Angela took comfort in his words. “What are we going to do now?”
CHAPTER THREE
Thiswasanightmare.
Carter stood in the offices of Perky Pink Wedding Planner with his fiancée in tears and their wedding falling apart. For a man who prided himself on always having a plan, whether it was for Angela’s birthday or a strategy to win a court case, he had no idea how to fix this.
“You don’t want to marry me?” Hurt reflected in Angela’s eyes.
“No… I mean yes, I do. No, that wasn’t what I meant.” He wasn’t making much sense.
Her gaze searched his. “I don’t understand. You don’t want to marry me? Or you do?”
There was a slight pause as he figured out his next words—because this situation was quickly deteriorating. “Of course, I want to marry you. But with everything that has happened, maybe we should take a break.”
“A break?”
“You know, delay the wedding until everything calms down and you find another dress.”
Angela’s mouth opened, but no words came out. Instead, a tear ran down her cheek. When he reached out to her, she backed away from him. Instead of helping, he was making things worse.
He turned to Clara. She was the expert. Surely, this wasn’t her first time dealing with a wedding disaster.
Even Clara’s perpetual smile was long gone. There were twin lines between her brows, and her pink glossy lips were pursed as if she were deep in thought.
After a strained moment of silence, Clara said, “Brooke, could you get Angela some water? I need to have a word with Carter alone.”
“Certainly.” Brooke stood and moved toward the small fridge at edge of the large room.
Clara nodded toward her office. He followed her inside. She closed the door behind him.
Then she moved behind her desk and sat down. Her gaze searched his. “Do you really want to cancel the wedding?”
“Of course not. But I don’t want Angela to settle on some makeshift wedding instead of the wedding of her dreams. I know how long and how hard she worked to make this day perfect.”
Clara nodded in understanding. “So what you’re saying is that you want to postpone the wedding?”
“Yes.”
Clara nodded. “How long do you want to put off the wedding?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Until Angela can have the wedding she wants and not something haphazardly thrown together.”
“If I were able to give you such a wedding by next Saturday, would you still want to get married?”
He hadn’t expected her to say that. Was something like that even possible? He recalled the hurt look on Angela’s face and the way she’d pulled away from him.
“Yes. Please.” He didn’t want to lose Angela.
Clara started to type on her computer. He had no idea what she was doing, but he had serious reservations about this wedding taking place in a week.
“Do you really think you can fix this?” Disbelief rang out in his voice.
“Give me just a moment. I need to check one more thing.”
He quietly sat down across from her desk. His knee bounced up and down. He wasn’t going to lose Angela. Even if it meant them getting married now, he’d do it—even if it was at the courthouse in front of a magistrate. But he wanted something more for her—something close to the vision she’d created for their wedding day.
At last, Clara turned to him. “Do you or Angela have any plans for the weekend that can’t be canceled?”