I closed my eyes, reaffirming that vow. It would be worthy of her. It would be my way to show her what she really meant to me, shitty contract or not. If I had to give in to that, then this was something I could control. And hopefully, this epic wedding would help her forget all this other crap—paperwork and contracts that had no place in a wedding and a marriage.
Every time I thought of it, it made my blood boil.
“So tell me what we’re deciding today,” she said after a long pause and a significant look at the binder.
I snatched up a pen to take notes. “I need to know what color palette you like best and how many bridesmaids.”
“Bridesmaids?” She glanced up at me, as if afraid to give me an answer I’d disapprove of. “I was only going to ask one person.”
“Kat?” I pulled out a pencil and pad of paper, ready to take notes.
She fidgeted. “No. Um. Heath.”
I paused, running that through my mind before turning to write it down on the wedding planner’s to-do list. Emilia bent toward me to get a closer peek at the list.
“How do you have time for all this? Is this what you’ve been working on at night when you get out of bed?”
I grinned. “You think I’m cheating on you with the wedding planner’s notebook?”
“I think you’re trying to do her job for her. We are paying her good money.”
I shook my head. “She’s doing her job just fine. But she needs this info from us, and you aren’t replying to her emails.”
She shook her head and glanced away. “Sorry. But…you are looking a little tired and a lot stressed—”
“I’m fine,” I snapped then took a deep breath and ordered myself to calm down. “No offense, but Heath is going to be one ugly-ass maid of honor.”
“He’s the dude of honor. Or maybe we can call him the bride’s bro.” She laughed uncertainly, as if nervous from my outburst. “Think how cute it will be to see Heath and Jordan walk down the aisle together. And cuddling together in all the pictures.”
My mouth twisted. “I haven’t asked Jordan to be best man.”
She did a double take. “Oh? Why not? Who are you going to have? William?”
I shrugged. My cousin was an option, but it wasn’t a job he’d enjoy. He’d do it, though, if I asked him. Shuffling through the pages in the binder, I searched for a way to change the subject while still getting all the info I needed for the wedding plans.
My hand touched on the envelope full of color palettes. Perfect. “The next thing on the list is colors.” I pulled them out of the envelope and laid them on the desk in front of her.
I honestly didn’t give a shit which one she chose. As long as she chose something. Something she loved.
She tore her eyes away from me mid-scrutiny and stared at the color palettes. I pointed to the first card. “This is all jewel tones, four different colors. She says that’s nice and dramatic for a holiday wedding. Or we have something more seasonable—light blue and silver or red and white. Then there’s the all-metallic palette.”
She rubbed her neck, and I swear she almost shrugged. If she had, I would have lost it. But she didn’t. Then she pointed to the last card. “I like the silver and gold. That’s pretty together, and it looks nice for a New Year’s Eve wedding, too. Festive.”
I let out a sigh. Good. She was finally being cooperative. “I liked that one best, too.”
“Great, then let’s go with that one. We all done?”
“Yeah…”
Her grin widened as she stood up. “Okay. I’m going to force you to have fun now. You’re going to be in San Jose for half a week. You owe me fun before you leave and I have to go days without seeing you.”
Emilia grabbed my hands and pulled me out of my chair.
“Fun.” I sneered, just to mess with her as I followed her out of the room and down the hall.
“Yeah, you seem quite allergic these days.” She turned around and walked backward in front of me so she could face me, still holding my hands, as we headed toward the stairs.
I shook my head. “Makes me break out in a horrible rash.”
“Unless the fun is sex.” She laughed. “Then you’re not allergic at all.”
I stopped, breaking our forward momentum. “Sex? That’s a great idea…I wish I’d thought of it.” I towed her along with me toward the bedroom.
“You’re always thinking of it.” She tugged back, laughing.
I pushed forward, swooping up, and pinning her against the wall. Holding her head in place firmly, I kissed her hard. “How’d you know?”
She laughed and pushed me away. “Later. Consider it your reward for going out and spending the day doing something fun with me.”
I followed her down the stairs, aware that though she’d said those words laughingly, there was a spark of truth in them. She thought I required a reward for leaving work and spending time with her. A normal day of aimless fun.
And she’d never once snapped at me, never acted irritated. I winced from the guilt, grimacing at what that must be leading her to think. And I vowed to do better.
Chapter 8
Mia
Adam was due to return home tonight. He’d only been gone three nights and four days. Not as long as some trips, but still. It never failed that we’d fall into a routine of normalcy, and just as quickly, he’d have to pick up and go away. Sometimes to the East Coast, but more often, lately, up to Silicon Valley. The pluses were that it was a short flight and still in the same time zone as me.
Of course, he’d squish two weeks’ worth of work into that four-day stay in Northern California. He ran from meeting to meeting to facility tour to yet another meeting. And if he did catch a meal that wasn’t filled with power lunch meetings or dinner networking, I was in class or lab or study group. We hardly found a moment to Skype or call, apart from the group emails to our wedding planner.
But as I’d told April, we always found a way to stay connected, in spite of how crazy things got.
So this week, we rocked it with text messages.
In some ways, it was like the old days, when we’d first met over chat on Dragon Epoch. I’d send him a text…sometimes about any old random thing. And he might respond immediately, or he might respond hours later.