“You mean I get to plan the whole wedding, make it the way I want it to be and…What about the mothers? The mothers will never let me do that. They’ll want to step in and put this production together.”
“No way,” Luke said. “They’re as different as day and night, those mothers. My aunt and Precious’s mom together are a war waiting to happen. They’re not going to know a thing about it.
“They’ll get an invitation in the mail, just like everyone else who is invited. They’ll pout for a while, I suppose, but then they’ll jump right into fast-forward and start thinking about becoming grandmothers, and all will be well.”
“This is crazy,” Maggie said, shaking her head.
“No, this is exactly the way it should be done.” Luke leaned forward, only inches from Maggie as he looked directly into her eyes. “You pretend this is your dream wedding, Maggie. Make the decisions based on what you would want if you were getting married.”
“Oh…my…gracious,” Maggie whispered.
“The thing is, Clyde and Precious feel they’d better be kept up to date on what’s what, you know what I mean? Just in case the moms quiz them later on why they decided on something. For example, if you have them get married in a hot-air balloon, they want to be prepared with a solid story about how they have this thing for hot-air balloons. Get it?”
“I…”
“Therefore, I’ll be sticking pretty close to you through this whole endeavor so I have all the details straight to pass along to them as we go. My father will take up the slack for me at the office to free up some of my time because Clyde is his favorite nephew. My dad is semiretired, but for this occasion he’s willing to put in extra hours.
“So I’d say that about covers it. Remember, no expense spared. Oh, and Precious is about your size, so there shouldn’t be any problem about your picking out her wedding dress—if you want a traditional wedding dress. That’s up to you. Any questions?”
“I-I’m stunned,” Maggie said, shaking her head. “I’m having difficulty comprehending all this because it’s so…I can’t even think of a word to describe it.”
Try brilliant, Luke thought smugly. The Plan was nothing short of brilliant. Maggie would produce the wedding of her dreams. He had set it up perfectly to be able to stick close to her through the whole thing and he’d be chipping away at those walls of hers little by little, brick by emotional brick.
She would come to love him, just as he loved her. God, she just had to fall in love with him, want to marry him and spend the rest of her life by his side. Ah, please, Maggie.
“Will you do it?” Luke said. “I mean, take on this project?”
“Well, yes, of course I will. Yes.”
“Great. That’s even more than great. Thank you, Maggie, from the bottom of my heart. I’m really grateful. That is, Clyde and Precious will be very grateful to you for doing this.” Luke paused. “I realize that you don’t wish to ever marry, but that doesn’t mean you haven’t thought about the kind of wedding you’d like to have if you intended to marry, even though you don’t…intend to marry. Right? Did that make sense?”
“I think so,” Maggie said, frowning slightly. “Yes, I understand what you said. And I suppose I do wonder about how I would do things each time I coordinate a wedding. It’s human nature, you know what I mean?
“For example, when Ginger finally settled on pale yellow as one of her colors, I couldn’t help feeling that with so many blond bridesmaids a deeper shade would have been more striking. Of course, I didn’t say that to Ginger, but I was thinking it.”
“There you go,” Luke said, nodding. “That’s exactly what I was referring to. Have you ever put together a holiday wedding before?”
“No.”
“Then you won’t be influenced by a previous bride’s choices. The decisions will be exclusively yours.” Luke beamed. “Won’t that be fun?”
“I…”
“You’re not scheduled to do another wedding right away, are you?” Luke said. “You’re free to concentrate totally on Clyde and Precious’s do?”
“Their wedding will have Roses and Wishes’ undivided attention,” Maggie said, smiling.
“Great.” Luke frowned. “Mmm. The church. Which one would you pick?”
“Me? Well, I happen to be Episcopalian, but—”
“Terrific. You can book the same church that Ginger and Robert had. That will suit Clyde and Precious just fine.”
“Well, sure. Okay. Goodness, my head is spinning. This is rather overwhelming because it’s so…strange. What about bridesmaids? The dresses have to be custom-fitted, you know.”
Oops, Luke thought. Quick, St. John, come up with a solution to that.
“Well,” he said slowly. “Who would you choose as your attendants?”
“Me? My sister and my best friend.”
“That’s all? Just two?”
Maggie laughed. “Not everyone has seven bridesmaids like Ginger, Luke.”
“True,” he said. “Two. I’ll pass that on to Precious. Why don’t you find out what size dresses your two choices wear, and the seamstress or whatever you call her can adjust to the size of Precious’s bridesmaids.”
“Well, it’s not perfect, but it might work if there’s time enough to nip and tuck before the actual wedding—provided, of course, that everyone is at least close to matching in size. My sister Janet wears a twelve. My best friend Patty is a ten.”
“And you?”
“Me? I wear a size eight.”
“Got it. I’ll double-check all three of those numbers with Precious.” Luke paused. “There. Problem solved. We’re a good team, Maggie Jenkins.” Luke looked directly into Maggie’s big brown eyes. “A very good team. You. Me. Together.”
“Together,” Maggie whispered as she stared into Luke’s mesmerizing eyes.
She was about to start planning her fantasy wedding, Maggie mused dreamily. The one she would never have but had thought about so very much. And Luke St. John would be beside her every step of the way, as though he was the groom and she was the bride and…This was totally bizarre.
And very, very dangerous.
She had to keep herself grounded in reality through the months ahead, not get emotionally caught up in what she and Luke were doing. It was an unusual project assigned to Roses and Wishes, that’s all.
The bride was Precious, the groom was Clyde. She must remember that at all times. And keeping her head and heart straight would be a lot easier if she quit gazing into those compelling eyes of Luke’s.
“Well,”
