Page 13 of 4 Weddings and a Feud

“Jack helped me buy this place.” Alex gestured to the frescoed ceiling. He’d paid some local art students ten thousand dollars to paint it, but it looked like a million bucks.

“It was a solid investment. I wish all my projects were as successful.” Jack raised his champagne flute.

Smiling, Alex tapped his glass to Jack’s. “May our next partnership be just as lucrative.” The list of people Alex trusted with a deal like the Paradise was so short Jack’s name was the only one on it. He’d asked his friend for a lot of money to buy the hotel, and he was leveraging Jack’s reputation, too. Yet he’d almost ruined Jack’s party. He owed Mary for rescuing it. She’d turned the snake eyes he’d rolled into a win-win.

“The return on my investment in this place keeps my wife in baubles.” Jack tilted his head at Janet. She wore diamond drops in her ears and a diamond eternity necklace. Plus, there was her whopper of an engagement ring, snuggled up next to her sparkly wedding band.

Janet patted Jack’s shoulder. “You know I don’t care about that, darling.” She touched her necklace. “Well, maybe I do care about it. A girl likes a little bling, you know?” She winked at Mary.

Did Mary like bling? He’d never seen her with anything but her mother’s gold cross at her neck. From his observations, Mary dated nice men from church. Accountants. Hotel managers. Teachers. Alex barely kept from curling his lip. Not the kind of guys who could cover her in diamonds the way Jack did for Janet. The way she deserved.

Alex had lost count of the jewels he’d given to girlfriends. But Mary wasn’t like the women he dated. She’d demand more than a few gemstones. She’d want all of him, even the dark parts he kept hidden. More than he could ever give.

“You two are so sweet together,” Mary said. “I don’t think it’s the diamonds that have kept your love alive for forty years.”

“No,” Janet said, “it’s the little things. He always asks me about my day. And after dinner, he mixes me a little cocktail before he washes the dishes. And puts them away.” She hummed out a little sigh.

Mary echoed it. “You found yourself a winner.”

Alex kept in a snort. It couldn’t be that easy to win Mary’s heart. Mary’s man would have to get along with her lunkhead brothers, go to Mass every Sunday, and be exactly the upstanding, honorable member of the community Alex wasn’t.

He’d done her a favor by not showing up for prom.

Jack curled his hand around Janet’s. “Let’s make a last round of the party so we can go home.”

Janet’s eyes widened. “We can’t leave our own anniversary party early.”

“Not even for…” Jack whispered something in her ear.

His wife blushed. “Maybe everyone is almost ready to go. Lovely meeting you, Mary. Thanks for all you’ve done tonight.”

Mary said, “It was my pleasure. Happy anniversary.”

“Thank you, dear. And thanks, Alex.” Janet kissed his cheek. “The hotel is spectacular, as always.”

When the couple walked away, Alex indicated the chair next to his, and Mary sank into it.

“Tired?” he murmured as he scooted her chair closer to the table.

“Only my feet. I’m not used to wearing heels for this long.”

He sat and leaned toward her. “Get used to it. You’re my new event planner.”

She’d already picked up her dessert spoon, but she set it down with a snort. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You’ve done an impeccable job tonight. You need experience for your portfolio to build your business, and I need an event planner, at least temporarily. Someone has to plan the Richardson wedding.”

She narrowed her eyes, then dug her spoon into the chocolate mousse. “You can thank Evie for the impeccable party when you beg her to come back.” She popped the spoon into her mouth, and her shoulders lowered as her long eyelashes fluttered closed.

He cleared his throat and looked anywhere but at her plush lips as she eased the spoon out from between them. “I’m not asking Evie to come back. Our relationship was always…contentious. You and I work well together. I need the Richardson event to go perfectly. I’m seeking the gaming commission’s approval for a new business venture.”

Tilting her head, she stared into his eyes. He held steady under her gaze, letting her peek at the vulnerability under that word,need.He tried never to need anything, but he could trust his old friend Mary not to take advantage.

“You’ll let me run the wedding my way,” she said. “No interference.”

“Under two conditions. First, I’ve got an assistant planner, Joey Campo. He’s part of the deal.”

Mary tilted her head. “If you have an assistant…”

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