in the group, what with Neil being so absent from the planning. She kept insisting that it was worthwhile to have a male perspective along with them for input, but Brooke suspected the woman simply enjoyed Grant’s company.
So Brooke wasn’t shocked to see Grant. But Maya had specifically said Neil would be here today—that he’d regretted having to travel so much and wanted to be actively involved in more of the planning. Oh well. If Brooke were totally honest, she felt more comfortable around Grant than Neil.
She smiled as she crossed the cavernous space toward the two friends, although her smile froze just a touch when she got close enough to see their expressions.
Something wasn’t right.
Maya was smiling, but it was too wide, and her eyes had a slightly wild look about them. And her ponytail looked like it had been hastily styled rather than gathered and teased into its usual classy perfection.
Grant gave Brooke a dark look before bending his long body to give her a brief peck in greeting. “Hi, Brookey,” he said quietly. It was his usual greeting, but it lacked his normally warm, jocular tone. There was no sign of the playful Grant she’d grown so accustomed to. He looked every bit as brittle as Maya.
“What’s wrong?” Brooke asked, not bothering to pretend that everything was okay when it so clearly wasn’t.
Brooke wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Maya’s smile seemed to grow even wider. Even more false. “I have news!”
Out of the corner of her eye, Brooke saw Grant’s jaw clench as though he was gritting his teeth. Whatever Maya’s news was, he didn’t like it.
“Oh yeah?” Brooke asked, using her best soothe-the-bride voice.
What she wouldn’t give for a piece of furniture right now to plop said bride onto, because Maya looked ready to snap in half.
“We changed the wedding date!” Maya said, her voice too loud. The announcement echoed throughout the room, and though Brooke registered surprise, there was also relief—because based on their facial expressions, she’d thought it was much worse.
“Well, that’s no problem,” she said, reaching out to touch Maya’s hand. “People move dates all the time. Did you guys decide December’s just too hectic after all? Because we could just as easily transition to a late-autumn wedding, or even January if you wanted to stick with the winter theme.”
Grant’s tongue pushed out his cheek as he rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. Maya just continued to stare blankly at her, and Brooke’s surprise turned to panic.
“What am I missing?”
This time Maya’s eyes darted away as Grant met Brooke’s gaze. “March. They want to move the wedding up to March,” he said plainly, his voice sounding oddly flat and devoid of emotion.
“March!” Brooke burst out, before she could think better of it. “As in . . . next month?”
Maya nodded, and her horrible forced smile finally collapsed. “Neil and I . . . talked. Everything was just taking so long, and he thought—we thought—do we really want to wait that long to be married?”
Brooke’s mind was spinning. This was not good. Not that she hadn’t worked under these kinds of conditions before. Changing the date was uncommon, but not unheard of. Unplanned pregnancies and ailing parents could often change the timeline. Sometimes it was a couple deciding that they didn’t want the fuss, or a change in financial situation calling for a simpler-than-planned wedding.
But instinct told her that something else was at work here.
Plus that meant the wedding was a month away.
That was too fast. Granted, speed could be achieved with money, and the Tylers weren’t hurting for it, but . . .
Uh-oh.
Seth was holding the purse strings. And although he’d seemed more or less resigned to the wedding, something told her he wasn’t going to deal well with this new timeline.
She itched to ask Maya if she’d told her brother, but right now wasn’t about Seth and his issues with Neil. Right now was about Maya and the fact that the woman looked moments away from tears.
“We can make a March wedding work,” Brooke said soothingly, rubbing a hand over Maya’s arm. “But, sweetie, you know I have to ask . . . are you sure this is what you want?”
Maya’s hand shook just a little as she lifted it to brush a wisp of hair away from her temple. “Neil said that if I loved him, it shouldn’t be about the wedding, but about the marriage.”
Brooke thought she heard Grant growl, and silently, she echoed his sentiments. While true that