outdone yourself. She’s absolutely going to love this. Wow.” He spun to look around the room again. “Julie, this is amazing.”
“It will look better tomorrow night with all the candles lit, but yeah, I think it works, doesn’t it?”
He could see them all now. Candles covered every available surface in the room. The large room was divided into three areas for the intimate wedding. There was an area for the wedding ceremony, tables for the reception, and then a dance area and bar for after the reception. Everything was covered with the same gauzy material that was woven within the lights and exposed metal beams on the ceiling.
The vineyard building was an industrial building with a vibrant green ceiling, but it kept a warm feeling because the walls were variations and textures of dark brown. All the candles were shades of green to complement the ceiling and the colors Cassie chose for the wedding. He could see just how stunning the entire effect would be tomorrow night.
“It more than works. You’ve done such an amazing job with this. It’s truly fantastic.”
“Hopefully, Cassie and Jake agree. I want everything to be perfect for them tomorrow.”
Chapter 16
The silent Sunday morning was shattered by the annoyingly shrill beep of her alarm clock. As Julie rolled over to turn it off, her lungs seized up and she began to cough. The horrible hacking movement of her lungs literally hurt. Oh God. She couldn’t deal with this today. She just had to make it through one more day and then she could spend the rest of the week in bed. The coughing continued as she struggled to pull herself out of bed. Sliding out from beneath the covers, a shiver racked her. Yep, damn, the fever was still there, too. She had a feeling she was going to have to go in for some antibiotics soon.
Stumbling into the kitchen, she filled a glass of water, and began popping the various cold medicines scattered over the counter. The goal was to make it through this day, no matter what it took. Everything from her waist up hurt, but especially her chest which seemed determined to seize up and cough. Hoping some hot tea might help, she filled her old battered tea kettle with water and set it back on the stove to heat.
After that, she slumped down into one of the bar stools at the breakfast bar. Her bed called for her, but there was just too much to do. Opening the binder, she began to work on her lists for the wedding.
* * *
Two hours later, Julie peered critically into the mirror. They had a makeup and hair team coming to make up all the girls at Cassie’s, but there was no way that she could have shown up there looking like death warmed over. So Julie had created a heavy base coat of concealer, base, and blush, just hoping that Penelope and Cassie would be too caught up in the excitement of the day to notice.
They didn’t need to know just how sick she was. In fact, that was her plan for dealing with everyone today. She’d stay on periphery, get things done, and away from other people, most especially Chris or Pete. They both knew how sick she’d been this week, so they’d be watching her for weakness. She couldn’t show any. Not today. She was in control. She could do this. Just a few more hours and then she could sink back into the comforting embrace of her bed.
Cassie deserved to have everything perfect for this day. To that end, a team had been sent to her house early this morning to pamper her.
Besides, she didn’t want to expose them to any more germs than she already had. Penelope certainly didn’t need to get sick with her pregnancy and Cassie was headed out on her honeymoon. Hopefully neither one of them had picked up her cold last night. She’d tried to breathe away from them all night.
As she walked back into her kitchen, she glanced out the window to Chris’s door. She recalled last night. That light kiss. Longing spread throughout her soul, so strong she wanted to crouch down on the floor from the weight of it. Watching him in the moonlight had been heaven, even with as sick as she was.
Could they have a future together? She wanted to hope, but as long as there were still secrets, that wouldn’t be fair to him. But it seemed wrong to tell