Page 38 of Some Kinda Romance

While I was relieved that she wasn’t guilt tripping me about it, I still had flowers sent to her and to Serenity before my door opened again. Lance walked in, followed closely by a man who was at least seven feet tall and probably about half as wide.

I’d met him before and I knew we were handling his daughter’s wedding, but I’d never sat down with him about it. I stuck out my hand to shake with him as I strode forward. “What can I do for you, David? Is there a problem with the wedding?”

He shook with me, then heaved his bulk into a chair and exhaled heavily. “Why do people always think there’s a problem when you want to see them? There’s no problem, but there will be if anything goes wrong on my Elsie’s big day.”

Ah. Okay.I grinned at him, nodding at Rick who was hovering in the doorway to bring us some waters. “I understand. This is the obligatory father of the bride threatening speech, isn’t it?”

He blinked rapidly, then burst out laughing and nodded. “Yes, I suppose it is. I just wanted to make sure you knew how important this day is to my daughter and my wife. If anything goes wrong, they’ll make my life hell and I don’t believe in going to hell alone, so I’ll be dragging you there with me.”

“Consider me warned,” I said amiably. Rick brought in the waters and passed them around as I moved back behind my desk and sat down. “Nothing is going to go wrong. I can assure you that I’ve got my best team on this and I’m overseeing the arrangements myself. I’m copied into every email and our system keeps track of every phone call. Everything is on track.”

Relief loosened the tight knit of his eyebrows as he stared back at me. “That’s excellent news, but I want to know you have your own hands on this. Not just those of your best team, but yours, Dash. I’m not paying you only to oversee things. I want you handling this personally.”

“I am,” I said confidently. “My teams handle the grunt work. They also do the groundwork and they take the meetings to get the information we need. Ultimately, however, everything passes across my desk for final sign off. All the vendors my team uses have been personally vetted by me and nothing happens around here that I don’t know about.”

He held my gaze for another beat before he nodded. “You remind me of your daddy, son. Always so confident about everything with an answer to every question. In the years I knew him, those answers were always true, though. Every problem was always solved. I hope you take after him in that sense, too.”

“I do,” I said. “Thank you. That means a lot to me. I know you worked with him on the board of the Oceans Initiative and I hope Zach has done an alright job stepping into his shoes.”

David chuckled. “Your brother’s good, Dash. We’re doing as well as ever, but we do miss your daddy and he definitely left a mark on us all.”

“He was one of those people,” I agreed, trying not to think about it too much. Speaking to his friends always hurt, and while comments like David’s were meant to comfort, I often found myself too raw for them to serve the purpose for which they were intended. “If that’s all, however, I really should get going.”

“Of course,” he said, pushing himself up and offering me his hand. “It was good to see you, son. We’ll be in touch.”

Rick and Lance ushered him out while I gathered my things. Now that David had been taken care of, I checked the time and realized that the meeting hadn’t taken that long at all. I could still catch Mom and Serenity if I hurried up, so I decided to surprise them.

I would take them both to lunch and come back here after. I didn’t really have time for that kind of thing, but I was making it anyway.

I couldn’t have stopped myself even if I wanted to, which I didn’t. I wanted to see Serenity and there was nothing anyone could do or say to stop me now that I’d realized I still had an opportunity to get what I wanted out of the day.