The month before that disaster in Vegas, he’d signed a five-mil ion-dol ar, three-year, contract with the Chinooks. With one reckless act, he’d put it at al risk. With one reckless act, he’d changed his life forever. Autumn’s, too.
He had never been sure what had pissed Autumn off more—him leaving her alone in Caesars without so much as a good-bye, the way he’d handled the divorce, or his insistence on a paternity test. Out of those three things, the only one he would change if he could was the way he’d left. He’d man up and say good-bye. It would have been the hard thing, but it would have been the right thing to do. Sam placed the heels of his palms on the arms of the chair and rose. He wasn’t as bad a dad as Autumn portrayed him, but he wasn’t as good as he needed to be either. Al that had to change. He had to do the right thing. He had to go as hard at seeing his son as he did at playing hockey. He looked at his watch and took one last pul from his beer. Some of the guys were getting together at Daniel’s for poker night. Sam was down three thousand and would love the opportunity to win it back.
Getting more serious about his personal life didn’t mean he had to give up everything else. Didn’t mean he had to give up poker night.
Chapter Five
Any Man of Mine:
Likes a Good Buffet
“I want a renaissance faire wedding. With a castle and moat and magicians.”
Autumn looked down at the tip of her bal point pen and forced herself to write renaissance faire in the theme heading. It was a little after six on a Saturday night, and she was in her office planning the Henson/Franklin wedding. Renaissance, apparently. In the office next door, she could hear Shiloh clicking on the computer and talking on the phone. “You have to keep in mind that the venue you’ve chosen is fairly smal .” She rose from behind her desk and straightened the red-and-black floral dress she’d bought at a vintage store in downtown Santa Cruz the last time she and Conner had gone on vacation to California. The soles of her red leather flats barely made a sound as she closed the door. Shiloh was a great assistant, but she tended to dial up the volume when she was excited. “I don’t know if we have room for a moat.” This was her first face-to-face meeting with the couple, but she’d had several phone conversations with the bride.
“Oh. Wel how about snake charmers and jesters?”
She retook her seat and looked up at the young woman across from her. Carmen the bride appeared so normal with her clear blue eyes and straight black hair. She wore a sweater set and little brooch, but the ear tapers sticking out of her lobes like black spikes were a tip-off that some kind of freakiness lay beneath that demure sweater set. “I’m not sure we can get the permits for exotic animals at your venue.”
“Bummer.” Carmen snapped her fingers. “Juggling dwarfs. We saw that at a faire in Portland.”
Autumn hoped the bride was talking about little people who juggled as opposed to little people who were juggled. It was probably the former, but she’d heard of stranger things. “We might have better luck getting jugglers if we didn’t put height restrictions on them,” she suggested. Carmen turned to her groom, Jerry. “What about pirates?”
“Pirates can be fun but total y unpredictable,” the groom answered as if they were talking about real pirates. “Grandma Dotti and Aunt Wanda are uptight and might have a problem with the pirates.”
Thank God for an uptight aunt and grandma. Autumn wanted al brides and grooms to have the weddings of their dreams. She wanted them to have everything they wanted, but she knew from experience that simple was always better. “If you have too much going on, it takes the focus off the bride and the groom. It’s your day, and the two of you need to be the center of attention.”
Carmen smiled. “That’s true. I’ve dreamed of my wedding day al of my life.” Traditional or alternative, al little girls had that in common.
“We want the servers in fools hats and masks,” Jerry added.
“And wearing our wedding colors.”
Which were blue and gold. She tilted her head as if she were giving the suggestion serious thought. While she wanted to give the bride and groom what they wanted, it was her job to keep it within their budget, too. “Wel , those sorts of costume would have to be especial y made for the reception. As opposed to rented, and your budget is…” She flipped a page like she’d forgotten and needed a reminder. “Twenty thousand. Twenty thousand is barely going to cover your catering, flowers, photography, and venue.” Twenty thousand was a lot of money unless you were talking about planning a wedding. “If you want the servers to have special y made costumes, we can always cut back on the food. Perhaps serve chicken as opposed to a roasted pig.”
The bride sat back in her chair and bit her lip. “Jerry and I met at a renaissance faire in Gig Harbor. We’ve always envisioned our wedding with a renaissance theme and a roasted pig.”
Autumn gave the couple her most reassuring smile. “And you can and wil have a great wedding with a renaissance theme. I’l talk to some of my vendors and see what kind of deals they can give you. In this economy, they are a lot more open to giving price breaks. And I’l contact the local Society for Creative Anachronism and see what they can do, too. I think we can come up with something fabulous and stil stay within your budget. I’m looking forward to helping you with this wedding. It’s going to be fun.” At least it wasn’t a pink princess theme, which was Autumn’s least favorite. “Have you picked out a dress,” she asked Carmen, and by the time the bride and groom left her office, they’d signed a contract, put down a deposit, and were upbeat and optimistic about their June wedding.
Autumn tossed her pen and pressed the heels of her palms against her brows. She wasn’t going to get rich planning weddings with budgets of twenty grand. Every little bit helped, and she was grateful for each job. But the commission off Carmen and Jerry’s wedding would barely pay the lease on her office for two months, which was why a lot of planners worked out of their homes, but not Autumn. She’d always believed that the image of success attracted success. Her office wasn’t anything big and splashy, just a seven-hundred-square-foot space she rented in a strip mal not far from her house; but it did give her the appearance of professionalism that a planner just couldn’t get from meeting clients in her home. Autumn depended on the big events and big weddings, like the Savages’, to survive the leaner times and keep her business going. To put food on the table and pay the utilities. Although she hated to admit it, the money she got each month from Sam went above and beyond helping to pay her personal bil s. She and Conner lived modestly, and she’d like to be able to say she didn’t use any of the child-support money Sam provided. She’d like to throw it al back in his face, but she wasn’t a martyr, and raising a child was expensive. She’d like to say she was socking the money away f
or Conner’s education, but Sam had that covered, too.
The amount Sam paid for one child was ridiculously high, but she was the only one who seemed to think so. Neither her lawyer nor Sam’s or even Sam himself seemed to think he should pay less. Which, she supposed, showed how much money the man made a year. She didn’t need half that much, and she’d put a lot of it aside so that when it had come time to buy a house, she’d paid cash. The house was thirty-five years old, but it was her and Conner’s, and they’d never be homeless. Never have to move around to avoid landlords and eviction notices like when she’d been growing up. Never moving from town to town, one step ahead of the repo man.
If Autumn did have a weakness, it was traveling. Every year, she took Conner on an awesome vacation. Usual y in January because Januaries were notoriously slow months in the planning business. But with Conner in school now, they would have to take minivacations and wait until spring break to head off to St. Barts or Atlantis.
“Hey, Autumn.” Shiloh, Autumn’s twenty-five-year-old assistant stuck her dark head into the office. “I talked to Tasty Cakes, and they’l do the cake for the Kramer anniversary for a thousand if we use them for the Peterson birthday party.”
“Fabulous.” The Kramer’s fiftieth wedding anniversary was planned for the second week in November and included three hundred family members and a five-tier wedding cake. “We can use the savings on better wine.” She flipped her wrist over and looked at her watch. Seven thirty. Free weekend nights were rare. “Don’t you have a date or something?”
Shiloh raised one dark brow over her brown eyes. “Don’t you?”
Autumn laughed. “Yeah right. I have a five-year-old.”
Shiloh rested a shoulder against the doorframe. “Not tonight you don’t.”
True, Conner was at the hockey game watching his dad skate around and punch people in the head. Sam had actual y come through this time. Of course, it wouldn’t last. “No one asked me out tonight.”