Wedding Haters (Event to Remember Series-Book 2)

by Melissa Baldwin

  When I get to the bakery, I notice that the sign with my name on it is no longer in the window. OK, before I start to overreact, there could be a good reason for that. I mean, my feature was only supposed to be for a few weeks anyway. When I go inside, I’m not surprised that my cookies aren’t even in the case anymore. I take a deep breath and try not to get mad. It wouldn’t exactly be a good thing to go off on Bev. Maybe she completely sold out and hasn’t had a chance to request any more orders? She would have to take the sign down if she ran out. Yes! This could all be a good thing after all.

  I ask the girl at the counter if Bev is available, and she disappears to the back. A few minutes later Bev emerges with a box. It’s my box filled with the leftover cookies.

  “Hello, dear. I apologize for not returning your calls; we’ve been extremely busy here.” She sits down and puts the box on the table in front of me. I’m not really sure what to say.

  “Um, thanks . . .” I stutter. “You can just keep the remainder.”

  “That’s very kind of you, dear, but I just don’t have any more room right now.” She turns and points her finger at the shelves. I’m so confused because she hasn’t mentioned anything about the message she left me. Is that the reason she pulled my cookies off the shelf?

  “Is everything OK? You left me a message about receiving the information regarding the change of venue. Sienna will be contacting you to make the arrangements for the cupcake delivery,” I assure her.

  OK, this is awkward, but I don’t know any other way to bring up this subject. I really want to ask her if she’s not featuring my cookies anymore because of this. I mean really, what are the chances this would all happen at the same time.

  “About that, I was surprised that I wasn’t contacted sooner. When I initially heard about it from a customer, I didn’t believe it. Your wedding at the Four Seasons was the inspiration for this feature.”

  A customer? Who? And why would they tell her?

  “Tell me, is it true that Sheer Happiness Events is crumbling?” she asks curiously.

  Are you kidding me? What does she mean by that?

  “No . . . not at all, where did you hear that?” I ask worriedly.

  “Oh dear, the rumors are strong,” she says, nodding her head. “Then those girls were in here talking about your wedding getting canceled because Sheer Happiness didn’t meet their deadlines. I’m afraid to send any more of my customers to them.”

  “Bev, really, I promise you that it wasn’t their fault.” I scramble to fix this. I might as well ask her about my cookies while I’m at it.

  “I, um, hope that isn’t the reason you don’t want my cookies.” Crap! I didn’t mean for that to come out like that. Now I sound completely desperate.

  “Not in the slightest,” she assures me. “We can do another feature after the holidays; we will have more room by then. Maybe a Valentine’s Day special?”

  Valentine’s Day, really? She’s completely skipping over Christmas; I was expecting that to be the busiest holiday. I’ve clearly been blacklisted, and from a Beverly Hills bakery. I guess it’s a good thing I still have my career doing hair. It’s totally fine though because it’s not as if I was planning on expanding my cookie business. After all, I was worried about having too much on my plate.

  “Uh, sure. I can definitely do that. Do you want me to send you some samples?” I ask hopefully.

  “Sure! We can talk about that again in January.”

  I’m not delusional. It’s pretty doubtful that I will hear from this woman again.

  She tells me that she will make arrangements with Sienna for my wedding cupcakes and then gives me a quick hug good-bye and rushes to help someone in her kitchen. She leaves me sitting alone in the middle of her bakery with a box of unsold cookies. It’s either my imagination or it sure seems like someone is out to destroy my life.

  After leaving Bev’s I go straight to our new house to unload my car. On the way, I break my vow and scarf down five cookies. I’ve got to stop this stress eating nonsense; I’ve never done this in my life. As soon as I get there, I tell Cole all about what happened at Bev’s.

  “Babe, it’s her loss,” Cole says as he wraps his arms around me; we are lying on our brand new sectional couch.

  “Doesn’t it seem like a lot of things are going wrong? Or am I overreacting?” I ask. I can tell he is considering it, but he quickly disputes it.

  “I can see why you would think that, but it’s just a big coincidence,” he says as he starts playing with my hair. “Bev would be crazy to pull the cookies just because the location of our wedding changed. She’s the one who will miss out.” He starts kissing me softly, and it quickly becomes more passionate. We’re half undressed when there is knock at the door. It comes as no surprise that it’s Susan. And I thought my day couldn’t get any worse. Cole throws a pillow across the room and stomps off to the door. I fix myself up, which is ridiculous because we will be married in a few days anyway.

  “Mom, you need to call before you come,” I hear Cole say angrily when he answers the door.

  “I’m sorry, honey. I just wanted to bring these gifts over; they were delivered to our house today.” She walks right in puts the boxes on the table. “Hi, honey.” She gives me a warm hug. “Madison, I also brought you some fresh lemons from my lemon tree. They would be divine in a cookie.” I thank her, but after tonight, I don’t want to think about cookies for a while. I’m starting to wonder if I should just take a break for a while. I can use my free time to travel with Cole and decorate my new house.

  The three of us stand there awkwardly, and then Susan realizes that she interrupted us. “Oh, I’m dreadfully sorry. I promise from now on I’ll call.” She hurries to the door, but I stop her.

  “Susan, no, it’s fine. Thank you for the lemons. Would you like some coffee?” I ask her, walking to the kitchen. Cole gives me a frustrated look and shakes his head behind his mother’s back.

  “Sure. But I’ll only stay for a few minutes,” she assures us. Cole falls dramatically back onto the couch. Oh well, her coming over kind of ruined the mood anyway. It’s not as if we could just pick up where we left off right after she walks out the door. That would be kind of disgusting.

  “Tell me, is everything set for this weekend?” She sips her coffee.

  “I hope so,” I say with a sigh. Truthfully, nothing would surprise me after everything that’s happened the past few weeks.

  “I promise there’s no need to worry a bit about the rehearsal because it will be perfect,” she says excitedly. With everything happening, I had completely forgotten about the rehearsal dinner. Susan really wanted to be in charge of that, so we gave her full reign, and I think Sienna was especially grateful for that. Susan’s events are always excellent, so I have no worries that it will go off without a hitch. It’s going to be a quaint gathering with just the bridal party and family, and considering everything that has gone on with my cousins, I’m not sure they will be there. I tell Susan all about the conversation I had with them.

  “Good for you, honey. That talk was a long time coming. I admit I’m surprised you asked them not to be in the wedding, but all things considered, I think that’s for the best.” Before I know it, Susan stays for over an hour. Poor Cole turned on the TV a while ago. I totally knew better; when Susan says a few minutes, what she really means is a few hours. I whisper to Cole that I’m sorry.

  When she finally leaves, Cole pretends to be asleep.

  “You can stop your pretend sleeping,” I say, hitting him in the stomach. He curls into a ball. “You know you could have joined in on our conversation.” I sit down on the couch.

  “Do you think that she’s going to stop by unexpected all the time?” he asks worriedly. “Because that’s really going to mess up my plans for you and me.” He gives me a wicked smile and leans in to kiss me on the neck.

  I try to continue reprimanding him but completely lose my train of thought. What were we talking about again? Oh well, it really doesn�
��t matter.

  ~ * ~

  When I get back to my apartment, I look around at the disaster that’s all mine. There are some things that I realize I’m not good at, and packing is one of them. I finally gave in and hired movers for the remainder of my stuff. Why I waited this long, I have no idea. Sienna picked up the keys to her new apartment the other day and started moving her stuff. Ace is there helping her, and I notice something different about them. They seem more affectionate than I have ever seen them before, and Sienna seems to finally be letting her guard down. I’m dying to ask her about it and get the latest. She’s in her room when I ask Ace how things are going.

  “They are progressing, slowly.” He gives me a smile. “Of course that incident with that bloke Jeff wasn’t ideal.”

  I cringe because I totally feel responsible for all of that. It was my idea in the beginning to introduce Jeff and Sienna. Even though they didn’t end up together, it’s still my fault that they even dated in the first place.

  “I know. I’m sorry about that. You know Sienna doesn’t drink, so that was part of the problem. She says you were really understanding about that whole thing.” He flashes me one of his million-dollar smiles.

  “Things happen, you know, and I don’t feel threatened by Jeff at all.”

  Well, of course not. Don’t get me wrong, Jeff is good-looking in a guy-next-door kind of way, but he’s no Ace Eckelund. What is it that Cole calls him? The abs and the accent . . . or is it the accent and the abs? Either way there is absolutely no reason for Ace to feel threatened by Jeff. Sienna has clearly made her choice despite her recent encounter.

  “OK, you two, stop talking about me.” Sienna returns from her room. We both jump three feet in the air.

  “We weren’t talking about you; we were talking about . . . my honeymoon. Ace was telling me about a few must-sees in Hawaii.” I’m proud of my quick comeback, and it’s totally legit because I’ve talked to Ace about this before.

  “Sure you were.”

  “Hawaii is fantastic,” Ace chimes in. “I haven’t been in a few years, but it’s one of my favorites and one of those places that you can visit over and over. I can’t wait to return. Would you like to go with me?” he asks Sienna.

  Oh. My. Gosh. Ace just asked Sienna to go on vacation with him. I look at her face, and I can see the excitement. This is one of those moments when you know that you are in the wrong place at the wrong time. So I quietly sneak to my room and let them have this moment alone. Of course, I lean my ear to the door to listen, but I can’t hear a word. Speaking of my honeymoon, I haven’t even started packing. So instead of packing to move like I should be doing, I open my suitcase and start packing for my honeymoon. I have to admit this is a lot more fun!

  On Friday morning, I have a few clients, including Mrs. Wilson. Of course, she wants to know all about the changes with the wedding, and she reminded me how disappointed Grandmother was initially. I guess Grandmother called her in a tizzy after she found out. Speaking of Grandmother, I’ve only spoken to her once since our talk, and she called only to tell me I would need to make sure she was seated on the correct side of the room during the ceremony. Apparently, this is a very important factor—that the bride’s and groom’s families sit in the right places. I guess it’s bad luck or something? Actually, I don’t really know if it’s bad luck, but she sure made it sound like it would be the end of the world if it’s not done this way.

  In between clients, I get a phone call from Ellie. I’m fully expecting her to tell me that they won’t be attending the rehearsal or the wedding after all.

  “Hello, Madie, it’s Ellie,” she says formally when I answer.

  “Hi, Ellie, how are you?”

  “I’m fine. I just want to verify that Steph and I are still allowed to bring dates to the wedding. You know, with all of the changes, we didn’t discuss this part. Both of us had already had dates prior to your um, changes . . . so if we can’t, we need to cancel on our dates.”

  I had told them from the beginning that they were welcome to bring dates, but I guess I didn’t think they would. Stephy is always dating someone or a few different someones but never anything serious. Ellie has always seemed to be more monogamous, and I had no idea that she was seeing someone or had invited someone to the wedding.

  “Of course, it’s still fine!” I exclaim. “I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”

  “Yes, we just started recently. He’s really great though,” she adds with a different tone in her voice. She started out very cold, but as soon as she started talking about this man, her tone completely changed.

  Good for Ellie, maybe if she gets serious with someone she won’t be so bitchy all the time. Not that having a man is the answer to everything because it definitely isn’t, but it’s nice to have someone special in your life. I don’t think either of them have ever had a good serious relationship, but then again, I really don’t know much about their lives. It’s not like I’ve ever been included before. There’s no doubt that my cousins have daddy issues and with good reason. My mom always told me that their dad would randomly come in and out of their lives, and half the time they never knew where he was. It was really sad.

  “That’s great. I’m happy for you,” I say kindly. “Are you planning on coming to the rehearsal dinner tonight?”

  “Yes. Grandmother requested that we be there with her.”

  Her response doesn’t surprise me. She makes it clear that the only reason they are attending is because Grandmother asked them to. I’m not delusional enough to believe that they really want to be there tonight but that’s ok. I’m hopeful that both tonight and tomorrow will be as uneventful as possible because I’ve had more than enough unexpected surprises that will last me a lifetime.

  I rush home from work to get ready for the dinner. “Help! Wardrobe malfunction!” I yell. Sienna, Abby, and I are getting ready for the rehearsal. One of my straps just broke on my dress. Luckily, Sienna comes to my rescue with her Mary Poppins bag of tricks. She’s so good at this; I still can’t believe that people are questioning her work. There’s no way I’m going to tell her what people are saying. I’m still not convinced the rumors are real; maybe Bev just misunderstood. Or maybe she was just looking for a reason to pull my cookies from her shelves. Admittedly, that would break my heart a little.

  “Thanks, friend!” I give her a big hug with tears in my eyes.

  “You two need to stop!” Abby reprimands us. “Save the tears for tomorrow. Even you ‘Miss I never cry.’ ” She points to Sienna. OK, that’s like the pot calling the kettle black because we all know that Abby will be the first one crying tonight.

  “She’s right,” Sienna says, putting everything back in her bag. “Let’s get this wedding started.” She hurries to finish getting ready.

  Susan does it again. As soon as we arrive at the rehearsal dinner, I feel like crying. The room looks completely magical. Cole is already there; as usual, he is providing the entertainment and has several people laughing, including Jeff and his dad. Speaking of Jeff, Sienna hasn’t mentioned her drunken make out session since the day after my bachelorette party. I’m sure she feels awkward seeing him and not to mention Ace is also here. This should be interesting; at least if they throw down, they can get it out of their system before tomorrow. Susan is dancing around, fixing flower arrangements and checking table settings. I’m not exaggerating when I say dancing; I watch her move a flower arrangement and then do a little twirl. My parents are sitting with my grandmother, Matt, and Ace, who is holding baby Ace. I glance at Sienna, and her face says it all. She’s beaming, and I have to admit seeing Ace holding a baby has to be one of the most perfect sights to see. Oh, if only Allyson from Scotland could see him now.

  “There she is; the bride has entered the room,” Susan calls out. Everyone turns to look, and for a second, I feel a little embarrassed. I have no idea why because these are my closest friends and family. It must be a bride thing. Shortly after I arrive, my cousins show up. I can t
ell they aren’t happy to be there, fingers crossed they don’t give any crazy toasts.

  The dinner is off to a great start, and I’m enjoying being able to visit with everyone. I’ve heard that it’s almost impossible to visit with all of the guests at the wedding, so I’m thankful for this time. My grandmother and my mother are going out of their way to fall all over me. My mom has even brought me food. I can’t remember the last time she ever served me. It’s kind of over-the-top, but I appreciate both of their efforts.

  I overhear Grandmother talking with a few of Susan’s garden club friends. “Oh yes, many of my friends use Madison’s salon. They speak very highly of her skills; she’s very talented of course.”

  I look over to see Ellie and Stephy whispering to each other. I really need to go over and thank them for coming. Hmmm . . . do I have to right now? There’s that internal battle of good versus evil again. I begrudgingly decide to do it.

  “Hi! You both look great,” I say with a forced smile. “Thank you for being here tonight.” They look at each other, and I can tell they want to say something.

  “Well, even though you kicked us out, it was the right thing to do,” Ellie says as she hangs her head dramatically. Ahhh . . . yes, even after my heart-to-heart with her, she still hasn’t given up her guilt trips. This is really awkward because I’m not sure how to respond, so I just tell them to enjoy themselves.

  I just need to ignore them; I can’t let them get into my head. I won’t let them ruin my night. I won’t let them ruin my night. I wonder how many times I will need to repeat this over and over to believe it. Maybe I need to write it down a hundred times like they make the kids do in school.

  The dinner is amazing, and everyone is enjoying the food. Susan has made it a very relaxed atmosphere. She has soft music playing, the lighting has been dimmed, and she has even diffused some essential oils. I feel so relieved because everything seems to be going perfectly until I see Sienna and Ace walk out of the ballroom in the middle of dinner. That’s really strange.