“You say that now, but when Wendy and William want to get married while riding the prize pigs they both raised, you might find yourself with a thought or two.”
“Prize pigs?”
“It’s an example.” She glared at him. “I’m serious, Jasper. For you this is work, for them, it’s their lives. They will remember their wedding forever. You can’t get in the middle of that.”
“I know that, but why do you think I’d want to get in the middle of anything?”
“You get involved in your research. You learn by doing. I’ve heard about the fighting sticks and who knows whatever methods you use to figure out how to do stuff. I don’t want you getting into that level of detail with my weddings.”
“You’re really protective of them.”
“Of course I am.”
He put both feet on the ground and leaned toward her. “Renee, I give you my word that I won’t get personally involved in any of your weddings. All I want to do is observe you and learn about what you do.”
“It all sounds fine,” she grumbled.
“You don’t believe me?”
“Oh, I believe you mean what you say now. But I don’t trust you not to change the rules.”
“That will never happen.”
“Sure. You go to hell for lying, same as stealing.”
He grinned. “I haven’t heard that one in a long time.”
“The point is still valid.”
She knew she was going to regret allowing him into her world and at the same time she was oddly excited about the idea of Jasper learning about what she did. Later, she would have a serious talk with herself and figure out what exactly was going on with her brain. But until then...
She unlocked a drawer in her desk and pulled out a tablet and charger.
“You’ll need the tablet to keep up with what’s going on with the various weddings,” she told him. “I have a firm ‘you break it, you bought it’ policy, so respect the property.”
He studied her. “You’re tough.”
“Yes, I am. You need to respect that, too.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He picked up the tablet and turned it on, then waited while it booted. “How did you get to be a wedding planner? Is it something you study?”
“Not exactly. I was a marketing major in college.” After her attempt to get into fashion had failed spectacularly, she thought sadly. “I liked marketing but I didn’t love it. On a whim, I applied for a job as a wedding planning assistant in Bel Air.”
“Fancy.”
“It was. I discovered I had a flair and one thing led to another. After I learned the business, I started looking for a different location. That led me to here.”
His gaze settled on hers. “I’m glad it did.”
The quivers in her tummy were unexpected but very nice. “Me, too.”
He glanced at his tablet. “It’s ready.” He looked again. “How many weddings are in this thing?”
Renee picked up her own tablet and glanced at the index. “We average one and a half weddings a week or about seventy-five a year. We can hold as many as three a week—Friday night, Saturday and Sunday—but we try not to. Everyone gets too tired and cranky.”
He shook his head. “That’s a lot of weddings.”
“It is. Most of the weddings we’re doing these days are multiday events. With the entire wedding party coming into town from somewhere else, it makes sense. We can host a rehearsal dinner on Friday night and a brunch on Sunday morning with the wedding as the main event on Saturday. As soon as bride and groom sign with us, they have their own file. You’ll see their names listed in alphabetical order, bride first.”
She looked at him. “We usually have the most contact with the bride. If we have two men getting married, or two women, we list under our point of contact. All right, click on Jackson/Kincaid.”
Jasper did as she asked, then looked at the display. “I get it. There are tabs for every category. Guest list, flowers, catering, decorations. Huh.” He touched the display. “So the calendar tells you what needs to be done when. Green means it’s good, yellow is pending and red is trouble?”
“Exactly. I can easily print the calendar. I can also print out a to-do list for each wedding. Every week I print out a master list, so I know where we are on each wedding and what needs to be done and the status on pending orders. Because Happily Inc is a wedding destination town, our vendors work with us all the time. I don’t have