Bride Quartet Collection (90 page)

Then there was Malcolm—and that, she had to admit, was the crux of this nervy, unsettled feeling. God knew he was a change. She couldn’t decide if he’d just slid cagily, craftily into her life or kicked open doors she’d thought she’d cautiously bolted.

Most days, she thought, it seemed to be a combination of both.

However he’d gotten in, she still couldn’t quite figure out what to expect from him. An attentive lover, then a wildly demanding one; an amusing companion, then one who peppered her with questions that pushed her to think both inside and outside the box.The risk-taker, the devoted son, the bad boy, the shrewd businessman.

He had all those facets, and she felt she’d barely touched the surface.

She appreciated his innate curiosity, and the skill he possessed in digging out information, histories, connections. He ended up, she’d come to realize, learning a great deal about other people.

And was frustratingly stingy with personal data.

Most of what she knew of his history came from other sources. He had a way of skirting around the edges whenever she asked a question about his childhood, his early time in California, even his recovery from the accident that had brought him home again.

If their relationship had stayed a surface one, the reticence wouldn’t matter. But it hadn’t, Parker thought, so it did. It mattered because she’d gone past interest, swung into attraction, burst through lust, tripped over affection, and was now skidding out of control into love.

And she wasn’t altogether happy about it.

The rain began in thin, spitting drops as Laurel came in with a big tray.

“If we’re going to have a meeting this time of day, we might as well eat.” She cast Parker a look as she set the tray down. “Don’t you look pensive and perturbed.”

“Maybe I’m just hungry.”

“That we can fix. We’ve got some very pretty, girlie sandwiches, seasonal fruit, celery and carrot straws, kettle chips, and petit fours.”

“That ought to do it.”

“It’s nice.” Laurel crunched on a chip. “A fire on a rainy afternoon. Nice, too, to get off my feet for a while.” She opted for tea, then sat. “What’s up?”

“A couple of things.”

“A couple of things like here’s what’s up, or a couple of things like here’s a deal, let’s discuss it into many pieces?”

“I think the latter.”

“Then I need a sandwich.”

Mac and Emma walked in together as Laurel loaded a plate.

“So, we’d pick that up with the mini mango callas for the boutonnieres,” Mac said, obviously continuing a conversation. “And you’d, like, pop them out in the bouquets and arrangements. All mixed in, but popped.”

“Exactly.”

“I think I like that the best. I’m consulting with my wedding florist,” she told Parker and Laurel. “I believe she’s brilliant.”

“I completely am. Oh, pretty sandwiches.”

“I’m also brilliant,” Laurel reminded her. “If you’re still in florist mode, Em, I’ve been thinking of going with cool colors. Sherberty.”

“Don’t make me wear raspberry.” Mac tugged her bright red hair.

“I could, I could make you, but besides brilliant I’m also kind. I was thinking lemony. All three of you would look good in really pale lemon. Maybe chiffon. It’s kind of clichéd maybe. Lemon chiffon, summer wedding, but—”

“It’s good. And I can really work with a pale lemon,” Emma speculated. “Using zaps of bold blues, trails of minty greens. Keeping it all soft, but saturated, with unexpected snaps of deeper colors.”

“I want to get your engagement shots in the next week,” Mac said to Laurel.

“We haven’t decided exactly what we want there.”

“I have.” Mac bit down on a carrot straw. “In the kitchen.”

Instantly Laurel moved to sulk mode. “Talk about clichés.”

Mac just pointed with her carrot. “The counter heaped with gorgeous pastries, cakes, cookies, with you and Del in front of it. I want him sitting on a stool, and you wearing your baker’s apron and cap.”

And the sulk deepened. “Well, aren’t I glamorous?”

“What you’ll be when I’m done with you, ye of no faith whatsoever, will be sexy, adorable, cheeky, and unique.”

“She was right about doing Jack’s and mine in the garden,” Emma pointed out. “We looked gorgeous, and hot.”

“Also brilliant, but it did help that you’re both already gorgeous and hot. So.” Mac dropped into a seat. “What’s the what for?” Her eyebrows lifted as she glanced at Parker, saw her friend grinning. “And what’s that for?”

“It’s fun, it’s just fun to listen to all you talk about wedding plans.Your own wedding plans. Mac, I’ve asked Monica and Susan from the bridal shop to stand in for me—pinch running, we’ll say—on your day. They’re smart, experienced, capable. And if there’s anything that needs to be dealt with during the ceremony, I won’t have to excuse myself and bolt.”

“That’s really good thinking.”

“Which makes us four for four in brilliance.They’ll also help with guests while we’re up in the Bride’s Suite. Emma, I know you have a team, but—”

“Right there with you,” Emma interrupted. “I won’t be as available for the setup, and we won’t be able to draft Carter or Del or Jack. I’ve got two florists I’m going to work with on a couple of the upcoming events. And if they’re as good as I think, they’ll work with my regular team for Mac’s. We’re going to need extra and experienced hands for the Seaman wedding in April—and for mine, for Laurel’s.”

“Good. And Laurel.”

“Also on the same page. I’ve asked Charles, the pastry chef at the Willows, if he can take time to work with me on Mac’s wedding. I told you how good he is. He’s thrilled. I have to wheedle the time off for him, but I know how to handle Julio,” she added, speaking of the restaurant’s temperamental head chef.

“I think we’ve got that covered,” Parker told her. “We’ll need to have some strategy meetings, and all of these extra hands will need a tour of the event spaces, a tutorial on how we work. Mac, I’ve started the timetable for your wedding.”

“My timetable,” Mac said, and grinned. “Parker made me a timetable.”

“It’s varied from our usual, because it’s you, and it’s us. We’ll work out any time constraints during rehearsal, which I also wanted to talk to you about.The rehearsal dinner . . .”

“We’ll probably book the Willows, but . . .”

Parker met Mac’s eyes, read them, smiled. “I was hoping you would.”

“Oh yes!” Understanding the looks, Emma clapped her hands together. “Have it here. It’s perfect.”

“It is perfect,” Laurel agreed. “Even with the added work, the cleanup, it’s just right.”

“Settled?”

Mac reached across the table, squeezed Parker’s hand.“Settled.”

“New business. It would be oddly new business. I got a call from Katrina Stevens. Memory refresher. She was one of our first brides. Towering, pencil-thin blonde, big laugh. I believe one of her attendants was the first to have sex with a groomsman in the Bride’s Suite.”

“Oh yeah!” Mac held up a hand. “She was easily six feet tall, wore spikes that added another four inches.The groom was about six-eight.They looked like Nordic gods.”

“Silver Palace cake, six layers,” Laurel recalled.

“White roses, eggplant callas,” Emma confirmed.

“She and Mica are getting a divorce.”

“Can’t win them all. Too bad though,” Laurel added. “They made an impressive couple.”

“Apparently, at least according to Katrina, he didn’t mind impressing others, and when she caught him doing so with one of his clients, she kicked him out. There was some back and forth, separation, reconciliation, separation, and now she’s done.The divorce will be final in late February. She wants a divorce party. Here.”

“A divorce party?” Emma’s lips moved into a pout. “That doesn’t seem nice.”

“I don’t think she’s feeling particularly nice toward Mica, but she did sound as though she’s feeling energized and happy. She’s gotten the idea in her head that she wants to celebrate what she’s calling the new start of her life, and she wants to do it here—in style.”

Parker lifted the water bottle that was never far from her hand. “It’s not what we do, which I explained to her, but she’s got the bit between her teeth. She’s set on it, willing to book a full day in one of our slowest months, not counting the Valentine’s Day madness. I felt I had to put it out there for discussion.”

“Just how do we list that kind of event on the website?” Mac muttered.

“I think divorce should make you sad, or mad.” Emma frowned over her tea.“I can see going out, getting toasted with some friends, but this seems mean.”

“Cheating on your wife’s meaner,” Laurel pointed out.

“No question, but it’s . . .” Emma moved her shoulders to mime discomfort. “And here, where they got married.”

“It’s probably small of me, but I like the way she’s thinking.” Laurel shrugged and bit into a carrot straw. “Like she’s closing a circle, and instead of bitching or mourning—and maybe, probably she’s already done both—she’s marking it with food, drink, flowers, music, friends. I wouldn’t like to see us do this sort of thing regularly, but I can sort of see it for a returning customer.”

“Maybe we should have a package deal.” Mac snagged a sandwich. “We planned your wedding, now we’ll plan your divorce. Celebrate at ten percent off.”

“Did they have kids?” Emma wondered.

“No.”

She nodded at Parker. “Well, that’s something, I guess. You haven’t said what you think about it.”

“I had all the same reactions the three of you’ve had, in various degrees.” She lifted her hands, let them fall. “My initial instinct was just no.Then, the more she talked, the more I saw where she was coming from, and why she wanted it.Then I stacked all those instincts and reactions up and took a hard look. It’s business, and it’s really none of our business if a client wants to hire us to celebrate the end of a bad marriage.”

“You’re voting yes?” Mac asked.

“I’m voting yes because she told me she wanted to have this party, this new beginning, here especially because it would remind her that the other beginning had started out beautifully, and full of love and hope.That it would help remind her she hadn’t made a mistake. Things changed, and now she was going to start again, and by God, she was going to keep right on believing in love and hope. She sold me.”

“You have to admire her—what is it?—chutzpa,” Mac commented.

“I’m voting with Parker, and further vote that if anything like this comes up again, we take it on a case-by-case basis.” Laurel looked around the table.“It’s business, but if the client’s just looking to take swipes at an ex, even deservedly, I don’t think this is the place.”

“Agreed,” Parker said instantly. “And if I’d gotten that sense, I would have steered her away.”

“Okay.” Mac nodded. “Case by case.”

“I’ll go along,” Emma decided,“because it sounds like she’s just closing a door, and wants to see what’s behind others. But it still makes me sad.”

“With that, I have other new business that I hope cheers you up. I’ve finished fine-tuning the book proposal.”

“Seriously?” Emma gaped.“I don’t know if I’m cheered up or just scared.”

“I’m going to e-mail you all the file. I want you to edit, adjust, suggest, bitch, moan, scoff. And in the portions that apply to the work you’d do on the project, double all of those. Like this event, this project has to be something we’re all agreed on, happy with. We all have to want it.”

“I have to say we all want it.” Again, Laurel looked around the table for confirmation.“It’s just such new ground. Sometimes you sink in new ground.”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about new ground myself.” Parker frowned at her water bottle.“New steps, new risks. I like to think we’re tough enough and smart enough to risk taking those steps onto new ground.”

“Well, when you put it that way.” Laurel blew out a breath. “What’ve we got to lose but ego if we suck at this?”

“I choose optimism and not sucking,” Emma decided. “I can’t wait to see what you’ve already put together, Parker.”

“I think it’s got real potential. Mac, I inserted some of the photos from our files that show your skill set, and with the shots of Emma’s and Laurel’s work, theirs. It gives the flavor, in visuals, of what we do.”

“I’m somewhere between Laurel’s ego suck and Emma’s optimism. And from that position I really want to see the platform.”

“Good. When everybody’s gone over it, when you’re ready, we’ll hash it out. Then when, and if, we’ll send it to the agent. If, again, we’re all agreed.”

She let out a big breath. “And that’s that.”

“I’d like Carter to look at it. English professor,” Mac added. “Aspiring novelist.”

“Absolutely. He can also edit, adjust, and so on.That’s all I have. Anyone else have anything to discuss since we’re all here?”

Emma shot up a hand. “I do. I want to know what’s going on with you and Malcolm.
Really
going on, with details.”

“Seconded,” Laurel said.

“And once again, unanimous.” Mac leaned over the table. “Come on, Parks, spill.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

P
ARKER SCANNED THE THREE FACES SURROUNDING HER. FRIENDS, she thought. Can’t live without them. Can’t tell them to mind their own business.

At least not these friends.

“What do you mean what’s going on? You know what’s going on. Malcolm and I are seeing each other, and when schedules and mood mesh, sleeping with each other.Would you like me to detail our sexual adventures?”

“I would, but hold that for Girl Night,” Laurel advised. “One that includes lots of wine and Mrs. G’s pizza.”

“Question A.” Mac held up a finger. “Is it mutual banging, an affair, or a relationship?”

Knowing she was stalling, Parker rose to pour another cup of tea. “Why can’t it be all three?”

“Okay, mutual banging is for fun and gratification. An affair is more in-depth, and something you may or may not think may lead to something else. But it’s generally what you have until the juice runs out or you move on.” Emma paused, glanced around the table for general agreement. “And a relationship is something you put effort into, it’s making and maintaining a connection.You can have elements of the first two in a relationship, but it’s more than the sum of those parts.”

“She should do a talk show.” Laurel raised her cup in toast.“So, going by our resident expert, are you just having fun, are you considering there may be more, or are you making a connection?”

Parker decided she wanted a petit four.“The problem with the three of you is you’re all
in
relationships, and more, you’re madly in love and about to get married. So you’re looking at me through that prism.”

“Which not only avoids the question, but turns it so it’s invalid. And it’s not,” Mac insisted. “We tell each other how we feel. It’s what we do. Not telling us says to me that you’re still chewing on it, and maybe a little bit worried. Just not ready. That’s okay. We’ll wait until you are.”

“That’s such a low blow.” Scowling, Parker bit into the pretty little cake.“We’ll wait—subtext—because we’re the good and true and loyal friends.”

Mac took a cake for herself. “Did it work?”

“Bitch.”

“It worked.” Laurel smiled.“And only Emma feels any sense of guilt. She’ll get over it.”

“It’s only a tiny bit of guilt, but I don’t think we should push Parker if she’s not ready to talk to us.”

“You, too?”

Emma lowered her gaze at Parker’s deadly stare.“They’re a bad influence.”

“Fine. The simple answer is I don’t know what it is, exactly. I guess I am still chewing on it. It’s only been a few weeks. I like him. I’m enjoying him. He’s interesting and smart without any of those pompous or overpolished or self-satisfied aspects that, well, either irritate or bore me. He understands what it takes to run a business, and respects what I do, how I do it. I respect what he does, even if I don’t really know too many of the details of how he does it.You almost have to pry him open with a crowbar to get him to talk about himself.”

“You have a whole toolbox of crowbars in various shapes, sizes, and colors,” Mac pointed out. “And you know how to use them so well people tell you everything.”

“Apparently Malcolm’s not people. Under-the-surface details, I mean, which is frustrating because I want to say if it was a long time ago and no big deal—two of his default positions—then why not just
tell
me about it when it’s obvious I’d like to know? Instead, I back off because I think it probably
is
a big deal, and that’s why he won’t talk about it. Then he redirects the conversation, something he excels at, or makes me laugh, or we have sex, and I really don’t know much more than I did in the first place.

“Plus, he’s cocky.” She swallowed a bite of petit four, gestured with the rest.“He’s got that attitude that shouldn’t be appealing, it just shouldn’t appeal to me at all, but at the same time he can be charming and just . . . just easy.And he looks at you—me—people, I don’t know. A lot of men don’t really look at you, but he does, so it’s like he’s not just taking in what you’re saying, but taking you in. And that’s powerful.”

She grabbed another cake.“How was I supposed to know how much that combination of powerful and easy would get to me? Really, I couldn’t be expected to know.”

“Hmm,” Laurel said, cutting her gaze to her two friends, hiking up her eyebrows.

“Exactly.” Parker bit into the cake. “Conversely, he’ll interrupt me a half dozen times when I’m trying to make a point or argue a position, which makes it hard to stay on target. So, obviously I don’t know exactly what this is because he’s slippery. He’s slippery,” she repeated, and reached for another cake. “What?” she demanded as her friends stared at her.

“You ate five petit fours,” Mac told her.“You’re going for six.”

“I did not.” Shock hit when Parker looked at the plate. “Five? Well . . . they’re petite.”

“Okay. Back away from the pastries.” Gently, Laurel took the cake out of Parker’s hand, set it on the plate, pushed the plate out of reach. “The problem is you’ve bottled that up, and once you popped the cork you instinctively fed the spew with sugar.”

“Apparently.”

“You’re in love with him,” Emma stated.

“What? No.” Parker shook her head, said it dismissively. “No.” More firmly.Then just shut her eyes. “God. I think I probably am, but if I am, where’s the lift, the tingle, the glow? Why do I feel just a little bit sick.”

“That’s probably the petit fours.” Mac glanced at Laurel. “No offense.”

“None taken. They’re meant to be savored, not popped like candy corn.”

“It’s not the petit fours.” Parker pressed a hand to her stomach. “Or maybe just a little. I don’t have my footing with him, not really.”

“Which is harder on you than most,” Laurel commented. “Love can kick your ass.”

“I always imagined it would be a kind of lifting, that everything got just a little better, and more . . . And more.”

“It does,” Emma insisted. “It can. It will.”

“But first it kicks your ass.” Mac smiled as she lifted her shoulders. “At least in my experience.”

“I don’t like it. I like doing the ass kicking.”

“Maybe you are, and don’t know it,” Emma suggested. “He might be feeling the same way you are. If you told him—”

“Absolutely no way in any circle of hell.” Parker swiped a hand through the air as if to banish the very idea from the face of the planet. “Things are fine, they’re just fine. Besides, let him tell me something for a change. I feel better,” Parker insisted. “I should have vented or spewed or whatever I did before.We’re both enjoying ourselves, and I started overthinking it. It is whatever it is, and that’s just fine. I’ve got a client coming in.”

As Mac started to speak, Emma squeezed her knee under the table. “Me, too. Hey, it’s poker night.Why don’t we have our version. Wine, pizza, movie?”

“I’m in,” Laurel said.

“Sounds good. Why don’t we—” Mac broke off as Parker’s phone rang.

“Somebody run it by Mrs. G. If it’s okay with her, I’m all for it. I have to take this.” Rising, Parker clicked on the phone as she left the room. “Hi, Roni, what can I do for you?”

She had to be grateful the call, the meeting with a client, two more calls, and an emergency consult with the caterer regarding last-minute menu changes took up her time and attention. She couldn’t overthink and obsess about Malcolm or her own feelings when she focused on the details, mini crises, and demands generated by clients.

In any case, she told herself as she finally walked downstairs, she probably wasn’t in love with Malcolm. It was more likely a kind of infatuation blurred by an undeniable sexual haze.

Infatuations were harmless and fun, and could be looked back on when the vision cleared with fondness, even amusement.

Yes, she much preferred the infatuation theory.

Lighter, steadier, she swung into the kitchen to confirm the proposed Girl Night with Mrs. Grady.

“Mrs. G, did you . . .” She trailed off when she saw Malcolm at the breakfast nook.

An old cloth protected the surface of the table, and on it were scattered various tools, various unidentifiable parts of what she assumed was the vacuum cleaner lying gutted on the floor.

“On the phone,” he said, and jerked a thumb toward Mrs. Grady’s rooms.

“I didn’t know you were here.” And that was another thing, wasn’t it? she thought. He so often gave her no time to plan, to prepare, to strategize. “What are you doing?”

“I had a Porsche to baby out this way, so I dropped by. Mrs. G was about to haul this to the household appliance graveyard.” He shook his hair out of his eyes as he loosened a screw, or a bolt, or something that connected a thing to another thing.

“I can fix it.”

Parker walked a little closer. “You can?”

“Probably. Worth a shot.” He tipped his head to smile at her. “It’s not as complicated as a Porsche.”

“I suppose not, but how do you know where everything goes when—if—you put it back together?”

“Because I took it apart.”

She’d have made a list, Parker thought. Drawn a diagram. She watched him fiddle with what might’ve been a motor or part of one. “What’s wrong with it?”

“According to Mrs. G, it started clunking.”

“Clunking?”

“Some clattering, too. You want a lesson in appliance repair, Legs? I can give you some basics, buy you some nice, pretty tools.”

She looked, very deliberately, down her nose at him. “I have tools, thank you very much.”

“Are they pink?”

She flicked the side of his head, made him grin.“Those
are
my tools.”

“Yeah? They’re good ones. Are you done for the day?”

“Hopefully.” Look at his hands, she thought. Naturally she was infatuated. They were so competent, so sure. Just as they were when he put them on her. She took a step back, decided she’d go ahead and have a glass of wine now.

“I thought it was poker night.”

“It is. I’m heading over to Del’s later.”

He hadn’t shaved, she noted, and there were tears and grease stains on his jeans. She supposed the dress code for poker was very, very casual.

“Do you want a drink?”

“No, I’m good.”

He worked in relative silence while she poured herself some wine. Just a muttered curse, a hum of satisfaction now and then. His foot tapped as if to some inner tune, and his hair fell in a dark, disordered mass that made her fingers itch to get into it.

Maybe she was a little in love with him, but that was as harmless as infatuation.Wasn’t it? It wasn’t as if she was planning the rest of her life around him, or with him.

God, why couldn’t she just relax and keep it simple?

“How’s that coming for you, Malcolm?” Mrs. Grady walked back in, winked at Parker.

“I think I’ve got it.”

“Well, once you’ve got that thing back together, you wash up. You can have some cookies and milk.”

He glanced back at her, grinned. “Okay.”

“It’s nice having a handyman around the house.We’ve been a household of women for some time now. Not that we don’t muddle through, but the next time one of the washers gives me grief, I know who to call.”

“
One
of the washers?”

“We’ve a utility room with a set on every floor.”

“Convenient.” He cocked a brow at Parker. “And efficient.”

“It is that. I’m going out with some of the girls tonight. I’ll see to your pizza before I leave,” she said to Parker.

“We can just throw something together,” Parker began. “Just go have fun.”

“I plan to, but I can do both. I’ll be seeing your mother tonight, Mal.”

“Yeah? She’s going?”

“A bite to eat, plenty of gossip.Then who knows what trouble we’ll get into.”

“I’ll make your bail.”

Mrs. Grady laughed in delight.“I’ll hold you to it.” Lips pursed she walked to the table. “Look how you’ve shined up those innards.”

“Needed some adjusting, some cleaning, and the indispensable WD-40. How many of these do you have?”

“Only one like that. It’s an old one, but it’s handy for my rooms. Otherwise Parker’s brought in a fleet of new, spiffy ones so I don’t have to haul a machine up and down the steps if I want to do the floors between cleaning crews. Oh, I ran into Margie Winston. She told me you breathed new life into that rattletrap she drives.”

“That old girl’s got a hundred and eighty-five thousand miles on her.The Pontiac, not Mrs.Winston.”

Parker listened to them talk, easy conversation, as he put the machine back together. That was another point in his favor, she mused, the easy conversation, the way he knew and obviously interacted with his client base.

And the way, when he plugged in the vacuum, tested the suction, he grinned. “She sucks.”

“Would you look at that! And it doesn’t sound likes it’s grinding metal while it’s at it.”

“She should be good for a few more miles.”

“Thank you, Malcolm. You’ve earned the milk and cookies. Just let me put this away.”

“I’ll do it.” He crouched to wrap the cord. “Where do you want it?”

“Just in the utility room there, first closet on the left.”

Mrs. Grady shook her head as he carried the vacuum out. “If I were thirty years younger, I wouldn’t let that one slip away. Hell, I’d settle for twenty and try my hand at being a cougar.”