The Surprise Wedding (Married in Malibu #5)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

The staff at Married in Malibu were gathered in the main room on Monday morning with their coffees and tablets.

Business at Southern California’s most exclusive wedding venue was really taking off, and this morning they were going to begin planning for an exciting new wedding.

Nate Waterson hadn’t had time to pick up his usual morning double espresso from Malibu T and Coffee before the meeting, and he was definitely feeling the absence of his first caffeine fix of the day.

“I think we can safely say,” their fearless leader Liz Wilkinson began as she sat down at the large table with the entire staff, “that the launch for Lucas’s music video on Friday night was a huge success.

The record label was thrilled with how it went, and even better, Lucas himself was over the moon about it. Well done, everyone.”

Friday’s launch of rock star Lucas Crosby’s new single had garnered amazing attention on social media, as well as mainstream radio and music streaming sites.

The track was already shooting straight to the top of the charts.

On a more personal front, Nate could see that Meg was clearly thrilled by her relationship with Lucas—if her blush at just hearing his name was anything to go by.

Despite an extremely bumpy start with Meg’s mother, Meg and Lucas had been inseparable on Friday night.

The two of them had made quite the cozy picture of new love.

As Nate looked around the room, he couldn’t help but wonder if Cupid also worked at Married in Malibu.

The many brides and grooms who booked weddings at the venue were all madly in love, of course.

But Liz and Jason, Jenn and Daniel, and Travis and Amy had also found their one true love here.

And now Meg and Lucas were a couple as well.

It truly boggled the mind that there had been so many love matches among the staff.

Only Kate and Nate himself were still footloose and fancy-free.

Liz’s phone rang, and after looking at the name on the screen, she made a quick apology to the group. “I’ve been waiting for this call since yesterday.” She pushed her chair away from the conference table. “I won’t be long.”

Kate immediately took the opportunity to hop to her feet and dashed out to the gardens to check on the new automatic watering system.

Jenn and Daniel, and Travis and Amy, spoke quietly to each other.

Both couples were so clearly deeply in love with each other, Nate almost had to look away.

And given Meg’s smile and flushed cheeks as she typed on her phone, Nate knew she must be messaging Lucas.

Not wanting anyone to think they were leaving him out—honestly, he couldn’t be happier for them all—he looked down at his tablet and started to read the specs on a new version of WedminX, a new data-handling software that had just been released and which he thought might be useful for streamlining operations at Married in Malibu.

The words blurred on his screen, however, because he couldn’t stop thinking about Tamara Truscott, the owner of Malibu T and Coffee.

On Friday night, while they were at the club for Lucas’s video shoot, she’d surprised him by pulling him out onto the dance floor.

Although Nate wouldn’t have normally been caught dancing in public, he hadn’t been able to resist her invitation.

She was so beautiful, so full of life and laughter, that he would have done anything for her in that moment, just to make her smile. Just to be close to her.

And then the most unexpected thing of all had happened. She had leaned in close to him while they’d danced in each other’s arms… The next thing he knew, they were kissing.

He still couldn’t believe the kiss had happened. After all, he was the geek who dealt with Married in Malibu’s tech systems, while she was the most effortlessly beautiful and sweetest woman he’d ever known. Plus, she ran her own successful business, which she’d built from nothing.

Despite putting in countless hours running her café, she always managed to look as though she’d just come from a day at the beach, tan and wind-blown and happy.

Yet on Friday night there had been something extra special about her.

Something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

Nate hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her.

So when she’d held him close during that slow dance, kissing her had seemed like the most natural thing in the world.

Not only natural. Perfect. The kind of kiss that happened only when two people were in perfect synchronization, and there was enough emotional connection for it to feel like magic.

With a start, Nate realized both Kate and Liz had returned to the table and Liz was speaking. It took more than a little effort for Nate to push Tamara from his mind to focus on what his boss was saying.

“Our next wedding is a little different than anything we’ve done so far. It will likely be a bit of a challenge, but I know everyone here is more than up to it.”

The team leaned forward. “Who’s the wedding for?” Meg asked. She had her sketchbook out, ready to jot down ideas.

“Our new potential clients are Zach Jarrs and his fiancée, Yuriko

Yamabusa,” Liz told them.

Given the blank looks on everyone’s face, the others clearly didn’t have a clue that Zach Jarrs was a total rock star in the computer world.

Liz looked over at Nate, obviously hoping he would fill everyone in.

“Zach Jarrs is the guy behind Jpress,” he began.

When everyone still looked blank, he explained, “Jpress has more or less revolutionized file-sharing technology. There’s lots more to it, but let’s just say that he is a very big deal in the tech world, and I’m going to guess that landing his wedding is also a huge deal. ”

“It sure is, and thanks for that explanation, Nate,” Liz agreed.

She smiled and then looked at her notes.

“Apparently, Mr. Jarrs met his fiancée when they both attended Stanford. After graduation, she returned to Japan to work. Then the two of them reconnected when Zach was in Japan on business. She’s a bit of a celebrity over there, a TV presenter with some very devoted fans. ”

Travis guessed devoted fans was code for stalkers, which was good to know. He always worked hard in conjunction with Travis, who ran security at Married in Malibu, to keep their famous clients safe.

“The bride and groom want a small, intimate ceremony, with a fusion of Japanese and classic Western style. Only close family and friends will attend the wedding, and most of the bride’s guests will be coming from Japan. I don’t expect final guest numbers to exceed forty or forty-five.”

As Liz moved on to further details, Nate’s thoughts slipped back to Tamara.

Until now, he’d never admitted to himself that he’d actually thought about kissing her plenty of times, but the perfect moment for him to act on it hadn’t ever materialized.

He’d always come up with a reason why it would be stupid to try.

She was too out of his league. He obviously wasn’t her type.

But somehow, when they were on that dance floor, they’d been drawn together like two magnets.

“Nate?” Liz said. Her tone suggested that she’d been trying to get his attention.

“Sorry, could you repeat your question?” Nate said, pushing his glasses up and doing his best to look interested.

Normally, he loved his job and easily absorbed the most minute details.

But today he was having serious trouble corralling his brain to hold focus on anything but Tamara and that spectacular kiss.

“I was just saying that while the clients want to keep the actual wedding ceremony small and intimate,” Liz repeated, “they also plan to livestream it to as much of the world as possible.”

Nate’s eyes widened. Clearly, this wouldn’t be a standard wedding at all. It would take a lot of planning and effort, and he would need to be completely on his game to pull it off.

“Do we know exactly what Zach Jarrs is looking for?” Nate asked.

“Given that I have a feeling anything technical Mr. Jarrs says to me is going to go straight over my head, I’d like you to sit in on the client meetings from this point onward. Not only do we need to pin down exactly what they want, but we need to make sure it’s even possible.”

Nate nodded, feeling energized by the challenge. “Absolutely, I’m happy to sit in on every meeting if that will make you feel more comfortable.”

“I haven’t drawn up a contract for this wedding yet,” Liz told the group.

“Of course, it would be a great event to take on, but I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus on this.

It will likely be the most complicated wedding we’ve ever done, particularly on the tech side, and once we say yes, there is no going back. We’ll have to deliver.”

Nate could understand her concern, and it was a valid one.

Married in Malibu’s reputation was built on delivering high-end weddings and giving their famous and wealthy clients exactly what they wanted.

Their small crew had come a long way in a short time by doing precisely that for their prestigious clients.

But even one failure would be disastrous.

Especially when talking about something as public as an online wedding.

One crash, one glitch in the stream, and everyone would be talking about it.

It was the kind of failure that could be impossible to recover from.

“I can handle it,” Nate said.

On another day, he might have felt more worried about it, but today he felt invincible. That was how powerful Tamara’s kiss had been. He felt like a new, better man, simply from having held her in his arms.

“Okay,” Liz said. “But only if you’re absolutely sure.”