“Good, then. So, I’ll pick you up at your house on Saturday morning — say, nine o’clock? And we’ll each make reservations at one place that we can go and check out together. Does that work for you?”
“That works fine.”
“Good. I’ll see you then.” He hung up the phone.
Then he sat back in his chair and bit his lip. She had been trying to apologize. Should he have let her do it? Accepted her apology a little more gracefully than he had?
Theyhadenjoyed one another’s company the other day, when they’d been tasting the food for the menu. And telling her about their family vacations, the trips they had taken in the old days before the divorce… that had been really nice. He hadn’t thought about those times, much less spoken about them, in years. Hedidn’t know how clear Max’s memories were of the divorce. The two of them never spoke about the fact that they’d gone from having such a privileged life to growing up with a single mother who, while she had worked hard and done all she could, simply hadn’t been able to provide the same luxuried they had enjoyed in their younger days. Things had gone from comfortable to difficult for the two of them.
That wasn’t the way Max’s wedding was going to be. Theo had taken to heart —because I do have a heart— what Harper had said about reflecting on the finer points of their upbringing, and one thing childhood had included, and adulthood hadn’t, was having to worry about money. Not until Theo had become the owner of the Houston Stallions had he felt as financially carefree again as he had in those pre-divorce days.
Well, now he had the power to devote all the money at his disposal to making this wedding perfect for his brother. And once he had done that, no one would be able to imply that he was coldhearted, or that he didn’t care. No one would be able to suggest that he was anything like his father, who had left the family behind for greener pastures and had taken his money with him, leaving his mother struggling to support her two sons. Theo would never treat his loved ones like that.
He went online and did a search for wedding venues. If this topic had been raised yesterday, he would probably have offered the ballroom here at the baseball club, which was a beautiful place to host a party and had been the site of many glamorous events. But now he felt the need to make a point. He wasn’t just going to offer up a room that he already owned. He was going to find something really nice — something special — for his brother’s wedding.
I shouldn’t be worrying about what Harper thinks of me. We just said that everything from this moment on was going to be professional.
He shook his head. This wasn’t about Harper’s opinion. Hedidn’tcare what she thought. This was about his own peace of mind. It was about demonstrating to himself that he was nothing like his father, the man who had wreaked such havoc on their lives. He knew he was different, of course, but Harper had gotten into his head. He needed to settle his thoughts about it.
Here. The Crystal Ballroom. He’d heard of it before, though he had never actually been to any events there. He clicked on the website and opened the page.
It was beautiful. Floor-to-ceiling windows. A massive dance floor. Wide French doors that opened out onto a glittering patio. There was a picture of the tables and place settings that could be provided. It would be the most beautiful wedding Houston had ever seen. No one would forget it.
This is the kind of thing Harper is always going on about, Theo thought.She wants it to look good in pictures, so they’ll have something to look back on years from now. So when they look at their wedding album, they’ll remember how amazing it was. Having the wedding here will do that. This place is perfect.
There was a form on the website to fill out if you wanted to make an appointment, but Theo wasn’t going to do that. Filling out online forms meant putting the ball in someone else’s court, and that was no way to show that you were invested in what you were doing. He picked up the phone again and dialed the number at the bottom of the site.
“Is this the Crystal Ballroom? My name is Theo Davenport. I’m the owner of the Houston Stallions, and I need to speak to someone about an event I’d like to host in your space. Yes, I’ll hold.”
The hold would be short. It always was, once he had told the person on the other end of the phone who he was. And sure enough, less than a minute had gone by before a voice answered on the other end of the phone.
“Mr. Davenport?”
“Yes, hello?”
“My name is Genevieve Wallace. I understand you’re interested in hosting an event at the Crystal Ballroom?”
He assessed her tone. She sounded eager, excited. Good. If she was eager to have him, it meant that he had the upper hand. That was always important in negotiations like this one.
“Imightbe interested,” he said. “This is going to be a very high-profile event, and we’re expecting a lot of big names to attend.” He had no idea whether that was true. It probably wasn’t. He hadn’t looked at the guest list yet. But he did know that a statement like that would get attention. Genevieve Wallace would now be thinking about sports stars — that was who she would associate with Theo Davenport. She would be thinking about the press, and about publicity for her venue.
“I think you’ll find we’re perfect for your needs,” she said.
Perfect. She was pitching to him now. “I need to see the place before I make my final decision,” he said. “My associate and I would like to come by on Saturday morning at nine thirty, if that will work for you.”
“Oh, of course. I’ll be here all day on Saturday. I’ll have our lookbook out and ready for you, and I can give you a tour as well.”
“That’s perfect,” Theo said. “We’ll look forward to seeing you then.”
He ended the call, smiling to himself. The Crystal Ballroom was the perfect venue. Once she saw it, Harper was sure to agree
I’m not trying to impress her. It doesn’t matter what she thinks.
But he couldn’t deny the fact that he was looking forward to seeing how she would react when she saw what he’d come up with.
CHAPTER 10
HARPER
