Lee Mckenzie - The Wedding Bargain

Not even Paige’s professionally applied makeup could hide the deep pink flush that flashed across her face.

Maria rearranged her dress and lowered the blanket to reveal a sleeping baby. “Go easy on her, girls. She’s in love. She just hasn’t figured it out yet.”

Paige’s pink face flared red.

“I’d love to hear all the details,” Rory said. “And I do mean all of them, but I don’t want to keep everyone waiting. I just wanted to thank you gals for making my day so special. Everything’s been perfect and I’m so grateful to all of you. Especially you, Jess. You’ve been the best maid of honor a bride could hope for.”

Jess hugged her. “It’s been fun.” And she actually meant it. Rory’s easygoing and slightly unorthodox approach to wedding planning had made the process a lot more fun than she’d expected it to be. “Did you manage to finish packing for your honeymoon?”

Excitement sparked in Rory’s eyes. “We leave first thing in the morning.”

“I still can’t believe you’re going to Disneyland,” Nicola said. “And taking your stepdaughter.”

The bride laughed. “It’ll be perfect. Mitch said we could leave Miranda with his mother and go away on our own, but it didn’t feel right. I’m not just married, I have an eight-year-old daughter. Taking a family honeymoon feels like the right thing to do, and Miranda is so excited.”

Jess couldn’t imagine ever meeting a man she could trust that way, never mind letting her guard down long enough to marry him, but to throw in a ready-made family on top of the bargain? No way. Not even an adorable little girl like Rory’s stepdaughter. Then again, there was no chance any of this could happen to her. She hadn’t even been on a date in two years, not since taking over the bar when her grandfather died. She’d been too busy working her butt off.

“I think it’s wonderful,” Maria said. “You’re going to be such a great mom.”

Paige nodded somewhat wistfully. “You already are a great mom, and you’re so lucky to have such a terrific little girl.”

Jess gave her a playful jab in the shoulder. “If you keep sneaking off with Andy and letting him mess up your hair like that, you might end up being a mom, too.”

Everyone laughed at that, even a red-faced Paige.

Rory waved her bouquet of colorful gerbera daisies. “Okay. Time to find out who’s next,” she said as she herded them all into the corridor. Then she tapped Jess’s shoulder. “Can we talk for a few seconds?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

“Let’s make sure Paige catches my bouquet.”

“This is just a tradition based on some crazy superstition. Catching it doesn’t guarantee a wedding.” Although come to think of it, Rory had caught Nic’s bouquet last fall, and look at her now.

“It’s symbolic, and it definitely seems to be Paige’s turn, don’t you think?”

The only thing Jess knew for sure was that it wasn’t hers. “How am I supposed to make sure she catches it?”

“There aren’t that many single women here, and the only two you really have to watch out for are Mitch’s cousins. Those two little brats have actually made a bet on which of them will snag it.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Although short of tackling them, she had no idea how to prevent them from being contenders.

She joined the group of single women on the small dance floor and took stock of the situation. Since there’d almost certainly be another round of wedding bells in Paige’s future, it sort of did make sense to let her catch the bouquet and give everyone a chance to gush about her being the next to tie the knot. The groom’s teenage twin cousins had other ideas. They had already staked out their respective territories at the front of the small group of single women and were glaring at each other.

Amateurs, Jess thought. This would be like taking candy from a couple of babies.

For a split second she allowed her attention to be diverted as she searched out the man named Michael. He was watching her, and she was surprised to feel her own competitive nature kick in. Part of her was tempted to ditch the stupid shoes, roll up her sleeves—if she had any—and grab that sucker when it sailed over Rory’s shoulder. Not that she wanted to get married—far from it—but catching the bouquet would show Michael…

Show him what? She had absolutely no idea. Besides, she had agreed that Paige should catch it. So instead of going on the offensive, she positioned herself directly behind the twins.

Rory surveyed the group before turning her back on it.

Jess adopted the best linebacker stance her shoes would allow.

The band riffed a suitably dramatic tune, but the drum roll was drowned out by cheering.

In case a change to running back was necessary to get the bouquet to the intended receiver, she toed off her shoes under the dress.

With the precision of a rocket launcher, Rory propelled the bouquet over her shoulder.

Jess blocked the twins and held them out of range.

The bouquet headed straight for…oh, hell. So much for Rory’s aim. It was heading straight for Jess.

She let go of one twin, reached for the stupid flowers and volleyed them in Paige’s direction.

A surprised Paige fumbled the bouquet but didn’t drop it, and Jess grabbed the unfettered twin before she could make a lunge for the daisies.

The bride whirled around, quickly surveyed the situation and gave her a thumbs-up.

The twins gave her a pair of matching glares.

Paige, clutching the bouquet in both hands, laughed and looked at Andy.

Gotta love it when a plan comes together. “Sorry, girls,” Jess said to the irate teens. Not that she meant it. They couldn’t be a day over seventeen, which meant they were way too young to even think about getting married.

Nic was in stitches. “Nice save, Jess. And nice catch,” she said to Paige.

In every respect, Jess thought as she glanced from Paige’s blush-pink cheeks to Andy’s bewildered smile. Very nice catch.

Jess hiked up her full-skirted dress and stuck a foot into one of her shoes. Her toes complained vigorously. She crammed her other foot into its shoe and was hobbling off the dance floor when she spotted Michael near the bar. His gaze was still on her, and he still looked amused. Was he entertained by life in general, she wondered, or was he laughing at her? He picked up two glasses of wine and walked toward her.

I guess I’m about to find out.

He handed one of the glasses to her.

She accepted, knowing without asking that this time it was merlot.

“My money was on you catching that bouquet.” So he had been laughing at her.

“It wasn’t my turn.” She stopped herself before blurting out that there was no point, since she didn’t have a man in her life. He didn’t need to know that she had made up her mind a long time ago—at fourteen, to be exact—that it would take a very special someone to make up for the bad example set by her mother’s endless string of boyfriends.

“Those shenanigans seemed to take your mind off the dress.”

“What do you mean?”

“Earlier you were concerned that it would reveal too much.”

He was right. For those few moments while it was her job to get the bouquet in Paige’s hands, she had completely forgotten about the dress.

“So you had nothing to worry about.” His gaze traveled over the top of her dress.

Sure. Nothing to worry about.

“I understand you’re not seeing anyone.”

How the hell had he figured that out? “That’s a pretty big leap. Just because I didn’t bring a date to the wedding doesn’t mean I’m not seeing anyone.”

“I’m not big on assumptions. I’d rather have facts, so I asked the mother of the bride if you were involved.”