Page 24 of You Are Cordially Invited

“Don’t start without us.” Michael swooped into the room and swept his arm for Georgie to follow, then shut the door. “I’ve got twenty minutes while this guy has his CT scan, but I might be paged sooner, so make it quick.”

Georgie grabbed the last chair and said a round of hellos. As best woman to Reuben, I really hadn’t expected any extra of her on the day, but she’d offered, sweetheart that she was.

“Okay.” I rapped a pen on my desk. “This meeting is called to attention. Sound off. Waiheke Vineyard.”

“Contacted and ready to go,” Michael answered with a salute. “Menu checked, place settings checked. Everything checked, checked, checked.”

I regarded him dubiously. “Cake?”

“To be delivered to our home the day before the wedding,” Michael replied. “And I vow, on pain of death, I will get it safely to Waiheke Island on the ferry.”

I checked that off the list. “Honeymoon night?”

Sandy’s hand shot in the air. “Please, miss, that one’s mine.” He smirked and ducked when I fired my pen at him. “Booked and checked,sir.”

“Music?”

“Done.” Miller raised a brow. “Although considering I’m new to this group, I’d like to lodge a pre-emptive complaint about the unfairness of landing me with such an important—”

“Next.” I blew him a kiss. “Cars?”

“Ed assures me they’re booked and checked,” Sandy answered. “And he also told me to tell you to stop leaving him messages or he’ll downgrade you from a Mercedes to a Kia, if you’re lucky.”

“He wouldn’t dare.”

Sandy merely raised a brow, and I hesitated. Of all our friends, quiet, reserved Ed was the most immune to my charms, dammit. “Okay, okay tell him I’m—”

“Sorry?” Sandy proposed.

“Watching,” I corrected, and everyone laughed.

I fell back in my chair and glared at the four of them. “I’m glad you’re all having so much fun with this.”

“Oh, believe me, we’re not,” Michael commented drily. “This is entirely self-preservation in the fervent hope that if we can only get this done and dusted, you will nevereverget married again, and we can all live a blissful and contented life. As it currently stands, I wake up on a nightly basis in a cold sweat and with the dulcet tone of your voice in my ear screaming to know where the third tier of the cake is.”

I narrowed my gaze. “There arefourtiers.”

He threw up his hands. “I rest my case.”

I stared a moment longer, but he was giving me nothing.Bastard.“Okay, Sandy, you had Cory, right?”

Sandy smiled. “Geo and your mother are booked for the night.”

My mother. Stella. The baby. Fuck.“C-celebrant?” I croaked, then looked to Georgie who gave a small frown at my stumble.

Michael looked at me sideways.

“Whatever you’re gonna say, keep it to yourself.” I flashed him a warning glance.

He snorted and sat back in his chair.

Georgie answered, “I sent her and her husband an invite to the reception like you asked and emailed everything elsein triplicate.” She winked. “She says she’ll ring you next Wednesday to check in unless she sees you at the game on Sunday.”

“Great, thank you.” Discovering that the wife of the coach of North Harbour Rugby—Reuben’s Mitre 10 Cup team—also happened to be a celebrant was a huge win. She understood only too well the importance of remaining tight-lipped in the face of the circling media. Which reminded me.

“Security?”

“Josh has it all in hand, including a drone no-fly zone,” Michael answered. “There’ll be security at the gate and around the vineyard perimeter. He’s talked with Reuben and the Blues and All Blacks’ media guys. Every guest will be checked as they enter.”

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