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A wedding. One more thing to add to the agenda.
I blocked out a weekend before guests would begin arriving for Thanksgiving week, and made a few notes. There were a few rooms booked, but the resort would be pretty quiet, and having a small ceremony and party in one of the special event spaces shouldn’t be an issue. I’d need to enlist some help, obviously, but it wouldn’t be the first wedding we’d had at the resort, and most of the guests would already be on site, so the logistics of receiving and hosting people weren’t an issue.
I heard a happy shout from the bar, where Aubrey had disappeared, and a moment later, Wiley and Aubrey appeared together, both grinning.
“So you already heard?” he asked me, practically shouting across the lobby. “We’re getting married!” He scooped my sister up into his arms to the extreme enjoyment of the writers scattered about, who all clapped and cheered.
“I heard,” I said, smiling because the mood was completely contagious. “I’m blocking the date right now.”
“Yay!” Aubrey cried from Wiley’s arms. “I’m going to go find Penny and Annalee to help plan.” She tilted her head up to kiss her fiancé, and then beat at his chest. “Put me down, you caveman!”
“You love it.”
My sister whispered something I worked very hard not to hear in response, and then she disappeared toward the offices at the back of the building.
“Thanks, man. She’s super excited.”
“You okay with rushing it?” I scanned Wiley’s face for any signs of well-hidden panic, but he seemed genuinely pleased. I was happy for my sister. She’d found the perfect partner.
He grinned. “As long as I end up with Aubrey and our little tater tot? I’m fine with anything. Just hope my brother will be able to get out here for it. What’s the date she’s planning?”
I gave Wiley the information and he texted his brother Wade and then leaned on the top of the massive wood registration desk. “How you holding up with this whole conference thing?”
I shrugged. “Honestly? It’s been fine. We’ve got enough staff on now that no one really comes to me except with emergencies.”
“Like stuck elevators.”
“Like that, yeah.”
“Fake Tom says you had a lady in there with you.” Wiley wiggled his eyebrows and I braced myself for the teasing. The weird thing was, I didn’t really care if he knew.
I felt my cheeks warm at the thought of Emily. “A guest. That’s why we were comping her drinks last night. And her room.”
“Gotcha,” he said. “So she was the one you were with in the bar?”
“Yeah.”
He nodded but hesitated, his head tipping to one side. He was clearly considering adding something else he wasn’t sure he wanted to say.
“Go ahead.”
Wiley met my eyes then. “I was just going to say, she seemed cool.”
“I think she is.” I hated this. It felt like we were talking in code. Everyone was so goddamned careful with me all the time, sometimes I worried I really would break. “You can ask me what you’re really wondering. I might even answer.”
“You like her, then?” Straightforward. Much better.
“Yeah, I like her. Actually kissed her last night.” The second the words were out, guilt replaced the warmth I’d felt at the thought. I’d said it because everyone here made me feel like I needed to prove I was okay, that I was functioning. I was tired of it. But Emily didn’t deserve me sharing that about her.
Wiley grinned, his eyebrows shooting up.
“Dammit, I shouldn’t have said that.”
The eyebrows dropped. “Because you didn’t kiss her?”
I shifted my weight. “No, I did. It’s just probably not cool to run around talking about it.”
“I’m not telling anyone.”
