Page 22 of Love Letter Lost
I nodded.
“What if you just added a few more roses and made the corsages look similar to the—” he broke off. “What did you call them? Boot-in-scootins?”
I laughed. “Boutonnieres. They’re a floral arrangement, not a line dance we did in high school.” I thought about his suggestion. “It would make our jobs a lot simpler.” I tried to picture the result. The image was hazy, but I was pretty sure I’d seen something similar online that we could base our design on.
“Then that’s definitely what we’re doing,” Ridge said. “That just leaves the centerpieces.”
“You say ‘just’ like it’s no big deal. Those are the biggest part.” I could feel a headache building behind my left eye with the thought of one more decision to make.Where was Livvy when I needed her?Despite the radio silence when it came to Ridge, I could really use her opinion onherwedding decor.
We stood, staring at the flowers for several moments, waiting for inspiration to strike again. Finally, Ridge bent down and picked up the ranunculus.
“Do we have to use flowers in the centerpieces?” Ridge asked.
“Not necessarily.” I drew out the words as I considered his question. Most wedding receptions I attended used flowers on the tables, but that didn’t mean Livvy’s had to. It might even make our lives easier if she didn’t. “But what else would we use?”
“My sister stuck a bunch of pictures of her and her husband on the tables at her reception,” Ridge said. “They added other stuff, but that was the main piece. I remember having to stick all the pictures into frames the night before.”
“I like it.” It sounded better than trying to come up with 15 flower arrangements for the tables.
We spent the next several moments trying to guess how many flowers we’d need. Where neither of us had arranged flowers before we were clueless when it came to amounts. Once we’d piled all of the flowers into the cart, we tracked down floral tape, wire, and ribbon.
Next up were picture frames and the other “stuff” we needed for the tables. Ridge couldn’t quite remember what had gone along with the picture frames at his sister’s reception, but I figured we could find something that would work. We grabbed silver picture frames, lace, burlap, tea lights, mason jars, and various wood items, all things I’d seen on Livvy’s Pinterest boards.
Throughout the process, Ridge and I joked and teased, something that was helped along each time I misjudged space and bumped the cart into shelves and displays. Ridge took over steering when I almost knocked a glass bowl onto the floor. It felt like we were back in high school. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed his friendship. Yet a part of me hesitated to jump in fully, despite our truce.Ridge hurt me once. What is stopping him from hurting me again?I pushed the thought aside, ignoring the twinge in my gut that came with it. Ridge and I were old friends reconnecting, nothing more. He had a girlfriend.
After a couple hours in the craft store, we called it good and made our way to the checkout. The woman assisting us looked to be in her late fifties with dark skin and dyed-blonde hair styled in a short, easy-to-maintain haircut. I glanced down at her nametag as we pulled everything out of our cart. Trudy. It seemed like a fitting name for the slightly plump smiling woman in front of us.
“Wow.” Trudy grabbed the first items and started ringing them up. “Looks like you two are throwing a party. When’s the big day?”
“Saturday.” I checked the time on my phone. It was nearly noon, and I still hadn’t heard from Livvy or the auto shop.
“Waiting to the last minute, then.” She nodded. “You’re lucky we just restocked everything. Last week we had a desperate bride in here trying to find wood stands like this,” she said, holding up a piece of wood that looked like it had been sliced from a tree trunk, “but we were completely out.”
“Good thing we came when we did.” Ridge loaded the bags into our cart as she continued to ring us up.
“I’ll say. We get engaged couples in here all the time, especially this time of year.” Trudy scanned another item and slipped it into a plastic bag.
My head jerked up. “Oh, we’re n—”
“You’re such a cute couple,” Trudy continued, stopping my response. “I can tell the two of you are going to make it. Most of the guys,” she gestured at Ridge, “sulk around here looking miserable. But it’s my opinion that if you can find a guy willing to brave the craft store, he’s a keeper.” She gave me a big wink and told me the total. I tried not to flinch as I reached for my credit card, but Ridge got his card out first.
“Let me take care of that, honey,” he said as I looked at him in surprise. I felt my eyes widen further when he threw in a wink.
“Now, that’s a gentleman!” Trudy wished us well as we walked away. Ridge looped his arm around my waist and pushed the cart one handed, ignoring my attempts to break free. As we headed toward his car, my stomach twisted and flipped in pleasure and consternation, making me wonder if it was trying out for a gymnastics team.
Ridge popped the trunk and I turned on him, flinching as I kicked the cart in the process. “What was that?” I asked as I hopped on one foot, trying to push past the pain in my toes.
“She was so convinced we were a couple. I didn’t want to disappoint.” He shrugged.
“Well, next time you’re tempted to put on a show for someone, do it with yourgirlfriend.” We may have called a truce, but that didn’t mean my emotions had completely settled. I still felt a bit of hurt and anger lingering, not to mention some of the affection I had battled my teenage years seemed to be resurrecting despite everything. I wouldn’t survive the week if he kept this up. My emotions were already running haywire, and we weren’t even a day into wedding preparations.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
We loaded up the trunk,and I put the cart in the return then got in the car. I used the moment to take deep breaths and clear my head before settling into my seat.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.” Ridge put the car in reverse and backed out of our parking spot. “How about we refuel before getting our craft on?”
I agreed, eager for a break from the wedding to-do list.
