Page 12 of To Have and to Scold

“Oh,” she steps through the doorway again and is next to me in a flash. “There’s a meeting at nine in the conference room. That’s where you’ll meet everyone, the mayor included. She’s joining us this time since this is your first day.” Mary’s positively glowing at the mention of the mayor. “I’m thinking after that, Beck will get you started officially. And there should be someone from IT coming to set up your internet and all that.” She offers a warm smile. “Do you have any questions?”

I tell her no. I’m not going to say,I need to get started, do a bang-up job, and then get a perfect review from the mayor so I can leave.No one knows I’m not planning to stay long.

She leaves with a little pat on my arm. I follow her to the doorway of my office and rub a finger along the dust on the top of the light switch plate.

This place is a far cry from where I came.

Oh, how far I have fallen.

I just need my designer office supplies in here STAT. My scissors and tape dispensers and erasers all in gorgeous shades of cotton tail, brookside moss, and tangerine dream are going to go a long way into helping me channel the Amore Wedding Planning Firm. And in helping me get back on my feet.

I was a tad distracted after the whiplash of having my boyfriend break up with me and start secretly dating my cousin. Now I’m hugging some guy named Billy in a misguided attempt to make them…what? Jealous?

They did politely wave to us when Billy and I left the beach. And I offered a breezy “See ya around!” before we left. Billy walked me to my car, and we didn’t look back, my ego simultaneously bruised at seeing such a public and handsy display by the happy, we-vacation-together-now couple. I was buoyed by the feelings that hugging such a manly man as Billy brought to the surface. He must do blue-collar work because his build wassolid.

Not that I’ll see him again, although I wouldn’t be opposed to planning his brother’s wedding. In that case, maybe Billy and I could even hug again. Because that hug was not bad at all. Precisely what I didn’t know I needed.

It’s not going to happen.

I have to get back to Atlanta, and he seemed like the kind of guy who would never leave Willow Cove.

“Nice to finally meet you in person, Dallas. Shoshana has only had good things to say about you.” Mayor Dobbs scrunches up her shoulders near her ears in an excited gesture.

The woman next to me interrupts. “—And Dallas is not a man!”

The mayor ignores her. “Hopefully you’re settling into town okay.” She looks around the table at the others in attendance at the meeting. “I was glad when Shoshana, my college roommate and Dallas’s former boss, connected us. My husband and I have poured a lot of time and money into our new wedding venue business. Willow Wood was built by my great-grandparents but was sold when they passed on. To have the opportunity to buy it and restore it has been a dream come true.” She fixes me with a stare. “Basically, no pressure, but this has to work.”

A titter of polite laughter filters through the group. I nod and smile, listening intently as the mayor introduces everyone else in the room. It still stings that Shoshana is myformerboss.

But as I start learning everyone’s names and titles, I’m struck with a feeling of calm. I’ve got this. I’m not arrogant—I don’t think—but I am confident, a necessity for a wedding planner, I’d say. And I doubt there can be anything that can best me here. I’ve planned weddings for many southern debutantes and their mothers in Atlanta. This? Weddings for locals and tourists at one simple venue this summer? Cake. Absolute cake.

Except, I choke like I’m trying to swallow a huge piece of cake when the last person to the meeting—he’s late, by the way—strolls in, unaffected by the fact that he’s interrupting. It’s Billy the Local. Billy from the beach.

He’s in a scrubby baseball cap, soft gray T-shirt with a faded logo of a backhoe next to a house with a large wave near it, and the most worn-out jeans I’ve ever seen, so perfectly molded to his features and the curve of his thighs that I can’t help but stare. Seriously. I’ve seen jeans like that retail for several hundred dollars, all worn out and faded by machines in the factory.

But Billy’s jeans? They’re all real. They’re the very definition of “made for him.”

All eight of us in the room turn to acknowledge him and no one seems fazed by his tardiness. They’re all just…really happy to see him.

He nods to a couple of people and even fist bumps one of the older gentlemen in the room. When Billy’s eyes land on me, they widen momentarily before his lazy, “I’m too cool for school” smile crosses his lips. “Hey, you,” he says as he slings himself into the chair next to mine, the only empty one at the table.

I’m sure my face is fused with plasticky confusion. What is he doing here, especially wearing clothes like that? Not that I’m complaining about the jeans! But if he’s coming here in any sort of official capacity, wouldn’t he have thought to at least change first? Or wash up? Now, with his face all close to mine, I catch a splatter of dirt on his cheek, and his clean sawdust scent with a note of musky soap.

“You’ve already met Beck?” Mayor Dobbs asks, beaming.

“Beck?”

“Beck Billingsley,” the mayor says, a cautious smile on her face as she spreads a hand to gesture to Billy.

I glance at him, with the side of my eye. “I’m—” I’m about to say confused, but I’m interrupted by Billy…or Beck.

“You’re our wedding planner? Dallas Cardon?”

I clear my throat and nod. “At your service.” I feel a little crooked smile start to perk across my lips. “Dallas Olivia Cardon. It’s not unheard of for a woman’s name, okay?”

Maybe that came out a little too aggressively.

He blinks. “Well, if you’d said something the other night—”

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