All Tied Up (Business of Love Book 2)

by Ali Parker

  “Sounds delightful.”

  I settled on a fancy coffee and made myself comfortable in the deep cushioned chair. “It was. How about you? How was Chessie’s Christmas?”

  Rick stroked his jaw. His beard was a lot darker and fuller than I’d ever seen it. He looked like a lumberjack poured into a ten-thousand-dollar, perfectly tailored suit. I hadn’t realized that was a thing for me.

  Apparently, it was. My lady bits were tingling at the sight of him. Down girl.

  “Chessie had a great Christmas,” Rick said. “Lots of laughs and fun and quality time at home.”

  “That’s what it’s all about.”

  How could they have quality time at home with a dark force like Verity hanging around all the time? I truly wondered what she was like behind closed doors with her soon-to-be-official family. Was she sweet as sugar?

  Doubtful.

  Rick tugged at the collar of his shirt and cleared his throat. “I think I owe you another apology.”

  I felt one of my eyebrows rise. “Oh?”

  Rick was about to explain when we were interrupted by a young woman in a burgundy apron. She smelled like cotton-candy body spray, probably a Christmas gift from a boyfriend or something. I remembered being eighteen and obsessed with smelling like food. Now I preferred more sophisticated scents, like soft florals.

  We put in an order for our coffees and then I gave Rick my full attention. “What were you going to say?”

  He licked his lips and I tried not to stare. His lower lip was much fuller than the top and his beard only made his mouth more distracting. “Verity and I had an argument on Christmas night. A lot of things were said and it came to my attention that she had called you earlier in the evening to ask you about non-wedding-related things. I’m sorry. That was incredibly insensitive of her.”

  “Rick.” I tried to think of the right thing to say. I wasn’t a relationship counselor. In fact, I didn’t like talking about the personal lives of my clients. It was a fine line that was easy to cross, and once that happened, there was no going back. “I appreciate the apology but it means nothing coming from you. Verity crossed a boundary. Not you. It will not affect my ability to do my job, regardless of whether I get an apology from her or not.”

  He pinched the bridge of his nose and nodded. “It bothers me.”

  I gave him a sympathetic smile. He was a kinder person than her—by far. “Forget about it. You have enough on your plate. I’m more than used to dealing with particular clients. I can handle Verity. I promise.”

  “Sometimes, I wonder if I can.”

  I blinked. What did that mean?

  Rick shook his head dismissively. “Forget I said that.”

  How could I forget that? I’d been pining over this man for over a year and then he goes and says something like that when his guard is down?

  “Bad fight, huh?” I prompted.

  “It certainly left a bad taste in my mouth.”

  Our server returned with our coffees and set them down on the table. I picked mine up and sipped caramel-flavored foam off the top. It clung to my upper lip and I caught Rick staring before I hurried to lick it away.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” I asked.

  “I don’t really feel like getting into it.”

  “Are there wedding-related things you’d like to discuss instead?”

  He shook his head.

  So he’d invited me out for coffee just to apologize on Verity’s behalf? That didn’t add up. In my mind, the truth was obvious. He did want to talk. Maybe he just wasn’t sure where to start.

  “You know,” I started carefully, “it’s perfectly normal for couples to experience strain when they’re only a month out from the wedding. Christmas only adds stress on top of that and destination weddings certainly don’t make it any easier. Maybe you and Verity just need to have a follow-up conversation to make sure you’re both on the same page so you can enjoy the last month of being an engaged couple before you take the next step and say ‘I do.’”

  “That’s the problem,” he said, not meeting my eye.

  “What is?”

  His gaze flicked to me. “I’m starting to wonder if that’s even what I want.”

  My eyes widened with surprise. I tried to pull it together and not let my shock show, but apparently, I was doing a terrible job because Rick started chuckling.

  “I know,” he said. “It’s a lot. I just… I don’t know what to do. The fight wasn’t pretty. I haven’t seen that side of her before and I’m starting to wonder if it’s because I didn’t want to see it.”

  I swallowed. Shit’s getting real. “Are you in love with her, Rick?”

  That was the most straightforward question to ask a bride or groom. If the answer was no, then the solution was simple. Walk away. If it was yes, you proceeded forward with more questions. More pros and cons.

  He stared into the depths of his coffee. “I don’t know.”

  I certainly hadn’t expected this turn of events when I returned to work this morning. This was what I’d been hoping for over the course of the previous year and now that it was finally happening, I couldn’t help but feel skeptical. Most likely, this was just a case of cold feet and he’d be over it in a couple of days. He’d get sucked back in by her banging body and beautiful smile and wonder why he ever doubted marrying her in the first place.

  Or…

  I gave my head a shake. I should not be wishing for my clients’ wedding to fall apart. That was bad karma waiting to happen.

  I shifted in my seat and leaned forward to rest my elbows on my knees. “This isn’t my area of expertise, but could I give you some advice?”

  Rick nodded.

  I smiled reassuringly. “I can’t tell you what to do here. But I can tell you that it’s never too late to change your mind. If you think this is a bad idea and you want to change course, then you should. And this is coming from your wedding planner who stands to lose a lot of money if this wedding doesn’t happen. This advice comes at the expense of my own interests.”

  He gave me a lopsided grin. “I guess I’d have to make it up to you in wine.”

  “I accept yachts as well.”

  His laughter caught me off guard. He slapped his knee and threw his head back and I found myself thinking that in the course of this entire year I’d never seen Verity make him laugh like that.

  Chapter 13

  Rick

  I looked up from my watch when the curtain of the change room flew open and Chessie stepped out wearing a blush-colored dress with a silk sash around her waist and a matching flower in her hair. She was grinning from ear to ear as she shuffled across the boutique floor to stand in front of the mirror and check out her reflection.

  I stepped up behind her and crouched down. “What do you think about this one?”

  She swayed from side to side and played with the ends of the full skirt. “It’s pretty.”

  “Pretty, as in you love it and you don’t want to take it off, or pretty, as in just pretty?”

  She cocked her head to the side. “Just pretty.”

  I pointed toward the change room. “Next!”

  Chessie giggled and hurried back into the fitting room where the shop attendant, a middle-aged woman with short frizzy hair and blue-framed glasses, was waiting for her. They closed the curtain and began the process of changing into the next dress.

  When she emerged once more, she had an even bigger smile on her face. The new dress was still the blush-pink color—a mandatory requirement set by Verity—but it was much more Chessie’s style due to every inch of it being covered in glitter.

  She spun in a circle and the skirt fanned out and sparkled radiantly in the shop lighting. “I love this one, Daddy!”

  I chuckled. “Of course, you do.”

  The boutique employee with the blue glasses came out of the fitting room and clasped her hands together. “Would you like to see it with a little bouquet? We have sample ones for flower girls.”

>   Chessie shook her head. “No thank you. I’m not a flower girl.”

  “Oh?” the shop owner asked with a smile. “Are you one of the bridesmaids then?”

  “Nope,” Chessie said.

  With a frown, the employee looked to me.

  I rubbed the back of my neck. “She’s my best girl.”

  “Best girl?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “In place of a best man.”

  “Wow,” the employee said, nodding and looking kind of impressed. “That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that. Are you a daddy’s girl?”

  Chessie giggled. “Maybe.”

  The employee looked back and forth between me and my daughter. “Well, the best man—or best girl, should I say—has a very important job. You have to hold the rings and keep them safe during the ceremony.”

  “I know.” Chessie nodded.

  “How about we see if we can have a pocket sewn into this dress for you to keep the rings in?”

  I nodded at the employee. “That is a brilliant idea. What do you think, Chess?”

  She clapped her hands together excitedly. “I love pockets!”

  “Don’t get too used to them,” the employee muttered. Then she told me to take our time and that she would meet us at the sales counter when we were ready.

  I stole a moment alone in front of the mirror with Chessie. “You’re sure this is the one you like? Once we buy it, we can’t change our minds.”

  She admired her reflection. Her eyes glittered as brilliantly as the dress itself and she couldn’t stop looking at herself in the mirror. I knew before she said it that this was the right dress.

  “This is the one I want, Daddy.”

  “Then it’s the one you will have.” I patted her back. “Go on back in and get changed. We’ll stop and grab a bite to eat before we head home.”

  “Carbs?” she asked excitedly.

  I laughed. “So long as you don’t tell Verity.”

  “Cross my heart!” she cried before shooting back into the change room to take the dress off. She had to call me in to help her with the zipper, and while she got back into her normal clothes, I paid for the dress at the counter and the little flower clip for her hair that she liked so much.

  “It’s rare to see fathers out with their daughters for things like this,” the employee told me. She smiled as Chessie came out of the fitting room with a huge grin on her face. “It’s really nice to see.”

  “She has me wrapped around her little finger and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I admitted.

  Chessie and I stopped for her favorite treat on our way home: cinnamon buns. We ate in the car with the heater on and the radio playing and she told me all about how excited she was to wear her dress and her new sparkly shoes.

  “I hope Verity likes my dress,” she said as she finished her cinnamon bun.

  “Why wouldn’t she like it?”

  Chessie shrugged.

  “Kiddo, if you like it, Verity will like it. I promise.”

  “I guess.”

  “You don’t believe me?”

  She chewed the inside of her cheek and looked out the window. She was too short to ride in the front seat with me but she liked sitting up here when we weren’t moving. She could see a lot more than when she was in the back seat. “I just don’t want to spoil the wedding.”

  “Chess,” I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “What are you talking about? You won’t ruin the wedding! You couldn’t if you tried. Hey, look at me.” I smiled at my daughter when she finally met my gaze. “You have to stop thinking about this as just Verity’s wedding. It’s my wedding too. And yours. We’re all marrying each other to become a family and you deserve to feel beautiful and wear whatever you want on the big day. Do you understand?”

  She nodded. “Yes, Daddy.”

  “You promise?”

  A little grin tugged at the corners of her lips. “I promise.”

  I held the front door open and Chessie ran inside ahead of me. She kicked off her shoes and hollered, “We’re home!”

  Chuckling, I closed and locked the door behind us.

  Verity emerged at the top of the stairs. She had her cell phone pressed to her ear and she told the person on the line to hold on before she waved at Chessie. “How was dress shopping?”

  Chessie jumped excitedly up and down. “So much fun! We found the perfect dress. It’s the blush pink you wanted and sparkly and so pretty and I can’t wait to wear it and—”

  “That’s good, sweetheart,” Verity said. “You can tell me all about it as soon as I’m off the phone, okay?”

  Chessie nodded and then spun to me. “I’m going to play in my room.”

  “All right,” I said. “I’ll let you know when dinner is close.”

  Chessie was already racing up the stairs as fast as her little legs could take her. She shot past Verity, who giggled softly and blew me a kiss.

  “I’ll be down in a minute, baby,” she called. “Just finishing up a call with Kim.”

  Kim. What were they talking about? God. Why do I feel like this every time I hear Kim’s name?

  It was like someone had wrapped my intestines around a brick and threw them off a rooftop.

  I watched Verity disappear back into her upstairs office and her voice carried down the stairs as she spoke with Kim. Her tone immediately shifted from friendly to business and I could hear her irritation with Kim.

  Were they actually discussing wedding details? Or was this more of Verity being petty?

  I tried to distract myself and mind my own business by going into the dining room and pouring myself a glass of whiskey on the rocks. I took a sip just as the decibels of Verity’s voice increased.

  “No, it’s your job to listen to me,” she was saying. “When you’re spending the kind of money Rick and I are, anything can be changed. I’m aware the wedding is only in three weeks but I know what I’m talking about, okay?”

  I grimaced. Here we go again.

  There was a big part of me that just wanted this wedding over and done with. Verity could relax and stop being so on edge about making sure everything was perfect. I could go back to work full time. Chessie could stop worrying about pleasing Verity.

  Normalcy sounded like such a relief.

  I began making my way up the stairs as Verity grew more and more frustrated with Kim.

  “Listen,” she hissed into the line when I reached the top of the stairs. “I don’t care how much more it costs. I don’t care how many more people you have to hire. Just make it happen.”

  I knocked on the doorframe of her office and braced myself against it. “Everything okay?”

  Verity held up her hand to silence me as she listened to Kim. I could hear Kim’s calm and collected tone through the line but I couldn’t hear what words she was saying. Whatever they were, Verity didn’t like them because she rolled her eyes, let out a frustrated growl, and then marched toward me to slap her phone into my hand.

  “You deal with her,” she said shortly. “I’m going to make myself a drink.”

  Verity stormed off down the stairs. Her heels hit each step with force and I could hear her muttering under her breath to herself as I lifted the phone to my ear.

  “What did you do?” I asked, moving down the hall to the master bedroom where I knew I’d be out of Verity’s ear reach. “Did you tell her she was acting like a brat?”

  Kim’s rich laughter filled the line and I smiled. “Oh yeah, like I’d do something like that. No, I just explained that any changes we make now will be final because tomorrow is the deadline for all your vendors to lock in orders. And I can’t help but worry about such last-minute changes, is all.”

  “What does she want to change?”

  “Linens and drapings. That sort of thing. I can get it done but I was just advising her to consider if this was the right move. Panic decisions so close to the big day like this rarely ever work out the way the bride wants them to. She’s had a vision in her head for such a lon
g time and now she wants to mess with it. It just smells like trouble to me.”

  “You’re the expert. Sounds like good advice from where I’m standing.”

  Kim sighed. “Yeah. Unfortunately, good advice tends to go in one ear and out the other when it comes to stressed-out brides.”

  “Anything I could do?”

  “A foot massage would be lovely.”

  I laughed. “I hardly think that’s appropriate.”

  “For Verity,” Kim clarified. “What sort of home wrecker do you take me for?”

  “I take it back.” I chuckled.

  “You’d better. I have to go, Rick. I want to put in Verity’s requests before the end of the workday today so the vendors have time to process everything tomorrow. Just do me a favor and really make sure she’s clear on what I’m saying. No more changes after tomorrow. That’s final and it will be out of my hands.”

  “Got it. Loud and clear.”

  Chapter 14

  Kimberly

  At the end of the day on January tenth, I was ready for a stiff drink and the company of a good friend.

  So when Jackson walked into the bar in his leather jacket and jeans and a stupid grin, I was elated.

  He met me on the dance floor for a big hug and we made our way to the bar and took our seats. We ordered two beers and angled our stools to face each other.

  “Haven’t seen you in a hot minute,” Jackson said before taking a long sip of beer.

  “Since the reunion probably,” I said.

  “Damn. We need to be better at this.”

  “Tell me about it. I’m starting to think you hardly know me at all.”

  Jackson looked offended. “What?”

  I eyed him suspiciously. “Are you seriously going to play dumb right now?”

  “I’m not playing. I am dumb. You know this about me. Spit it out already. What have I done this time?”

  I rolled my eyes at him. “You have successfully set me up on five back to back blind dates that were absolutely appalling.”