Page 154 of The Duke Who Saved Christmas
I blushed. “Stop flirting with the patient.”
“Absolutely not.” He leant forwards and brushed his lips over my forehead. “Yes, Hazel knows. She’s upset, but I promise you, she’s absolutely fine.”
“How can she be both of those things? Her wedding is ruined!”
“Ah, that’s where you’re wrong. You see, while you’ve been sleeping, my mother has been plotting.” Thomas tapped me on the nose. “Your grandparents, parents, and Julian’s parents are downstairs right now, and we’ve figured out how the wedding can go ahead.”
I was still asleep.
That was the only explanation.
Or maybe I really had gone through a wormhole to a parallel universe.
It simply had to be one of the two.
There was no way it was possible.
I had one thousand questions, but the only thing that came out of my mouth was a very eloquent, “You what?”
Thomas stared at me for a second before he burst out laughing, smothering it with a hand over his mouth. “How very elegant of you.”
“I’ve given up on elegance for the day. What the fuck are you talking about?”
“This is a licensed wedding venue.”
I met his gaze. “How convenient.”
“It really is. Do you want to see the documentation? I’ll have someone bring it, if so.” He laughed again. “We were going to let the permit lapse after Dad died because we weren’t sure we wanted to continue hosting them. I had a feeling it might have been renewed, so I checked.”
“How do you forget something like that?”
“Grief.” He shrugged. “After he died, I had a ton of paperwork to go through, and I remember instructing the experienced admin staff of the estate to just handle what they could on their own. The license renewal was apparently one of those things.”
That made sense. Grief was a weird thing.
“So, it’s happening here?”
“Yep.” His face lit up like the lights on the town square. “Oh, it’s going to be a lot of work, but I think we can manage. It won’t be the wedding your sister imagined, but there wasn’t much she could say after Julian boldly announced he’d marry her in an alleyway if he had to.”
“I am continuously impressed at his ability to reign her shit in,” I mused. “What about the vendors?”
“Zara and Julian should be in my office printing off all your spreadsheets from your shared folder as we speak.”
“The guests?”
“The same. Your mum and Cassandra are going to take the lead in contacting the guests.”
“The registrar?”
“Mum’s on it.”
“What about the décor? The trees? Everything is—”
“Under control, Madam Wedding Planner.” He slid his fingers into my hair, cupping the side of my head and drawing his face close to mine. “Although I am going to need you to accompany me to the tree farm this afternoon so we can pick out some new trees for the ballroom.”
“You know how to woo a girl,” I deadpanned. “Do you even have the facilities to pull this off?”
“No, I thought I’d round up extra picnic chairs from the sheds of the residents of Castleton and hope for the best.” He dropped a kiss on my cheek, just millimetres from my lips.
