“Uh-oh.”Tish hurried into the room.“Lisa texted me to come straight down.”
On the other side of the room, Lisa had cornered one of the staff setting up the reception area.Spotting Courtney, she turned and hurried to where Tish and Courtney stood with Brittany.“Do you know there are four weddings going on at the same time in this place?”
“Four?”Jessica walked into the room, her husband Josh beside her.
“I don’t care if there are ten.All I care about is mine.”Courtney scanned the area again, this time her attention landing on the pedestals beside the buffet table.“What are those columns for?”
“Flowers,” Tish answered.“It’s an upgrade.”
Courtney turned to Brittany, already flipping pages again.
“Don’t tell me.”Courtney set a hand on her hip.“My mother, who isn’t paying for this wedding, ordered that too?”
“Well”—Brittany’s face pinched with a nervous smile—“yes.”
“Anything else she ordered?”
“Who ordered?”Courtney’s mother, Donna Clark, came up beside her daughter.“Why do you need me twenty minutes early?”
“Did you order flowers?”
Donna shook her head.
“What about these colors?”
Her mom shook her head again.
“Excuse me.”Carrie’s mom crossed the threshold, Carrie and Linda trailing behind her.“We really do need to…” She stopped dead in her tracks.“These are my colors.”
“No.They’re.Not.”Carrie scanned the room, her gaze settling on Courtney.“Very pretty.”
“Thanks.Too bad—”
“Is this where the party is?”Matt came into the room, Doug and Emily on his heels.“Look who I found waiting in the lobby.We followed the din of voices and figured odds were pretty good we’d locate the rehearsal.”
“As I was saying,” Courtney continued, “too bad they’re not the colors I—”
“Mrs.Clarke?”A bruiser of a native Hawaiian in blue uniform pants and a button-down short-sleeved white shirt stepped into the room.
“Yes,” two voices echoed.
All heads in the room snapped around.Courtney’s and Carrie’s mothers stared at each other.
The poor man in uniform looked from one to the other, as if watching the proverbial tennis match.“Which one of you is Mrs.Clarke?”
“I am,” both women repeated.
“Your last name is Clark?”Courtney asked Carrie.
Carrie nodded.“Yours too?”
“Well, if that isn’t the mother of all coincidences.”Lisa chuckled.Carrie and Courtney followed suit.The mothers didn’t laugh, but, at least, they’d stopped frowning.
“So which one of you is going to sign for the fresh flower leis?”the delivery guy asked again.
“I will.”Courtney’s mother took the pen from the man and signed his machine.“It is Hawaii after all.”
“Which one of you is C.Clarke?”Brittany asked, her forehead pleated in confusion.
