Harper couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
She had understood from the moment she’d met him that Theo wasn’t going to be the fun-loving guy she had fantasized about sharing this wedding-planning experience with. She’d made her peace with that fact, she thought. But this was something else altogether. His brother was getting married. How could he be so cold about the whole thing? He seemed as if he hardly cared at all.
“Are you really only worried about what’s practical?” she asked him. “Is that all that matters to you? Knowing that this is going to be the most important day of their lives?”
“That’ll be true no matterwhobrings the flowers,” he said. “You’re acting like I’m suggesting we have the wedding in someone’s basement, for God’s sake. I’m just saying we don’t need to visit every vendor in Houston. One is pretty much as good as another for this.”
“And I’m saying wedoneed to,” Harper said, though she didn’t quite mean it literally. They didn’t need to visit every vendor. But she had never asked for that! She had come to him with a veryreasonable, very researched list. “You don’t want to get the very best for them?”
“One vendor is going to be as good as another,” he said.
“I bet you wouldn’t be saying that if this was for some work function. I betthenyou would actually give a damn.”
She couldn’t quite believe she had said that aloud — and apparently, neither could he. He stared at her for a long moment. “It doesn’t sound,” he said, “as if you actually want my help on this at all.”
“Well, I want you towantto help.” She was perfectly aware of how ridiculous that sounded. “You know what? If this is how you feel about it, maybe Ishouldjust do the whole thing on my own. Maybe it doesn’t matter what you think. I wanted to work with you for Max’s sake, but if you’re going to be this disengaged then it’s probablybetterfor Max if I just leave you out of it entirely.”
And finally, a hint of some sort of emotion crossed his face.
It wasn’t quite anger. In fact, Harper wasn’t sure she knewwhatit was. But there was a twist of discomfort in his expression, and he looked away from her.
“Fine,” he said. “I think you should. I think this wedding will be better if you handle everything, since you’re a wedding planner.”
“So, now you’re not even going to help at all?”
He stared at her. “You’re the one who just said I shouldn’t help.”
“Don’t flip this around on me. Maybe I did say it, but we both know why I said it. What you’re doing isn’t helping. You’re just… you’re trying to get it over with — that’s what you’re doing, and it isn’t right. Don’t you see that we’reluckyto have been entrustedwith planning the biggest day of their lives? And you treat it like it’s just a burden.” She shook her head. “The thing is, I was really looking forward to meeting you. To working on this with you. And now I feel like you want nothing to do with it. So yeah, stay here and focus on your job, since that’s what you care about. I’ll plan your brother’s wedding for you.”
She got to her feet and began to gather her things, and even now, she expected that he was going to stop her. That he would see he’d gone too far with all this and say something. Call her back. Tell her that he would help her after all. Surely, he couldn’t just mean to let her walk out?
But he said nothing, and after a moment of waiting, Harper turned and let herself out of his box.
Forget him, then!
CHAPTER 5
THEO
He thought he’d gotten rid of her, so Theo was beyond shocked when Harper showed up in his office the very next day.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded, rising to his feet.
“I’m here to get your thoughts on some wedding things.” She had no shame at all about the fact that she’d walked into his office uninvited. She strode over to his desk and sank into the guest chair as if he had asked her to come in and sit down.
Theo sat down slowly. There wasn’t any point in summoning security to drag her out, so the only real option was to let her stay and talk about whatever she wanted to talk about. “You’re giving me whiplash, you know.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Am I?”
“Walking out on me one day and showing up the next as if nothing happened. You have to realize that’s a little… confusing.”
“Well, I thought it over,” she said in response to the question he had not asked. “And I guess it occurred to me that I would be as bad as you are if I let this whole thing get derailed by your attitude toward it.”
He raised his eyebrows. “As bad asIam? What’s that supposed to mean, exactly?”
“More focused on myself than on the wedding and how I can contribute to it,” she explained.
“I’m contributing to the wedding,” he countered. “I’m going to be the best man, you know.”
