Page 52 of Karma's Kiss

Rehearsals are typically done the day before a wedding, or on rare occasions, two days before, so most times we do them toward the end of the week.

“It’s the only time slot that worked for the bride and groom,” Queenie explains, searching around her desk for something. I’ve learned I shouldn’t offer to help. Queenie insists she has a system in place—controlled chaos, she calls it. “Now where did I put that damn clipboard?”

“Saw it in the bathroom,” Marge remarks from her desk as she continues leafing through a new issue ofBridemagazine.

Queenie snaps her fingers. “That’s right. Thanks, Marge.” She runs to get it, quietly ticking off everything else she needs to gather before she leaves. “Wedding party list, iPad, music selections…”

“Well have fun, Queenie! I’ll keep on trying to organize the office,” I call after her.

Queenie laughs on her way back out of the bathroom, clipboard in hand. “Oh ho, no ma’am. I need you there with me. Cassie always helps at rehearsals, and I can’t do it all by myself.”

“Okay, then take Marge.”

The phone rings and Marge answers, “Wildflower Weddings. Marge speaking.” Then, “What?” She hangs up a second later. “People really need to speak up.”

Then the phone rings again. “Wildflower Weddings. Marge speaking.” A beat later, “Oh, you want to book a consultation? Well why didn’t you say so before? Hang on a second.” From the side of her desk, she grabs a huge binder and tugs it on top of herBridemagazine, opening the front cover with a sigh. “We offer a few different levels of service. I’ll start with the least expensive—”

“She’ll be a while.” Queenie winks. “Now grab those loose papers off my desk and let’s go. We can organize them on the drive over and hope they’re what we need.”

I’m left with no other sound argument. Queenie needs my help, and I can’t leave her high and dry what with athousandpapers to sift through, good grief.

On the drive over, I declare, “I’m staying in the car.”

“No you’re not.”

“I’mnotgoing to bump into Sawyer.”

She’s noticed something is off with us, but she knows better than to pry. “Oh, what are you worrying about? The vineyard is huge and we’re just going to be in the chapel. Won’t take but thirty minutes once it’s all said and done.”

Lies. These are all lies.

Queenie should have explained the situation better. This is no ordinary rehearsal. The bride and groom don’t meet us in the vineyard—they can’t because neither of them is currently located in the state of Texas. They’re not even together! The groom phones in from his office in Silicon Valley, and the bride is on Harbour Island in the Bahamas, enjoying a last-minute bachelorette party. It takes us thirty minutes just to get everyone on the same Zoom call using Queenie’s iPad.

“Can everyone hear me?” she shouts.

“The connection’s a little spotty on my end,” the bride says in a polished British accent.

I bite my tongue even though I want to tell her the connection is spotty because she’s currently lounging on a beach chair near the ocean! Where’s the nearest WiFi router?Florida?

“All good on my end,” the groom says. “Who’s the new girl?”

It takes me a second to realize he’s referring to me; I’m positioned just behind Queenie on the screen.

Queenie shifts the iPad so I’m in the center of the frame. “Michael and Amber, this is Madison, our temporary Cassie since she went on maternity leave.”

“She had her baby?!” Amber exclaims. “Tell her congratulations for me!”

“Yes, we’re all so excited, and we’ll pass on your well wishes. To put your mind at ease concerning this change, Madison is my daughter and she happens to be one of the best wedding planners in the game. She’s worked at Evermore Events in Montgomery for years.”

“Oh, my friend used Evermore!” Amber squeals. “Lisbet Stanbury?”

I grin, proud to admit, “Lisbet was my client. Her wedding wasbeautiful.”

This coincidence earns me immediate respect in Amber’s eyes, which is good because we’ll need it. This wedding is going to take pure luck to pull off.

The nuptials are in two weeks. There’ll be an evening ceremony with a cocktail hour and a reception at the vineyard, followed by an afterparty at their lavish hill country home (which I’m assuming is the reason they’re having this wedding in Texas in the first place).

Ideally, they would be here for an entire week leading up to the wedding, but Michael is wrapping up a huge deal with his company next week and can’t leave California until late Friday. Amber, meanwhile, has a friend’s 30thbirthday in New York City next Thursday and will be taking a red-eye to Austin later thatnight. Any number of things could go wrong between now and then, but Michael and Amber don’t seem at all concerned about flight delays or last-minute issues.

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