You Say It First--A Small-Town Wedding Romance Read online

  “Grandpa Frank wants to talk to me.”

  “About?”

  Cade hesitated just enough to make her curious.

  “The horse ranch.”

  “What?” She flung herself at him again. “Are you serious? He’s finally going to let you run it?”

  “Looks that way.”

  Cade had been obsessed with horses since he was a little kid. Grandpa Frank had a stable full of gorgeous horses outside of town. He’d raised American quarter horses for years and in the past decade or so had taken an interest in Arabian horses. As a teen, Cade had begged his grandfather to give him a job at the ranch, but Grandpa Frank had said he wasn’t ready. When he graduated from high school, Cade had left Happily Inc. In part to follow his dream and in part, Pallas had always suspected, to get away from their mother.

  “I’d love having you close,” Pallas told him. “Can you handle having Mom in the neighborhood, as well?”

  He kissed her nose. “You always had more trouble with her than me. I tune her out. You take things to heart.”

  “Maybe I’ve changed.”

  “I don’t see any pigs flying around, so I’m going to say no.”

  She sighed. “One day I will. One day I’ll stand up to her. You’ll see.”

  She thought about their lunch today. While she’d told her mother what she thought, she’d also bolted rather than face the consequences. Still it was a form of progress. Baby steps, she told herself.

  “Where are you staying?” she asked. “Want to bunk with me?”

  “No, thanks. I’ve seen your tiny house. Plus, you have too many girlie things in the bathroom.”

  “You mean the matching towels and candles?”

  “That would be them.”

  She grinned. “Afraid you’ll wake up with boobs?”

  He laughed. “Not really.”

  “So where are you staying?”

  “At the big house.”

  Which in their family meant the Saunders/Dineen home, not prison. Although a case could be made that there were similarities.

  “Just until I find out what Grandpa Frank wants,” Cade added. “If it is a job at the ranch, I’ll live out there.”

  “Outside the county line,” she said wistfully. “You’re lucky.”

  “You left off handsome.” He put his arm around her. “It’s good to be me, sis. Now I’m hungry. You need to take me to lunch.”

  “I’d love to. Oddly, I didn’t get much to eat myself. I know a place that serves a great avocado burger.”

  * * *

  “THIS IS THE list of what we currently have out at different galleries,” Natalie said, handing Nick three sheets of paper. “As per the agreement, each new gallery has six months to sell a piece. If they do, they can replace it with another. If they don’t, they’re taken off the preferred list for your work for at least a year. So far that hasn’t been a problem.” The petite brunette smiled. “You sell very well pretty much everywhere.”

  Good news, Nick told himself. His work was popular. He should be thrilled or at least happy. Instead all he felt was restless.

  “I keep a complete inventory on my computer,” Natalie continued. “At any given time, I can tell you where the works are and what we’re going to ship next. I’m still cataloging your work by type and price. Different styles and mediums work well in different parts of the country and the world. There’s an art to placing artists. Atsuko is an expert at it.”

  Natalie smiled at him. “You came to us with a huge inventory. Normally artists only have a few pieces.”

  “Before coming here, I hadn’t had a show in over ten years,” Nick admitted. “I like to keep busy, so it sort of built up.”

  “That’s what we like to hear.” Natalie turned her computer so he could see the photographs on her screen. “This is what we send to the galleries we work with. A complete profile of the work. If they’re interested, we discuss terms. We will only agree to what’s allowed by your contract with us.”

  Nick began to regret agreeing to let Natalie explain their policies to him. When he’d first signed on with Atsuko, he’d had his lawyer review the terms. When he’d been told they were fair and reasonable, he’d signed on the dotted line and promptly forgotten about the business side of things. Every few weeks he received a check. Sometimes more than one, depending on how many pieces he sold. The money flowed, he had time and space to work. He was pretty much a happy guy.

  “You find this tedious, don’t you?” she asked.

  “Yup.”

  She sighed. “You’d be more interested in the business side of things if you weren’t so rich,” she said lightly, then sighed. “And well recognized.”

  He thought about the pieces of hers scattered in the gallery. “You’ll get there,” he told her. “Fame and fortune are right around the corner.”

  She pushed up her bright red glasses. “You have no idea how much I want to believe you. In the meantime, I love what I do. This job covers food and rent and anything I make on my art gets plowed right back into supplies.”

  He knew it was like that for most artists. They slaved away in obscurity, hoping to be “discovered” or at least turn a small profit. He and his brothers had been lucky—the upside of being one of Ceallach’s talented offspring. The world already knew their names.

  “Do you like working in the gallery?” he asked.

  “I do. As ‘real’ jobs go—” she made air quotes with her fingers “—this one is pretty great. As long as I get my work done, Atsuko isn’t overly concerned about when I’m here. So if I’m on a roll, I can keep working at home.”

  “You have room there?” He thought about the big open space he shared with his brothers and swore under his breath. “Did me showing up mean you had to move out of the studio here?”

  She grinned. “While I appreciate the worry, don’t bother. I’m happy in my little cubby at home. I couldn’t possibly work with Mathias and Ronan. They make glass. My favorite medium is paper. Fire and paper are not a good mix.”

  He was about to agree, but before he could speak, he glanced out the window. Natalie’s office faced the street. There were nearly always people out, walking around the shopping district of town. But what Nick didn’t expect to see was Pallas with a guy. A good-looking guy who obviously knew her well. They were talking and laughing, oblivious to everyone but themselves.

  His gut tightened as all his senses went on alert. Who the hell was he? An old boyfriend come to town? He started to get up, then forced himself back in his seat. Natalie saw the movement, then glanced outside, following his gaze. She smiled.

  “Oh, look. Cade’s back. Pallas didn’t tell me. I wonder if she knew he was coming.” She glanced at Nick. “Cade is Pallas’s twin brother. He manages a horse ranch in Texas. At least I think it’s Texas. It might be Kentucky. Either way, it’s somewhere that sounds wonderful and beautiful.”

  “Not loving Happily Inc?” Nick asked, deliberately looking away from the window.

  “I do like it here. I just always thought it would be nice to travel.”

  As she talked about the places she would like to see, Nick told himself that his reaction to seeing Pallas with another man didn’t mean anything. Not really. Sure he liked her, but it wasn’t more than that. Yes, he wanted her in his bed, but only in the short-term. He liked things controlled. Defined. Wanting was safe, but passion—too much passion—was dangerous. It consumed and destroyed. Not that it was a problem with him. He would be leaving Happily Inc in a couple of months. Leaving Pallas. Relationships with a time limit he could handle. Anything else was asking for disaster.

  * * *

  PALLAS SMOOTHED THE front of her light sweater before getting out of her car. She was ready. She was prepared. She was wearing mascara on a weekday. A small thing, sure, but on
e that could give a girl confidence.

  Any nerves she felt were her own stupid fault. She’d been the one to think about flashing her breasts at Nick. The poor man knew nothing about it. Technically, there was no reason to be embarrassed or concerned or jumpy, and yet she felt all those things. Maybe it was because being around him was confusing and a little bit more fun than she was used to. Maybe because she hadn’t had a guy in her life in maybe forever. Whatever the reason, she would get through it. She would be her normal cheerful, energetic self and no one would ever guess that on the inside, she was one flirty smile away from eating an entire bag of Hershey’s Kisses by herself.

  She walked across the strip mall parking lot toward Wynn’s graphic-printing business. Bright banners showed different styles available to customers and a giant multicolored banner offered discounted prices.

  Retail was tough, Pallas thought as she went inside. Having to deal with the public all the time, getting it right or losing the business. She supposed she kind of did the same thing, but it didn’t feel as intense. She had more of a relationship with her customers. Wynn had to produce a great soccer party banner, and then move on.

  “I’m so excited,” Wynn called when she spotted her. She wove between huge printers and met Pallas at the main counter. “I’m hoping you love this as much as I do. I’ll totally admit the technical aspect was beyond me but I had the brilliant idea to go to the community college computer science department. The nice professor there gave me the name of a couple of local programming geniuses and they whipped this up in like three hours. Oh, to be that skilled.”

  Wynn held out a small thumb drive.

  Pallas did her best to hide her disappointment. “It’s um...lovely?”

  “You’re not good at faking it, are you?”

  The question came from behind her at the exact moment a warm hand settled on the small of her back. She didn’t have to turn to know who was there. Not with every cell in her body sighing in perfect synchronization.

  “What do you mean?” she asked as she glanced at Nick, hoping he couldn’t tell how she could feel the warmth of his hand. No, that wasn’t it. The problem was how much she liked the warmth of his hand.

  “He means you’re not impressed,” Wynn said with a grin. “But you will be.”

  She put a small laptop on the counter, then plugged in the flash drive. At first all Pallas saw was the home screen. Seconds later it went dark and familiar music from the video game began to play.

  “Nova sent over a bunch of files,” Wynn told them. “Separate music and graphics and all kinds of things I didn’t know what to do with. I scripted what I wanted and let the geniuses do their thing.”

  Pallas watched a pale sun in a purple sky. As it rose, light drifted across the screen, illuminating the silhouette of a bride and groom. The wedding date and location appeared as the pan continued. Elements of the world appeared and disappeared. At the end, a hot link to RSVP filled the screen.

  “I take it back.” She smiled at Wynn. “That’s incredible.”

  “I know, right? And that’s only with a couple of hours. Imagine what we could do with more time. I’m thinking of taking a basic computer graphics class, just to understand what is possible. I would never want to do the formatting or whatever, but knowing a little more than I do would open up a lot of possibilities. Plus the computer guys were very excited.” She wrinkled her nose. “I suspect more about being paid so promptly than because they love designing wedding invitations, but still.”

  Wynn pulled the thumb drive from the computer. “I’ll have these ready by the end of the day. Nova’s sending me her guest list so I can ship them out tomorrow. Oh, and wait until you see these.”

  She put a stack of slim, square books on the counter. Nick picked up one and opened it. The colors of the pages were an exact match for the game’s world, but instead of a flat picture, a nearly 3-D paper image of a bride and groom rose toward them.

  “A pop-up book,” Pallas breathed. “You talked about it but I never thought it was possible.”

  “I know a guy,” Wynn said. “He let me use his computerized paper cutter thingie.”

  Nick raised his eyebrows. “That would be the technical term?”

  Wynn laughed. “Of course. Anyway, I did the design freehand. He scanned it and this is what happened. I think this is something we should think about for your weddings, Pallas. I know the brides usually have their own ideas for invitations, but these are too incredible. Pricey, but still. I made twenty for Nova, then asked her if I could run a few extras for samples. At my cost, of course.”

  “It’s amazing. I love the idea of offering this kind of personalized invitation to my brides.”

  Nick turned the pages of the pop-up book. “You could precolor the pages. Shade them such that when they were cut, they had more dimension.”

  Pallas tried to imagine that. How would anyone know what went where? But Wynn was nodding.

  “You’re right. Instead of plain purple or teal, we could use gradations. Or even work with the computer program in advance and preprint the various colors so that the image was fully formed. I wonder how hard that would be.”

  Wynn pressed her lips together, then shook her head. “Okay—I’ll play with that idea later. For now, what do you think?”

  “That you’re brilliant,” Pallas told her. “Has Nova seen these?”

  “I’m going to do a video conference with her later. The computer guys already sent her the thumb drive file and she approved that.” Wynn leaned on the counter. “Don’t take this wrong, but this is way more fun than new happy hour menus at the hotel bar. I hope we can do more of this kind of thing.”

  Pallas thought about all the possibilities. “I’m thinking we might have to.”

  Pallas signed the paperwork for the designs, then took a pop-up book and thumb drive for herself. She and Nick walked out to the parking lot.

  “What’s next for the wedding?” he asked. “Have you talked to Alan? He’s got to have some ideas for costumes for the servers. He should get with Violet. She has some interesting ideas. Want me to call him?”

  Pallas looked at him. “For a guy who’s just biding his time until he gets the go-ahead on his commission in Dubai, you seem invested in Nova and Joel’s wedding.”

  He put his arm around her. “It’s fun. You have a great job.”

  She thought about how, until now, all the weddings had been so similar. They were all variations on a theme. She had to admit this was a lot more interesting. Even the challenges were turning out to be a good thing.

  Before she could say that, her phone beeped. She pulled it out of her back pocket and glanced at the screen. Her good mood evaporated when she saw the text from her mother.

  “What?” Nick asked. “You’re not smiling anymore.”

  She shook her head. “Just family stuff. My brother’s back in town, which is great, but Mom wants to have a family dinner to celebrate his return. The last time I saw her, it didn’t go very well. I’m not excited about sitting down to more lectures about how I’m a failure.”

  She shoved the phone back in her pocket and faked a smile. “Family. What can anyone do about them? I’ll be fine. Anyway, I think we’re on schedule for everything that needs to get done. I’m going to follow up with the vendors later today. The invitations are perfect. Hopefully everything else will be, too.”

  Nick studied her. “I want to tell you not to let her get to you, but I’m in no position to offer advice about families. Who all will be at the dinner?”

  “I have no idea. It could be all the cousins or just a few. Grandpa Frank. It’s his house. Cade, of course. I’m not sure. It could be the four of us or it could be twenty.”

  “You need a distraction. Something for your mother to focus on.”

  If only, Pallas thought wistfully. “Not foll
owing the rules never goes well for me. Not where she’s concerned.” She bit her bottom lip. “We always did a big family portrait every fall. All seven daughters, husbands, grandkids and grandparents. Every year the colors were coordinated. Drew and his family wore green shirts, we wore blue, and so on. It was a thing. The year my dad died, I rebelled. I was willing to wear a blue shirt, but not the one my mom picked out. We had a huge fight. She said I would wear what she told me or I wouldn’t be in the picture.”

  Nick looked at her. “You’re not in the picture.”

  “That’s right,” she said with a lightness she didn’t feel. “It was just her and Cade.” She shivered. “I don’t know why it’s so hard with her, but it is.”

  “You still need a distraction.”

  “Like a tattoo on my forehead? I’m not sure that would end well for me.”

  “I was thinking more of a who, not a what.” His dark gaze settled on her face. “Want a bring-to-dinner temporary boyfriend?”

  Her heart stumbled a beat or two while her girl parts began to cheer. “Are you offering?”

  He gave her that slow, sexy smile of his. “I am. I can be a great distraction. She’ll be so charmed, she’ll leave you alone. And if she starts in on you, I’ll be there to protect you.”

  Unexpected tears burned in her eyes. She quickly blinked them away and told herself not to be an idiot. Having Nick offer to protect her wasn’t cryworthy. Only she thought maybe it was. She couldn’t remember the last time a guy who wasn’t family had wanted to stand between her and potential danger.

  “It’s my mother,” she warned, hoping her voice sounded normal and not too fraught with emotion. “There will be drama.”

  He lightly kissed her. “I’m an artist, Pallas. We live for drama. It’s all part of the process. Tell me when and where, and I’ll be there.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Anytime.”

  Staring up at him, she felt herself wanting to do more than flash her boobs. She wanted to tell him he was really nice and that she liked him. Which should have scared the heck out of her—and yet it didn’t.