Celebrations and Confetti At Cedarwood Lodge. Rebecca Raisin

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ drank, before saying, “The mind is willing, but the body just won’t listen sometimes. Don’t you worry, pet. It’s OK. Nothing is going to stop me from having a party at Cedarwood Lodge. Nothing.” She stuck her chin forward, resolute.

      Once Imelda’s color returned to normal they peeked into the ballroom with cries of delight. “I’m so glad you’re not fussing with it,” she said. “It’s like something out of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.”

      “I know,” I said, her description apt. “Have you thought about themes, colors? Cuisines? I can show…”

      She cut me off. “You’re the expert,” Imelda said. “All I ask is that the room is bright and cheerful, think colorful bunting, and streamers cascading down. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but I’d love for it to look just like we had it all those years ago.”

      An hour later, after firming up more details, we said our goodbyes and I told them to visit any time so they could see the lodge being shaped back into the beauty of its halcyon days.

      Hopefully it would return them to their wedding night and their hearts and souls would be young again, with their whole life ahead of them.

      I couldn’t wait to call Amory and tell her every little thing. And to see if my name was still making the gossip page…

Chapter Three

      “Clio, they sound amazing! So they’ve booked the party?” Amory shrieked as I sat down with a laugh at my desk, ignoring piles of invoices that needed to be paid.

      “They did! And get this: they didn’t want to see color swatches and menus, or a song list. They said I was the expert and just make it bright and colorful. Only kicker is I have to get everything finished and organized in six weeks.”

      “You can do it, that’s what you’re good at. Deadlines.” She let out a laugh. “You lucky thing not having to consult with them every five minutes – why can’t they all be like that?”

      Our clients in New York were pernickety to say the least. Bridezillas were plentiful, and the women weren’t opposed to throwing tantrums a five-year-old would be proud of, but I always rolled with it. It came with the territory to receive phone calls at two a.m. from a blushing bride-to-be, sobbing about centerpieces or tiaras. That’s what separated the good party planners from the bad. My job was to say yes, always.

      I could fix anything, especially under pressure.

      But then I had opened my big mouth.

      Shaking myself out of reverie I said, “I’m sure the next clients won’t be so easy.” In the background phones buzzed and drawers banged. Office life. I felt a pang for it. We lapsed into silence as I debated whether to ask.

      “Darling about…” she hesitated and I steeled myself. Amory always knew what I was thinking without me having to say a word.

      “Don’t tell me. They’re still talking about it? Still?” It had been months. Months since I’d packed up my desk and hidden in my shoebox sized apartment until the sale of Cedarwood had settled. Surely they’d moved on to newer scandals by now? I’d been avoiding the online gossip sites for months in case I saw my own name trapped in a headline once more.

      The previous headlines were still burned into my retinas Party planner to the A-listers tells reality star bride to run from celebrity groom!

      Amory let out a nervous laugh. “Well…”

      I groaned and cupped my face. “Tell me. I can handle it.”

      She took an audible intake of breath before she launched into the whole sorry story. “It seems it’s ramping up. She’s saying you had a thing for the groom, and that’s why you did what you did. Because you were after him and his… money.”

      I let out a squeal of protest. “She didn’t!”

      “She did.”

      “But that’s not true!” I wailed. Outside the sun sank low, coloring the sky saffron.

      Her voice came back a hissed whisper. “I know it’s not true. But you’ve really underestimated her. She’s set on ruining your reputation to save hers.”

      “But my reputation is already ruined! Why does she have to continue with it?” The whole sordid thing was so unfair, and I kicked myself for believing in the blushing bride-to-be when she’d poured her heart out to me minutes before she was supposed to walk down the aisle. I was appalled by her confession – how could she marry someone she didn’t love when her heart belonged to another? With the clock ticking I advised her to run, get out of that church before she made a huge mistake because I believed her tale of woe and didn’t want to see her waste her life with the wrong man! And it turned out to be the stupidest thing I’d ever done.

      Really, I should have known. It was Dealing with Brides 101. Never, ever advise them. Wedding day jitters and cold feet can make a person say the craziest things. It was my job to reassure them, not tell them to run! And these were not your average Manhattanites. He was a millionaire movie star, for God’s sake.

      “She’s vindictive.”

      “I can understand why she’d try and save face. What she told me was pretty damning, but to turn it around like that…” I was bewildered by it. I had only met the groom twice and one of those times was on the aborted wedding day when I had to tell him she’d taken flight. Because of my advice… stupid, stupid, stupid.

      Amory clucked her tongue. “It’s a simple case of: you know too much. She’s got to make you the villain, so nothing rubs off on her. It wouldn’t take a genius to unearth her real story … but it’s juicier with you cast as the crazed infatuated wedding planner.”

      It was so damn ridiculous I could only sigh. Something like this would only happen in New York. “She’s so bloody cunning. I wish I’d shared my side of the story earlier. But it’s too late, no one would believe me now.”

      “She’s called Flirty McFlirtison for a reason,” Amory said sadly.

      I couldn’t help but giggle. Amory had disliked the reality star bride Monica intensely and given her the nickname. It had been tricky to mask our true feelings around her because she’d been the client from hell, unless a man happened to walk by and then she’d bat her lashes, leaving us shaking our heads.

      I should have known never to trust her. The day after the wedding Flirty started doing some major damage control and piling the blame on me. Once the news broke no bride would go near me with a ten foot pole.

      “Jesus, Amory, I thought it would’ve all blown over now,” I said, slumping in my chair and gazing out at the beautiful explosion of color as the sun sank below the mountains.

      “Here’s an interesting twist… it’s come out that he had her sign a watertight pre-nup the night before the wedding, so that’s why she did a runner. You were just the perfect scapegoat. She’s denying that of course.”

      I groaned. “Celebrities. I will never understand them.”

      Still, even after all the A-list weddings I’d planned, I believed true love conquered СКАЧАТЬ