“Then he’d get cod on the honeymoon. I don’t think it would ruin the wedding or anything.”
Harper sighed. “Look, what if you just… tell me about these lobster boils.”
“Why do you want to know about them?”
“Because you seem to be incapable of deciding whether or not something is going to be sentimental for your own brother. So, tellmehis experience with it, and I’ll tellyouwhether I think it’s a good nostalgia meal or not.”
Theo thought about pressing the matter further, telling her that he couldn’t see why everything about this wedding had to be rooted in nostalgia anyway, but it was clear that the point would be lost on her. She was a romantic, and in her mind, everything about the wedding needed to be absolutely perfect. He wondered if she had already thought through the answers to these questions with regard to her own wedding and decided that she probably had. She would know exactly what meal she wanted to serve when she got married, and that was why she thought it was so important to get everything right forthiswedding.
He took a bite of the lobster dish. It was good. The sauce was buttery and delicious, but it didn’t overwhelm the flavor of the lobster. And, much to his surprise, itdidremind him of theirchildhood vacations in Maine. In spite of himself, he found himself recounting the tale.
“We’d go for the whole summer,” he said. “We had this house on the beach. It wasn’t especially fancy, but it was the same place we rented each year, so it came to feel like it was ours. Actually, when we were kids, I don’t think we knew itwasn’tours. I remember a time Max and I packed up some of the pretty handmade pottery in the kitchen — we each had a favorite plate when we were at the beach house. We thought we’d bring it home with us. Our mother caught us and yelled at us, telling us we were stealing, but we didn’t really understand why until a few years later.” He smiled at the memory.
Harper was watching him speculatively.“Do you remember the plates?”
“Sure I do.”
“What did Max’s look like?”
“It was white, with a bunch of multicolored polka dots on it. Why do you ask?”
“Might be cute if we could find one like it and have it on the table for him at the wedding reception.” Harper shrugged.
Theo found he didn’t quite know what to say. She was right. That would be a nice thing. And it was incredibly thoughtful of her to have the idea. For the first time, Theo felt slightly ashamed.
Maybe this was the kind of thing he should have thought of on his own — the kind of idea he should have contributed to his own brother’s wedding. It felt funny that Harper had been the one tothink of it, and he was a little embarrassed that he hadn’t come up with it first.
But it wasn’t as if she could do it without him. “Why don’t I get in touch with the people who own our summer house?” he suggested. “If they still have the plate, I might persuade them to sell it to me. That would be better than finding a lookalike.”
Harper’s eyes lit up. “Do you think you could do it? The same people still own that place?”
“I think so,” Theo said, surprised by how thrilled she seemed — and how much the excitement had changed her face. He was used to the sour, judgmental looks she threw his way, but seeing her lit up with happiness like this was something else altogether.
She’s beautiful.
He shook away the thought. He wasn’t here to get caught up in admiring Harper Martin. If something were to happen between them on the wedding night, when all the work they had to do was done, that would be one thing, but it definitely wouldn’t do to get swept up in each other before then. He didn’t want to give her any ideas, and Theo knew all too well what could happen when he spent time with a woman. They tended to linger, to want more than he was willing to give, and if something like that were to happen between himself and Harper, it would overshadow the whole wedding. Max would never forgive him.
“Anyway,” Harper said, “go on with the story. You didn’t get to the part about the lobster.”
So he went on, telling her about the nights they had caught lobster in the harbor, about the big pot in which they had cooked them, about the way the smell had filled the whole house. They nibbled on the sample dish of lobster before them, and by thetime the tale was done, it was mutually agreed that the lobster dish would be the one to serve at the wedding — not because it was the fanciest, the most expensive, or the most elegant, but because it would remind Max of this moment from his childhood.
She was right, Theo thought, as the desserts were brought out for the two of them to sample.I would never have wanted to admit it. I would never have thought of it if I’d been left to my own devices. And if I had left her to work on this by herself, she would never have known which meal to choose.
Like it or not, this project really does need both of us. This wedding is going to be better because we were both involved.
He gritted his teeth. Knowing that meant there could no longer be any excuse for skipping out on wedding-planning activities. He was going to have to help her with everything, be part of every step of the planning, because now he could truly see the benefit of having both of them involved, and he could no longer pretend to himself that it would be good enough to write a check and leave everything in her hands.
And he should have regretted it… but he didn’t.
Because in that moment, the thought of more afternoons sitting across from her, talking about his past, trying delicious foods and coming up with the perfect wedding for his brother… it was suddenly appealing to him. He wanted to do it. Though he had no idea what had made him feel that way, or when she had gone from an irritation to someone he wanted to spend his time with.
He only knew that she had. And he knew that he needed to be very careful around her from now on.
CHAPTER 8
HARPER
Harper left the tasting feeling as if she had swallowed butterflies.
