Only You

by Denise Grover Swank

  “Some of it was already done.”

  “Which part?”

  “The couple had set the date.”

  Her carefully groomed eyebrows lifted. “And that’s it?”

  Holly pressed her lips together, then said reluctantly, “Yes.”

  “Do you have more photos?” Coraline asked, now interested. “A portfolio?”

  She had one online, which was how she had acquired some of her wedding clients since she’d begun working for Nicole, and she handed Coraline her tablet so she could view the photos. “Nicole really is amazing. Her events have been featured in both HERLIFE and 435 magazine.”

  “How many weddings has she done?” Coraline asked, sliding her finger across the screen as she whizzed through the photos. Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe she hated what she saw.

  “Distinctive Events has only been open since last November, so we’ve only seen a few weddings to completion at this point, although we have over a dozen in progress.”

  “We?” Coraline asked, lifting her gaze to Holly’s. “You share the work equally?”

  “Well, no.”

  “How many weddings are you overseeing and how many is Nicole?”

  Holly clasped her hands in front of her, trying to keep from fidgeting. “I’m overseeing them all, but Nicole—”

  Coraline turned to her mother. “I want her.” She pointed her finger at Holly.

  Miranda sighed, but she cast Holly a curious glance. “Coraline, darling. We’re here to see Nicole.”

  Coraline tapped her three-inch-heeled wedged sandal. “Well, Nicole’s not here, is she?” she asked in a snotty tone.

  “She’ll be back any moment, I promise,” Holly said, taking a step forward. She had to turn this around quickly or Nicole was going to kill her. “Why don’t I pour you a cup of coffee while you wait?”

  “That’s a good idea,” Miranda said, grabbing the silver pot and pouring it into a cup. “And while we wait, tell us how you reserved the Powell Gardens chapel in less than two weeks. They are notorious for being booked out months in advance.”

  “Uh…a lucky fluke.” Holly’s pulse picked up. They weren’t going to let this go. “And I had a friend who knows the director of the gardens.”

  “How did you deal with shuttling the guests from the parking lot to the chapel?”

  Oh, shit. “Horse-drawn sleigh.”

  Coraline’s eyes widened. “What?”

  Holly waved a hand as she released a nervous chuckle. “I had a friend who brought his horses. The gardens couldn’t guarantee that they’d have the path clear, especially since it was still snowing, so I got permission for Dillon to bring his horses and sleigh.” Holly had simplified the process and had glossed over the multiple phone calls and pleading required to make it happen.

  “Did the sleigh have bells?” Coraline asked.

  Holly fought the urge to cringe. “Yes, but you said the wedding is in a month, correct? You couldn’t have anything like that, of course, and, given the fact that we don’t typically have snowfall here in the Kansas City area, we could never plan on something like that. The entire wedding was kismet.”

  Miranda turned to her, resting her hand on her knees. “Do you have photos of your other weddings?”

  “Yes, but—”

  Coraline handed the tablet to her mother. “They’re just as good.”

  Miranda took her time scrolling through the album.

  “Nicole would love to plan your wedding. In fact, I think she already has some ideas.”

  Coraline tilted her head. “What are they?”

  “I…uh…I’m not sure.”

  “What would you do?”

  Holly’s tongue lay at the bottom of her mouth.

  Coraline’s eyes narrowed. “If you don’t start talking, we’ll walk out the door. We have an appointment at eleven thirty with Tender Moments, and they are taking us to lunch at the Plaza.”

  Miranda’s silence confirmed everything her daughter said.

  Shit, shit, shit. Holly had two options: try to keep them here and possibly accidentally steal Nicole’s client, or let them walk and lose them for certain. Which was bound to piss her boss off less?

  She took a deep breath and grabbed her notebook and a pen, then perched on the edge of her desk. “I’m presuming you have the venue booked.”

  A triumphant smile spread across Coraline’s face. “Yes, Stonehaus Vineyard in Lee’s Summit.”

  “An outdoor wedding?” Holly asked in surprise. “In July?”

  Coraline gave her a challenging look.

  Holly wanted to tell her good luck with the ninety-degree heat and melting guests and push her out the door, but she also wanted to keep her job, which was in peril whichever path she took.

  Where in God’s name was Nicole?

  “And the reception?”

  “The same place. Outdoors.”

  Well, double shit.

  “It’s an early-evening wedding,” Miranda added. “Five o’clock.”

  Holly forced a smile. “Well, that helps with the heat a bit, doesn’t it? How many guests?”

  “Three hundred.”

  She wrote the information they’d given her in her notebook, trying to stall. “Do you have anything else planned?”

  “I have my dress,” Coraline said.

  “And the bridesmaids?”

  “I’ve changed my mind about theirs.”

  The blood in Holly’s veins turned to ice.

  “I see.” And she did. All too well. Coraline was a spoiled brat who changed her mind at the drop of a dime. “How many wedding planners have you worked with?”

  Coraline looked taken back by the question, but Holly gave her a direct gaze.

  “Four,” Miranda finally said. “We just fired the last one this weekend.”

  “And may I ask why?”

  “Difference of opinion.”

  What was Nicole thinking? This was a train wreck. It was just a matter of when the cars would all pile up over the course of the next month, not if.

  “I’ll be honest,” Holly pushed out, sure that she was going to be writing her letter of resignation when Nicole finally returned. “I’m not sure I’m the planner for you.”

  Both women’s eyes grew wide.

  “My goal is to make sure that my brides have the best possible experience. I want them to have the most perfect wedding, no matter what their budget. So I need my brides to trust me, and, in turn, I need to trust them.”

  Coraline’s nostrils flared. “Are you saying you don’t trust me?”

  “No, I’m saying that you have to be certain you want to work with me, then you need to trust my judgment. You’ve seen my photos and you’re still here, so you liked what you saw, but I’ll be honest, planning a wedding of the quality you’re sure to be looking for with three hundred guests in less than a month is next to impossible.”

  “But there’s a chance you can do it?”

  “You have absolutely nothing else arranged?” Holly asked, trying to hide her dismay.

  “We have a photographer,” Miranda said, watching Holly intently. “Coraline fired the rest.”

  “See, here’s the thing,” Holly said, moving closer to her. “If you work with me, you can’t keep firing people. I will bring on the people I think will work best given what you want and the difficult time constraints.”

  “You’re wanting me to give you full control of my wedding?” Coraline asked in a condescending tone. “Are you insane?”

  “Probably, but that’s exactly what I’m saying. I’ll sit down with you and find out the tone and feel you’re looking for. I’ll show you what I have planned, and if you accept, I’ll give you the wedding of your dreams. But it all boils down to trusting me.”

  In truth, Holly couldn’t see Coraline trusting anyone. Which meant this was a lost opportunity, but she could live with that. She wasn’t going to grovel at this spoiled brat’s feet. Even if she lost her job over it. She was certain she could get ba
ck her position as an assistant manager at the Marriott. Then if she got a second job, she might still be able to pay for her grandmother’s private room. She’d be exhausted, but it wasn’t like she had much of a social life anyway.

  “I think I’ve heard enough,” Coraline said, lifting her chin. “I knew this hole in the wall would be a waste of time.”

  Holly had to make some attempt to salvage this. “As I said before, Nicole already has some ideas in mind. If you’ll wait for her to get here, she would love to share them with you. I’m sure you’ll find her more…acquiescing than I am.”

  Miranda’s eyes narrowed.

  “No, I’ve heard enough. Come, Mother.” Coraline spun as though she were on a fashion-show runway and strutted toward the door.

  Miranda stood and gave Holly one last look. “It was lovely to meet you, Holly. Do you have a card?”

  “Yes.” Holly tried to hide her surprise at the request. Coraline had made her intentions clear. Nevertheless, she grabbed a card off her desk and handed it to her. “I wish you the best of luck with your search.”

  The older woman grimaced. “Thank you. I think we’ll need it.”

  Holly watched the two women walk out, Nicole walking in seconds later. She stood in the open doorway, looking out into the parking lot.

  “Was that Miranda Johansen and her daughter?”

  Holly’s back tensed. “Yes.”

  “And they left?”

  “I tried to keep them here.”

  Nicole looked torn between coming into the office or chasing them down. Propriety won out and she shut the door behind her. “What happened?”

  Holly sat in her office chair and took a deep breath. “Coraline saw the photo of the Ginsburg–Huffman wedding on the wall. She wanted to see what else we had done, so I gave her the tablet and showed her the photo gallery.”

  “She didn’t like what she saw?”

  “Oh, she liked it too well. I told her that you had come up with some lovely ideas, and if they would only wait, you would share them.”

  Nicole bristled. “How did you know if I had any ideas or not?”

  “Please, Nicole. When did you ever go into a meeting unprepared?” When her boss didn’t respond, she continued. “They wanted to know if I had any ideas to pitch them.”

  “You stole my client?” Nicole demanded.

  “No! I told them to wait, and when they insisted I do something or they would leave, I started asking questions about what they did have in place.” She gave her boss a pointed look. “Did you know they only have the venue, the photographer, and her wedding dress? And literally nothing else. An outdoor wedding and reception at Stonehaus Vineyard. For a big, fancy wedding—in less than one month—that’s insanity.”

  “So you sent them away?”

  “No, I told them that I wasn’t a good fit for them and they needed to wait for you. But Coraline threw a temper tantrum and left.”

  Nicole sank into her office chair. “So we lost them.”

  “Honestly, Nicole, I think they would have done us more harm than good. That wedding is a disaster waiting to happen.”

  “That is my decision to make,” Nicole said in a chilly tone. “Not yours.”

  “I did the best I could. I’m sorry.”

  She sat still, waiting for Nicole to fire her, but the woman pushed out a sigh and reached for her phone. “Maybe I can save this.”

  “They have a lunch date with Tender Moments at eleven thirty.”

  Nicole scowled. “Well, then we can definitely kiss this wedding good-bye.”

  “I hope you’re not kissing my wedding good-bye.” A tall, lanky blonde woman laughed as she walked in the door.

  “Oh, Bethany!” Nicole gushed, clasping her hands together. “It’s so lovely to see you!”

  Bethany smiled. “I was in the neighborhood so I thought I’d drop by for a visit.”

  Nicole shot Holly a glare. “Now’s not a good time for an in-office chat. How about we go for coffee?”

  Holly turned to her computer screen and rolled her eyes.

  “Sounds wonderful.” Bethany’s attention was drawn to the photo that had captured Coraline’s attention minutes ago. “This is beautiful. Did you organize this, Nicole?”

  Holly cringed, preparing for the backlash.

  “No. That was Holly.” Her answer was clipped.

  “I’ve always wanted a winter wedding.”

  Nicole brightened at that. “If everything works out, we can plan the wedding of your dreams. But obviously, there are quite a few things to work out. Let’s go talk about it over coffee.”

  Bethany beamed; her dazzling white teeth in her perfect smile nearly blinded Holly.

  That’s exactly the kind of woman my neighbor would probably go for.

  She’d tried her best to forget him and had succeeded while dealing with the potential wedding clients from hell. So where had that thought come from?

  Nicole looped her purse over the crook of her arm. “Holly, I have no idea how long I’ll be out. Bethany and I have a lot to discuss. I need you to work on the Hicks estimate and then we’ll discuss the other predicament when I get back.”

  Holly watched the two women walk out. But her humiliation from the night before was back in full force, mingling with her fear over her future.

  Because she was fairly certain she might be out of a job by the end of the day.

  Chapter Six

  Kevin considered going straight to the coffee shop after work, but Matt had taken him on a tour of the mall after lunch. If he was going to stand by his pretense of looking fresh for his mother, he needed a shower.

  When he got home the kitten was mewling in the laundry room that had been attached to the back of the house, off the kitchen. He’d picked up a bag of kitten food, some milk, and cat litter on the way home, although he had no idea why he was taking care of the cat. But the alternative was to take it to the animal shelter, and that wasn’t happening. So he was the temporary caretaker of a tiny gray kitten until he could find some other poor sucker to take it.

  He scooped up the kitten, groaning when he saw the vinyl floor. “How did such a tiny thing make such a disgusting mess?” But then he wasn’t all that surprised. The night before, he’d fed the poor thing some of his lasagna.

  He thought he’d given himself enough time to get everything done and be at the coffee shop a good five minutes early. Instead he arrived right at four and found his mother waiting at a table, a notebook in front of her. She looked up at him and stood, tears filling her eyes. “You’re really here.”

  He was fairly certain she didn’t mean at Starbucks. “I’m here.”

  He gave her a warm hug, and she clung to him for a few seconds longer than he’d expected before she dropped her hold and looked strangely devoid of emotion.

  Despite the fact that she drove him absolutely crazy, he loved her. Nicole Vandemeer would go out of her way to help her children. Unfortunately, she rarely asked if the help was needed.

  “You look lovely today, Mom.”

  She beamed, tugging at her lightweight jacket. “Thank you. I have to say, my day started off terribly, then progressively improved. Now that I’m here with you, it’s nearly perfect.”

  “What happened this morning?” he asked as they got in line in front of the counter.

  “First I was involved in an accident on Seven Highway—”

  That got his attention. He reached for her elbow and looked her up and down for signs of trauma. “Are you okay? Why didn’t you call me?”

  She reached up to pat his cheek. “Kevin, I’m fine. It was very minor. In fact, my car is still driveable.”

  “Thank God.”

  “You’re such a sweet boy to worry. But that was the lesser of my morning evils.”

  “Oh?”

  “That ridiculous girl lost my biggest client to date. You have no idea what doors the Johansen wedding could have opened for us.” They moved forward a few steps, under an air-conditioner vent, an
d she swept back several stray hairs that had blown onto her cheek.

  “Your assistant?”

  She frowned. “Of course. Who else? I was tied up with the accident and she had one job: keep them there until I got there. How could she screw up something so simple? And on top of that, she tried to steal them from me. Can you imagine?”

  “Every time I’ve talked to you over the last few months, you’ve done nothing but complain about your assistant. Why don’t you just fire her?” But he also knew his perfectionist mother. She rarely thought anyone was up to her impossible standards and would clone herself to do the job if possible, yet when someone came close to hitting her standards, Nicole became defensive and threatened.

  His mother took a breath and something flickered in her eyes that Kevin couldn’t read, confirming he might be on the right track. “It’s not that simple.”

  “Seems pretty simple to me.”

  But before she could respond, the barista took their order. Kevin insisted on paying for the drinks, and they settled at a table close to the windows.

  His mother made a show of getting comfortable, then leveled her gaze on him. “I want to know more about your house. Megan won’t tell me a blessed thing. But then she was always an obstinate child, defying me simply for the joy of driving me crazy.”

  “It’s a small two-bedroom, one-bath house. It needs a little work.”

  “So what’s the big deal? Why can’t I see it?”

  “It’s still a mess. …”

  “Please…” She dramatically waved her hand. “Whenever I visited you, your apartments were always impeccably clean. Even your bedroom when you were a kid was neat as a pin.”

  “Like I said…I’d like to fix it up a little before you make a judgment.”

  Her gaze leveled on him. “What has your sister done?” She shook her head, releasing an exaggerated sigh. “I knew that girl would get you into trouble.”

  His mother was saying exactly what he’d been thinking the previous night, but sibling loyalty trumped the truth. “Matt agrees it will be a good investment.”

  Her scowl returned. “I have no idea why you agreed to work in construction. You could always come work for your father at the engineering firm.”