Page 35 of Wedding Season
“People like Mariella?” Alex asked the question almost reluctantly. He didn’t want another reason to go at it with Mariella. Especially not after their kiss. Even thinking about it now made his blood heat. He focused his attention on Heather. “Tell me everything.”
She placed her bag on her desk and sank into the chair. “There was this article about the inn and they interviewed the mom of the almost groom with the runaway bride.”
“Arthur.” Alex nodded. “I talked to him. He’s going to be fine.”
Heather sniffed. “Maybe you should have talked to his mom because she’s a real piece of work. She kind of blamed the problem with the wedding on the inn or at least suggested that the Wildflower is bad luck.”
“That’s ridiculous. Arthur’s fiancée was cheating on him with his best man and had been for six months. Long before they arrived at the inn.”
“I agree. I’m telling you what the lady said and now it’s affecting business.”
Alex scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m sure that doesn’t make Mariella happy.”
“It’s not only that. The mom talked specifically about Mariella and how she has a history of ruining weddings and maybe having someone like her involved isn’t the best idea.”
Anger pulsed through Alex, although he might have said the same thing around the time he’d first encountered Mariella in Magnolia. He certainly hadn’t been happy when he’d shown up for an engagement weekend to celebrate his best friend to find Mariella as one of the Wildflower Inn’s owners.
But he’d gotten over it. He’d more than gotten over it. Even during Brett and Holly’s celebration, it was clear how talented she was and what a difference her involvement made.
And now to hear this...
“Let me get this straight. You’re worked up because Mariella is being unfairly targeted?”
Heather glared at him. “It’s not like I came to Magnolia to ruin her life or something.”
“I get that,” he said gently. “I’m also a little surprised that you care.”
“I don’t want to care about her,” Heather admitted. “It makes me mad that I do. I’ve got a great family. My mom is awesome. My dad, too, and my sisters love me. I shouldn’t even have come here. I had plenty of other scholarship offers. I could be someplace close to home. A place where I could go back and visit them on the weekends.”
“Does your family know why you chose North Carolina?”
She shook her head. “I never told them I found out who my real mom was. It would have made them feel bad. Now I’m here and I don’t even know what to do. I want to hate her. It’s easier to hate her.”
Yeah. Alex could appreciate that sentiment.
“Trust me, kid,” he said, “I agree completely. For all of Mariella’s flaws and that surly ’tude, she is a hard person to hate.”
“I hate that about her,” Heather muttered. “She seemed so freaked out about the whole article thing and I don’t know how she’s going to respond. I feel like if she keeps getting pushed she’s going to leave and then I will have come to Magnolia for no reason.”
“Hey, now. What about this fantastic job?”
“The job is great,” she agreed with a hint of a smile.
“Maybe you should spend some time figuring out what exactly it is you want from Mariella, whether it’s a relationship or some resolution. You could give her a chance.”
Heather didn’t look convinced. “It feels like I’m being disloyal to my parents. They’re the ones who put in all the time and effort to raise me. They chose me when she gave me away.”
Alex thought about his mother and how she never really chose him in any way that mattered. “You could talk to them as well,” he suggested. “Explain what’s going on. It might help.”
“I just want everything to be easy.”
“Most things worth having don’t come easy,” he said. Damn, did he sound like as much of a fuddy-duddy to her as he did to himself? But that didn’t make the words any less true. He looked around the open-concept floor plan of the company. He and Heather had been the first ones to arrive, but more employees were starting to trickle in.
He hadn’t exactly fooled himself into believing that rebranding a company on the verge of collapse would be easy, but he had high hopes for simple. That had been naive or maybe willful disregard of the obvious.
When Alex had chosen Magnolia as his home and headquarters, he’d known Mariella was here. Plus, he’d purposely invited Luann to return to the company in a creative role, despite his awareness that she tended to be a loose cannon.
His half brother, who loved giving Alex grief, would have told him that he surrounded himself with complicated women because he had mommy issues to work out.
