Page 24 of Chasing I Do
“No,” she said, but for the first time since he’d arrived, she broke eye contact. “To check my calendar. I’m in the middle of a meeting.”
“You said at your earliest convenience, and I conveniently had this morning open.” He pulled out a chair and sat down. “I don’t mind waiting.”
Gage had sat at Darcy’s table a thousand times on a thousand different occasions. But there was something about him sitting at this table that had Darcy on edge.
She narrowed those sharp, brown eyes at him then pulled out her own chair, and sat. “I have a meeting directly following this one. Now will be fine,” she said, not sounding the least bit fine with her current predicament.
Gage prided himself in his ability to control even the most stressful of situations while putting people at ease. His mother claimed his need to please was a direct result of middle child syndrome. Darcy had once told him that it stemmed from having a big heart. Which was why he’d started to take her uneasiness with his presence personally.
“I didn’t come to make things worse. I came because we need to talk.”
She let out a big sigh and sat back. “I know. And you were right, I would have kept postponing this, and if we intend to find a solution that works for everyone, we need to actually discuss it.”
A small spark of hope swelled in his chest. He’d come in here expecting some kind of argument, but her body language, although tense, was very open. “Are you’re considering our offer?”
“Parts of it,” she said, and he just prayed that Kylie was the part that was going in his favor. “First off, the wedding and Kylie. Two separate things, never again to be talked about in the same discussion. Me agreeing to this wedding has no standing on my decisions about Kylie’s life.”
“Got it,” Gage said, forgetting how sexy Darcy looked when she was ticked. And the offer had more than ticked her off, it had riled her up.
“As for the wedding, I can’t believe you’d think I’d consider that offer.”
“I knew it would offend you.” Gage smiled, wondering why it was so important that he’d been right.
“Then why did you send it?”
“Because my brothers wouldn’t shut up about more money until you shot them down.” And he would always have a small question burning in his gut, a curiosity that would be impossible to ignore. The past five years had taught him that. “I’d be happy to relay any message you have to them.”
“I will do the wedding here at Belle Mont House.” She stood and walked over to a small desk in the corner of the kitchen and grabbed a contract. “Rhett and Stephanie will have access to all of the approved vendors on my list. And any area that I don’t have covered, such as security, they can select their own company.”
“Should I be taking notes?”
“I already have a new contract made up.”
“Of course you do.” He smiled when she walked over to a small desk in the corner of the kitchen and grabbed a contract.
“As for the planner.” She slid the papers across the table. “I have put in there that I will be the exclusive designer and coordinator for the Stone and Easton wedding, but on the evening of the actual event, my assistant will run the show.” She folded her hands on the table. “I’m as eager to see your mother as she is to see me, so this seemed like the best solution for everyone involved.”
“It’s an extremely generous option,” Gage said softly, knowing that coming to that decision must have been hard for her. Agreeing to hold Rhett’s wedding in her backyard was one thing, handing over the reins to her business for an event that could put Belle Mont on the map would be difficult. “Will you be here at all?”
“I will plan everything up until the rehearsal dinner, then Kylie and I are going to Disneyland, which you will see is written in the contract.” He watched her flip to the third page and point at the coordinating section, but he was too busy wondering why he was unsettled by her proposed absence. “Not the actual location, but I will be charging a relocation fee for the inconvenience. But if you flip to the next page you will see that I have dropped my planner fee significantly.”
He did flip the page. And that smile of his grew. “It’s your normal hourly rate.”
“It is.”
“That’s a no to the extra hundred grand then?” he asked, and she lifted a single brow. “Right. That was the offensive part.”
“That’s my final offer, no changes or negotiations. That is what I am willing to provide, and what I am willing to offer. If they’re okay with it, I can set up a consultation and cake tasting for later this week, maybe Friday, since we are short on time. If my rules don’t fit within their idea of the perfect wedding, thenwearen’t a fit.”
Gage closed the contract and rested his elbows on the table. “Wow, this is a bossy place.”
“It’s my place, Gage,” she said with the steel velvet to her voice that always managed to turn him on. “My rules. And renting Belle Mont for a night doesn’t change that.”
There were so many emotions packed into those words—anger, frustration, and a hint of a lingering heartache that had his chest slowly turning over.
Gage reached across the table and put his hand next to hers. He didn’t cover it, just got close enough so that he could brush her fingers. Even that brief contact ignited a spark that lit up his nerve endings. Darcy’s breath caught and her eyes dilated tooh my.
She felt the pull, and she seemed about as thrilled with the discovery as he’d been.
