Page 3 of The Backup Bride Proposal

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They’d barely recoveredfrom the circus that was the giant drunken wedding over the weekend, and now the big circus had come to town.

A movie production, of all things. Trucks had begun to arrive early Monday morning. Johnny Bellini, along with several of the vineyard crew, had made sure they parked all their trailers—and oh, dear God, there had been so many—in the designated areas they’d carved out for them.

Who knew that making a movie took so many people and so much stuff?

“It’s a nightmare out there.” Erin bounced her six-month-old son, JJ, in her arms while staring out the dining room window. “An actual nightmare.”

“I know we’re going to regret this,” Brenna said, reaching over to play with JJ, who giggled in response.

“It’ll all be fine,” Maureen Bellini said.

Honor sighed. “Will it, Mom?”

“Yes, it will. We were very clear in the contract about where the crew can and cannot be, including stiff penaltiesfor any damages to the property. They’ve assured me they’ll use utmost care while prepping and filming. Johnny and I went over earlier this morning to meet the director, the crew and the actors. We brought wine, and everyone was very nice and accommodating.”

“Hmph” was all Brenna had to say in response.

“I’ll be interested to see what changes they make to the wedding area,” Mae said.

Four sets of eyes turned to her. She grimaced. Okay, wrong thing to say.

“Anyway,” Maureen said. “Back to today’s agenda.”

Since this was the first week of the film crew being on board, they hadn’t booked any weddings. Wine harvest had already been done, so the crew wouldn’t be in the way other than people who wanted to book an appointment to tour the wedding venue.

“Honor and Mae will handle tours, mentioning that filming will be taking place,” Erin said, handing off a suddenly fussy JJ to Maureen, who smiled and made baby sounds to him. “Brenna, you and Dad will fiercely guard the vineyards.”

“As if I’d do anything else,” Brenna said.

Louise brought out breakfast. JJ grabbed for a potato, so Maureen gave it to him to munch on. Mae was amazed how the whole eating-solid-foods thing was going. Young mister JJ was a champion at it. An expert with sliced bananas, too.

“I also think it would be a great idea if Mae acts as our official liaison to the production company,” Erin said.

Mae blinked. “What?”

“Oh, excellent idea,” Brenna said.

“Agreed,” Maureen said.

“Uh…what exactly do I need to do?” she asked.

Brenna shrugged. “You know. Just…be our point personwith the production staff. Oh, and the actors. That way if they have questions…”

“Or if they step out of line,” Honor added, “you’ll be the one to tell them to knock it off.”

Maureen nodded. “Agreed. I’ll let them know to come to you with anything they might need.”

“But…” She fumbled for some way out of this. “What about the Everson/Hones wedding? It’s another large one. Plus, there’s Brenna and Finn’s upcoming wedding. I was going to handle—”

Honor waved her hand back and forth. “Don’t even worry about it, Mae. I’ve got it all covered. And besides, the whole liaison thing isn’t a full-time gig.”

“It would be a huge help if you could handle it,” Maureen said. “We need someone to get close to production, make sure they don’t mess up our beautiful grounds.”

“Or violate the contract,” Erin said. “We know they’ll try to cut corners.”

“And there are so many people here already, Mae,” Brenna said. “You’re so good at managing. If anyone can do this, you can.”

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