Page 21 of A Wedding in the Bay

They were alone in The Outlet offices that morning, since the newspaper and magazine only employed three people. The company’s other employee, Josie Garner, had yet to arrive, something that was unusual for her. Dane had already texted her to make sure everything was all right, and she’d replied that she was fine but she was running late. Dane and Alissa had been shirking their duties and teasing each other about baby names instead.

“Hmm, how about this name?” she said, writing one down on the paper. She crumpled the list back up into a ball and threw it across the room to Dane. It landed just behind his desk and he bent over to pick it up. His eyebrows went all the way up when he saw the name that she’d written.

“Augustus?”

She crowed with laughter. “Sounds very dignified, don’t you think? Besides, there’s that wonderful invention of the nickname. We could call him Gus.”

“Serious names only,” he said firmly, writing down another name. He tossed the paper back to her and she opened it eagerly. At the bottom of the list was written the name, “Cheesy Potato.”

She groaned, covering her face with her hands and laughing. “We’re never going to get this kid named.”

“Sure we will.” Dane was laughing so hard over his own joke that he had to wipe away a stray tear. “What’s wrong with Cheesy Potato?”

“What am I going to do with you?”

“You can send me another name.”

She sighed, laying her forehead down on her desk. “I’m out of name ideas. We should go to the library and get a book or something.”

“I wish we both hadn’t gotten distracted at our dinner party. That would have been a great time to ask people for name suggestions.”

“I know.” She grinned a little. “All of the tension between your mom and Everett had me totally distracted.”

“Me too. It was sweet of Marsha to try to set them up, but I don’t think she realizes quite yet just how much of a city girl my mom really is.”

Alissa nodded. “I think she’ll become less of a city girl the longer she’s here—but I know what you’re saying. I can’t see her falling for someone like Everett.”

At that moment, the front door of The Outlet opened and Josie stepped inside, looking flustered.

“Hey!” Alissa turned to her in concern. “Everything okay?”

“Oh, not really.” Josie exhaled, pressing her lips together. The ordinarily well put-together secretary was looking a little frazzled. Her long blonde hair was somewhat unkempt, and the travel mug she was holding had a rivulet of coffee running down the side. “There was a huge snafu with my—oh, never mind. I’m sorry I’m late.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Dane said, frowning in concern. “A snafu with what?”

Josie sighed as she set her purse and coffee mug down on her desk. “I got the wedding invitations in the mail this morning,” she said, breathing shakily as if she was trying not to cry. “And they’re a disaster.”

“Oh no!” Alissa exclaimed sympathetically. “What happened?”

Josie exhaled. “Overall, they look amazing. The design is beautiful, and it’s just what Wesley and I wanted. But as soon as I started reading it, I saw that they misspelled my last name! They printed ‘Garter’ instead of Garner.”

“Oh,” Alissa moaned, wincing a little. That was a bad mistake. She could understand how Josie would feel embarrassed to send out a wedding invitation with a mistake like that on it.

“Can you ask for a refund?” Dane asked, also looking sympathetic.

Josie shook her head. “No.” She bit her lip. “They don’t give refunds, even when it’s their mistake. That’s why I was late—I checked the fine print of the order this morning as soon as I saw the typo. I should have done it before ordering the invitations! Now I’m stuck with a full box of invitations with a huge mistake on them. And besides, we don’t have time to wait for another printing—or to order new invitations from a whole new place. We’re running a little late on getting out the invitations out as it is. The wedding is coming up fast.” Josie bit her lip, blinking back tears.

Alissa’s heart went out to her friend. She hurried across the office toward her and gave the other woman a hug. “Don’t stress about it. We’re going to fix it, okay? We’ll get the rest of the girls together and we’ll all work on your wedding invitations together. We’ll get them fixed, addressed, stamped, and sent out. We can turn it into a party.”

Josie smiled gratefully, inhaling. “Would you? That sounds absolutely incredible.”

“You got it.” Alissa squeezed Josie’s shoulders. “We can’t have you being stressed about your big day. Besides, many hands make light work. This way, we’ll knock out the problem together and it won’t feel like that big of a deal at all.”

Josie sniffled back the rest of her tears, looking relieved. “Thank you. I’m lucky to have a friend like you.”

Alissa’s heart warmed to hear Josie’s words. “Just you wait and see. It’ll all work out great.”

CHAPTER TEN

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