Page 6 of Purrfect Planning

Now I’m hard as a fucking rock while she sits there, chewing a stick of gum and apparently trying not to hurl at the mere sight of me.

I don’t think we’re having a repeat performance, that’s for sure!

“Are you alright?” I whisper to her as she fiddles with her briefcase.

“I’m fine,” she mutters, not even bothering to look at me. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in Sarah’s wedding party.”

I shrug and smirk. “Nope! Just doing a little intel.”

Her head lifts and her sapphire eyes fix on me like she could shoot laser beams and kill me dead. “You were spying on me. And you deliberately lied to me about why you were there.”

Shaking my head, I lean back in my seat, smirking. “I did not. You just assumed it.”

Harmony’s head ping-pongs back and forth between the two of us. “Do you two know each other?”

Aspen smiles sickly. “You know how it goes. Small towns. We all kind of know each other.”

She sighs happily. “That’s wonderful. That will make working together so much easier.”

“I don’t know why we need to work together. I can handle this all on my own.”

Jasper cocks his head. “You didn’t handle the last crises on your own. That storm was huge. And you didn’t even see it coming. And this one could be much worse. The paparazzi is going to be nuts around here. We need all the help we can get. I think this is the best way to handle things. Fair for everyone.”

Aspen’s slim shoulders sink but she doesn’t fold. Instead, her head comes up and her sapphire eyes sparkle at me. “It will be fine,” she says, her full mouth tight.

“Great! Let’s start working on this thing. We’ve got a lot to do if we want to have the wedding in such a short amount of time.”

“Why do y’all need it so fast? Surely you can do it anytime that you want?” I consult a calendar that I always carry with me.Organization seems to be mega-important to planners. I have a physical calendar and a calendar on my phone. I’m not missing a damn thing.

Harmony shakes her bright red head. “Nope. This is my only time off before I go on tour. I want to be Mrs. Before I hit the stage the next time. Besides there’s the anniversary thing. This is special to us.”

Nodding, I grumble under my breath. It just seems so fast. I want it to be perfect and speed sometimes leads to bad decisions. Men often let a bridezilla go crazy and that shit ain’t happening with me here. I usually don’t make bad choices. Anymore. My eyes slide to the willowy goddess sitting at the table.

Case in point sitting beside me. And look how well that’s going.

“Now. I’ve got some floral designs to show you and then we’ve got all the desserts and food to talk about. This meeting needs to cover a lot of things.”

Aspen pulls out her designs and hands them over and Harmony hums happily. “These are so wonderful. I love them.”

But I grunts when I take a look at the papers. “This one won’t work at all. Jasper has already said that he hates hydrangeas and his mother is allergic to them. You want the mother of the groom to be sneezing through the whole ceremony?”

She glares at me, shoving that design away. “It’s fine. I’ve got a lot more to look at.”

She looks like she could happily incinerate me and that happy smile on her face isn’t fooling me in the slightest.

But it just makes me smile harder. I went through hell the last three months, missing her and dreaming about her and if I can upset her as much as she’s upset me…I’ll happily be a dick. Call me an asshole. I like to spread the misery.

“So how about this one?”

I shake my head again before Jasper can even say it. “Nope! No red roses. Jasper thinks that they’re too…well, they’re everywhere and he wants something unique. For his beautiful, special bride.”

Aspen grits her teeth beside me and I swear I can hear her teeth click together angrily.

“I see. Well, all of this could have been sent to me and I would have made sure that none of it was included.”

I tug her pictures over and shuffle through them. “No, no, no. Hmmm…no.” I reach over and pull out my own briefcase, putting the pictures of her flowers into her hands and pulling out my own. “How about this design? Silver-gray roses and babies breath along with some dark greenery and soft pink tulips.”

Aspen’s mouth falls open as she eyes the design and Harmony and Jasper clap their hands. “Looks perfect! I love it!”

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