Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Luke
Being among acres of Christmas trees, surrounded by cool, crisp air and pine scent, had always soothed me, even when I was working my ass off.
It also tended to make me lose track of time, particularly when I became engrossed in a task like pricing.
I was deep in the Fraser firs when I realized I had exactly two minutes to make it to my meeting with Presley at the barn.
I stopped what I was doing and jogged to my truck at the edge of the trees, then jumped in and hauled ass.
By the time I drove around the corner of the barn, I was a minute late.
An old BMW was parked near the barn door. Seconds later I realized only one person sat inside, and it was Magnolia. Presley must be meeting her here. The upside was I wasn’t the only one who was running behind.
I got out and headed toward the barn door, giving myself a pep talk to be pleasant to the planner. If I was lucky, she’d wait for Presley in her car so we wouldn’t be alone and have to make small talk as if there wasn’t a cargo train’s worth of baggage and history between us.
No such luck. I heard her car door shut behind me.
I opened the barn door, shoving down my bone-deep dislike and steeling myself to be neutral if not pleasant. Then I turned to watch her approach.
Her hair was back in a ponytail, and I couldn’t help thinking again that she dressed differently these days.
She wore leggings, those same knee-high boots, a long shirt, and a puffer vest. The old Magnolia never would’ve been caught dead in a puffer vest. As she drew closer, her head down, I noticed a big scuff on one of the boots, which was even more unlike the high-school version of this girl.
Guess that’s what happened when you didn’t have Daddy’s millions behind you anymore.
“Presley must be running late,” I said, skipping a fake greeting.
“Presley isn’t coming. West’s stepfather is in the ER with a possible heart attack, so West went to Nashville to wait for news with his mom. Presley has the girls. She asked me to handle this.”
“I hope the guy’s okay,” I said, knowing West thought the world of his mom’s husband and their daughters had embraced him as their grandfather. “Come on in.”
The truth was, Magnolia was the person whose expertise I needed today, so Presley’s absence wouldn’t affect this meeting. If West hadn’t suggested it, I wouldn’t have initiated it. I would’ve spent however many more hours on the internet, doing more research, spinning my wheels.
But time was money, and when West and I had been faced with reining in the rooms and areas we could fit in the barn plans, he’d suggested very practically that we get Magnolia’s input on what to prioritize to make it as appealing as possible for future events, not just his wedding.
The logical side of me hadn’t been able to argue.
Now that I was alone with this woman who made me feel so damn much—both back in the day and now, though those were polar-opposite sentiments—I was second-guessing myself. Maybe we should’ve rescheduled. But it was too late to change the meeting without looking like I couldn’t handle it.
Once I’d latched the door to keep the brisk air out, I turned to find Magnolia watching me with a slight scowl. Time to get this over with.
“West and I met to hammer out the plans, and we had a hard time fitting in all the features we discussed during our first meeting,” I said. “We can’t do them all, so what’s most important?”
She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. “So you want me to do you a favor,” she stated. “Since this isn’t about my clients’ wedding.”
Hell. It wouldn’t look like that if Presley were here and we could narrow down her needs for her wedding.
This was not a position I was comfortable in.
“I’ll pay you as a consultant,” I said.
I didn’t expect her to do anything out of the goodness of her heart, because I wasn’t convinced she had any goodness in her heart. Even if she did, I sure as hell didn’t want to owe her anything.
She looked me over, seeming to consider the offer.
“Look,” I said, “my immediate goal is the same as yours: to give one of my best friends a memorable wedding. To do that, I need to be able to renovate this barn in such a way that it’ll serve as a sought-after venue for years to come. Bill me for your services, and let’s get this over with.”
“You want me to trust you to send payment,” she said with a touch of disbelief in her tone.
“I do what I say I’ll do,” I bit out. “Do you want the job or not?”
Seconds ticked by as she considered. All the while, I thought through a plan B in case she told me to fuck myself and walked out. If I was going to pay someone, I could contact another planner for input. Or combing the internet was still free, minus the time it would take.
“I’ll answer your questions,” she finally said. “My rate is two hundred an hour.”
That was a racket, but fuck it. I’d have her out of here in one hour, have my plans, and move on.
“Fine.” I led her farther into the cavernous room, which I’d cleared of the rest of the junk and debris since her last visit.
“We’re keeping the arched beam details of the ceiling intact.
We’ll keep this double door as the main entry”—I pointed to the door we’d come in—“and the far end will serve as an altar for couples who have the ceremony here.”
“With the window centered above and some kind of portable arch that could be removed, in addition to decor options like draped fabric, greenery, or string lights, that would make for stunning ceremony photos.”
“We intend to wall off both sides from the point where the roof angles out.” I walked over to show her what I meant.
“So we’d have the main open area stretch the full length.
On the far end, we’ll keep the full width open so it’s a T shape.
Besides close-up photos of the wedding party and altar, a photographer could get shots of the entire space from this end and capture the architecture as well as the wedding. ”
“String lights along the arched beams…” She nodded, her eyes lighting up as if she’d forgotten who she was helping.
It momentarily took me back to nights in her driveway, in the dark, just the two of us, when something I said would light her up the same way.
I shook my head to rid myself of the memory. That was a lifetime ago with someone I thought was a different person. I was no longer the naive teenager who fell for the act.
“The issue we’re up against is a limited number of square feet for the extra spaces,” I explained. “Restrooms are a necessity. They’ll go here. The service area for caterers, with refrigerators, running water… I’d like to put that next to the restrooms so the plumbing’s all in one area.”
“What do you think of putting a window from the service area to the main room? Maybe one that could be closed if it’s not in use.”
“I could do that.” I strode farther down. “With winter events, we can’t skip the coatroom. And if we need two rooms for getting ready, that doesn’t leave much for a gift room, a utility room, storage…”
“You’ll want a bigger room for the women, with well-lit mirrors, plenty of space for changing, sitting, photos. Men require less space. Although putting a couple of video games in or a pool table wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
“We don’t have room for that.”
“Fine. It was just a thought.” She paced away from me, glancing up at the ceiling, then eyeing the area that would be walled off. “The gift room could be a closet within one of the prep rooms. It doesn’t have to be large. Most people give money or send gifts to the couple’s home these days.”
“What about the first look?” I asked.
“During the warmer months, that can be outside. Do you plan to create any outdoor spaces for weddings?”
“Like what?” I was so concerned with the barn itself that I hadn’t considered the outside yet.
“Like a paved terrace or covered dining area for spring or fall when it isn’t unbearably hot. Some photo-op areas. Sitting areas. The sky’s the limit, really. Or rather, how much space you have.”
We had the space. Budget, well, I’d have to figure that out later, as my priority right now was for indoor events.
“And have you thought about parking?” she asked.
“Still working on that, but if nothing else, we have a lot of parking for the pick-your-own areas and could shuttle people to the barn. But back to the barn. I’m thinking the larger prep room over here and a smaller one there.”
“Have you considered separate entries for those? That helps couples avoid seeing each other before the ceremony or the first look.”
I made a note on my phone because, no, I hadn’t considered that, but it wasn’t a bad idea. “Okay, so what about storage? There’s no room left for it.”
“Don’t you have like a hundred acres of land?” Her tone said I was an idiot.
“A lot of that is accounted for.”
“But not all. Why not build a storage shed?”
“Some of us aren’t made of money,” I snapped.
An expression flashed over her face, just for half a second, enough to tell me my comment got to her. I wasn’t sure quite what I’d seen—regret? Shame? Sadness?
I shrugged it off. I didn’t have it in me to worry about her feelings.
“You could look into renting a portable storage unit for a few months until you’ve booked a few weddings to finance a permanent one,” she suggested.
It was a plausible idea.
“Using your venue square footage for storage would be a dumb move,” she said, and my scowl returned.
“Kind of like making false accusations that get people fired?”
She whipped around and faced me with fire in her eyes. “I didn’t make false accusations,” she said with venom.
“My mom didn’t steal your precious ring,” I bit back.
Magnolia narrowed her eyes. “You can pay me two hundred an hour to bicker about the past, or you can pay me to help you figure out your precious barn.”
Damn. I hadn’t meant to go there. I didn’t need her to know how much her careless actions had devastated me.