Happy Ever After
Page 2

“We’re all there for each other.” Emma leaned over and laid a hand on Parker’s. “That’s what friends do.”
“Yes, it is. I want you to know how much you mean to me, and want you to know that if any of you don’t want to try what I’m about to propose, for any reason at all, it changes nothing between us.”
She held up a hand before anyone could speak. “Let me start this way. Emma, you want your own florist business one day, right?”
“It’s always been the dream. I mean I’m happy working in the shop, and the boss gives me a lot of leeway, but I hope, down the road, to have my own. But—”
“No buts yet. Mac, you’ve got too much talent, too much creativity to spend every day taking passport photos and posed kid shots.”
“My talent knows no bounds,” Mac said lightly,“but a girl’s got to eat.”
“You’d rather have your own photography studio.”
“I’d rather have Justin Timberlake arm wrestling Ashton Kutcher for me, too—and it’s just as likely.”
“Laurel, you studied in New York and Paris with the aim of becoming a pastry chef.”
“An international sensation of a pastry chef.”
“And you’ve settled for working at the Willows.”
She swallowed a bite of her spinach tart. “Well, hey—”
“Part of that settling was to be here for me after we lost Mom and Dad. I studied,” Parker continued,“with the goal of starting my own business. I always had an idea of what it would be, but it seemed like a pipe dream. One I never shared with any of you. But over these last months, it’s begun to feel more reachable, more right.”
“For Christ’s sake, Parker, what is it?” Laurel demanded.
“I want us to go into business together. The four of us, with each of us running our own end of it—according to our field of interest and expertise, while merging them together under one umbrella, so to speak.”
“Go into business?” Emma echoed.
“You remember how we used to play Wedding Day? How we’d all take turns playing parts, and wearing costumes, planning the themes.”
“I liked marrying Harold best.” Mac smiled over the memory of the long-departed Brown family dog. “He was so handsome and loyal.”
“We could do it for real, make a business out of Wedding Day.”
“Providing costumes and cupcakes, and very patient dogs for little girls?” Laurel suggested.
“No, by providing a unique and amazing venue—this house, these grounds; spectacular cakes and pastries; heartbreaking bouquets and flowers; beautiful, creative photographs. And for my part—someone who’ll oversee every detail to make a wedding, or other important event, the most perfect day of the clients’ lives.”
She barely took a breath. “I already have countless contacts through my parents. Caterers, wine merchants, limo services, salons—everything.And what I don’t have, I’ll get.A full-service wedding and event business, the four of us as equal partners.”
“A wedding business.” Emma’s eyes went dreamy. “It sounds wonderful, but how could we—”
“I have a business model. I have figures and charts and answers to legal questions if you’ve got them. Del helped me work it out.”
“He’s okay with it?” Laurel asked. “Delaney’s okay with you turning the estate, your home, into a business?”
“He’s completely behind me on this.And his friend Jack’s willing to help by redesigning the pool house into a photographer’s studio, with living quarters above it, and the guest house into a flower shop with an apartment.We can turn the auxiliary kitchen here into your work space, Laurel.”
“We’d live here, on the estate?”
“You’d have that option,” Parker told Mac. “It’s going to be a lot of work, and it would be more efficient for all of us to be on-site. I’ll show you the figures, the model, the projection charts, the works. But there’s no point if any of you just don’t like the basic concept. And if you don’t, well, I’ll try to talk you into it,” Parker added with a laugh. “Then if you hate it, I’ll let it go.”
“The hell you will.” Laurel scooped a hand through her short cap of hair. “How long have you been working this out?”
“Seriously? Actively? About three months. I had to talk to Del, and Mrs. G, because without their support, it would never fly. But I wanted to put it all together before springing it on you. It’s business,” Parker said. “It would be our business, so it needs to be formed that way from the ground up.”
“Our business,” Emma repeated. “Weddings. What’s happier than a wedding?”
“Or crazier,” Laurel put in.
“The four of us can handle crazy. Parks?” Mac’s dimples winked as she held out a hand. “I’m so in.”
“You can’t commit until you’ve seen the model, the figures.”
“Yes, I can,” Mac corrected. “I want this.”
“Me, too.” Emma laid her hand on theirs.
Laurel took a breath, held it. Released. “I guess that makes it unanimous.” And she put her hand on theirs. “We’ll kick wedding ass.”
CHAPTER ONE
CRAZY BRIDE CALLED AT FIVE TWENTY-EIGHT A.M.
“I had a dream,” she announced while Parker lay in the dark with her BlackBerry.
“A dream?”
“An amazing dream. So real, so urgent, so full of color and life! I’m sure it means something. I’m going to call my psychic but I wanted to talk it over with you, first.”
“Okay.” With the grace of experience, Parker reached over, turned her bedside lamp on low. “What was the dream about, Sabina?” she asked as she picked up the pad and pen beside the lamp.
“Alice in Wonderland.”
“You dreamed about Alice in Wonderland?”
“Specifically the Mad Hatter’s tea party.”
“Disney or Tim Burton?”
“What?”
“Nothing.” Parker shook back her hair, noted key words. “Go on.”
“Well, there was music and a banquet of food. I was Alice, but I wore my wedding dress, and Chase looked absolutely amazing in a morning coat.The flowers, oh, they were spectacular. And all of them singing and dancing. Everyone was so happy, toasting us, clapping. Angelica was dressed as the Red Queen and playing a flute.”