I could get through what I expected to be an experience that bordered right on the line between torture and abuse.
“Thank you,” Evan murmured.
“You’re welcome.”
“I saw a couple of people I know in the dining room,” Amber said, getting to her feet. “You two hash out the details while I go say hi.”
Evan stood, giving her a kiss on the cheek before she sashayed out of the room. He took his seat and looked at me. “I’m sorry.”
I shrugged. “Don’t be. She knows what she wants—mostly.”
He chuckled. “I had no idea she was thinking of putting on a circus.”
I laughed. “You’re only missing the ringleader. Actually, I guess that’s me. I will be the one leading your circus.”
He shook his head. “She likes big and showy.”
“I gathered that,” I replied. “I don’t think I can recall a wedding that included elephants. At least not in this century.”
“I’ll try and talk her down a bit. She can be very eccentric.”
I smiled, shrugging a shoulder. “Obviously, you knew that when you asked her to marry you.”
His face fell. “I did.”
“I hope you’re ready for a wild ride.”
He took a drink of his champagne. “Me too.”
“Do you know if she’s planning on a particular singer? I imagine with your connections and hers, you have friends in the industry.”
He slowly shook his head. “I don’t, but she probably wants Elvis resurrected or brought out of hiding, depending on what you believe.”
“And she’ll pay good money to make it happen,” I quipped before realizing that was rude. She was my client and so was he. “I’m sorry,” I quickly said. “I don’t mean to make fun.”
“No, by all means, laugh. That’s all anyone can do at this point. It’s crazy. I think instead of invitations, we should sell tickets to the show.”
“You might need to in order to cover the cost,” I joked.
He groaned. “No kidding.”
“I don’t want to be rude, but if you don’t mind, I think I’ll skip dinner. I’ve got a lot of work to do and I’m sure you and your fiancée would like some time alone.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know she was back. I was hoping it would be the two of us.”
His words were dangerous. They made me think things I had no business thinking. I got up from the table. He quickly followed suit.
“Thank you for the champagne,” I said, looking at the glass that was still full.
“I’ll walk you out.”
“You don’t have to,” I told him.
“I insist. Besides, she’ll be mingling in there all night.”
I looked around the private dining area. “Why do you hide in here?”
He shrugged. “I like my privacy.”
“I guess what they say about opposites attracting is true,” I said with a laugh.
“We’ll go out the back if you don’t mind,” he said, ignoring my statement. “I prefer to keep my presence unknown.”
“You don’t think she’ll tell people that you’re hiding in the back?” I asked.
He let out a sigh. “She might, but she knows better than to bring them in, and she knows I won’t go out. We have an agreement that the dog and pony show is restricted to a couple of times a month.”
I picked up an undercurrent of sadness in his voice. I wanted to ask him more about it but kept my mouth shut as he guided me through the kitchen and out the back door. “I’m parked right over there. You don’t have to walk me to my car.”
“Sure, I do,” he answered.
; Always the gentleman. I unlocked the doors with my key fob and turned to face him. “I’ll be in touch. Please tell Amber goodbye and assure her I will be working hard on her requests.”
He didn’t say anything. He simply looked into my eyes. I stared at him, the desire to kiss him or simply reach out and touch his cheek was very strong. I missed him. I missed everything about him. My body reacted to him like it reacted to no other man. My skin was tingly and flushed, like it remembered him—his touch.
“Cherie,” he breathed my name.
I could feel the tension between us and knew he was feeling it too. I couldn’t let anything happen. He was almost a married man. His fiancée was fifty feet away. “I should go,” I managed to get out the words.
It seemed to snap him back to reality. “Yes. I’ll wait for your call.”
I offered him a smile before getting in my car. I started the engine and watched him walk away. His hands were in his pants pockets as he moved with an easy way. It was the confident yet casual walk I remembered from our youth. He had the easy smile and the easy gait of a back-country boy. He turned to look back over his shoulder at me and caught me staring. I didn’t look away. His gaze held mine for several seconds before I pulled my eyes away from him and drove away.
I was playing with fire. I had thought the attraction to him would fade with time. It didn’t. It was still there, just as powerful as it had been fifteen years ago. It went beyond sexual desire. It was a craving deep in my soul. Only he could ever truly fulfill that craving. I hated that he was the only one that could ever truly satisfy me. All other men paled in comparison to him.
I smiled thinking about the way he could make me laugh without trying. He was charming and funny and fantastically gorgeous. He was the total package. When Tara said I needed a Frankenman, she was wrong. I had found the guy that checked all the boxes.
There was just one little problem—he was marrying someone else. He belonged to another. My chance to be with him was gone. I had to help him take the next big step in his life, even if it was another giant step away from me.
Heart Breaker Page 5