Blush - Jamie Brenner Page 0,74

pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She kissed him back, the sun warm on her neck and shoulders.

“I’m sorry. I really wanted to do something to help. I wanted to fix things.”

“Leah, you always do your best. This isn’t yours to fix.” He reached for her hand, squeezing it. “So come home to what is yours.”

* * *

Hundreds of people filled the veranda. It was perhaps not the best day to be meeting with the party planner about using the space for Asher and Bridget’s wedding, but then Vivian hadn’t been consulted on the matter.

Bridget and Patricia Curtis stood at the base of the steps, next to the hedge of sea grass. Patricia spotted her and waved.

Vivian waved back, trying to smile. She pulled her sunglasses down over her eyes. No, she had not been consulted about the timing of the appointment, but Asher had made it clear that he wanted her to be more involved with the wedding planning—not for her actual help or input, but to make Bridget feel welcomed into the family. “I don’t want this business stuff to put a dark cloud over the most special time in her life. And mine,” he said.

This business stuff? She had been sorely tempted to tell him what she was really thinking: Why waste time planning a wedding when Bridget would soon realize her sugar daddy was sugar-free? Frankly, she was surprised the girl hadn’t already headed for the hills. But then, the “optics”—as Asher would say—still looked good. It was hard, even for her, to reconcile the life they were living today with what might lay in store for tomorrow. If she could still experience moments of denial, surely Asher’s fiancée could labor under similar delusions.

Trying to look on the positive side, Vivian had always wanted to throw a family wedding at the vineyard. She’d thought certainly that would happen with Leah, but her daughter had eloped. Vivian had been terribly disappointed by that decision, and while Leah insisted it had nothing to do with her anger at her father for excluding her from the family business, Vivian felt certain that it did.

So while planning a wedding for the woman standing in front of her was not exactly what she had dreamed of, it was at the very least her chance to plan a family celebration. And it gave her a way to fill her time, to be constructive instead of sitting around wringing her hands. Vivian hadn’t had a big project in a long time. She needed this.

“Just to get you up to speed,” said Patricia, “the last time I met with Bridget and Asher, we discussed a configuration of ten round tables of ten guests, with the family table and the bride and groom’s table on the veranda and the rest of the space used as the dance floor.”

Vivian shook her head. “When I entertain out here, we do fewer tables, rectangular but long, and perhaps in this instance we’d plan seating on just one side so everyone is facing the veranda. No tables on the veranda. The back will still function as the bar, so we want a clear path for the guests.”

Bridget played with a lock of her hair. The roots were coming in dark, so many inches it could not be an oversight but rather a deliberate aesthetic choice.

“Actually,” Bridget said, “Asher and I are thinking differently now.”

Vivian and Patricia looked at her expectantly.

“I knew it,” Patricia said. “Your guest list has expanded.” She winked at Vivian. Those crazy kids.

The guest list. Vivian had lost sleep over it. The cost of throwing a proper wedding was the last thing they needed right now. She had discussed this with Leonard, asking how best to cut corners to keep things going as long as possible.

“Canceling the wedding would be a Band-Aid over a bullet wound,” he’d said. “Might as well bleed it out.”

So it would be a last hurrah, the final celebration at the estate they had built from nothing. It would also be a way to save face with the industry, the press, and their friends: they were selling the winery, but they were not down, and they certainly were not out.

“Bridget, my husband and I have our own guest list to add. So it will certainly be well over the hundred people you’re already planning on. That’s factoring into my thoughts about the tables.”

“Well, what I was going to say is that Asher and I just decided we’re not having any