Serena relaxed enough to give just a slight smile. “Thank goodness for your friend. Mom will be less likely to cause any problems in front of him, although she’ll certainly put on airs for him.”
“My, um—”
“He seems very nice,” Serena added, glancing in the direction of the parlor. “Have you known him long?”
“I met him yesterday for the first time. He’s here on assignment for the magazine for a series of articles profiling small Southern wedding venues.”
“Really? You only met him yesterday?” Serena looked surprised.
“Yes.” Kinley, too, found it a bit hard to believe, especially when she thought of that interlude in the garden last night.
“Huh. I’d have thought you knew each other longer. Something about the way he smiles at you, I guess.”
“Serena!” Eva called from the hallway. “Are you coming? Dan wants to talk to you, too. After all, you are the bride.”
“Glad she remembers that occasionally,” Serena muttered, but obligingly headed in the direction of her mother’s voice. “Let me know if you need anything from me today, Kinley,” she said over her shoulder.
“Same to you. You have my number.” Ordering herself to concentrate solely on business for now, Kinley hurried toward the office to start making her calls, leaving Bonnie and Rhoda to clear away the now-emptied dining room.
* * *
It was inevitable, of course, that some things would go wrong that day. Kinley pretty much planned for unexpected problems so she would be prepared to deal with whatever cropped up. She hoped she could take care of whatever she encountered quickly and discreetly, as she always tried to do, but especially with Dan there.
Dan was able to keep Eva occupied for almost an hour, during which Kinley accomplished quite a bit. He caught up with her later that morning back in the dining room, where she was helping Rhoda and Bonnie set up tables for the rehearsal dinner that evening. By moving the four usual tables closer together and bringing down another round folding table and six more chairs from the attic, they had provided seating for thirty, plus a kids’ table that would hold six. Dan jumped in to help when he saw Bonnie carrying two chairs, taking them from her and placing them where she indicated.
Having just set the smaller chairs in place at the kids’ table, Kinley brushed off her hands absently as she looked at Dan. “Well? How did it go?”
He smiled and shrugged. “Let’s just say I have much more information on tomorrow’s wedding than I’ll need to use in the article. Not to mention the life story of both the bride and the groom, and the bride’s mother’s role in bringing them together.”
Kinley grimaced apologetically. “I’m really sorry about that.”
He shrugged. “All part of the job. How’s it going with you?”
“Great,” she said brightly, pushing out of her mind any thoughts of vendor delays, miscommunications and other issues she’d dealt with in the past hour. “Did Serena and Eva leave?”
“I walked them to the door. I hope they went straight to their car from there, which is what Serena was strongly urging they do. By the way, you might want to send someone in to tidy the parlor. Young Grayson is very, um, curious. Not to mention energetic.”
“Thanks. I’ll take care of that.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Oh, no, thanks. Everything’s under control. Maybe y
ou’d like to—”
“Kinley.” Logan appeared in the doorway to the deck, which had been left open to keep the fresh air circulating in the room. “Keep her away from me, will you?”
Wincing, Kinley hurried to her brother. She didn’t have to ask who he meant by her, of course. “What happened?”
“She came back giving orders to my crew, telling me what I was doing wrong—nothing, by the way. Telling me better ways of doing my job—which weren’t better.”
“Where is she?”
“She left. Her daughter burst into tears and dragged her away.”
Kinley put a hand to her head. “You made Serena cry?”
Logan snorted in offense. “I did not. Her mother made her cry. I just told them I knew what I was doing and didn’t really need them to supervise.”