Just the thought of it made him laugh as he walked into the house.
Everything was peaceful and quiet–just the way he liked it–and as he walked around the house, all he could think of was how much he appreciated having all this breathing room to himself.
It was kind of glorious.
Placing his satchel on the kitchen counter, he went and grabbed himself something to drink and contemplated whether he was going to relax now or later. He was sure that his father and brothers were still socializing with their remaining guests and winding down from the weekend, but there was still a crisis at hand that was hopefully being dealt with.
He hated having to hold someone’s hand while they did their job and he trusted Greg to be doing what they had discussed earlier.
So maybe he did have some time to turn on ESPN for a little while and catch some scores and call in for lunch to be delivered.
“Probably should have stuck around for the brunch buffet, but…now I can eat in peace.” Pulling out his phone, he pulled up one of his favorite restaurant apps and decided to treat himself to one of his less-than-healthy favorites–burgers with truffle fries. Once the order was placed, he kicked off his shoes and made his way to the newer part of the house and his man cave.
No sooner had he gotten comfortable than his phone rang. He groaned when he saw his father’s face but answered anyway.
“Hey, Dad. What’s up?”
“What is this about you threatening to fire Greg?” his father demanded. “He is one of our best employees and you are not to make demands on his personal time, do you understand?”
“Dad, if he hadn’t dropped the ball…”
“Seems to me this wasn’t his fault and as an executive at King Hospitality, you need to be the one in constant contact with the contractor, Brody! There’s a lot of money riding on this deal and I don’t want Greg Sweeny carrying the weight of it! Do I make myself clear?”
Brody’s head fell back against the sofa as he mentally counted to ten.
Apparently, there would be no ESPN or relaxing because now it looked like the only one working on a Sunday was him.
Chapter 7
It’s cupcake o’clock.
Two weeks after the engagement party weekend, Leanna was walking into the Meet Me at the Altar offices with her arms filled with coffees and breakfast for her and the girls. Normally she only grabbed bagels for their Monday morning meetings, but today she ordered omelets and pastries from one of their favorite restaurants. They were celebrating their four-year anniversary in business and she had been assigned the breakfast portion of the day. Skylar was handling lunch, and Josie had picked the restaurant they were all going to for dinner.
“I love happy days,” she mused as she walked into the conference room and set everything up.
“Please tell me there’s some protein in those bags,” Skye said as she walked into the room looking a little green.
“I thought you were over the morning sickness phase,” Lea commented as she slid a large foil-covered dish toward her friend.
“It comes and goes but protein really seems to calm it down.” She opened the foil and smiled. “And bacon really really calms it down.”
Josie breezed into the room with a big smile. “Everything smells yummy!! Did we get the chocolate croissants?”
“Like I’d forget those,” Lea chided her before sliding another foil-covered plate in her direction. Once both her friends had their food, she sat down with hers. “Ooh…you got me the Western omelet! Thank you!”
“You’re welcome and the croissants are in the white bag over there.”
“Seriously, Whitney’s makes the best home fries,” Skye said with a very satisfied sigh.
“I thought you were all about the protein?” Josie asked.
“That doesn’t mean I’m not also all about these home fries.”
They ate in silence for several minutes before Josie practically jumped out of her chair. “Oh, my goodness, I completely forgot to tell you about the call we got this morning!” she said excitedly.
It was rare that Josie got excitable in a happy way over anything, so Lea’s curiosity was definitely piqued.
“Apparently people are still talking about your desserts from your cousin’s engagement party, because we just got an order for a hundred cupcakes for tomorrow! Isn’t that great?”
Lea practically choked on a forkful of eggs and took a minute to calm herself. “Tomorrow? Are you crazy? You didn’t accept, did you?”
“Of course I did! They don’t want anything difficult–fifty yellow cake with chocolate frosting and fifty chocolate cake with vanilla frosting–and no special decorating. You know you can do that in your sleep!”
It was true and she knew she could, but the fact was that it wasn’t Josie’s place to take the order. And before she could mention that, Josie was talking again.
“I looked at your schedule and you have nothing that you need to start working on until Thursday so I figured it wasn’t a big deal. Plus, it seemed like a big corporate thing and it would be very cool if we could branch out into corporate events, right?”
“That would be amazing,” Skye chimed in. “I mean, I adore doing the weddings, but it would be nice to deal with clients who weren’t as high-maintenance as a bride.”
“I guess…”
“Why aren’t you more excited about this?” Josie demanded. “Two weeks later and people are still talking about your desserts! Plus, all you have to do is put them together. I already reached out to Emilie and she said she’d deliver them for you so it’s really not a big deal.”
She took another forkful of her eggs while she considered it and she wasn’t sure why she wasn’t more excited. Sylvia had mentioned how impressed she was with the cakes and desserts so clearly she was just ready to utilize her again.
“You’re right. I don’t know why I’m being weird,” she murmured. “Sorry.”
Both of her friends stared at her, but it was Skye who spoke up first. “Is everything okay with you? You’ve been a little weird since that weekend.”
That was incredibly accurate and she hadn’t mentioned to either of them about her night with Brody because she was embarrassed. And even though she had only talked to Skye about some of it over the course of the weekend, she knew Josie was aware of what had happened prior to the whole…fling.
Did she bring it up now?
“I’m fine,” she said, and for the most part, she meant it.
Did she think that Brody would have reached out to see why she left without saying goodbye? Yes. Was she disappointed that he didn’t? Yes. Did part of her want to hunt him down and kick in in the nuts for being such a jerk? Also yes. However, she wasn’t a violent person and that she’d get over it.
Eventually.
But there was something she was curious about…
“Who was the client?” she asked.
“What client?” Skye asked.
“The cupcake order,” she said with a huff. “Who is the order for?”
“Oh, her name was Margaret Reading. Did you meet her at the engagement party?”