One-Off (8 page)

“Fine,” she reluctantly agreed. “But that was the worst of the appointments so far. Are we sure Gary is the right planner?”

“He does have connections. Like the woman said, most of these caterers are booked solid for the next three months.”

“If Mum were here, she’d insist on being the chef after that dud.”

I turned to face her and smiled. “If I didn’t think it would tax her too much, I’d take her up on the offer. The food would certainly be better.”

Ainsley’s smile flashed bright. Then she remembered that she resented how much her mother liked me. It was her own damn fault. If she’d had fewer classes when her mum came to visit, she could have been done with her exams on Wednesday like I’d been. Instead she needed to study, so Elspeth and I visited the touristy spots together for the rest of the week and had a grand time. “I’ll let her know you said so.”

“What did she say when you told her I was the MOH?”

“MOH?”

“Apparently that’s what you call the maid of honor.”

“Americans.”

“Enough,” I grumbled.

She smiled after landing another jab but said sincerely, “She’s looking forward to seeing you again.”

“So am I. When does she arrive?”

“She was coming the day before the wedding, but she’s decided to come in a few days earlier.”

“Oh?” I wondered what made her change her mind. Probably the shrieking her daughter was doing about having to deal with me on the planning part.

“She wants to lend her hand where she can.”

“It’ll be much appreciated, but hopefully the bride and groom will be back by then. We can turn it over to them.”

“Colin made it sound like they’re in this story for a while.”

“If all goes according to plan, they’ll be back with three days to spare.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“Worst case scenario: they get kidnapped.” Even as I said it, I mentally flinched and chastised myself for joking to deflect my worry. Half joking, in all honesty. The security teams should be enough to prevent that possibility. “Worst case scenario for the wedding: they get back here the day of the ceremony.”

Ainsley halted on the street and reached out to stop me. “He said it could be a little dangerous, but are you kidding?”

I flinched again. Now I’d transferred my speculative worry to her. “We have plenty of security and a firm that specializes in kidnap and ransom recoveries covering them at all times. It’s dangerous, but we’ve taken every precaution.”

“I’ll kill him if he gets killed.”

I chuckled, thankful that she seemed to have the same trait for masking her worry. I was pretty ticked at them both for deciding that they had to be the ones to get this story. It could have been handled by field reporters. It wouldn’t have been as powerful to see our field reporters bringing in the story, but it would have ensured my friend and her fiancé stayed safe.

“Were you always close?” I asked about her and her cousin.

“Aye.” A fond look crossed her face. “As a family, we’d travel to the U.S. for a few weeks every summer. Dad and Colin’s dad were best mates from the PGA tour and my mum and aunt were always close. Colin and his mum would come back to Scotland for the rest of their summer holiday. After my aunt died, Colin would spend summers with us on the farm.”

“All summer?”

Sadness tightened her lips. “His dad was a little lost without his wife. He took a job coaching pro golfers and traveled a lot. He was happy to let Colin spend some time with his mum’s family in Scotland.”

“Friends from the start?”

“Our other cousins would come out to our farm occasionally, but they were all older and thought of Colin and me as pests. We all get along as adults now, but Colin and I were left to knock about on our own as kids.”

“So that’s a yes?” I teased.

“Aye. We shared an apartment at Columbia for two years after my first in the dorms.”

“Then you moved in with Gwen and Petra and got stuck with me.”

“Stuck is right.”

I shook my head. Why did I even try with her?

She gave me a moment to jab back and seemed perplexed when I didn’t. “Are we visiting the second caterer tonight?”

“I have to call—” My cell rang. I looked at the display. “Hi, Gary.”

“What did you do to Katrina?”

“It’s not like we physically hurt her. Calm down.”

“Calm down? You just burned every spec of goodwill I had with those caterers.”

I sighed at his dramatics. “We gave our honest opinion. Oh, and why did she think we were the ones getting married?”

“They pay closer attention if you’re the clients not if you’re deciding for the clients.” He didn’t bother sounding contrite. In fact, he sounded like he enjoyed throwing us into the fire pit of catering pretention.

“That was a bad call on your part. If you haven’t noticed, we don’t exactly get along.” My eyes flicked to Ainsley to see if she objected. Hopeful on my part, and as expected, no rush to object on hers.

“Pull up your big girl pants, Skye. There’s a fabulous wedding to plan.”

“Your compassion pales only to your customer service,” I snarked.

“You’re lucky I’m secretly in love with Dallas.” No surprise there. Dallas just seemed to bring that out of men, even the gay ones. “Anyway, I’ve called ahead to the next place. They can see you in half an hour. You better like what they have to offer. If not, you’ll be hiring a food truck for the wedding. No one else can take them in two and a half weeks.”

“Thanks,” I said with genuine gratitude. He was right. This kind of a tight deadline diminished our options. I ended the call and looked at Ainsley. “He’s upset and we’re down to our last choice.”

“You don’t know another Morgan of catering?”

“Not for this kind of job. If it were sixty people, sure, but two hundred plus, no.”

“Let’s hope the salad looks like a salad.”

I chuckled as we loaded into my car. She really wasn’t that bad. If we’d met just for this, I’d actually like her. I might even enjoy this wedding planning thing. Okay, I wouldn’t enjoy it, but I wouldn’t loathe every second of it either.

Eleven

As I waited for the laptop screen to signal the video call I was expecting, I went through the finance news show’s budget. Far less than the one allocated to Dallas’s cornerstone show, it still had some significant expenses that could be cut. I’d already saved the network almost a million by slashing the riders in the on-air talents’ contracts. Not even Dallas had the gall to ask for a daily supply of water sold exclusively in France. Like we’d fly it in every week just for one host while her entire staff didn’t even have a water cooler with American water to share.

“Chief, someone here to see you.” Tori smiled from the open doorway of my office.

I searched my calendar, wondering how I’d missed this meeting. When nothing came up on the screen, I shot a confused look at her.

“She’s not in your book.”

Sighing, I flipped my hand in a welcoming gesture. I could cut it short as soon as I got the call from Dallas, Colin, and Van.

Ainsley’s face appeared over Tori’s shoulder. “All right?”

I cringed, not ready to deal with her yet. We weren’t meeting until later tonight. I needed time to prepare myself to see her. “Hi, weren’t we meeting later?”

“Colin emailed to say he’d be ringing today. I hoped for a chance to chat to him.”

My breath pushed out as silently as possible. This was mostly going to be a work call, but I couldn’t really deny her the ability to speak to her cousin on the only secure line we had. “They are. You’re just in time. I expect them any minute. I do need to discuss business with them first.”

Her eyes darkened and her jaw ticked. She’d start yipping at me any second. Instead she nodded slowly and tilted her head back toward the open door. “I’ll wait out there. I don’t need a lot of time. I just want to be sure they’re okay.”

“That’s fine. I’m actually glad you’re here. You should be able to stay in touch with them, too.”

“Cheers.” She backed out of the office and closed the door behind her. It was probably the most respectful she’d ever been to me. I could only imagine what she’d tell Tori about me while she was waiting.

A series of bells sounded on the screen. I connected the call and saw Van’s face fill the screen. He looked tired and flushed. “Hey, Skye.”

“Are you well?”

“We’re good. Tense sometimes, but we’re getting what we need so far.”

We couldn’t go into specifics of the story because, despite the secure connection, it didn’t mean it couldn’t be hacked. Talking specifics of the story while they were in the middle of it was asking for trouble.

“Both teams?” I asked.

“B Team is working hard to collect everything and is getting around okay. The extras were a good idea.” He spoke of Dallas working on the stories that would show the damage this general was doing in the country.

“Are they noticeable?”

“Yep.”

I knew Dallas and Colin would be, two groups of mostly Caucasian reporters and crew, but I was hoping the security teams wouldn’t be so obvious. “Drawing the wrong interest?”

He shook his head. “Not yet.”

“The second that happens, you’re on a plane.” We couldn’t risk tipping off the general or any of his supporters to our true intent. If we had to get half a story to keep them safe, that would have to do.

“Will do.”

“Anything else to report?”

“The twins are stressed.”

I snorted at his nickname for Dallas and Colin. He called them twin beauties. “It’s a tough project.”

“And the other project as well.”

He was talking about the wedding. For a moment it gave me hope that I wouldn’t have to continue with this wedding planning torture. “They don’t want to go through with it?”

“The way they’re fighting, I honestly don’t know.”

I shook my head and sighed. This wasn’t their first field reporting trip together, but it was certainly the most stressful. That it kept them from planning the finer details of their own wedding probably wasn’t helping. “Let me talk to them, please.”

He left the screen and came back a minute later with Dallas first. Her face lit up when she saw me. That was one thing about Dallas. There was no confusing how much she cared when she liked someone.

“Hi, bestie,” she crooned at the webcam. “I’m so happy to see your pretty freckled face.”

“How’re you, Dallas?”

“It’s hard. We’re doing what we need to do, but it’s still really hard. Colin’s beyond stressed, and he’s being a butt about it.”

“Van said you guys aren’t really clicking. Is everything okay? Do you still want to go through with it?”

“With what?” Her face showed her confusion. “The project? Yes. It’s going to be amazing, Skye.”

“No.” I hesitated but decided I had to ask about the wedding. “What we’re planning for you.”

“Oh, God, yes, yes, it’s just a thing we’re having right now. It’s tough right now. He’s not in control, and I can’t be part of the planning with you, but we need to keep the date.”

I sat back and breathed out. I wasn’t sure which answer I wanted her to give me. It would be easier if we didn’t have to keep planning this wedding, but it would be a rash decision. Almost as rash as their plan to get married after dating two months and the decision to wed only a month after getting engaged.

“How’s it going? Did you get everything on Gary’s list?”

“So far, yes. The first caterer was a disaster and the florist didn’t have what you needed.”

Her eyes rounded. “What?”

“Don’t worry. We’re using Morgan for flowers and the second caterer. Did you see the menu we sent over?”

“Yeah, it sounds good. I didn’t recognize some of the dishes, but Colin says they’re Scottish favorites.”

“I think it’s good to have a little of both, don’t you?”

“I guess. Right now I’m not sure the big butt deserves it, but it’s just food.”

I chuckled. “Very big of you.”

“Are you sure Morgan can handle that many flowers?”

“She’s getting her mom to take over the store for a couple days so she can concentrate on your order. You know how good she is.”

Her head nodded. I couldn’t blame her concern since we’d heard Morgan tell us many times why she didn’t do wedding flowers. “Why don’t you grab Colin and we’ll all talk.”

I went to the door and spotted Ainsley with her head close to Tori chatting about something. If I had to guess it was related to me and what a horror I was as a roommate.

“Ainsley,” I called. “Colin will be on the line in a second.”

She nodded and winked at Tori before following me into my office. I gestured for her to take my seat as I knelt next to her. Dallas’s eyes widened when she saw Ainsley.

“Cuz!” Colin’s voice hit us before we saw him crowd into Dallas’s screen space. “It’s so great to see you. I feel like it’s been months instead of a week.”

“I’m so happy to see you. Are you safe?”

“We’re good, Ains. Don’t worry. We’ll be home soon.”

“How’s the planning going?” Dallas asked for both our sakes.

Ainsley glanced briefly at me. “Fine. There’s been a lot to decide. We hope we’re getting what you want.”

“You’ll be great,” Colin encouraged. “You know what I like better than I do.”

“But it’s not always what Dallas likes or so Skye keeps telling me.”

He grimaced and looked at Dallas. If he thought she’d give in, he was sadly mistaken. “Unless it’s something you know I’ll object to, take Skye’s recommendations.”

“Oh, baby!” Dallas shrieked and slung her arms around Colin’s shoulders to plant a loud kiss on his cheek.

My eyes rolled. I almost bumped my shoulder against Ainsley before I realized she despised me. “So the menu is okay?” I asked to get them back on track.

“Looks good. Did it taste right, Ainsley?” Colin asked.

“You’ll love it.”

“Did the invitations go out?” Dallas asked.

“We’re addressing them tonight.” She looked like she was going to scold me for not getting it done sooner, but I interrupted her. “The invitations weren’t in yet.”

“Fine, fine,” she allowed. “I’m just worried that some of my family won’t get it in time to respond and get a flight.”