Against the Tide: High Seas Weddings

by Cheryl Phipps

  Keira shrugged. “I thought so too. I know it sounds bizarre, but it’s difficult not to let this job make you jaded. I confess to being a romantic at heart. I always want to believe in ‘the one’ and having a happy ever after. I adore it when the right people saying ‘I do’ stand at the altar, looking at each other in a certain way. The right way. And then you know what love is because it’s so clear to see. Unfortunately, that seems to be the exception and not the rule these days. Sometimes I think couples care more about how it looks than if it’s the real thing. I can’t imagine wanting to spend the amount it costs to get married on a ship like this and not being totally certain about the person you’ve chosen.”

  “Are you saying you don’t think a wedding on Majestic is worth it?”

  She grinned. “Sure it is. If you have the money in the first place. I think where you get married should be a bonus though, not done because the Joneses had the same thing and you want to do it one better.”

  “Sounds like you’re trying not to offend me.”

  “Well….” Her large blue eyes twinkled. Aiden was mesmerized by them—by her—for way more than a moment or two. Her cuteness was morphing into something far more dangerous to a man with a healthy libido. Which was very odd, considering he preferred leggy brunettes.

  Didn’t he?

  She pushed a lock of her fair hair over her shoulder and gave him a puzzled look, making him shake his head like a bear coming out of hibernation. He hadn’t been attracted to someone so instantly for a long time. Even then, not like this. It would break every rule of his to have a relationship with Keira, yet he was already wondering if maybe she’d be worth the trouble it would invariably cause.

  There had been other moments in his life where he’d taken any and all risks he could. Even welcomed them, as if he were hell-bent on self-destruction. Iraq had been the place to get it out of his system, and now he’d done a complete 360°. He wanted stability and assurance that what he had worked so hard for—his new life—would never be taken from him.

  Majestic was everything. She’d made him happier and more content than he’d ever been in the past and was the only female he intended to commit to.

  Yet she couldn’t take the place of a real, hot-blooded woman. A woman like the one in front of him.

  Chapter Three

  Keira’s face flamed at the way Aiden was looking at her. Those dark and brooding eyes of his heated her very core. She’d bet that whatever he was thinking wasn’t too far from the fantasies pushing at her self-control. It was as scary as it was enticing, this connection that seemed to resonate in both of them.

  With a jerk, she pulled her eyes from his, jumped up from the chair, and marched over to the open door. From up there, Keira could see the hustle and bustle of the people trying to do things the way the planner’s bellowed orders dictated, but she was still creating confusion with her contradictory instructions. The setup, which had been halfway to completion, was now a nightmare situation.

  If they managed to finish on time, and Marilyn treated the wedding party in the same vein as she did the staff, how on earth would the day be enjoyable for anyone?

  It was like watching a car crash, and before she realized what she was doing, Keira began to edge down the stairs.

  “Here comes the bride,” Aiden announced from behind her.

  A middle-aged couple, with four younger women in tow, walked sedately up the gangway and headed over to the planner. They waited patiently while Marilyn ignored them. The man coughed loudly, giving the planner no choice but to acknowledge them. Even then, Keira could hear how polite they were—until Marilyn shot them down in flames.

  “How’s it all going, Marilyn?” the man asked.

  He may have been polite, but his face had darkened with each drawn-out minute as he’d waited for her attention. Keira didn’t blame him one bit for being annoyed.

  “I told you this arch doesn’t work. The flowers are ridiculously bright, and the arch is too small. We should get rid of them and have an open space here,” Marilyn said in a superior tone.

  “Tiffany loves the arch, and she chose the flowers, so we’ll keep them, if you don’t mind.”

  His voice was colder than an icebox, but Marilyn was impervious to it.

  “I do mind, but if you don’t care how it looks, then that’s your choice. I’ve decided to rearrange the seating. A half-moon is so old-fashioned.”

  “Tiffany wants everyone to feel included. That’s why she chose it,” he said through gritted teeth.

  The planner huffed for a bit. “Well Tiffany won’t care about the guests when she’s in the midst of getting married.”

  Keira was angry on poor Tiffany’s behalf. The girl in question was wringing her hands and whispering to her mother, who was glaring at the planner.

  Nothing made sense to Keira. A wedding should never be about the planner—that was the first rule of Weddings 101. Sometimes the couple and their parents made rash decisions and it was the planner’s job to point out the pitfalls, but ultimately if it could work, then whatever the customer wanted, they got. Providing they could afford it, of course.

  Keira looked around the ship. Anyone having a wedding there could surely afford what they desired. How did Marilyn not get that?

  “Sounds like the parents of the bride are having a rough time. I might go down and make sure the staff is okay while she has the family in a clinch.” Aiden moved past her and began to descend the next set of stairs.

  “Can I come?” Her voice squeaked a little. Not from her boldness, but from his cologne. It was masculine and woodsy with notes of citrus, and she’d resisted the urge to sniff him when he was inches from her.

  Aiden turned and shook his head. “It’s not really appropriate.”

  Then he flinched as Marilyn began yelling once more. That time it was about seating in the dining room.

  “But I don’t think anyone will object. Just keep out of that she-wolf’s way.”

  Keira followed him around the other side of the ship where the seats were half in and half out of a pattern. It appeared that nothing much had been achieved in the last hour and that they were actually going backward with the preparation.

  “Aiden, what time is this wedding supposed to kick off?” she asked.

  “Sixteen hundred hours.”

  “Pardon?”

  He grinned. “That’s four o’clock.”

  Keira glanced at her watch. “In two hours? You have to be kidding me.”

  “They’re pushing it, right?”

  “They’ll be lucky to have anything other than the arch set up at this rate.”

  He frowned. “Any suggestions? If the day’s a fail, then that’s going to reflect badly on my business.”

  “The planner needs to stop harassing the parents and get her focus back on the wedding as it was planned, probably months ago. I can’t understand what her problem is.”

  “She’s been a planner at two weddings here over the last few months, and it’s always a fight, but it’s never been this off schedule. She seems to be wackier and meaner this time.”

  Just then, the parents and the bride came around the corner and stopped in front of them.

  “We’re not happy with how the boat’s been set up,” the mother blurted at Aiden, who flinched only slightly.

  “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Grant, Tiffany. What can I do to help?” he asked.

  “This is farcical. What was wrong with the plan we had in place? If she had a problem with it, then she should’ve said something before the day, don’t you think?” Mr. Grant was angry, while his wife was red-faced and on the verge of tears.

  “Ray and… Dawn, isn’t it?”

  The man nodded, clearly impressed the captain remembered him, and his anger eased slightly. He grasped Aiden’s outstretched hand like a lifeline.

  “Yes, Captain. We met you with our daughter, Tiffany, her fiancé, James, and the groom’s parents a few months back.”

  Aiden turned to Tiffany. “A
ccording to the weather forecast, it’s going to be perfect for your wedding cruise. I wish you and your fiancé every happiness.”

  The bride looked hopefully from Aiden and her parents to the wedding planner. Marilyn, who had stayed several feet back, pretending not to hear, came forward at that point, tapping her clipboard with red nails resembling talons dripping blood.

  “Can we please get on with things? Time is running away, and we have a lot to do.”

  Aiden stood between Marilyn and the family. “Yes, there is. I imagine you have a list, which will help speed things along to give the couple the wedding they asked for?”

  Keira had never seen hackles rise on a person, but if they could, she’d bet it was just how Marilyn looked as she discounted Aiden’s advice. If the scene hadn’t been so tragic, Keira might have laughed as she remembered Aiden calling Marilyn a she-wolf.

  “Don’t tell me how to do my job,” she said, cutting Aiden off from any further comment. In the next breath, she turned to scream at a couple of men who were putting vases of flowers along a carpet leading up to the arch. “They don’t go like that. How many times do I have to tell you? They go like this.”

  The next moment played out in slow motion. Marilyn snatched at a vase that was clearly heavier than she’d expected. It pulled her off balance, making her trip over a stack of chairs. Before anyone could assist, she bounced off them to fly over a planter, landing with a crash on the arch. That, in turn, fell against the wall of the dining room, and Marilyn followed suit. Finally her head cracked against the glass, whereby she slid into a very inelegant heap.

  Chapter Four

  The parents, Keira, and a few of the workers who were closest rushed to Marilyn’s side. The others milled around muttering about what they should do, but thankfully kept out of the way.

  Keira, a certified first aider, checked Marilyn’s pulse and the wound on her head simultaneously. The woman was unconscious, which was just as well as she was going to be in a lot of pain when she came around, judging by the angle of her arm and leg still tangled in the arch.

  “Let’s be careful not to move her too much. Can we get something to put around her neck to keep it in place? Maybe a towel? And where’s the first aid kit so I can clean this wound? Could you and someone else carefully get the arch off her, Mr. Grant?”

  The bride’s father didn’t hesitate. As they straightened her limbs, Marilyn groaned, her eyelids fluttered once, twice, she screamed, and then was out cold again.

  Keira felt along the already swollen arm and leg as gently as she could. “Looks like a broken wrist and maybe a fracture in her leg. This ankle’s sprained or broken too. She needs an ambulance.”

  “I’ll get on it.” Aiden put a first aid kit beside her.

  He must have gone to fetch it while she was in damage control mode. He was already calling the ambulance, and she heard him repeat her assessment while she opened the kit and began working through the woman’s hair to staunch the wound, which was dripping blood down Marilyn’s face and around the collar of her jacket. The cut was a few inches from her forehead, and while not especially big or deep, it was bleeding profusely, as head wounds often did.

  Keira cleaned the area the best she could, then applied a dressing that would put pressure on it yet be easy to remove when the paramedic arrived.

  Behind her, a woman was crying. She looked over her shoulder at the bride’s mother. Understandably, this put a damper on the day. Anyone would be upset to witness such a thing, but at your daughter’s wedding, it really took the cake.

  Keira snorted, then coughed to cover her amusement. She’d heard that medical emergencies could make a person have inappropriate thoughts, and she was living proof.

  “She’ll be okay. The medics will know what to do,” Keira said soothingly, as much to herself as to the crowd around her.

  “It’s horrible, of course, but what’s going to happen now?” Mrs. Grant sniffed.

  “The ambulance will take her to the hospital. I’m no doctor, but it looks like she’ll need a couple of casts. I’m sure she’ll have X-rays, and they’ll no doubt keep her for observation in case she has a concussion.”

  The woman began to wail, and Keira was confused. It hadn’t appeared to her that Mrs. Grant had cared overly much for Marilyn or vice versa.

  “I’m afraid my wife is more concerned about our daughter’s wedding.” Mr. Grant, with one arm around his wife and the other around his daughter, looked lost, and on the verge of joining the women in a good cry.

  “Oh, right.” Keira couldn’t believe she’d missed the obvious.

  She surveyed the mess around her. Time was ticking away, and with Marilyn definitely out of action, the staff was watching instead of continuing to work. It was clear there would be no wedding there today.

  The bridesmaids joined the mother and daughter duo, and the crying continued in earnest. Keira felt so sorry for them. The day should have been filled with happiness, and even though a desire for the perfect wedding could get hung up on the smallest of errors, this didn’t qualify as small. Nope, this would be classified as a monumental mess.

  Over the noise, a siren could be heard in the distance, and it wasn’t long before Aiden, who’d gone down the ramp, returned with two medics who hurriedly joined the group. Everyone else backed away to give them room while Keira reeled off her observations once again.

  “You’ve done a great job, and good thinking with supporting her neck,” one of the medics, a kind-faced man, praised her while the other tried to revive Marilyn with smelling salts.

  Eventually, she opened her eyes. “What happened? Who the hell are you?”

  Still mean, but with a quiver to her voice, Marilyn tried to sit up and groaned. The medic put on a professional, no-nonsense tone and explained what was wrong as they immobilized her limbs with splints. His diagnosis was an almost verbatim match to Keira’s, which made her feel a little proud.

  “I’m going to sue you for this, Aiden Williams,” Marilyn hissed through gritted teeth, even though he was assisting the medics in loading her onto a stretcher.

  Aiden waved over a couple of the staff to help the medics to the ambulance. “Feel better soon,” he called after her, with just a hint of sarcasm.

  In spite of the terrible thing they’d all witnessed, it made Keira’s mouth twitch. She’d never wish harm on anyone, but that woman had been promised a date with karma, and it had come.

  “Captain, what do we do now?” Mr. Grant looked beaten.

  “Do you have the number of Marilyn’s company? If not, I can locate it for you. They might have someone who could help.”

  Mr. Grant looked a little shame-faced. “I’ve already tried them, and there’s no answer. We’re running out of time. People will be arriving in just over an hour.”

  Aiden gave him a sympathetic glance before his eyes collided with Keira’s and he hit her with a grin. Bam! That time, she got both dimples.

  “In that case, why don’t you ask Keira to help? Miraculously she’s on board to organize another wedding, and she’s a wonderful planner. In fact, you couldn’t be in safer hands.”

  Keira was stunned. He was talking as if he knew her when they’d only just met. He had no idea, apart from what she’d told him, if she was any good or not. Besides, this wedding would take a miracle to fix in the time they had. She couldn’t figure out if he was attempting to help her career or sabotaging it. Although, he did have his own reputation to think of, so maybe it was that simple.

  In the time it had taken her to digest that, the parents and bride had been completely sold on it and had surrounded her.

  “This is fantastic news. We had no idea you were a planner. We thought you were just a staff member. You’ll help us, won’t you?” Mrs. Grant pleaded as she grasped Keira’s arm firmly.

  Keira felt trapped and tried to disengage herself. “I’m not sure I can jump into a wedding I never planned and make it work in such a tight time frame.”

  Mrs. Grant handed
her Marilyn’s clipboard. “At this point, we’ll settle for it not being a fiasco. Please do this. As my husband said, we have people coming from out of town, and it would be a nightmare to reschedule. We’ll be happy to pay you the fee we were paying that dreadful woman.”

  Keira had no idea what that might be, but they had to know it wasn’t as easy as it sounded. “You’ll probably still have to pay her some—if not all—of her fee. This was an accident, after all.”

  Mr. Grant gave her a dashing smile. “I’m a lawyer, and I’m not convinced that I would.” His wife glared at him, but he ignored her. “Anyway, don’t worry about the money. Just say you’ll do it and the fee is yours.”

  Keira looked around her—for what, she didn’t know. An escape route? Some of the group wore hopeful expressions, while others were still fearful, and added to the mix, Aiden’s encouraging smile put her into a spin. If she pulled this off, a recommendation from Mr. Grant would undoubtedly help her career. If she didn’t, she could hardly be held accountable.

  Except she would be—to herself. She’d never had a bad wedding. Even when the you-know-what hit the fan, she had managed to fix things behind the scenes. There was no denying she was good at this business but the question had to be asked: was she good enough to make it happen, or good enough to make it wonderful? The first didn’t appeal, and the second seemed impossible.

  In the end, she couldn’t bear the look on the bride’s face and knew she would give it her best shot.

  Mother and daughter, taking her silence for consent, jumped up and down with the bridesmaids, then hugged it out in open relief, while the father furiously wrote a check.

  Do people really still carry those around with them?

  He handed it to her with a flourish, and Keira gasped at the obscene amount. She desperately needed money, but she’d never expected to earn that much over a handful of weddings, let alone just one. Marilyn is one wealthy planner if she gets this for every wedding. Keira wasn’t cheap, but neither was she greedy. Obviously the family could afford to pay, but that wasn’t the point.