I thought I went a little too far as Damon’s face paled. He stared at me in shock for a few seconds before turning back toward the steering wheel to start the car.
“Let’s just get the flowers,” Damon’s shoulders were stiff with anger.
Damon turned the key but nothing happened. He tried again and still nothing. The car just made a clicking noise.
“Did you put gas in?” I asked him.
“Of course I did,” Damon pointed to the gas tank indicator.
“Well, isn’t this just great.” I threw up my arms and climbed out of the car.
“Where are you going?” Damon shouted after me.
“To phone roadside assistance,” I hissed back at him as I scrolled through my phone to find the number I needed.
***
Damon and I sat in an angry awkward silence until roadside assistance arrived. It didn’t take the mechanic long to fix the car and we were back on the road in no time. Still, neither of us had said a word. By the time we got to one of the most beautiful farms I’d ever seen, the air around us was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
I ignored Damon’s black mood as I stared across rows and rows of color blooms with a backdrop of rolling hills in the distance. It was like standing in the middle of a colorful painting.
We managed to find the flowers Hayley needed and in the colors she’d wanted, so that was a relief. We got the flowers loaded into the van when Damon’s friend who owned the farm took us to see his bee hives before sampling something called honey wine.
As we stood there sipping the wine and staring over the beautiful landscape, a bee settled on my dress. Damon’s friend went to get the bee collector contraption that moved the bee without it dying. When he came back two minutes later, it was to a scene of Damon warning me to stay very still as the bees tried to make me their new hive.
After the first bee landed on me, three others landed on me, and before I knew it, there were a whole lot of bees on me. I didn’t want to swat at them because bees were scarce and we needed them. But also because I didn’t want to get stung by them. I looked like I had a bee blanket on my skirt. I could see that Damon was trying hard not to laugh but didn’t because he was trying to keep me from making any sudden moves. Like punching him for laughing at me because I had a blanket of bees hugging my skirt.
“I think they’re attracted to your perfume,” Damon’s friend explained to me as he gently got the bees off me.
“Maybe we should be on our way,” Damon suggested, hiding his smile still, “before Carla steals your bees away from you with her intoxicating perfume.” I saw the grin on his face as clear as day.
Afterwards, we managed to get back to the florist without incident and the florist assured me she’d have everything ready for Saturday.
I felt that the day had not ended on as bad a note as it had started on.
CHAPTER 16
Damon
The day before had nearly put me off both women and relationships. It had definitely put me off weddings. I now knew what the term bridezilla meant as I’d seen it first-hand. I’d also seen just how spiteful a scorned woman could be, and Carla was very wrong about me. I did feel completely responsible for what Celeste had done. My gut had warned me not to contact her as it had taken a very long time to get her to stop contacting me after the last time Celeste and I had hooked up.
I’d only gone on the counterattack with Carla yesterday because I was feeling defensive. I was also still smarting over Hayley’s ‘Carla was right, having Damon here was going to cause nothing but trouble’ comment. That had not been nice to hear from my best friend’s soon-to-be-wife. But like Carla had pointed out, it was my fault her flowers were ruined and her maid of honor nearly ended up looking like a big orange toilet roll cover doll.
I grinned; I wished I could’ve seen that and the look on Carla’s face. But it was true that I really messed up. I was the one who had fed Celeste the information she’d needed to sabotage the outfits and the flowers. I had openly spoken to her about all the arrangements and had laughed about Carla’s OCD-type organization for the wedding arrangements.
I knew I’d messed up badly but I was trying to fix it. I didn’t need Carla snidely telling Drew that she was quite capable of handling both bride and groom guests’ activities if he wanted to tell me to step down. Hayley, Drew, and Carla didn’t know I’d overheard that conversation. It had taken place after Carla and I had dropped the flowers off. The flowers I got from my friend’s flower farm were a lot fresher than the ones Hayley had flown in. I’d also paid for them and for extra help for the florist to get the flower arrangements done in time at the hotel rather than her flower shop.