Page 15 of The Wedding Wrecker

"Marcus and I want you to plan our wedding. At the Timber Vale Lodge in Breckenridge, Colorado."

"Lily..."

"It's perfect," she continued, enthusiasm building. "The resort is gorgeous, the views are incredible, and you know winter weddings are totally your thing.AndI only know about the place because I snooped in one of your old ‘dream venue scouting report’ folders."

"One, I didn’t give you permission to go through my things. And two, Winter weddingsweremy thing," I said. "And you know I don't do destination weddings anymore."

"But this is different. It's me. Your favorite sister."

"You're my only sister."

"Exactly! Which means you have to do it."

I set down my fork, trying to ignore the way my heart rate had picked up. "Can we talk about this later?"

"No, because you'll just come up with more excuses." Lily leaned forward. "Em, it's been three years. You can't let one bad experience?—"

"Bad experience?" I laughed. "Lily, my career almost ended. Do you know how long it took to rebuild my reputation? How many tiny, perfect, absolutely-nothing-can-go-wrong weddings I had to do before people would trust me again?"

"And now they do trust you," she said softly. "Which means it's time to trust yourself."

Marcus cleared his throat. "If it helps, my family are all on board with you planning it for us."

I blinked. "You already talked to Marcus’ family about this?"

"The Wellingtons have certain... expectations," he said with a slightly apologetic smile. “Lily wanted to make sure they were okay with it before we asked you.”

Two years ago, Lily met Marcus and had no idea who he was related to for weeks. Eventually, she learned his family is old money. They had ties to the Rockafellers, apparently, and were heavily involved in the Standard Oil empire. According to my internet searches, they were multi-millionaires with gorgeous properties in their name across the country. Being hired by them to plan a wedding…

It made the Harrison-McNamara wedding look like a courthouse wedding by comparison.

"Did you know about this?" I asked Brad, who had been suspiciously quiet.

He held up his hands. "I just came for the steak. And you,” he added with an awkward smile.

Lily looked at me, eyes pleading. "No pressure. Just consider it."

Right. No pressure. Just my sister's wedding. At one of the most exclusive resorts in Colorado. For one of the wealthiest families in the country.

What could possibly go wrong?

"I'll think about it," I said, knowing I'd already lost this battle.

"Perfect!" Lily clapped her hands. "Oh, and one more tiny detail..."

"What?"

"The wedding's in six months."

I choked a little, coughing into my napkin. "Six months? For a winter destination wedding at the Timber Vale Lodge? That's impossible. I don’t even know if they’d still have an opening."

"Marcus’ dad called in a favor already. They’re holding our date until we can confirm. Besides, nothing's impossible for Emma Marshall," Lily said with complete confidence. "You're the one who taught me that."

Yeah, but that was the old Emma. The one who believed in fairy tales and happy endings. The one who hadn't watched a perfect wedding implode in spectacular fashion. The one who hadn't been stupid enough to fall for?—

No. Not going there.

I looked at my sister's hopeful face, then at Marcus's encouraging smile. Even Brad looked invested now, though that might have just been indigestion. He was going pretty hard on the greasy appetizers and bread.

---