hit the nail on the head when you mentioned missing the deadline for the courtyard garden at the clock house,’ Jake said. ‘It has to be priority now along with getting the gardens ready to open here at the Hall.’
‘And to be completely honest, as well as Jake being swamped with work, so am I,’ Emma admitted. ‘I couldn’t ask for better revenue for Cocktails & Chai but what with the beer festival and the helping Jake and trying to finish up the screenplay … So you see the problem?’ She looked nervously at both Seth and Gloria.
‘Nope,’ Seth said.
‘Again, to clarify, I’m not sacked?’ Gloria got out.
‘Of course not,’ Emma said. ‘Quite the opposite, in fact.’
Gloria’s eyes widened with shock and then immediately narrowed. ‘Opposite?’
Emma took a breath. ‘We actually asked you both to dinner because … well, we’d consider it a lifesaving favour if you and Seth would help us organise our wedding.’
Gloria picked up her glass and drained the contents.
Seth picked up his glass and did the same.
As soon as his glass hit the table, she deftly pushed her glass next to his so that he could refill them both.
‘Define “Help Us”,’ Seth asked.
Jake took a sip from his own glass and then said, ‘We give you a general idea of what sort of wedding we’d like and you—’
‘Do everything to facilitate it?’ Seth helpfully supplied.
‘Not everything,’ Emma rushed to assure. ‘Definitely not everything. We already know our theme for instance, and that usually takes ages to decide.’
‘Eh?’ Gloria stared at her Janeite friend. ‘Won’t you be having a Jane Austen theme?’
‘See?’ Emma grinned. ‘You guessed right away. You’re a natural.’
Seth laughed. ‘So now, instead of the standard bridesmaid/best man duties—’
‘Alongside,’ Jake corrected. ‘Alongside the standard bridesmaid/ best man duties, we’d like it if you could help us out by taking the organising off our hands. We want to get married on the fourth of October, but,’ He turned to direct his formidable stare to Gloria. ‘Gloria has put us in a bit of a bind. A ten weeks to go bind, to be precise’ he added.
‘And what have I done?’ Seth wanted to know.
‘Nothing,’ Jake said quietly. ‘But you’re the only other one with extra time on their hands.’
‘Unbelievable,’ Seth said with a shake of his head, and then after one more giant gulp of wine, added, ‘Okay. I’m in.’
‘Excellent,’ Jake said as if he’d never expected there to be an issue.
‘Oh, Seth I knew you wouldn’t let us down,’ Emma said.
Both Jake and Emma turned to stare at Gloria.
She took another gulp of wine.
So Seth wasn’t going to let them down but obviously she was?
Who was she kidding? Of course she was going to let them down.
For their own good because no way did she have enough ‘nice’ inside her to be personally involved in planning their wedding.
‘Why not just ask Seth and I to get married for you and save us all the giant time-suck headache of “only ten weeks to go”,’ she said, reaching for her refilled glass of wine.
As Emma’s expression went from appalled to intrigued, Gloria wanted to slap herself again.
Why on earth had she gone and said that?
Clearly this was a case of No More Red Wine For Gloria.
As she pushed the unfinished glass out of temptation’s way she caught Emma looking strangely pleased as she looked between her and Seth.
Oh no.
No way.
‘Matchmaking Emma’ was even more annoying than ‘Happy Dancing Emma’.
‘I just need one favour in return,’ Seth dropped into the conversation, cutting off her analysis.
Both Emma and Jake’s heads swivelled to Seth.
‘A teensy-tiny one,’ he added, repeating Emma’s words back to them.
Gloria looked at Seth like he was insane. ‘You’re agreeing to this?’
‘Careful,’ he told her with a grin, ‘only with your mouth opening and closing like that, it’s less armadillo and more spirit fish.’
Gloria snapped her mouth closed.
If she was a fish, she could at least swim for safer shores, she thought, searching her repertoire of responses for tactfully declining.
Her stomach churned.
Never had the struggle to mine her limited diplomatic reserves for the best answer been more real.
How on earth did she tactfully say she absolutely wasn’t going to team up with the only other person in Whispers Wood who currently hated weddings as much as she did?
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
