“Great,” I said with fake cheer. “I’ll put him on the books for today.” I quickly scrolled through his calendar and grinned. “He has time on his lunch break.”
“Oh, that’s perfect. I’ll make sure to have lunch ready for him.”
“And take lots of pictures,” I reminded her.
She chuckled deviously. “Like I could forget.”
I smiled and hung up the phone, only for it to ring just a few seconds later. “Did you forget something?”
“Yes, I forgot to set up a time with you to go over all the wedding information,” Robert’s deep voice came over the phone. I gritted my teeth and growled.
“I don’t need you to help me with this. You shoved this off on me last night, remember?”
“I do, and I felt bad about that. I thought I should come down and help you with the planning. I could be there by seven tonight. I’ll bring dinner.”
“Excuse me? I never said that I wanted your help on this, and I didn’t ask you to bring dinner. I don’t need you to feed me.”
“Well, that’s too bad. When Eric finds out just what he and Kat are getting, he’s going to be pissed. He’ll expect me to be involved, so I’m coming down there tonight so we can get a jump start on this.”
“I have plans,” I replied sweetly.
“Cancel them.”
“Sorry, I can’t. I was planning on sharpening my knives for the next time I ran into you.”
“You know, you’re a lot different than the last time we were together.”
“Of course I’m different, and we’re not together.”
“You never used to be violent.”
“Well, what can I say, you never made me want to kill you until you strolled into my life and acted like you had a say in it.”
“Do you still like Chinese?”
“You’re not coming.”
“I’ll see you at your place at seven.”
He hung up and I tossed the phone back down, only to pick it up and call him back. It went straight to voicemail. I screamed in frustration and slammed the phone back down just as Eric walked in the office. His eyes were wide as he slowly moved forward.
“Okay, I can see that you’re upset, but I don’t have any donuts with me. I can call in an order,” he said quickly. “I practically have Mary Anne on standby these days.”
I stood and walked around the desk slowly, my anger reaching a boiling point. “Your brother shoved this whole wedding off on me last night. He interrupted my date!”
“Uh…I’m sorry?”
“You’re sorry?”
“Look, he was supposed to stop all that from continuing. I’m not sure what happened.”
“What happened is he came over and started acting all tough and in charge in front of my date.”
His brows furrowed. “Who were you on a date with?”
“Carter Roy.”
“Corduroy?” he snorted and then covered his mouth. “Sorry, old habits die hard.”
“His name is Carter and he’s very nice.”
“I know he is. I just never pictured you ending up with a guy like him.”
“And who exactly did you see me ending up with?”
He smiled at me sheepishly.
“That ship has sailed. Your brother and I are nothing.”
“Yeah, that’s why he interrupted your date at the restaurant.”
“Bar.”
“Whatever. I know my brother. He wouldn’t have gone up to you if he didn’t have unresolved issues.”
“Well, those issues are his. Now, what am I supposed to do about this whole wedding thing? Half the town has already decided what they’re going to do for the wedding.”
“Tell them to fuck off. I don’t want the town taking over my wedding.”
“You do realize that they’re excited for you because you’re the town golden boy, right? I mean, after that whole #GetKatBack thing, they think they’re part of your lives. I don’t think you’ll be able to get them to back off.”
“Just tell them I don’t want or need their services. This is private. Kat doesn’t want everyone in town at the wedding.”
I smiled at him. “Sure, no problem. I’ll start making calls immediately.”
“Thank you.”
“I would be prepared for this wedding to cost twice as much though.”
He did a double take and sank down into the chair in front of my desk. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, the florist was going to do your flowers at cost. Mrs. Cranston was going to make your cake, but I would imagine now you’ll have to pay a few hundred dollars for that. Pastor Andrew said that he would be happy to make sure the church was available, free of charge, but I’m guessing that will go away