The Wedding Planner's Christmas Wish, page 4
Alexandra avoided Drew’s gaze at that suggestion.
Though Ivy and Sebastian really didn’t need to inspect the behind-the-scenes areas, like the huge commercial kitchen, they insisted. Ivy was bringing in her own team of chefs, so that was one less thing for Alexandra to worry about.
Ivy was hugging herself with excitement as they completed the tour at the front door, where it had started. “What would you think about a Christmas-themed merry-go-round on that lawn over there?”
“I’ll make note,” Alexandra said dutifully, “for our meeting with Hailey.” She glanced at Drew. He didn’t look very happy.
Finally, Drew and Alexandra said goodbye to the ecstatic couple.
“We’ll see you in a few days,” Ivy called. “I can’t wait to meet Hailey.”
“I’m going to have to beg off that meeting,” Sebastian told his fiancée, throwing an arm around her shoulder and squeezing her with affectionate regret. “Gio’s going to be here.”
He sounded genuinely sorry that he was going to miss the flower planning. What a gem he was, Alexandra thought.
Ivy shook Drew’s hand once more. “Drew, it was so nice to meet you. I hope to use your venue for many events from here on in. My bridesmaid, and good friend Autumn Jones is involved with a charity called Raise Your Voice. Have you heard of it?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Well, you will. I can see them holding extraordinary events here.”
Alexandra turned to Drew once the couple had gone. “See?” she said. “Good things are coming from this already.”
He was silent.
“I just love that even today, planning for her wedding, Ivy is still thinking about others.”
Again, he was silent.
“Thank you for agreeing to hold the wedding here,” Alexandra said quietly. “You saved me, really.”
He lifted a shoulder.
“Parker and Parker is incredible,” she said, hoping to erase the dark look from his face. “It’s far more than I hoped for. I feel as if no detail has been overlooked. It is, of course, the perfect wedding venue.”
He looked pained, so she didn’t add she felt it was totally wasted on conventions and other totally nonromantic events.
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” she said softly. “I didn’t know.”
She suspected he was a man who was rarely uncomfortable, but he looked uncomfortable now, as he shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels.
“I understand perfectly why you didn’t want to ever have a wedding here,” Alexandra said. “I’m not sure why Gabe didn’t just explain it to me when I was so persistent.”
Drew’s mouth—which was quite lovely—tilted up cynically at the corner. “You? Persistent? I can hardly picture it.”
He was being sarcastic, but in light of the fact the wedding was bringing back the pain of his loss, perhaps that was understandable.
“Well, if he had told me,” she insisted, “I might have managed to overcome that character defect.”
“I doubt it,” he said.
He hardly knew her. But since he was insisting on seeing her in such a bad light, now might be the time to come clean on everything.
“I do have a bit of a confession to make,” Alexandra said. “It wasn’t strictly persistence. There was a small bribe involved.”
“A bribe?” he asked, shocked. “Why am I getting this feeling I don’t know Gabe at all?”
“Oh! It wasn’t a money bribe. It was a funny little thing. After I called the first time, he looked up my company. It’s on our website that Ever After had done the wedding for Priscilla Morrison.”
He cocked his head at her.
“She’s Webber Morrison’s daughter.”
“The jazz musician?”
“Yes. I promised Gabe an autographed picture.”
“That was the bribe?”
She nodded.
“That’s strange. It’s an odd thing to risk your boss’s wrath over, and he knew I wouldn’t be happy about this. Plus, in all the years we’ve worked together, I’ve never once heard him listen to jazz. If you asked me, I would have said he was a ’70s rock kind of guy. I’m beginning to feel like I don’t know him at all.”
“Anyway, if he had told me your history, I might have backed off.”
He didn’t look at all convinced. “Might being the operative word? Besides, Gabe—or at least the Gabe I thought I knew—would never discuss my personal life with anyone. He knows I’m a very private man.”
“Which makes me appreciate what you’ve just done even more.”
“Don’t make the mistake of painting me as a knight in shining armor,” Drew warned her sternly.
And yet, wasn’t that exactly what he’d been when Ivy and Sebastian had arrived? Hadn’t he put his own personal feelings aside to ride to her rescue?
But then, as if to prove all that had been a lapse he already regretted, he said, “There isn’t going to be any merry-go-round. And no snow in the ballroom. It’s all just a little too fluffy. Not to mention it would likely require structural changes to the room.”
“Oh, but—”
“I’m not enthusiastic about a forty-foot silver-and-white tree in the front entrance, either. Doesn’t that seem over-the-top to you? Grandiose?”
There was a temptation to argue the point, but maybe, given the concession he had already made to allow the wedding, she would save that for a different day.
“Everything is subject to change at this point,” she told him soothingly. And really, right up until the wedding day, not that she needed to share that detail with him.
He was not soothed. His tone was very stern. “You’re walking a fine line here between a tasteful wedding and a carnival. There aren’t going to be any carnivals at Parker and Parker.”
Any thoughts she might have had about Drew Parker being her knight evaporated.
“Did someone say a carnival?” Genevieve squealed, coming out the front door of the building. “I love a carnival!”
Thankfully, Miss Carmichael was close on her heels this time.
“It looks like you have your hands full,” Alexandra said, still stinging from his insult that she might create a carnival, “so I’ll be on my way.”
“Are we going to a carnival?” Genevieve demanded. Drew scooped her up with ease.
“No, no carnivals,” he said, but he raised a skeptical eyebrow at Alexandra.
“It’s my job to make sure everything is extraordinarily tasteful,” she said tightly. “Hailey Thomas, the floral designer, is, by my estimation, one of the best in the world.”
He looked unconvinced. “Perhaps you could drop by after your meeting with Ivy and the floral designer and we can go over your plan?”
Alexandra wasn’t sure if she was pleased or distressed by that. She was going to have to make it clear she, not he, was in charge of this wedding. On the other hand, they were going to have to consult about many of the wedding details, and probably often.
Still, she took out her phone and looked at her calendar. “Would three o’clock work? On the fourth?”
“It would,” he said without consulting his own calendar.
“Is that when the carnival is?” Genevieve demanded.
“No,” he said. “But it seems to me you have a birthday party that day, don’t you?”
Despite his prickliness, Alexandra couldn’t help but smile that his parenting skills ran so far as practicing the art of distraction. Even though he was so cranky, she decided to help him out a bit.
“My niece Macy is having her birthday party that day, too. She’s going to turn five.”
“Does she have a party dress?”
“She’s not really a dress kind of girl.”
“Oh.” Genevieve sighed. “Mine is like a rainbow. I want to show it to you. Daddy, can I show her right now?”
As much as Alexandra was dying to see the inside his private enclave, she decided to show Drew some mercy since he was obviously as uncomfortable with inviting her in as she was eager to be invited.
“I can’t wait to see your dress,” Alexandra said, “but not today. I’ll be here the day of the party, and if you’re here, you can show it to me before you leave.”
Genevieve beamed at her, carnivals forgotten.
Instead of looking appreciative of her help in the distraction department, Drew was looking at her with mild annoyance, as if she was ingratiating herself into his family unwanted.
Still, she couldn’t be ungracious. Drew Parker had done her an enormous favor. His heart wasn’t as black as his expression was right now. She was sure of that!
“Thank you again. You saved my life today. I owe you one.”
Alexandra put out her hand, and he shifted the child to his other arm and took it.
Something pure, electrical and sensual leaped between them. Did their touch linger just a little too long? Once again, Alexandra had to stop herself from inspecting her hand to see if smoke was coming off it.
A shiver went up and down her spine. Was he looking at her lips?
Of course he wasn’t! Still, feeling wildly awkward, she scrabbled through her purse, found the check and handed it to him hastily.
“Until next time,” she said, way too brightly. “Should we meet here on the steps?”
“I think there’s a workshop here that day. My office might be best.”
The office. The one that was marked private. How silly that she felt eager to see it, as if it would reveal clues about him that his expression did not.
* * *
Alexandra, thankfully, had three days to get her composure back. Still, she spent way too much time deciding what to wear. It had to be appropriate to meet with Ivy and Hailey, and it couldn’t even have a hint of stodgy nanny for her meeting with Drew after. To add to the challenge, it also had to be appropriate for a child’s birthday party, as she was going to her brother’s immediately following the afternoon meeting.
She chose a simple but sleek black dress, matching tights and shoes that brought her five foot nine much closer to six feet. Even with the addition of two and a half inches to her height, thanks to the world’s sexiest shoes, she’d still be looking up at Drew Parker, and that was a rare thing in her world.
As she regarded herself in the mirror, Alexandra decided her hair pinned up was just too uptight. She let it down and smiled at the effect. She congratulated herself on achieving the perfect look: professional and ever so subtly spicy.
It turned out she was particularly happy for the professional part of that equation, because Sebastian had decided to join them for the meeting with Hailey after all.
And he had stunned them all by bringing his college friend Gio with him. Alexandra knew, of course, that Crown Prince Giovanni of Adria was going to be Sebastian’s best man, but she had not made the connection that he was the Gio that Sebastian had referred to the other day.
Once the initial faint discomfort of being in the presence of a prince was put to rest—were they supposed to curtsy?—the meeting was phenomenal, the energy and ideas flying. Hailey, thankfully, was quite good at tempering Ivy’s more outrageous ideas. She would say, “I love that. But might it work a little better if—”
Together, the five of them—the guys having quite a bit more to add than Alexandra ever would have guessed—had come up with an exquisite rough plan for the wedding decor: rich, stylish, tasteful and utterly, utterly gorgeous.
As always, she made quick rough sketches as the ideas flew, adjusting them as they evolved. When they finally were all in agreement, she put sheets of blueprint paper on one of Hailey’s floral tables and, to the delight of the others, did a final sketch for each setting.
“You could have been an artist,” Ivy said, studying the drawings with admiration.
Indeed, she could have been. That’s what she had gone to college for, after all... But she shoved that broken dream away. Not today. It was not cutting into her elation today.
She wanted to carry this feeling all the way to her meeting with Drew. When a plan came together, it always felt like this: as if she was on fire with excitement. She loved her job!
She headed to Parker and Parker to run the plan by Drew. He had to like it.
She found her way to the office and was rewarded for getting her dress just right by the slight darkening of Drew’s eyes as she arrived.
The office did not reveal as much about him as she might have hoped. It was, of course, very exclusive, and very much like the rest of the building, with rich furnishings, good paintings, subtle wall colors, aged hardwood floors. But the space was like an exquisitely decorated hotel room and did not reveal anything about Drew Parker’s personality.
The office only made her long to look past the next door, the one she assumed led to his private living quarters—she could hear muffled giggles coming from behind it—but that door was firmly closed.
As, she could not help but notice, was his expression. His obviously expensive suit—pale gray, with a dark shirt and a slender aqua-colored necktie—reflected that he was all business today.
“I can’t wait to show you what we’ve come up with for an initial plan,” she said.
“Well,” he said, his cynical tone like a needle piercing the balloon of her elation, “I hope it’s not too much of a carnival.”
CHAPTER FIVE
DREW IMMEDIATELY REGRETTED the tone he had taken. There was no need to be rude. On the other hand, a man had to have some defenses!
Alexandra Harris looked absolutely stunning today. She was wearing a simple, sophisticated black dress that she somehow elevated to extraordinarily sexy. The skirt ended midthigh, showing off the incredible length of her legs. She didn’t need them—at all—but the shoes gave her added height and made her look willowy and jaw-droppingly gorgeous.
Drew was fairly certain that his assessment that she could have a successful career as a model would be no more welcomed than his suggestion of a career as a nanny.
To add to the subtle sensuality created by the dress and the shoes, her hair was down.
It cascaded past her shoulders in a long, silky waterfall of jet black. If he had to describe it, he would probably use the word glorious. It made his mouth go dry.
And speaking of mouths, hers was just about the most luscious he had ever seen. He had embarrassed them both by looking at it a little too long at their last meeting.
She was radiating light, he presumed because she was so excited about the plan for the wedding. He realized it reminded him of Emily’s excitement for their wedding, and maybe that was why he had felt compelled to dim her light a little by making that stinging comment.
Alexandra faltered just slightly but then tossed that shining wave of hair over her shoulder and lifted her chin. Her eyes were sparking.
“It’s not a carnival,” she said firmly, and then added, her tone lighter, “In fact, it’s been approved by royalty. Crown Prince Giovanni of Adria, an old college friend of Sebastian’s, who will also be his best man, was at the meeting.”
Drew had seen many pictures of the prince. He was an extraordinarily handsome man, and notoriously single. Was that why she looked so damned radiant? Because she’d met a prince?
And what was that he was feeling? Good grief! Not jealousy?
That was impossible. He barely knew Alexandra Harris. He certainly did not have any kind of designs on her.
Did the prince? How could he not, when she looked so stunning today?
“Did you enjoy meeting the prince?” he asked, even though he had clearly instructed himself it was none of his business.
“Oh, sure.” She said it so dismissively that he wanted to laugh out loud.
With relief.
She opened her satchel—the prince, as far as Drew could determine, completely forgotten—and pulled some papers from it. Sketches?
“I talked to Gabe,” he told her. He ordered himself to stay put, but instead he got out of his chair, came around the desk and stood beside her. He told himself it was to see the sketches better. The scent of clean hair and subtle but exotic perfume tickled his nose.
“How’s his mom?” She glanced up at him. The softness in her eyes felt like something that tore away at his carefully constructed barriers.
It told him a great deal about Alexandra that that would be her first question. Not how did this mix-up happen, or why had Gabe defied his boss, but how was his mother?
“He said she was having a good day. But he sounded sad and a bit overwhelmed. Still, I couldn’t see not asking him how he’d managed to square it in his mind that it was okay to book a wedding without my knowledge.”
“What did he say?”
“Genevieve and I are going to California for the latter part of December for Christmas. He actually thought I would never know.”
“California?”
“Studios. Amusement parks. The beach. Warmth.”
“Just the two of you?” she asked, those eyes still resting on his face, so soft a man could fall into them as if he had been a long way and a long time from comfort, and they were a featherbed.
“The two of us?” He didn’t really get her question. “Speaking? Gabe and I?”
She cast him a look that clearly said men were complete idiots. “You and Genevieve. Going to California?”
“Yes, just the two of us.”
“For Christmas?”
There was an odd look on her face. “What?”
“It’s not really for me to say,” she said, but she looked pained.
“No. I’d like to know what you think.” Particularly given last year’s disaster.
“Maybe it’s just me, but Christmas needs snow. Not palm trees.”
“The first one would have had palm trees,” he said, and he could hear the defensiveness in his tone. “Besides, snow isn’t exactly a recipe for a successful Christmas.”
