“Of course,” Harper said. “We’ll go out and tour them together, won’t we, Theo?”
“Um,” Theo said again, feeling like an idiot. He was usually so articulate and well-spoken in business meetings — he wasn’t used to being reduced to monosyllabic grunts like this. But what on Earth had he gotten himself into here? How much were they going to expect him to do? Touring venues? When he had spoken to Max about planning this wedding, he’d imagined that his role would be something along the lines of handing Harper a vendor list.
Maybe they weren’t even going to need his vendor contacts. Harper was now pulling a folder out of her own purse — not as fat as Tara’s wedding binder, but a lot bigger than Theo would have expected given that she wasn’t the one getting married. “I’ve started looking up vendors in our area for things like food, flowers, and music,” she said. “I have printouts from the most highly rated places, if you’d like to take a look, Theo. When we go for things like tastings, we can put them in order of how optimistic we each feel about the place, so we can make sure we’re more likely to see everything each of us wants to see.”
Theo couldn’t think of a polite way to say that he didn’t care who the vendors were. He was only doing this because Max had asked him to, and as long as the vendors delivered everything they promised and the food wasn’t poisoned, he couldn’t imagine being very particular about any of it.
It’s probably good that Harper seems to care so much. She can make all the decisions, and honestly, she’s likely to thank me for letting her do it.
A waitress came over to the table. “Can I get you all something to drink to start things off?”
“How about mimosas?” Theo asked. “To celebrate the happy occasion.”
“Oh, not for me,” Tara said quickly. “I’m still breast-feeding.”
“And I’m not drinking — in solidarity,” Max said. “Not until Tara can.”
“Oh,” Theo said. “Then just… coffee, I suppose.”
“It’s all right if you want to — go ahead,” Max said.
“I’m all right.” He’d wanted to toast with his brother, not drink mimosas on his own. “Coffee and orange juice for me.”
Everyone else ordered their drinks, and the waitress disappeared.
“All right,” Max said. “Let’s talk about what you two are going to be able to handle specifically.”
“They’re going to handle all the major planning, right?” Tara asked. “That was what you told me, Max. You said we wouldn’t have to do anything.”
“We won’t,” Max assured her. “They know how busy we are with the kids, don’t you, Theo? Harper?”
“We know,” Harper agreed. “Honestly, I don’t know how the two of you do it — holding full-time jobs and taking care of two kids at the same time. There’s no way I could manage it!”
“You’ll manage it when you have kids of your own,” Tara told her. “You’ll see. You don’t think you could do it right now, but actually, it comes very naturally.”
Harper flushed and looked down. “Let’s not do this now, Tara,” she said quietly.
Much to his own surprise, Theo was pretty sure he had picked up on what was happening between the two of them right away.There was something about this conversation that was awkward for Harper, something that made her want to avoid it. He had the impression that the two of them had discussed the matter of when Harper would be having children before, that it wasn’t a comfortable subject between them.
And he understood.
Max would never have put any pressure like that on Theo, but their mother had done so in the past. Both times Max had announced that he and Tara were expecting, their mother had called Theo to ask when he was going to give her a grandchild. She liked to remind him that she was all alone in the world and had been since their father had abandoned the family. Theo, who had no desire for children, felt burdened by those conversations and would have liked nothing better than to never have one of them again.
He didn’t know Harper’s circumstances, of course, but he could see that she was uncomfortable with what was happening, so he spoke up. “I knowIcouldn’t do it,” he said. “Working full-time and managing a kid, that is. Although maybe if I had a job like Max’s, I could. At least he can set his hours.”
Max heaved a sigh. “You know it isn’t that easy, Theo,” he said. “If I could be home all the time with the kids and still do my job, I would do that. Sportswriting requires actually attending the games you’re reporting on.”
“It’s sounds like such an exciting job,” Harper said eagerly. “Max, I would love it if you and I could work together on something sometime.”
“What do you do?” Theo asked her.
“I’m an events planner. I’m trying to move into full-time wedding planning, but right now I take on all kinds of events, and sports banquets are something I deal with sometimes.”
“I’m surprised I haven’t heard of you,” Theo said.
She lowered her head modestly. “I’m just getting started, so that’s probably why,” she said.
“She’s great,” Tara said loyally. She’s going to be the best wedding planner in Houston.”
