for letting it get this far, and not thinking, not staying anywhere close to Planet Reality.”
“You’re not talking about Scary Linda now,” Laurel concluded.
“Oh, Mac.” Emma’s eyes darkened in sympathy. “You had a fight with Carter.”
“No. Yes. No.” Frustrated, Mac spun around. “You can’t have a fight with someone like him. People in a fight yell, or storm around. They say things they regret later. That’s why they call them fights. All he can do is be reasonable.”
“Damn the man,” Laurel stated and earned a vicious glare.
“You try it. You try to make someone like Carter understand you’ve taken the wrong direction and have everything you say bounce off the wall of calm logic.”
“You broke up with him.” From the tone, Emma’s sympathy took a sharp turn toward Carter.
“I don’t know what I did. Besides, how can you break up with someone when you haven’t said you’re together? Officially. It’s me, it’s my fault, and he won’t even listen to that. I know I let it go too far. I got caught up, swept up. Something. And when my mother walked in this morning, it was a solid slap back to reality.”
“You’re going to let her push your buttons on this?” Parker demanded.
“No. It’s not like that.” Mac spoke fiercely because part of her worried it was like that. Exactly like that. “I don’t want to hurt him. That’s what it comes down to. He thinks he’s in love with me.”
“Thinks?” Laurel repeated. “Can’t be?”
“He’s romanticized it. Me. Everything.”
“This would be the same man who can only be reasonable. The calm wall of logic.” Lips pursed, Parker tilted her head. “But about you he’s stuck in fantasy?”
“He can have layers,” Mac argued, suddenly feeling tired and defeated.
“I think the question on the table should be not how Carter feels or doesn’t feel about you, but how you feel or don’t about him. Are you in love with him, Mac?”
Mac stared at Parker. “I care about him. That’s the point.”
“I call evasion,” Laurel said. “It’s a question that can be answered yes or no.”
“I don’t know! I don’t know what to do with all these feelings crammed inside me. He walks into my life, smacks his head into the wall, and I’m the one who’s dizzy. You said he wasn’t my type, right off the bat you said that. And you were right.”
“Actually, I think that’s one of the rare times I’ve been wrong. But you have to decide that for yourself. What’ll piss me off, Mac, what’ll disappoint is if you use Linda as your yardstick when it comes to love. Because she doesn’t even rate a measure.”
“I need some time, that’s all. I need time to find my balance, my rhythm. I can’t seem to find either when I’m around him.”
“Then take it,” Parker advised. “Be sure.”
“I will. I have to be.”
“One thing. If he loves you, I’m on his side.”
KATHRYN SEAMAN ARRIVED WITH HER DAUGHTER JESSICA AT exactly ten Monday morning. It was the sort of punctuality, Mac knew, that would warm Parker’s efficient heart. But she found it just a little scary.
Overwork, nerves, and emotional turmoil roiled an uneasy mix in her belly as she sat with her partners and potential clients in the parlor. Emma’s flood of tulips brought spring into the room even as the crackling fire in the hearth warmed it. Parker had set up her grandmother’s gorgeous Meissen tea and coffee sets, the Waterford crystal, and Georgian silver, all the perfect complement to Laurel’s glossy pastries.
If she’d needed a picture of lush, sophisticated, and female, this would’ve been it.
After the ritual small talk about the weather, Parker eased right in. “We’re so excited you’re considering Vows for your big day. We understand how important it is that you feel comfortable and confident in every detail that goes into creating a wedding that reflects who you are, and what you and Josh mean to each other. We want you to enjoy that day, and all the days leading up to it, knowing you are our focus. We want what you want, a perfect and beautiful day full of memories to last the rest of your life.
“With that goal in mind, we’ve put together a few ideas. Before I show you the first proposal, do you have any questions?”
“Yes.” Kate Seaman opened the notebook on her lap. As her daughter laughed and rolled her eyes, she began peppering Parker with questions.
Parker’s answers were invariably yes. They provided that, would handle that, had a source for