Three Girls And A Wedding (27 page)

“Like, totally,
Matty
,
oh my God,” I said, doing my best Kiki.

“Stop that!” he demanded, pulling
me closer and resting his forehead against mine. “Tell me, for real.”

“Fine,” I said, meeting his gaze.
“I love you, Matt.” I was surprised to find a lump forming in my throat.

“No more tears,” Matt said, kissing
me softly. “We’re going to be happy, Jen. Both of us, happier than we’ve ever
been.”

He kissed me again, harder this
time, and I let myself go, melting into it, loving the feel of his arms around
me, his body pressed against me. Seriously, Matt was ridiculously hot—and
an amazing kisser.

“Oh my God!” squealed a familiar
voice. I started to pull away but Matt groaned. “No,” he said against my mouth.
“Come back.”

I laughed, kissed him lightly, and
pulled back to see Kiki and Eric hurrying toward us. “It’s about time, you
guys!” she cried, pointing at us.

I smiled at her. “Hey, Kiki.”

“I
told
you,” she said, throwing her arms around me. “Remember? That
first day you guys met I said he would be perfect for you. And I was, like,
totally right!”

“Yes,” I said, smiling. “You were
right.”

Kiki clapped her hands together.
“This is so amazing!” she cried. “Now the four of us can hang out all the time!
Oh, my God, we’re going to have so much fun together!”

Over her head, I saw Annie and
Ginny, standing together, looking at me. I grinned at them, feeling the most
amazing feeling of joy rushing up through me. I grabbed Matt’s hand and smiled
at Kiki.

“Come on,” I told them, starting to
pull Matt over to where the girls were standing. “Let’s go dance!”

Chapter Twenty-nine

“Holy shit,” Annie said, staring
around the tent with wide eyes. “This is a serious wedding.”

I covered Danny’s ears. “Don’t
swear in front of the baby,” I told her. “Or I’ll make you give me a dollar.”

“And you did all of this,” Ginny
said, ignoring me.

I nodded happily, bouncing Danny on
my hip. “I did.”

“Girls, girls!” Kiki cried, rushing
toward us. “I’m so glad you could come!” She hugged Annie and Ginny, then Josh
for good measure.

“This is gorgeous,” Ginny said
fervently, Annie nodding behind her.

“It’s all Jen,” Kiki said, throwing
her arm around my shoulder. “Totally her vision. If I had been left on my own
it would have been completely tacky.”

“That’s not true,” I argued. “Look
at all the work you did for Ginny’s wedding. You have a great eye for this
stuff,
Kik
.”

Kiki looked thrilled at my
compliment. “That’s so sweet!” She turned back to the girls and Josh. “Last
night was so much fun,” she gushed. “I hope my party is half as good.”

Kiki and Eric had stayed with us
until the end of the wedding the night before, even going so far as to help
load wedding gifts into Josh’s car. Kiki had insisted that the girls, Josh, and
Danny join us for her wedding, saying that she wanted them to see all the hard
work I had put in. Since Ginny and Josh weren’t leaving for their honeymoon
until the following morning, they readily agreed. I was glad the girls had
come; I was proud of this wedding, and I wanted them to share it with me. Plus,
it gave me a warm feeling to see how well they got along with Kiki—even
Annie admitted she was much cooler than she seemed at first glance, and that
“her enthusiasm kind of grows on you.”

“Kiki, dinner’s going to start in
twenty minutes,” I told her, looking down at my watch. “Cocktail hour service
ends in ten. You better go grab some food if you want to catch it before it’s
over.” I’d been with Kiki since eight o’clock that morning and I had been
trying in vain to get her to eat all day. Her lack of appetite wasn’t from
nerves—rather, she was so excited about the wedding that she literally
couldn’t sit still long enough for more than a bite or two.

“Oh, I do want to try all this
yummy food,” she said, looking around. “Here’s Eric, he’ll go with me.” She
scurried off, promising she would see us after dinner.

“I think we’ll go grab some more
food too,” Ginny said, taking Danny from my arms. “That seafood station was
amazing.”

“Yeah, I can’t even imagine what
dinner will be like if the cocktail hour is this good,” Annie said, taking
another look around the tent before following Josh and Ginny out onto the
grounds where the rest of the guests were milling about, enjoying the
cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and appetizer stations I had so painstakingly
planned.

Alone now, I looked around the
tent, where dinner would soon be taking place. I felt restless, like I should
be working. But there was nothing to do. The tent was perfect.

I had taken the enchanted garden
theme of Kiki’s engagement party and raised it up a notch. Live birch saplings
were scattered around the space, each dripping with twinkle lights and hanging
crystals. We had designed the lighting to consist mainly of light purples and
rosy pinks, which reflected in the crystals and made the entire room feel like
it was pulsing with a warm glow.

Garlands of pink tea roses and
yellow lilies were draped along tables and around the support columns. At the
center of each table was a distressed silver urn filled with a riot of roses
and wildflowers. Tall birch branches stretched up from each bouquet, dripping
with even more crystals.

Forget the enchanted garden—I
had built an entire forest, perfect for Kiki the fairy queen.

“What are you thinking right now?”
said a voice in my ear. I felt Matt’s arms come around me, and I smiled.

“Honestly?” I asked, turning a
little in his arms so I could look up at his face. “I’m thinking in five hours
this will all be over and I can go to sleep.”

Matt chuckled, the sound vibrating
through his chest. “Just think,” he said. “A whole week of freedom.”

I snorted. “Yeah, right. I may have
a week off, but I’m
gonna
be watching Danny,
remember?”

“I’ll help you,” he murmured,
kissing the back of my neck. I shivered a little.

“I have work to do,” I told him, my
voice weak.

“No you don’t,” he said softly.
“Everything is perfect. Everything is done. The bride and groom are thrilled.
Their parents think you’re the greatest thing that ever happened to them. You
can relax for minute.”

I decided to listen to him. I
needed more relaxation in my life. I turned fully, wrapping my arms around his
neck.

“You look great in a tux,” I told
him.

Matt rolled his eyes. “I hate these
things,” he muttered.

“Well, then, it’s a good thing you
also
look great in jeans and a t-shirt.”

Matt kissed me softly. “Did you
eat?” he asked. I shook my head. “Eat at dinner, okay? You need to take better
care of yourself.”

“I will,” I promised. Then I
sighed. “Speaking of which, I really do need to check in with the caterers;
dinner will be starting soon.”

Matt sighed, but released me. “Five
more hours?”

“Five more hours,” I agreed.

***

“This is a disaster,” Jason hissed,
two hours later. The meal had been served, the first dance had been enjoyed,
and the rest of the guests were now joining Kiki and Eric on the dance floor.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Annie bouncing Danny around as he laughed
and clapped.

I turned my attention back to
Jason, who looked completely frazzled.

“It will be fine,” I told him. “We
just need to be calm and try to—”

“Calm?” he yelled. “Calm? Are you
kidding me? We’re missing two cases of champagne. Two! What do you propose we
do about that?”

I looked up into his angry face,
and sighed. “I propose that I go and talk to the caterer and figure out where
they are,” I said.

“You better,” he snarled. “Just
because you stopped caring about your job doesn’t mean I have.”

I felt my anger rise. What I
wouldn’t give to slap him across the face. My dislike for him had jumped
tenfold since Matt’s revelation of Jason’s interference. Had we not been at the
wedding, I would have dearly loved to ream him out for what he’d done.

What’s
the point?
I wondered. Jason was a lonely, bitter, pathetic person. And he
wasn’t worth another second of my time or worry. Without another word, I turned
on my heel and headed off to find the caterer.

The missing champagne was found
under a stack of linen napkins in the kitchen. I urged the shaken head waiter
to ignore Jason. “I’m very pleased with your work tonight,” I assured him,
patting his arm, before heading back out to the tent.

Inside, Kiki and Eric were still
dancing. I saw Matt spinning a delighted-looking Bella around the floor, and I
smiled. Then I saw Mr. Barker approaching me, and I straightened.

“This is wonderful, Jen,” he said,
shaking my hand. “We couldn’t be more pleased.”

I smiled. “Thank you, sir. And I’d
like to apologize again for not being here yesterday.”

Mr. Barker waved his hand. “You did
a lovely job planning the rehearsal,” he assured me. “And Jason was here for
the actual event. Kiki explained what happened.”

I felt a blush rise to my cheeks. I
hated that he knew how badly I’d messed up.

“It seems to me that Jason was
overworking you,” he said, and I looked up at him, surprised. “You made the
right choice being there for your friends.” He smiled at me kindly. “Speaking
of which,” he continued. “You’ve been a very good friend to my daughter. You’re
a good influence on her.”

I smiled. “Kiki’s a great girl,” I
told him honestly. “I really enjoy working with her. You would have been proud
of how hard she worked helping me with the other wedding.”

“Darling,” Mrs. Barker interrupted,
appearing at her husband’s shoulder. “The
Goodwins
are leaving; we need to go say goodbye.” She smiled at me. “Sorry to interrupt,
Jen.”

Mr. Barker patted my arm. “We’ll
talk more later,” he said, then walked away.

I turned and saw Kiki hurrying
toward me, a worried look on her face.

“Did Daddy tell you?” she asked,
putting her hands on her hips. “He promised he would let me talk to you first!”

“He didn’t tell me anything,” I
told her. “We were just talking about the wedding.”

“Oh, good,” Kiki replied.

“Why, what’s up?”

“Okay, I wanted to take you out to
lunch and give you a really professional presentation,” she said, wringing her
hands.

I tried not to laugh at the worried
look on her face. “Well, I can wait if you’d rather…”

“No,” she said quickly. “I’m too
excited.” Kiki grabbed my arm and pulled me over to an empty table. She grabbed
two glasses of champagne from a passing waiter and pushed me into a chair.

“Okay,” she said, taking a deep
breath. “So you know that Daddy is, like, super impressed with you. And you
know that I’ve been really unhappy with my job and feeling really super bored.”
I nodded, wondering where she was going with this. “So he’s been talking to me
about what kind of thing I might enjoy doing instead and one day, it just hit
me.” She looked at me expectantly.

“Uh…” I said, feeling confused.

“Jen, planning this wedding with
you is, like, the most fun I’ve ever had!” she cried. “Seriously! And then,
when we had to pull together for Ginny, I was so totally excited. Coming up
with those ideas, doing all that work—I loved it, Jen!”

“I’m glad, Kiki,” I told her, still
not sure where this was going. “Like I said, you did a really good job.”

“That’s just it!” she cried,
grabbing my hand. “I
want
it to be my
job! I want us to start our own little event planning firm!”

I stared at her in shock. “Kiki…” I
began.

“Just wait!” she said, holding up
her hand. “See, this is why I wanted to give you a presentation. I knew it
wouldn’t sound professional if I just blurted it like that. So, my dad’s been
working with me to come up with a business plan. He would be interested in
investing in us, giving us some start-up money—it wouldn’t be much; I
wouldn’t want it to be like, a handout, or something. And we’d have to work
really hard to build up a client list. But I know we could do it! I know a ton
of people who throw lots of parties, and you have the expertise about putting
events together. I think the two of us would be a great team!”

I was speechless. Was she for real?

“What do you think, Jen?” she
asked, her voice more serious than I had ever heard it. Her face was looking
distinctly pale.

“I think it sounds
amazing
!” I cried, jumping up. “Are you
kidding me? Having my own firm is, like, my dream!”

Kiki jumped up too and grabbed my
hands. “Really? You would want to be my partner?”

There were a lot of reasons to say
no. Giving up a stable job, a job at which I was surely about to get a promotion,
to go and work in a brand new start-up with a girl like Kiki—it was
probably absolutely crazy. My mother would pitch a fit. What if we couldn’t get
it off the ground? What if she drove me insane?

But it would also be the chance to
work for myself, do the kind of events I was interested in. It would be hard
work, yes, but there would be no one pressuring me, no one to please except
myself, Kiki, and our clients.

I looked into Kiki’s excited face
and felt a sudden rush of confidence. We could do this, I knew it.

I threw my arms around her. “Yes,
of course!” I cried.

Kiki started jumping up and down. I
hugged her for a moment.
Oh, what the
hell
, I thought, and started jumping right along with her.

Chapter Thirty

The warm weather seemed to
disappear overnight. As I helped Ginny pull her suitcase from Kiki’s SUV (which
she had lent us for the morning), I heard a rumble of thunder.