I sighed. “It just won’t die, man. And the cure might be worse than the disease. Wedidland a high profile wedding, but it comes with a reality show filming the celebrity couple’s lead-up to their big day, which means I’m dealing with cameras on premise and the stress of making sure everything is perfect.”
“Who is it?” Logan asked. “Would we know them?”
I shrugged. “Depends on what TV shows you watch, I guess. Or who you follow online. It’s Carter LeMonde and Kristen Healey.”
“Are they cool?” Logan asked. “Or are they actually drama queens in real life?”
“That’s the thing, though. With the cameras rolling all the time, it’snotreal life. But as people, they seem to be fine. The bride is an actress I first met years ago. She’s nice enough. Young. When I knew her, she was just starting out. Definitely defers to the groom with a lot of things that he’s more passionate about. The groom is a bit of a gym rat. I get the feeling that his heart’s in the right place, but he’s not the brightest, doesn’t really think things through.”
“Typical reality TV star,” Logan said sympathetically. He saw plenty of the type on his cruises.
“Typical reality TV star,” I agreed. “The ‘celebrities with a camera crew’ stuff means we need to be on at all times. It’s overwhelming.”
“And you don’t have an event planner,” Harrison pointed out. “Is Mindy stepping up to help more or is it on you?”
“Well,” I began. “That just changed, actually. I hired someone—provisionally.”
I went quiet as Emilia’s beautiful, annoyed face flashed through my mind.
“You found someone. Good for you. What’s he or she like?”
“She is …” I trailed off.
“Hold up, look at his face,” Logan laughed and pointed at me. “Why are you smiling like that?”
“I’m not smiling,” I insisted. “If anything it’s a grimace of pain you’re seeing, because this new hire is probably going to be the death of me.She definitely knows her stuff, and she’s a great negotiator, but she’s so fucking … I don’t know, agitating? Combative? Know-it-all?”
“Ah, so you’ve met your match,” Harrison said.
“Please. We can barely stand to be in the same room.”
“What does she look like?” Logan asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” I insisted. “She’s there to do a job.”
“Pretend she just robbed you and you have to give a description to the police. What does she look like?” Logan pushed.
I sighed. “Fine. She’s got curly dark hair and she comes up to about here on me.” I leveled my hand at my lower chest.
I was reminded of her staring up at me, absolutely fuming over escargot. How was it possible for her to look so damn stunning despite the scowl?
“Her eyes are, I don’t know, I guess you’d call then sparkly? Like she knows a secret and she wants to share it with you. And when she smiles – not that I’ve seen much ofthat– it takes over her entire face. It’s infectious. Gorgeous teeth. And she’s got some legs, I’ll give her that.”
“Sounds like you’re describing a racehorse,” Logan teased.
“Or someone he wants to fuck,” Harrison added.
“Guys, come on. We have to work together, nothing’s going to happen.”
“Well, itcould,” Logan said. “Unless you added a no fraternization policy that we don’t know about.”
“I’m not interested in anything happening,” I insisted, half to convince them and half for myself.
Because I found my thoughts drifting to her way more than I felt comfortable with. We needed to get through this damn circus of a wedding and then I could be free from her. Until then, I just had to maintain boundaries, keep my distance and stay all business.
“You could bring her to the gender reveal party,” Harrison suggested. “That way we could check her out.”
“Yeah, everyone is going to be there. Even Noah.”
