Page 63 of A Winter Wedding Adventure
Grasping the squeegee, she nudged aside as much snow as she could, clearing the two nearest panels. The rest would come online as the snow softened and slid off and hopefully, they’d have enough power to run the boiler for a few hours.
Returning downstairs, she refused to glance at the closed door of Alessandra’s room or wonder what they might be talking about.
Kira’s phone rang as she made her way through the dining room, giving her the perfect excuse for slipping past the guests apologetically without pausing. When she tugged her phone out of the pocket of her ski jacket, she was surprised to see Willard’s name.
With a tug in her chest, she connected the call to talk to her boss. ‘Will? Everything okay?’ Great Heart Adventures, Will’s pride and joy, had caused him more than its share of grey hairs over the past five years of financial trouble. Since the merger, Kira still hadn’t quite processed the end of the money worries or got used to Will’s new enthusiasm for life – and, remarkably, weddings.
‘I’m calling to ask you that, Watling.’ Just hearing his gruff voice set her emotions bubbling.
‘I’ve been snowed in before,’ she answered.
A pause. ‘Kira?’ Damn it, when someone had climbed a mountain with you, they were too good at picking up on what you didn’t want to say. ‘I can’t get up there to help you, so talk to me.’
Nobody could get up there to help her. She was used to shouldering everything alone, so it shouldn’t have made any difference, but she felt exposed and it had everything to do with Mattia and his fine feelings. ‘Everything’s all right,’ she insisted. ‘The heating will spring on for a few hours when the snow melts off the solar panels and we have wood and plenty of food. It’s fine.’
‘I have every confidence in you,’ Will said.
‘Yes, well, I’ll keep everyone alive. Survival is more along the lines of my qualifications.’
‘But?’ he prompted.
She’d arrived in the kitchen to see the frying pan on the stove and a plate on the bench. Her stomach flipped, thinking of Mattia feeding her egg. He’d touched her, talked to her – looked at her. But she’d always known there could be nothing between them except ‘it’s complicated’.
The man was afraid of fire and fridges, for goodness’ sake.
‘Weddings aren’t for me,’ she grumbled, hoping her old friend would accept the flippant explanation.
‘No one’s asking you to get married,’ Will joked. ‘What’s the problem?’
She laughed, leaning her forehead against the door to the technical room. She was tired – physically, but also running low on emotional resources, which were usually in scarce enough supply anyway. ‘What isn’t the problem? I’m ruining this wedding. I implied the decorations were frivolous the first time I met the bride and I accidentally insulted the groom’s mother. I’m going to see my ex-boyfriend at the ceremony for the first time in twelve years and it’s going to cause a scene. The groom got drunk on my watch and the opera singer I’m supposed to be keeping safe has a head injury and makes me cry when he performs.’ She took a breath. ‘Worst of all, I kissed him. I kissed the bridesman.’
Silence. She’d expected some reaction from Will, even just a laugh. Perhaps she’d been lucky and the connection had cut out before he’d heard the end of her tirade. She shouldn’t have said anything, even if she could count on Will not to pass on her faux pas to anyone at I Do.
‘Are you still there?’
‘Um.’
‘Um? Will, what’s going on?’
‘I, er, probably should have told you that Reshma’s here.’
‘Reshma’s where?’
‘Right beside me,’ he said gently. ‘Listening to every word.’
There was only one word she could say in reaction, even if it was another that probably wasn’t appropriate for the ears of the head of I Do Destinations. ‘Fuck.’
She heard a muffled, ‘Give me the phone,’ and then Reshma’s voice in her ear. ‘Have you told Ginny any of this?’ Reshma didn’t sound as though she’d kill Kira, but perhaps she’d just wait until she could do it in person.
‘She was there when I screwed up on the first night.’
‘But the… other things?’
Her throat closed as she wondered which one was considered worse: ruining the ceremony with her own dramas or kissing a member of the wedding party. ‘Ginny doesn’t know,’ she managed to explain. ‘I’d hoped no one would have to know.’
She heard a deep sigh over the line and recognised Willard – and his disappointment in her. It hurt more than she wanted to admit, even to herself.
‘Kira,’ he began, his voice so smooth, she knew something bad must be coming. ‘I know this is your personal history, but perhaps it’s better if the team at I Do understand why you struggle with weddings?’
