Page 37 of Size Doesn't Matter

From what she could decipher, the wedding chapel and town hall had been double-booked, so they no longer had a suitable place to get married, something had happened to the cake, and the white flowers her uncle had ordered for the bouquets and table arrangements had just arrived and were all various shades of hot pink.

The groom, Toby, looked ready to murder someone, while his bride-to-be, Lucy—an ex-firefighter and one of the strongest women Sophie had ever met—looked close to tears.

I guess everyone has their breaking point.

But then Mia Caldwell spoke up, and the room breathed a collective sigh of relief. She had a plan.

Mia was her uncle Ollie’s girlfriend, and she’d recently moved back to Melville’s Cross after almost twenty years serving in the Royal Australian Army. She walked with a cane, and her resting bitch face made her look like she’d happily shove that cane up someone’s arse and ride them like a pogo stick if they even dared to look at her funny, but the way Ollie stared at her, as though he would move mountains just to breathe the same air as her, made a tiny pang of jealousy stab at Sophie’s heart.

Nearly a month ago, Sophie thought she’d found someone who looked at her the same way, but it had all been a lie. A beautiful, tantalising lie that had made her scream in ecstasy more times than she could count, but it was still a lie.

Unfortunately, Jack Martin had taken up permanent residence inside her brain. Even more annoying was the fact that he had the audacity to star in a never-ending fantasy loop that made it difficult to focus on everyday things. How, for instance, was she supposed to remember to put her panties on the right way around when she had the memory of being bent over Jack’s lap as he spanked her sizeable arse running through her mind?

She sighed quietly and shook her head to shoo away the memory, then made herself a cup of tea as Mia handed out assignments and got the wedding back on track.

Luckily, the woman had inherited her parents’ house on the other side of town, an old Queenslander with magnificent views of the local mountain range. “I have troops incoming with marquees, tables, and seating,” Mia said. “We can set up everything at Someday. I mean, we already cleaned up the yard for the photos anyway, so we may as well put it to good use. Rafe?”

“Yes?”

“Can you call the caterers, the band, and the celebrant and let them know about the change of venue? Then check on Jane and the cake?”

Her second-youngest uncle nodded. “On it,” he said, shoving a piece of toast in his mouth.

“Toby?”

The groom didn’t answer, just stared at her with one brow raised and a look of displeasure on his face.

“Are you sure you can’t use those?” Mia asked, pointing to the collection of pink roses piled up beside the kitchen sink.

“Positive,” he growled.

Mia nodded. “Then I want you and your brothers—not Crispin—to visit every resident in town who has white flowers growing in their yard and use your considerable Bennett charm to beg, borrow, steal, or swap them for those pink ones. I suggest starting with Mayor Rose and working your way down from there.”

Sophie watched her uncle’s tension melt away, pulling a half-smile from him as he tucked Lucy under his arm. “Yeah, we can do that.”

“And what will I be doing?” Crispin asked from his spot at the kitchen table.

Grinning at the interior designer, Mia said, “You’re coming with me to Someday. I need someone with your expertise to tell my soldiers where to set up the marquees to make the most of the space and the views.”

Cris threw out a mock salute. “Lead the way.”

“Uly?”

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“I need you to source as many boxes of white fairy lights as you can and bring them to Someday in two hours or less.”

The old man smiled broadly. “I like a woman who knows what she wants. Consider it done.”

Mia nodded her thanks. “Everyone else needs to help Lucy and her bridesmaids get ready, including getting to their beauty appointments on time, starting with their mani-pedis in forty-five minutes.” She tucked her tablet under her arm, looking every bit the Army major she had been until a month ago. “Everyone know what they’re doing?”

Everyone just sort of murmured, shrugged, and half nodded, their lack of urgency causing Mia’s back to straighten, her chin to lift, and her voice to snap out, “I said does everyone know what they’re doing?”

A roomful of startled people, including Sophie, blurted, “Yes.”

“Good. Then let’s get moving.”

Forty-five minutes. She had a whole forty-five minutes to kill before their mani-pedi appointments, after which they’d get their hair done, and then it was back to The Forge, the Bennett family home, so Sophie could do everybody’s make-up.

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