Chapter 6
Caleb
Two things are clear when I see Brooke’s face: She had no clue about any of this and she’s not happy about it. Her jaw is dropped and her wide eyes dart between me, Dad, and Judy as we settle into Judy’s small office.
She’s absolutely furious. Again.
Judy looks at Dad and gives him a tight nod, which he returns. She turns to me and wraps her arms around me like I’m her favorite nephew she hasn’t seen in years. It’s unsettling. She lets me go, but rests her hands on my biceps. “Caleb,” she says. “You’ve grown into such a handsome young man.”
If I didn’t know any better, I’d think she was being sincere. But sincere is one thing this woman is not. The smile on her face is forced and the rest of her features strain against whatever injections she gets in an attempt to appear younger than she is.
Leaning against the desk, Brooke clears her throat and Judy finally lets me go. I give Brooke a nod in thanks but she’s avoiding my eyes. She moves to the window and leans on the windowsill. Putting as much distance between us as she can in this small space.
Dad takes one of the pink chairs across the desk, the one closer to the open window. Closer to Brooke.
Finally, her eyes meet mine. I gesture toward the other pink chair. “Brooke, would you like to—”
“I’m fine here,” she says, crossing her arms at her chest. I take a seat.
Judy is making some small talk with Dad and he’s giving her one-word answers.
Brooke watches them like it’s a Wimbledon match, deliberately avoiding my eyes again.
She’s in a short-sleeve white dress with thin vertical stripes in shades of blue.
This is the Brooke I remember, a classic Connecticut girl all put together in her preppy dresses.
Though, this dress has buttons down the center that start at a deeper V-neck than Brooke from five years ago would have worn.
She would have considered it too revealing, though it’s arguably still modest. I’m glad she’s wearing it now. It suits her.
A few moments of silence pass. “Caleb.” Dad knocks his knee against mine. Ah, not silence. Me caught staring at Brooke. This is off to a fantastic start.
“Thanks for joining us, son,” he laughs. “I thought you could share with Brooke and Judy how you’d like to approach the Quincy events.”
“Mr. Foley.” Brooke stands from the windowsill.
Interrupting Paul Foley on day one. This is going to be fun.
“Foley’s is the top caterer in the county, and I’ve only recently learned of the new experience Caleb brings to the table, which will be a tremendous asset, but Hannah Quincy has specifically requested me as the planner for the wedding and the additional weekend events.
” She picks up a folder from Judy’s desk.
The furious woman from moments ago is gone, replaced with a confident professional.
She flips through the papers in the folder.
“Lobster bake rehearsal dinner and welcome drinks on Friday evening, four-hundred-person wedding on Saturday, and the farewell brunch on Sunday. Three events in three days. You might be the experts for food service, but we’re the experts in planning.
The approach, if you will. I’m happy to sit down with you and Caleb to discuss the catering requirements, workflow, etcetera, after we’ve created our planning timeline for the next three months. ”
Holy shit, she’s good.
I don’t want to take my eyes off of her, but I can’t miss Dad’s reaction to this raking. He may not be in fighting shape these days, but he doesn’t take someone speaking to him like this lightly.
“You’re right, Brooke,” he says.
I’m sorry, what?
“My apologies. Though one correction: Caleb will be your main point of contact on our end. I won’t be working on this one. I’m not keen to work with your mother again, and I’m sure as shit she doesn’t want to work with me.”
Judy coughs in shock.
“You’ll be working exclusively with Caleb,” Dad says.
Brooke looks at her mother. Hannah may have explicitly asked for Brooke, forcing us to work together, but there’s no way Judy is going to stay out of this wedding—a wedding that’ll be the talk of the local industry and beyond. No fucking way.
“And Brooke will be leading on our end,” Judy says. “With my supervision, of course.”
Yes, of course.
Dad and I survive our first—and his last, supposedly—meeting with the Spencer women. They run a tight ship. For someone who only learned she booked this wedding an hour ago, Brooke knows what she’s doing. But so do I.
Dad gets into the passenger side of his car. I hate driving his car, but he insisted.
“Caleb Foley!” I hear Brooke call from the porch.
Oh, I’m in trouble.
“You knew about this,” she says, pointing at me as she skips down the steps and onto the sidewalk. “Last night at the party.”
“Is that a question?”
She tilts her head to the side, raising her brows at me. In her heels she comes up to my shoulder. Her hair is down today, loose waves falling around her shoulders.
“Yes, Brooke, I knew.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Didn’t seem like you wanted to chat with little old me, sweetheart.”
“Don’t call me sweetheart, you…” She searches for the right word. “You…jerk.”
“Whoa.” I bring my fist to my chest, feigning injury. “What a burn, Brooke. What a burn.”
“Shut up,” she says, her nose scrunching her face into a look of disgust. “I hate those cutesy nicknames, especially if you’re the one saying them.”
“I thought you wedding planners lived for all the cheesy lovey-dovey shit. Sweetheart, honeybuns, babe, baby.”
“Ew, Caleb. I hate babe. Baby is even worse,” she says, hands on her hips.
I bite my cheek to keep from smiling at her and her indignant pose.
“Not all of us wedding planners are the same, you know? I don’t know your problem with us, but you’re going to have to suck it up for the next three months. ”
“I can do that,” I say. It won’t be easy, but not for the reasons she thinks. And because I can’t help messing with her, I whisper, “babe.”
The exasperated look on her face makes me want to call her babe all summer long. “I’m sorry, I had to.”
“Are you going to be this much of a pain in my ass all summer?” She’s pretty adorable when she’s annoyed with me.
“Can we please just be civil for the sake of this wedding? I need everything to be absolutely perfect. Pulling this off could change everything for me. Not one single thing can go wrong.”
“Change everything?” I ask.
She shifts on her feet. “Forget I said that. Civil, okay?”
“Okay, okay.” I hold my hands up in defeat. “I’ll be civil from here on out.”
“Thank you.” She pulls her phone from a mystery pocket of her dress. “Does Thursday at two work for you to meet Hannah and Preston at the venue?” she asks, eyes glued to the calendar app on her phone.
“Yup.”
She looks up at me like I just told her who dies in the most recent season of The White Lotus. Absolutely shocked.
“You just know you’re available then?
I look at her screen. “Is that color-coded?” All the colors of the rainbow are represented across each day of the week. “Are you ever not working? When do you breathe? Do you ever have fun?”
“Obviously my calendar is color-coded! And, yes, I have fun. During the off-season.”
“Believe it or not, I don’t use a calendar.” I tap my forehead with my index finger. “It’s all up here.”
“Actually,” she says, rolling her eyes. “I very much believe that. Caleb, if you fuck up this wedding because you forget to show up for a meeting, so help me god!”
She has absolutely no trust in me, does she? It’s a good reminder that I made the right decision before I left for California.
“Brooke, this wedding means a lot to me, too. I have no plans to fuck anything up. In fact, the plan I have is to prove everything you’re thinking about me is wrong.”
“Fine,” she says. “I’ll see you on Thursday.”
“I’ll pick you up for the meeting,” I say, walking around to the driver’s side of Dad’s car. “Wouldn’t want you to forget and fuck everything up.”
I get into the car before she can protest.
“Enjoying yourself?” Dad asks as I start the engine and pull out into the street.
“Maybe a little.” I can see him smiling to himself from the corner of my eye. At a red light, I turn to him. “Are you going to tell me what exactly that was in there?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, son,” he says, shrugging and gazing out the window.
“You’re right, Brooke. My apologies,” I say in the deep voice I put on whenever I mimic him.
“Oh, that?”
“Yes…that!”
“It’s complicated. And a longer story than we have time for.”
We’re heading across town on Post Road back to the Market, hitting every single red light on the way thanks to midday traffic. We’ve got time. I wait for him to elaborate.
“The Quincys may have come to us first, but Brooke is the planner and she’s in charge. She was right about that, but your role is just as important. It’s been years since I worked with Judy, but if I remember anything, it’s best to keep the peace with a Spencer. So that’s what I did.”
There’s plenty he isn’t telling me, so this nugget of information will have to do for now.
Brooke never struck me as very similar to her mom.
They don’t look much alike. Judy’s skin isn’t as fair as her daughter’s and her hair is lighter, so blonde it’s almost white.
Brooke must have inherited most of her features from her dad, but he was out of the picture a long time ago, so I’ll never know.
They don’t act alike either, or they never used to.
Judy was cold and curt. Brooke was always warm and kind.
Even if she’s giving me shit now, and I can’t blame her for that, she isn’t mean.
I don’t think she has it in her. The only thing they seem to have in common is their careers.
Unless Judy has rubbed off on her more over the last few years.
“Do you think she’s become a lot like her mom?” I ask.
Dad’s quiet as we hit yet another red light.
“I don’t know,” he finally says. “She wasn’t when you both were younger, when Judy and I were dragging you two around as we worked.
Or when your mother watched the both of you.
I always noticed how sweet Brooke was and thought to myself, how could she possibly be Judy’s daughter?
But I haven’t seen her in years, Caleb. She has a good reputation, though.
I hear nothing but praise about her work.
I’m sure it’ll be smooth sailing as long as Judy doesn’t get too involved. ”
I bark a laugh. “I don’t think she’s going to stay very far from this wedding.”
“No, I don’t think she will.”
We drive the rest of the way to only the sound of the radio.
Brooke’s words linger in my mind. This could change everything.
What could she possibly need to change? She’s the most popular planner in town. Everyone loves her. I…I push the thought out of my head. I can’t go there. Brooke and I were friends once, we could be friends again. But nothing more.