Czytaj książkę: «Tempting Kate»

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“WE ARE LIVE in twenty seconds.”

Twenty seconds.

Kate Hartley scanned the set of Today’s Woman, but she couldn’t locate an escape.

The talk show’s host, Claire Jamison, nodded as she readjusted the microphone on the collar of her pale blue blouse. “Ready?” she asked her, tossing her long red hair over one shoulder.

No. Kate forced a confident smile. “Of course.” She sat straighter and slid her palms down the length of her tan pencil skirt. She crossed and recrossed her legs as the producer counted down the seconds to airtime.

When he signaled that they were live, Claire spoke. “Welcome back. Before the break, we saw Lario perform his hit ‘When We Were Us,’ and he will be back to perform again at the end of today’s show. Now, we are pleased to introduce our next guest—Hollywood’s own wedding planner Kate Hartley, from Belle Affairs.” Claire turned to look at her with a smile. “Kate, good to see you.”

“Thank you for having me,” Kate said, relieved that her steady voice revealed none of the anxiety threatening to suffocate her.

“So as if you weren’t busy enough planning the nuptials of some of Tinseltown’s most glamorous couples, you recently wrote a book.” Claire picked up the hardcover that had hit store shelves the week before and held it up to the camera. “How to Get Him Down the Aisle—great title, and I suspect a question many single women out there are dying to know the answer to. Tell us about it.”

“Essentially, the book is an added service that my company has recently started offering our clients. We refer to it as the ‘warm the cold feet’ effort,” she said. Her chest tightened even more. Breathe and smile. “Believe it or not, men want to get married just as much as women...they just need that extra reassurance, that push to get them to the altar.”

Didn’t she know it?

She brushed the thought away as her smile faltered.

Unfortunately, her interviewer capitalized on the opportunity, jumping to the question that had allowed Kate’s publicist to secure this television spot. “You have firsthand experience about what happens when there’s no one there to give them the push, isn’t that right?” Her smile was sympathetic as she reached across and touched Kate’s hand, but her eyes gleamed with the eagerness of digging up gossip.

Kate had prepared for the interview to take this turn, so she nodded slowly. “It’s true. Last year, I was ditched at my destination wedding.” Pause. Give the expected heartbroken look. Then, forcing a light, I’m-over-it, confident air, continue. “And that’s why I wrote the book. To help my clients avoid a similar fate.” Thank God for the training and prep work she’d done with her publicist, Alison Dunn. Otherwise the lies coming out of her mouth would have choked her to death.

Claire nodded. “Great way to take a heartbreaking situation and turn it into something positive,” she said. “So in your case, what went wrong? You were in Maui...family and friends were there. The day of the wedding, he disappears. What happened?”

If she only knew, maybe it would have made the last ten months more bearable. “I’m not sure I’ll ever know...” Kate paused when she saw Alison, standing behind the cameraman on the far right, shake her head.

Shit. Just stick to the rehearsed answers. “I’m an experienced wedding planner—” she gestured to herself, earning a smile from Alison “—and I’m confident if I’d been paying attention, I’d have seen the telltale signs of a potential runaway groom.”

“Let’s discuss these telltale signs,” Claire said. “In the book, which I’ve read cover to cover...”

The woman had asked for a briefing just an hour before.

“...there are several chapters on spotting them before it’s too late. Do men really demonstrate these flight-risk traits?”

Claire was referring to the add-on chapters that the editor had suggested after Kate’s failed wedding had threatened her credibility. Her book had taken her three years to write and had been meant as a wedding planning guide, not a self-help tool for nervous brides. “Men exhibit these traits all the time—subconsciously, of course.” Kate had been noticing them in grooms for years, but never having seen anyone actually flee before the wedding, she’d dismissed them as harmless. Now, after Cooper’s betrayal, she’d realized there might be more to these prewedding jitters than she’d initially thought. “There are many reasons grooms get cold feet—insecurity, fear of commitment, a bad stag experience, for example. But by offering the right guidance, I believe I can help get the couple’s special day back on course and lead to their...” She hesitated. “Happily-ever-after. But the book is much more than just a runaway groom preventative strategy.” She wanted to lead the discussion away from her own wedding fiasco and back to the wedding guide portion of the book.

“Right.” Claire opened the book to the index and scanned the contents. “My personal favorite chapter is the one about the enablers. I think every woman can agree that the most dangerous threat to any relationship is the single bachelor friend.”

“Certainly. Men may not want to admit it, but their friendships run deep. The idea of losing a friend to marriage can make a friend who has the best of intentions act out of character, resulting in a second-guessing groom.”

“Well, I’m nowhere near the marriage phase, but if I were, this book would definitely be on my list of wedding planning guides—because what’s a wedding without the groom, right?” Claire flashed her best show-host smile at the camera.

Across from her, Kate’s gaze dropped to her hands clenched on her lap, an image of her empty, dismantled Maui beach wedding flashing in her mind. She’d thought of every last detail to make that day perfect, special...all except one.

How could she have prevented her fiancé from falling out of love?

“Kate?”

“Sorry, yes, exactly—a groom is a necessary evil,” she said with a fake laugh. One she’d perfected whenever someone asked about her failed wedding, which, unfortunately, given the nature of her business, was far too often. She’d thought by now people would have forgotten about it, but that had yet to happen.

And worse, she’d lost clients. She’d even heard a rumor floating around Hollywood that she was bad luck. Sigh.

“Well, thank you again for being on the show today, Kate.”

“My pleasure.” She smiled, relieved the interview was over. Publicity like this was important for book sales as well as the future of her company. She had to rebuild her clientele, but she wasn’t sure how often she could put herself through this.

Ten months and still the thought of her wedding day made her chest tighten. She’d learned to perfect casual dismissal of that terrible experience, but the betrayal had broken her heart and had affected her business—two reasons she could never bring herself to forgive Cooper Jennings.

* * *

“KATE, LIZ SHEFFIELD is here,” her assistant, Janet, announced, poking her head into Kate’s office later that afternoon.

She wasn’t sure which emotion was stronger—relief that the woman had returned or anxiety over a possible client from hell. Kate had never put so much effort into securing a contract before. Clearly, Liz had liked the proposal she’d emailed.

Liz Sheffield owned HighRes Media, a multimedia company in Beverly Hills. Her company designed movie trailers for some of Hollywood’s biggest movie studios, plus digital marketing presentations and multimedia websites for big businesses all over California. She had a lot of contacts and a lot of friends. Rich friends who could afford glamorous, if expensive weddings. Her word-of-mouth referral was exactly what Kate needed to restore her business’s name. “Okay, give me three minutes, then send her in, please.”

Kate kicked her feet free of her flip-flops, stashing them in the bottom drawer of her mahogany desk. Crossing the room, she slid back into the designer stilettos that forced her toes to overlap and her arches to ache. At five foot nine, she hardly needed the extra height, but the heels made her feel stronger, more powerful. Lately, her ego needed all the help it could get. She buttoned her charcoal suit jacket and smoothed a hand over her dark hair, hanging loose around her shoulders.

Reaching into the box of books from her publisher, she positioned a copy of How to Get Him Down the Aisle in plain view and ran a hand over the dust settling on the corners of her desk. When business slowed the year before, they’d canceled the office’s weekly cleaning service—a necessary cutback, since she was three months behind on the lease payments for the lavish office in the downtown high-rise. Without three or four new wedding deposits...soon...she’d be packing up shop.

The idea of working out of her home, the way she had at the beginning of her career, felt like a huge step backward. One she wasn’t willing to take.

She sat again and turned her attention to her computer, pasting on what she hoped was her busiest-looking expression as the door opened and Janet ushered Liz inside. Immediately, she stood and came around the desk to greet her. “Liz, hi. Great to see you again.”

“Thank you for meeting me on short notice,” the petite blonde said, readjusting her oversize purse on her shoulder. A new Prada bag, from their spring collection—the one Kate had eyed with longing the week before. “Janet mentioned your schedule was full this week, but I just had to see you today.”

Janet hadn’t lied. Her assistant actually believed that Kate was still as busy as ever. She often left the office for “off-site meetings”—which were actually just stress-induced shoe-shopping trips—but she couldn’t afford to lose Janet’s confidence in her. Her assistant was one of the best client recruiters she could have hoped for. But the truth was, her schedule hadn’t been full in far too long, and spring was well underway. Her dearth of new clients was quickly becoming a problem. One she hoped to resolve by landing the Sheffield-Dillon wedding.

“It’s no problem. I’m glad Janet was able to fit you in,” she said, gesturing to the overstuffed tan leather chair across from her desk, but she checked her watch for effect. “I have a few moments before my next appointment.” A few moments, a few weeks...a few months—who knew, really? “So you liked the proposal?”

“Loved it.”

Thank God. Her professionalism worked to hide the delight she felt as she said, “That’s fantastic news. I’d hate to think your big day would be left in the hands of a less dedicated planner.” Her dedication was full-on. Other than this wedding, the only other event claiming her focus and time was her own brother’s wedding, and that one was stirring mixed emotions in her. She was thrilled for her commitment-phobe brother Chase and his fiancée, but it killed her to remember that he and Hayley had met and fallen in love in the midst of her own disastrous event.

“We’ve made some changes...” Liz said, snapping her back to attention.

They always did. Brides never fully knew what they wanted until she showed them why they’d hired her. “Okay, let’s figure this out.” She reached for the file, stacked beneath several prop ones on her desk, overflowing with dress sample fabrics and pictures of cakes for effect.

“We want to get married next month.”

Next month? “When next month?” she asked, her voice steady, as if she could actually pull off an extravagant wedding that fast.

“Memorial Day weekend...in Big Bear.”

What was with people and holiday weddings these days? Kate wasn’t a fan. Nothing ever went well for a holiday wedding. Guests hated to give up their long weekends. And had Liz forgotten how cold, wet and miserable that particular weekend always seemed to be? She suspected it would be even worse in Big Bear Lake, California. “But I thought you had your heart set on a July wedding in the Napa Valley?” Even four months had been short timing to plan the elaborate ceremony that Liz Sheffield wanted. Six weeks was impossible.

And she’d already prepared so many of the details for the beautiful vineyard wedding to present to the bride-to-be. Wineries were the perfect backdrop for summer weddings and were sure to be a hit with guests...and her future potential clients. Big Bear—not so much.

“Derek is making a new film in Greece starting in June, and he’s needed on set over there the week following the long weekend.”

“Could you put the wedding off a couple of extra months...or could he return for a July wedding?” All of these possibilities were better than rushing the wedding plans and heading to the coldest part of the state.

This wedding was supposed to be her best yet. The comeback wedding to show that despite her own circumstances, she was still the best choice to plan that special day. Liz’s wedding guests presented a gold mine of opportunity. This wedding was too important to rush.

Liz toyed with the Prada logo on her purse. “We’d rather not wait.”

Translation—she wanted to lock this man down as soon as possible. Preferably before he headed to Greece to film a movie with a cast of sexy actresses. Kate could understand that. Not that she believed a ring on a man’s finger was any guarantee against affairs. This was Hollywood, after all.

She shook her head. She’d been spending too much time with Hayley, her brother’s fiancée, who was a divorce attorney. Unlike Hayley, she was in the happily-ever-after business, she reminded herself as she tried to think of a way to talk Liz out of this rushed event, while still convincing her to sign the contract.

“If you don’t think you can do this...” Liz started.

Oh, she was doing this wedding. Somehow, some way. Kate waved a hand and smiled as warmly as she could muster. “I can totally do this,” she said. “I was just confirming that you were sure. After all, we want the day to be what you’ve always dreamed of.”

“I’m sure.” Liz nodded emphatically, then hesitated. “You’re sure you can pull this off?”

“Without a doubt.” Actually with about a dozen different doubts, but she would make it happen and it would be amazing.

“Thank you so much, Kate.” The woman’s look of relief was brief before she was all business, as she pulled out the Belle Affairs contract and signed it.

That was fine with her. She had six weeks to pull off the impossible. Getting started right away on a new plan was absolutely necessary. She dropped all pretense of having somewhere else to be as she opened the couple’s file. “Okay, so venues in Big Bear...” That could pose a challenge. Log cabins and tackle and bait shops. She hid a shudder.

Liz stopped her, rummaging around in her purse. “Wait, we have a venue in mind, actually.”

Kate cringed. Big Bear was a dream for winter enthusiasts but hardly the place for an elegant, Hollywood-style wedding. If this venue had wood paneling on its walls, she might be forced to walk from the whole thing. She needed this wedding to prove she was still the best in the business, not put the final nail in the coffin.

“Here is Scott’s business card,” she said, her voice tight. “He owns West Mountain Resort.”

Kate couldn’t decide whether Liz hated the lodge or Scott, but her tone suggested this venue might not be her idea. She’d get to the bottom of that later. First, she needed to get a visual. Turning to her computer, she typed the name of the place into Google.

“Oh, don’t waste your time. The resort doesn’t have a website.”

“I don’t understand,” she said as the search failed to provide any matches. “How does a company not have a website?”

“The place just reopened in the fall...”

“My company’s website was up before I even had my certification in wedding planning.” She turned the no-doubt homemade business card with the perforated edges around in her hand. “Scott Dillon—owner/operator,” and a phone number. Not even an email address? Come on, Scott! She’d give his business a year, tops.

“Scott is fairly old-school, and he does things his way.” It sounded as if the words were said through clenched teeth. “My company is actually designing a site for him, but it’s complicated.”

Okay, so it was definitely Scott Liz had an issue with. “Liz, have you even seen the place?”

The bride-to-be shook her head.

Great. They were supposed to choose a wedding venue, sight unseen? No freaking way. “So why have you settled on this place?” She tossed the card aside. “Just because he’s family?” she guessed.

“He’s Derek’s brother, and Derek really wants to support Scott’s new venture.” She rolled her eyes.

Clearly Liz did not. Kate hesitated. She had two options. She could launch into her spiel about how the wedding day was really about the bride anyway, so Liz shouldn’t settle...or she could take this small gift from the wedding planning gods and run with it, hoping that the place could be turned into the perfect setting...at least in photos. She really didn’t have time to book another venue, especially during the long weekend. “Okay, then we can certainly make this work.” She would just call this Scott guy and see if he could send her some details and photos of the lodge. If she had to hire a decorating crew to transform even one room of this resort into the backdrop Liz would be happy with, she would. She was in the business of fairy tales and miracles, after all.

“I know it’s a far cry from the original plans...” Liz said, looking nervous again.

You think?

“But I just really want to marry Derek...as soon as possible.”

Yeah, Kate had caught the urgency. She forced a smile as she reached across the desk and touched Liz’s hand. Reassurance was her first responsibility as a wedding planner. “Don’t worry, everything will be perfect.”

They had a willing groom, at least.