But she’d hardly been there five minutes when he joined her. He took a seat beside her at the bar and looked around. “This place isn’t half bad.”
“You sound surprised by that.”
“I’ve never been in here before. I thought it looked a little… not my kind of place from the outside. But it’s nicer than I expected.”
“Glad to hear it meets with your approval.” She picked up her drink. “Why don’t we move to a table?” One had just opened up in the corner. “We’ll have a little more peace over there, and we’ll be able to talk without yelling.”
She made her way toward the table without looking back to see whether she was being followed. One thing she was beginning tounderstand about Theo Davenport was that he would argue with anything and everything, and it was best to simply assume that he already agreed with her and act accordingly.
Sure enough, when she looked up, she saw that he’d followed her to the table she had chosen. He sat down across from her and watched as she pulled out her wedding book and set it on the table between them. She pulled out a checklist of everything that needed to get done and handed it to him, and she was about to give him a pen when he pulled out one of his own.
Harper was impressed in spite of herself. It was the first time he had ever given her the impression that he was prepared, when it came to wedding events.
A server came by and took Theo’s drink order. “Would you like another?” he asked Harper, gesturing to her glass.
She nodded.
“Better make mine a double, then, so I can get caught up here,” Theo said, settling into his chair.
The server walked off. Theo perused the list he had been handed. “So, this is everything you want to talk about?”
“There are a couple of things on there that will solve themselves,” Harper said. He was being more agreeable with her than he had at any point so far, and she found herself wanting to make it easy for him and not push him away. “The dresses, for instance — you don’t need to be involved in that. I’ll work out the important details with Tara and the other bridesmaids. But you probablywillneed to get in touch with the groomsmen at some point. It will be your responsibility to make sure everyone gets their tuxes in plenty of time. And you’ll want a mailing list so youcan put the bachelor party together — I mean, if that’s something you’re planning on doing.”
He looked up at her. “You’re not going to tell me Ihaveto do a bachelor party?”
“Well,Iwould do one if it were me,” she said. “But that’s really between the two of you.” Then she saw the twinkle in his eye. “Oh, you’re making fun of me.”
“Maybe a little. You have to admit, you do like to be in control.”
“I just like to make sure everything is going smoothly,” she said. “I know that’s part of why Tara made me maid of honor — she knows she can count on me. She doesn’t have to worry that I’ll skip doing a bachelorette party. But what you do for the groomsmen isyourbusiness. I’ve marked the things I think you and I should collaborate on, and they’re in priority order.” She pointed to the sheet.
Theo looked down at it. “Invitations?”
“They need to get out as quickly as possible, of course,” Harper said. “I’ve got the ‘save the dates’ ready. I went ahead and did that myself, because there was no time to waste.” She reached into her purse and pulled out the sample she’d been carrying around with her. She was proud of how it had come out — a simple postcard with a montage of pictures from Tara and Max’s relationship. She handed it to Theo.
He looked it over. “That’s pretty good,” he admitted. “I know Max really likes that picture of the two of them at the beach.”
“You see? This is the kind of thing I need you for!” Harper exclaimed. “I knew Tara liked that picture, but I would never have guessed it was one of Max’s favorites, and it’s just good luckI included it. Don’t you see how important you are to this whole enterprise?”
“I don’t think Max cares what the ‘save the date’ card looks like, though — that’s my point,” he said, accepting the drink the server brought to him and taking a sip. “No guy really cares about these things.”
“He might notthinkhe cares, but if there’s even the slightest part of him that will be glad to see this picture when he looks at this card in the wedding album in twenty years, it’s worth having it there,” Harper said staunchly. “And that’s why I want your help. I want to include the little details, the little touches, that will make the wedding feel like it belongs to both of them. Now, let’s talk about invitations. That’s what needs to be done next. I’ve already sent these cards out, but we need to do the formal invites.”
“I have a company that can do that for us, if you need one,” Theo said. “They did the invites for the last charity gala we hosted at the ball club. They turned out really well, in my opinion.”
“Well, I don’t think we need to hire someone forthis,” Harper said. “We should work together to make something, I think. That would go better with the ‘save the dates’. It would have the same personal touch. I thought maybe we could use the engagement photo they had done in the woods — you know, the one that was on social media.”
“Yeah, that’s a nice picture, but it would be just as easy to send that along to a printing company,” Theo said. “We don’t have to do it ourselves.”
“I’m not talking about a crazy amount of work here,” Harper said. “We could take a few afternoons this week… or eveningsare probably better for you, I guess. You could do the cutting and gluing. I’m guessing I’m probably better at calligraphy than you are.”
“Calligraphy?”
“Well, we have to address the envelopes!”
He stared at her in obvious consternation. “You know what year it is, right? We don’t have to make wedding invitations by hand. I know you’re trying to make it magical for Tara, butsheisn’t even going togeta wedding invitation.”
“Of course she is! You don’t think I’m going to give one to her?” Why did they have to fight over every little thing? He was so stubborn, and Harper had no idea what to do about it.
