God, that woman was infuriating.
My phone beeped as I watched Ivy’s curvy, black-clad form and her high heels make their way through the front lobby.
Camilla:Hi sweetie. Teddy said he saw you today and that you wanted to talk.
Camilla:Please don’t ignore me I love you I want to be with you. Don’t throw away everything we had!
Camilla:Arnold was a one-time thing. I was anxious, but that was before I went to that retreat in Palm Springs. Now I’m totally committed to you and our life together.
Camilla:And you can’t hold me sleeping with your father against me. I was drunk and I thought your father was you! I’m the victim here!
Camilla:Evan you need to talk to me right now!
I ground my teeth.
Would it help me get the land deal if I pretended to get back together with Camilla? Of course. I could have it in hand tomorrow if I played nice. But I couldn’t risk it. Besides, Ivy clearly didn’t approve of Camilla. What would she think? And why did I even care?
11
Ivy
The thing about weddings was that there wasn’t just the main event. No, before the big day, there were the engagement party, the couples’ shower, the bridal shower, the bridal tea, going dress shopping, and the rehearsal dinner. What in the olden days had been one, maybe two days of wedding festivities had now stretched out to more than a year of events for the future happy couple.
Or unhappy couple in Evan’s case.
“Is he just going to lurk there in the corner?” Amy asked as she put out the flower arrangements on the small tables in the solarium of the historic hotel.
“I think he’s too attractive to be considered lurking,” Grace said as she took close-up shots of the table décor. “Lurking is for greasy, scrawny men who work at Aldi. Evan is the lion surveying the Serengeti for his future queen.”
“Lord have mercy.”
“I bet he’s after Ivy,” Elsie said too loudly for my liking as she came by with a tray of miniature crab cakes.
“Sharing is caring!” Amy prompted, reaching for one.
“You can have any leftovers,” Elsie warned. “Up until then, don’t mess with my counts.”
Mika smiled at us, slid several crab cakes onto a plate, and came over with them.
“Since my brother is paying for this shindig, you can have as many as you want. I feel like we’re all going to need food and alcohol to deal with the upcoming bridezilla moment when Imogen realizes a bunch of people canceled at the last minute.”
“Oh no.”
Mika shoved a crab cake into my mouth then one into hers and nodded then offered me a sip of the watermelon mojito that Elsie had prepared.
“Yep. She’s just burning bridges right and left.”
“We have this place booked for eighty people!” I said, looking around in horror at all the tastefully decorated but glaringly empty tables. “The event is starting in fifteen minutes.”
Grace was concerned. “I can do tricks with the camera and make it look like a bigger crowd, but we needsomewarm bodies here.”
Mika ate another crab cake unhappily. “I’ve been texting and begging people to show up. They’re all full of excuses about why they can’t make it. Imogen is going to figure out that no one is coming, and then she’s going to blow up.”
Her phone dinged, and she looked down. “Oh no! Another person just said they weren’t coming. I think kicking Kaitlyn out of the bridal party because she was pregnant really irked a lot of people.”
“You don’t say,” Elsie remarked dryly, coming by with another tray of mini duck sliders.
“Excuse me,” Mika said, following her. “I’m going to fix myself a snack plate and hide somewhere.”
