Theo sighed. “The thing is,” he said, “Ican’tdo this, Harper. Whether I think it’s a good idea or not, I can tell how much time a project like this would take, and I just don’t have that kind of time to put into it.”
“Only because your priorities are out of order.”
“Well, be that as it may, I’m not going to be able to give invitation-making the time it would take to come up with the sort of product I think you’re hoping for. So, I think the only real option is to have them done professionally. I mean, if you’d like to do them on your own, I’m happy to help finance the supplies.”
“I didn’t come to you for money,” Harper said. “I know you’ve got plenty of it, owning your own baseball team. I know you could probably pay for this whole wedding without breaking a sweat. Believe it or not, I’m not trying to make the invitations because I want to save money. I actually think the personal touch would be really special.”
“You’re more than welcome to go ahead, if that’s your vision. I’m not going to be offended or anything.”
“Yeah, well, there’s no way I could make three hundred invites by myself and have them sent out in time,” she said. “I was counting on your help. If you’re really not going to do it, then I guess they’re going tohaveto be stock invites from a retailer.”
“Look… your ‘save the dates’ are really nice,” he said, his gaze softening. Was it possible he actually felt bad? “People are really going to like them, I’m sure. And I know Max will. It won’t be so bad to have professional invitations. You got the personal touch in there too.”
He was just trying to make her feel better, and she knew it, but the odd thing was that it had worked. She did feel better. He had a good point, even though it annoyed her and she didn’t want to admit it to him. “Well, we’re going to have to have this conversation again when it comes to discussing wedding favors,” she told him, trying to inject a stern note into her tone. “I’m not giving the guests some goofy store-bought trinket. The favors are going to be somethingnice. Something from the heart, something that really feels connected to Tara and Max, so that when people look at them, they’ll always think about the happy couple.”
“Nobody keeps wedding favors,” Theo said dismissively.
“I have kept the favors from every wedding I’ve ever been to!” she shot back. “Plenty of people keep them. And I have lots of ideas about what we could hand out. But we don’t have to worry about that yet. All I really want to nail down today is the invitations.” She sighed. If he really wasn’t going to help make them, they were going to have to go store-bought. “Can you take on that responsibility?”
“You want me to be in charge of the invitations?” His eyes widened slightly.
“You said you had a vendor.”
“I do. But… you’re going to trust me with something like that?”
“Here are the colors.” She pulled out the green and cream color swatches. She’d picked up paint samples at the local hardware store to approximate what she wanted to use. “I have a lot of these, so you can keep those ones,” she told him. “Show them to your vendor and let them know these are the colors we want to incorporate into the invitations. Have them work up, I don’t know, three different samples? And then you and I can go over them and decide together. But this has to be rushed. I’d like to send them out by early next week.”
“You don’t waste any time,” he observed, sitting back in his chair.
She had never seen him like this — relaxed, his face an expression of good humor. And for the first time, Harper found she was genuinely enjoying Theo’s company. In spite of the fact that he was still putting up a fight, still making things difficult, she was glad that they had met here today. And she was glad that they were going to be working on planning the wedding together. He was challenging, and she knew he would push back at her every step of the way. But there was something exciting about that challenge.
He wins this round. We’ll do the invitations the way he wants to do them. But I’m not giving in, and it’s not going to be anywhere near this easy for him to get what he wants the next time we have to come to an agreement about something. Nexttime, I have every intention of gettingmyway — and Theo Davenport will just have to deal with that!
CHAPTER 7
THEO
“Thanks for taking the time to be here,” Harper said.
It was three days after the evening at the bar, and Theo and Harper were sitting at a table for two in the corner of a tiny boutique restaurant, sampling small plates of the various dishes the chef offered for catering.
“Not a problem,” Theo said.
Actually, ithadbeen a little bit of a problem. He’d canceled a meeting to be here, a fact that still stunned him. How long had it been since he had canceled a meeting? And what was he going to do now that he’d done it? He would have to make up the work somehow, at some time. But the idea of missing this event had seemed impossible somehow. He had known that he would regret it if he did.
Which is crazy. It’s crazy to think that this could be more important than work. And besides, it’s going to get done whether I’m here or not. I should have told her to handle it, since she had me handle the invitations.
He glanced at the three invitations that sat on the table between the two of them. At least they had an easy time selecting which one of the three they were going to send out. He’d anticipated more fighting, but it hadn’t happened that way. As soon as she’d seen them, she had pointed to the one he had also liked the best. He had fired off an email to the vendor, and the invitations would be going out tomorrow. It was as easy as that.
“Here are the first-course options,” the chef said, pushing a tray up next to their table.
Harper listened attentively as the food was described to her. Theo found his mind wandering. It did smell wonderful, but he wished they could have had full dishes — that they could be having a meal here instead of a tasting. It would be a fine place to bring someone on a date…
“Were you even listening?” Harper asked as the chef walked away. “You look like you’re a million miles away.”
“Sorry. I was lost in thought.”
“Work again, no doubt.”
