“On that note,” Reece said, pushing his glasses up on his nose after leaning forward. He glanced at his brother, completely ignoring Teddy. I sighed internally, knowing I’d made the right decision by aligning myself with Colt.
“I’ve spoken to a caterer that comes very highly recommended by the chef of the hotel I’m staying at. He’s willing to make himself available, at a cost, of course. We can go do a tasting any time, but he only does sit-down meals, no buffets, which means we’re going to have to switch that up from your previous plan.”
“If he can do catering at the winery, I suppose that will be fine,” Colt said, his focus only on his sister. “Emma and I went to tour it today. She said you’d been there before. I really like it and I think it will make for the perfect venue. You can still do your outdoor ceremony, and the reception hall opens up nicely, so even when you’re inside, you can still feel like you’re outside, weather permitting.”
As the meeting went on, Colt and Reece’s ideas kept coming, and it was making things chaotic. They both kept shouting about changes to everything. The catering and the venue were only the start, and they were both digging in their heels.
“I’m not sure about a winery, but we’ll get to that later,” Reece said to Colt. “Is there a dirt road to it? If so, it really won’t work. I’ve booked limos for all of us for the day. Driving in our own cars just would’ve made things difficult, but the limos won’t get to the venue if there’s a bad dirt road leading up to it.”
Colt shrugged. “There’s no dirt, so we’re all good on the limos. Just send me the account details and I’ll pay for them up front. The winery does all the alcohol, obviously, but I’ve paid a refundable deposit on the wines already just in case. They’re willing to run a bar tab for all the guests and they’ve already got my credit card details to charge it to.”
Reece waved him off. “I’ll talk to them about it. Since there have been no charges yet, it shouldn’t be an issue for them to bill it all to me instead.”
Colt’s jaw tightened, but Reece kept talking before he could argue. “What about music? There are no DJs around here, but apparently there’s a church band. I’m not sure about that, though. I’m seeing about auditioning a band from a few towns over. They’ve played a couple of big shows in the city and their stuff is on YouTube, so you can check them out there.”
Colt pulled out his phone. “Sure, just give me their name and I’ll pull it up. Teddy, Scott, and I will take a listen later and contact them if we like their stuff. Thanks for the suggestion. We still need a photographer too, right?”
He finally looked back at Teddy, but my friend was visibly upset. Everyone else had been following Reece and Colt’s conversation like it was a tennis match, their gazes bouncing from one to the other.
The bride and groom, however, seemed to have been forgotten until now. Teddy didn’t even have a single smear of paint on her clothes, which told me that this was really important to her if she’d gotten all cleaned up before the meeting.
Scott sat with his hand in hers, looking just as glum as his fiancée. All it took was one look at both of them to know that I had to do something. These big-city boys were on the verge of taking over and ruining everything, just like I’d thought they might.
I refused to let them keep messing this up. All I needed was to figure out a way to get them to listen, and I’d be damned if I didn’t do so right this very minute.
7
COLT
The meeting wasn’t going well. Frankly, I wanted to knock Reece out and I was only holding myself back because of our friendship. This was my little sister’s wedding and I knew what she wanted, not Reece. The man should’ve just butted out.
Everyone knew weddings were about the bride, after all. The best man had to organize a bachelor party and arrive early enough on the day of the wedding to put on his suit and smile for the pictures. That was it.
I didn’t even really know why he was here. The same went for his fiancée, Caitlin. She’d obviously taken a separate flight from him and must’ve arrived in town earlier today since she hadn’t been present for the shower yesterday, but her being at the meeting really wasn’t helping matters either.
Caitlin had been tight with Anna, my ex, and although they’d only been friends because of us, she still reminded me too much of what had happened on my own supposed wedding day. That, and I sensed a weird tension between her and Reece. Something wasn’t right with the two of them, but I was ignoring it for now in favor of continuing to argue with him.
Once we got the details for Teddy’s wedding ironed out, I’d see if I could talk to him about it. If the tension was even still there by then. It was probably nothing. Maybe they’d just had an argument on the way over.
Suddenly, Emma stood up and clapped her hands to get our attention. Once we were all looking at her, she cleared her throat and flashed us a sweet smile. “Okay, guys. We need to dial this back a notch, so we’re going to do what I do when I can’t get kids to agree. We’re going to play Emma Says.”
“What does that even mean?” Reece grunted, his eyes narrowing at her in a way that made the urge to punch him so much more intense. “We already told you that we’re not preschoolers. You don’t need to spank us because we don’t listen to you.”
“I don’t believe in spanking,” she deadpanned before sweeping her gaze across the room. “Emma Says is simple. It’s like Simon Says, only it’s Emma Says because my name isn’t Simon. Basically, you’re going to do everything I say, as long as you say ‘Emma Says’ first. The last one standing gets to suggest an idea, but Teddy and Scott get the final say.”
Caitlin rolled her eyes when Emma started the game, but she was glued to her phone anyway. Reece kept giving her looks that distracted him, and soon, he made a mistake and was out. I, on the other hand, was intent on winning. The game was silly, but at least it had perked Teddy up, so I was willing to play along.
A few minutes later, I emerged from the round victorious and decided to circle back to the most important thing—the venue. Turning toward Scott and my sister, I laid it all out for them.
“You guys are going to love the winery. It’s a beautiful setting, and like I mentioned earlier, it’s still mostly outdoors. I know you’ve already been there, but if you’d like, we can visit tomorrow and I’ll show you everything Emma and I picked up on today. Then you can decide.”
“I’m not sure, Colt,” Teddy said. Her teeth sank into her lip as she glanced at Scott. “We’re pretty happy—”
“Actually,” Reece interrupted. His lips pressed into a hard line as he kept his eyes on Caitlin for another beat before he focused on us. “The ballroom at the hotel I’m staying at is more than adequate. The caterer I spoke to has worked there a lot before, so he’s comfortable in their kitchen and they’ve got the date available.”
“A ballroom?” I scoffed. “I don’t give a damn if the caterer is more comfortable there. We’ll find a different caterer if yours is so delicate that he can only cook in one kitchen. I’m sure the winery will have recommendations of their own. We’ll make do, but it wasn’t your turn to make a suggestion.”
He snorted. “What, because I didn’t win a game designed for children? That’s bullshit and you know it. I’m not going to keep quiet about the ballroom while you guys discuss a winery. If I have to wait until I win before I get to suggest anything, we’re just going to end up doubling back to everything every time one of us wins a round. It’s counterproductive.”