Kaye Dacus - Stand-In Groom

“Aunt Maggie loved you like a son—still does, even though you’re her competition now instead of her favorite employee.”

“Am I going to have to hate this George character now, too?”

Anne leaned her head to the side to gaze at her friend. “What are you talking about?”

“I’ve watched him all night. He’s in love with you, y’know.”

She frowned at him. “Weren’t you the one who sat there in the break room just a couple of hours ago, egging me on in being angry at him?”

Major quirked the left side of his mouth. “Yeah. But I’ve had more time to think about it. He was looking for you for a while before he gathered the staff together. I think he was planning to tell you privately.”

Guilt started to replace the righteous indignation she’d used as a shield between herself and George all night.

“You don’t know how hard this is for me to say, but you need to forgive him.”

Tingles started at her toes and shot all the way to her scalp. “I know.”

He crooked his elbow around her neck and pulled her close to kiss her temple. “See if you can convince this George fella to stay around. He sorta grows on a body.”

She patted his arm where it rested across her throat. “Oh, I’ll see what I can do.”

* * *

At 2:00 a.m., Cliff and Courtney’s limousine drove away from Lafitte’s, taking the last of the paparazzi with them. George pulled the radio earpiece off and let out a big sigh. “Wonderful job tonight, gentlemen. Let’s go find Anne and see if we can call it a night.”

“Amen to that,” Jonathan agreed. “Fourteen hours is way too long to work in one spell.”

George shook his head as the man twenty years his junior trudged into the building. Oh, to have to work only fourteen hours at a spell. Several of the service staff passed them, dressed in their shorts, T-shirts, and thong sandals. The boys ahead of him picked up the pace, ready to be released to go home.

Anne sat at one of the tables near the kitchen signing time cards. Major O’Hara straddled a chair behind her, his denim chef’s tunic unbuttoned to reveal the UL–BONNETERRE T-shirt beneath, massaging her shoulders.

George tried not to be jealous, recalling they were old friends, and continued around to the coffee service cart beyond them.

“Plain coffee is brown; flavored is white,” Major said, leaning his head back to tell him.

George lifted the brown carafe.

“Man after my own heart.” The caterer raised his Styrofoam cup in salute.

George returned the gesture and sank into the chair on Anne’s other side. She wrote the time and signed each card as fast as she could, trying to get the kids out as soon as possible. How many of them would leave here and go out now? He’d heard his valet-parking boys discuss some kind of big event going on tonight down on Fraternity Row. Knowing college kids, it would still be going on at this hour, if the police hadn’t been called in yet.

Anne’s makeup couldn’t hide the dark circles beneath her eyes. Limp tendrils of her hair had come out of the french twist at the back of her head, and she tapped the fingernails of her left hand on the table as she worked. She wouldn’t leave until everything was finished and the place locked down for the night.

“Are some of the staff staying to help clean up?” Major asked, looking around at the mess.

“We have a cleanup crew coming in tomorrow,” George answered. “Meredith is supervising that so Anne doesn’t have to come back up here.”

She glanced up at him in surprise. “What? When was that decided?”

“Meredith and I discussed it last week. She said if they run into any problems, she’ll call you. She talked to Pamela and Trevor yesterday and arranged for them to come remove the murals. You’ve already scheduled the rental company to come pick up what belongs to them, and I supplied Meredith with my copy of the list so she knows what to set aside. The rest belongs here, and it’s her staff who will be working, so she didn’t feel your presence would be necessary. I wholeheartedly concur.”

Rather than argue, she surprised him with a smile—the first she’d given him since she’d walked into the kitchen and seen Cliff. “Thanks. I really wasn’t looking forward to spending another full day up here.”

Major rose and returned the coffee service to the kitchen. He returned a few minutes later, a large bag hanging from his shoulder. He leaned over and kissed Anne’s cheek. “Great party, Annie.”

“Wouldn’t have been without you. Fax over that final invoice as soon as you have it, and George will write you a check.” She patted the caterer’s hand. “Won’t you?”

George nodded. “Just ring me up when you have the total, and I can drop it off.”

“I’ll call, then. Probably Monday morning after I have a chance to do a complete inventory and go over my staff’s time cards. Mere and I have that banquet tomorrow night, so it’s unlikely to be any earlier.”

“Monday’s fine.” Anne signed the last time card with a flourish and sent the student away. “I’ll be talking to Mere next week about a couple of other projects we’ll need you for.”

“I look forward to hearing about them.” Major’s gaze shifted to George for a brief moment, then back to Anne. “And remember what I said.”

Anne’s cheeks reddened. “I will. Now get out of here so I can, too.”

“Okay. Kitchen’s locked down tight; lights are off. G’night, you two.” Major beat a path out the front door.

Anne stood and stretched, then bent over to pick up her shoes from under the table. “George, I…I’d like to talk to you if you have a minute.”

For her, he had hours, days, weeks, years. He followed her back to the office, where she shoved the shoes into her bag and pulled out her trainers. He grinned as she put the white athletic shoes on with the black evening gown.

When she finished tying the laces, she didn’t stand but leaned back in the chair, her hands folded at her waist. “I wanted to apologize to you.”

He raised his brows and leaned against the edge of the desk.

“I’ve treated you unfairly tonight. I was angry with you because you didn’t tell me about Cliff. But I can’t hold that against you, for the very reason you didn’t tell me in the first place.”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

She rubbed her temples. “I’m not making any sense, am I? Too long without sleep. I guess what I’m trying to say is, will you forgive me for being mad at you for being an honorable man and keeping your word?”

Grinning, he knelt in front of her, took her hands in his, and kissed her palms. “Gladly and wholeheartedly.”

Leaning forward, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry for being so hard-hearted. It was just…seeing Cliff like that with no forewarning… I guess I really have a lot to work on when it comes to forgiving him, because that isn’t going to come easily. I know that now.”

He held her for a few moments until his knees started to ache on the tile floor. He kissed the side of her neck, rose, and stretched as stress rolled off his shoulders.

She slouched back in the chair. “There’s something else I want to ask you.”

He perched on the edge of the desk facing her, curiosity aroused. “All right.”

She bit the right corner of her bottom lip as she searched his face, then sat up straight, her knuckles turning white as she gripped her hands together. “I know we’ve only known each other for a little over a month. And during that time, we’ve had our share of misunderstandings and communication issues.”

Her skill with euphemistic understatements would put a parliamentarian to shame. He nodded, encouraging her to continue.

“I feel like we have a lot in common, and we obviously work well together.” She smiled nervously. “What I want to ask is: How about making this permanent?”

He nearly fell off the desk. Permanent? Had Anne Hawthorne just proposed marriage to him?

She rushed to continue. “As I said, I know it hasn’t been that long. And I know you’ll need time to think about making a major step like this.”

Every fiber of his being cried out, Yes! Yes, I’ll marry you. The miniscule part of his brain that clung to reason still controlled his tongue. “I’m flattered. But, Anne, have you thought this through? Are you sure this is what you truly want, and not just a reaction to seeing Cliff tonight?”

She frowned. “Cliff? What does he have to do with my asking you to be my business partner?”

Business partner? He chuckled and shook his head. Yet another example of their typical misunderstandings and communication issues. “Nothing, I suppose.”

“I mean, you may not make as much in a year working with me if we’re splitting the profits equally, but the cost of living here is a lot lower.”

And he’d get to see her every day. He tapped his thumb against his lips a moment. If he were going to stay here, he wanted the whole package—and he meant to have it before Courtney’s wedding. But given her nervousness at asking him to go into business together, convincing her to marry him would be a considerable undertaking. “Draw up a business plan, and I’ll take a look at it. I’ll have to look into the legality of changing jobs with my current work visa.” Of course, being married to an American citizen, he wouldn’t have to worry about work visas ever again. Not that where they would live mattered. He’d be happy living in a thatch-roofed hut in the bitter cold of Scotland, as long as he had Anne at his side.

Anne tried to ignore the pounding by pulling a spare pillow over her head. There. The noise stopped.

Something heavy hit her bed. She shrieked and bolted upright, nearly colliding with Jenn, who bounced up and down on her knees.

“When were you going to tell us?”

Anne glanced at the alarm clock. Not even eight o’clock. Less than four hours of sleep—again. Never before had she thought ill of a relative. But right now she hated the two auburn-tressed sisters staring at her like baby chicks waiting to devour a worm. She fell back against her pillow with a groan. “Go away! Let me get some sleep.”

“I told you we should have left her alone,” Meredith scolded her younger sister. “Come on, let’s go.”

“No. I want to hear it from her. Is it true?” Jenn crawled over and straddled Anne.

“Is what true?” She could very easily toss the skinny-minnie off the bed, maybe even out the window.

“You’re planning Cliff Ballantine’s wedding.”

She could have gone all day without being reminded of that. “Go away.” She pushed Jenn away, rolled onto her side, and covered her head with the pillow again.

“You’re on the front page of the newspaper, Annie.” Meredith’s soft voice filtered through the thick down covering Anne’s ears. “You looked really nice last night.”

She bolted upright again, this time bumping Jenn’s nose with her forehead. She snatched the paper from Meredith. Below a giant color photo of Courtney and Cliff on the front porch of Lafitte’s Landing was a smaller image of herself. When… ? Oh, she’d gone out to give Jonathan batteries for his radio pack.

“I’m surprised your phone isn’t ringing off the hook.” Jenn rubbed her nose.

“I turned the ringer off when I got home last night. I thought that would thwart anyone who might try to disturb me before I had a decent amount of sleep. I guess I’ll have to start using the door chain.”

“She would have just stood there pounding on the door until you opened it.” Meredith came around and sat on the edge of the bed. “Did you know?” She pointed at Cliff’s picture.

Anne shook her head. “No. George was under strict orders to keep his employer’s identity secret. No one knew until just before the press conference.”

“Hello?” Forbes’s voice rang through the apartment.

“In here,” Jenn yelled.

“What is it with you people and Saturday mornings?” Anne flipped the folded paper over to look at the top of the page again. BALLANTINE TO MARRY LOCAL GIRL, the headline proclaimed. Poor Courtney. She tossed the paper aside as Forbes entered her bedroom.

“Aren’t you going to read the articles?” Jenn caught the section before it slid off the far side of the bed.

“I was there. I planned it. I think I know what happened.” She propped a couple of pillows against her headboard and scooted up to sit against them. She reached for the tall paper cup of coffee Forbes held in his hand and took a big gulp before handing it back to him. “Ugh. Gross. Skim milk and artificial sweetener. I always forget.”