Four Weddings and a Swamp Boat Tour - Erin Nicholas Page 0,95
lot. They had amazing chemistry. He was a great friend. One of her best. He understood her, he didn’t judge her, he didn’t… push.
He wouldn’t push.
If she wanted more from him, she was going to have to ask for it.
And what if he said no?
She had never asked a guy for something. Ever. Men asked her out, to go to dances and dinner, to go back to their place for the night, to meet their families. To marry them.
Hell, Mitch hadn’t even introduced her to his family.
They’d totally introduced themselves.
She’d run into Kennedy before she’d even seen Mitch.
It wasn’t as if she could have been in Autre for two and a half months and avoided them, but the only person Mitch had actually introduced her to had been his dad.
Wow, maybe she was really jumping ahead here.
She could very well ask Mitch Landry to marry her, and he might just freaking say no.
The phone rang, and when Paige saw the number, she immediately reached for it.
"Kennedy, what's going on?"
"Hey, Paige," Kennedy greeted. “I was hoping to just run into you, but I haven’t seen you yet. I was going to ask if you would be able to pick up the balloons for us Tuesday morning."
"The balloons?" Paige frowned. What balloons? What was Tuesday? "I'm on my way to Iowa for a wedding."
There was a hesitation on Kennedy's end of the phone. Then she asked, "Iowa?"
"Yes. My friend Piper is getting married tomorrow. It’s a surprise, so I didn't have time to plan for it much." She paused, but couldn't help but ask. "Didn’t Mitch tell you?"
"I didn't ask Mitch about you. I needed you, so I called you directly." Kennedy sounded puzzled, which Paige had to admit made sense. If Mitch and Kennedy hadn't talked, then Kennedy had no idea that Paige was no longer in Autre.
"I’m sorry I’m not around to help. But what are the balloons for?" It occurred to Paige how nice it was that Kennedy was calling her for help. Over the course of the last couple of months with the weddings, she had become more directly involved, and people seemed to have gotten more comfortable coming to her directly. She liked that. She wanted to be involved, and she loved the idea that they were comfortable asking, knowing that she wanted to help out.
“The grand opening of the otter enclosure,” Kennedy told her.
Paige sat straight up in bed. The otter enclosure? There was a grand opening planned? She hadn't heard anything about it. It was happening on Tuesday? “I had no idea that was happening.”
“I guess I just assumed that you knew. It was crazy trying to plan it with all the wedding stuff going on, but you were handling all of that for us, so we were able to put together the grand opening when Mitch got the enclosure done ahead of schedule. Maybe no one thought to mention it to you because you were so busy with wedding preparations.”
There was a long pause where neither woman said anything.
Then Kennedy voiced exactly what Paige was thinking.
“But Mitch didn't say anything to you?”
Paige shook her head, even though the other woman couldn’t see her. “No.”
Again, there was a pause. Then Paige and Kennedy said simultaneously, “Of course he didn't.”
Paige sighed. Of course, Mitch wouldn't have mentioned to her that they were making a big deal out of something he had done. She'd known that the otter enclosure was finished and that plans had been underway to open it to visitors soon. But she’d had no idea there would be a formal event for it.
“Is Mitch with you?” Kennedy asked. “Because I'm going to kill him if he left town with this grand opening happening. That would be just like him, to skip out when we were trying to praise and acknowledge him.”
Paige had to agree that that seemed very in character for Mitch. She thought for a moment. Was this why he had turned down going to the wedding with her? But she immediately knew the answer to that. Mitch would never put something of his own ahead of something of hers. In fact, he never put himself ahead of anyone else. But certainly not her. Even if he had been excited about the grand opening, which she very much doubted that he was, he still would have skipped it to accompany her to her best friend's wedding in Appleby.
“No,” Paige told Kennedy. “He sent me to Iowa alone.”