“Wait,” he interrupted warily. “What weather warnings?”
Garrett slowly got to his feet and inched his way to the door. “Um…you know…they’re calling for a white Christmas.”
Austin let out a breath. “Oh, is that all? We’ll be long gone by then. Our flight to Maui is right after the reception, so we’ll be long gone by then.”
His brother looked away nervously.
“Why do I feel like there’s more to this story?”
“The snow’s supposed to come before Christmas,” Garrett said slowly. “Like…Saturday.”
It took less than a minute for Austin to relax again. “Okay, I think we’re safe. It’s not gonna happen.”
“How can you know that?”
“G, we’ve lived here almost our entire lives. How many times has it snowed in Magnolia Sound?”
“Um…”
“Exactly. Not enough times to even remember it. The weather bureau always mentions the threat of it, but it rarely happens. I think the last time there was a major snowstorm, it was when Pops was a boy.” The thought of his great-grandfather made him smile. “That was easily a hundred years ago. And the last time there was any snow here, it was flurries, and they were gone within an hour. Whew!” Placing a hand over his heart, he laughed. “Do me a favor? Don’t scare me like that on anything else. I don’t know how much more I can take.”
“I thought things were going well.”
“They were. Up until a week ago. Now it’s like there’s a black cloud over my head because I saw Mia in her gown.”
His brother’s eyes went wide. “Why would you do that? Don’t you know it’s bad luck?”
Not this again…
“She went to pick up her gown and do the whole final fitting thing, but she forgot the stole she bought to go with it. So she called and asked me to bring it down to the shop and the seamstress was supposed to meet me outside.”
“O-kay…”
“But I was sitting out there waiting and waiting and waiting,” he explained. “I honked the horn and even called the store number and no one answered, so I figured I’d just step inside and hand the box to her.” He shrugged. “I just didn’t know the place was so small that it was essentially a front desk and then the area where she does the alterations. So Mia was standing there looking like the world’s most perfect bride. Until she saw me. The look of horror is etched in my brain, man. It was awful.”
“Damn.”
“Mia yelled at me; Sydney was yelling at me from the phone…it was a nightmare. Essentially, I threw the box on the floor and ran out, but…too late. I saw her. Now the universe is heaping bad luck on us every time we turn around. This thing with the DJ is the fifth thing this week.”
“Wow. What can I do?”
A snarky comeback was on the tip of his tongue but he chose to ignore it. “Nothing. Not really. If you want to make calls and see if you can find another DJ, I certainly wouldn’t say no to it. I just hate having to tell Mia about it.” He paused. “Why aren’t you at the clinic?”
With a short laugh, Garrett shook his head. “You’re just now realizing that?”
“I was a little distracted with all the bad news, so…”
“Today was my day to work over at Happy Tails. They’re finally back down to having a minimal number of dogs so my afternoon was short. I was on my way home to surprise Emma when I realized I should tell you the news in person, so…here I am.”
“Go home to Emma and tell her I said hello.” Standing, Austin looked around and grabbed his keys and phone. “Come on. I’ll walk out with you. I might as well go home too.”
“Dude, I really am sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, G.”
They said their goodbyes out in the parking lot, and Austin reluctantly got into his truck and drove home. It was a short drive and not nearly enough time for him to figure out a solution to this newest setback. He considered distracting her with sex, but…as much as he’d enjoy it, it wasn’t the answer.
But he’d call it Plan B, just in case.
When he walked in the door, he spotted her pacing slowly along the glass doors that led out to the deck. It was cold out and the sky was gray, but it was still a million-dollar view. She was talking on the phone, but he had no idea to who.
He put his things down and went to get something to drink and desperately wanted to interrupt her call, but knew she’d never do that to him. So in the meantime, he kicked off his shoes, walked over to the fireplace, and flipped the switch that lit the gas logs.
“Okay, thanks, Jill. I appreciate it and I’ll be looking for the file. Talk to you later. Bye!” he heard her say.
Looking over his shoulder, he saw Mia walking toward him, looking completely relaxed.
And now he had to screw that up.
Dammit.
She kissed him firmly on the lips before plopping down on the couch beside him with a heavy sigh. Austin was about to speak, but she beat him to it.
“Okay, I have good news and I have bad news,” she began. “Which do you want first?”
“Um…bad?”
Twisting in her spot, she fully faced him. “The DJ bailed on us.”
He didn’t even have time to respond because she was talking again.
“I was so pissed off and starting to freak out, and then Jill called to get an update on the book. I told her what was going on, and she made some calls and found us a replacement.”
His eyes went wide. “A replacement? How? She’s up in New York and we’re here. How could she know of any local DJs?”
“It’s not a DJ. She got us a singer,” she explained. “A band. I don’t know if you remember, but her boyfriend is a music producer for some record label, and he’s got this up-and-coming artist that said he’d do it. Apparently, he’s a fan of mine and wanted to help.” She shrugged. “I thought it was sweet. Plus, she played me some of his music and is sending a file for us to listen to because she wanted to make sure you were happy with him.”
His head was spinning. “I don’t even know what to say…”
“Oh! And my veil came today!” she said happily. “That was such a relief. But back to the singer. Are you disappointed?”
“Garrett just stopped by the office a little while ago and told me the news. I was dreading coming home and breaking it to you,” he admitted, still a little shell-shocked that things were working out.
“Wait here. I’m going to grab my laptop so we can listen to the music together.” She stood up and made her way to their bedroom. “I really think you’re going to like him. He’s got a great voice–a combination of Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith. Very swoony.”
Yeah, because that’s the kind of music he listened to…swoony.
When she was sitting beside him again, he knew the smart thing to do was to just agree with whoever they found if it made her happy. Music wasn’t a big deal to him, so if Mia liked it, he’d simply agree.
“This was the song Jill played for me earlier,” she said as the music began to play.
And he didn’t hate it.