Chapter 7 #2
“Nope. See, I might want to do my fair share of all this party planning, but unlike you, I don’t want to do all of it by myself.
If you burn out, I lose my wedding wing-woman, and this party ends up at the Burrito Hut.
There’s bad tequila everywhere. Shae bets Faurier she can drink him under the table.
He loses, then ends up all over the Internet doing the Macarena in a Speedo.
It’s total chaos. I figured it was probably just easier to let you give your stress an outlet. You know, for the greater good.”
The laughter that bubbled out of her had been his exact endgame. “How very noble of you.”
“It’s a small price to pay. From now on, just consider me your sounding board.”
Chloe arched a brow but didn’t lose her smile. “Hmm. Something tells me that after this meeting, you might be wishing for the Burrito Hut.”
Tyler stood, walking beside her as they made their way back to the Blue Barn’s front entrance. Christ, he’d missed her. “Clearly, you’ve never been to the establishment in question.”
Just like that, her laughter became a smirk. “And clearly, you don’t know what you just got yourself into.”
“It’s a bachelor and bachelorette party, not a fiery death pit,” he said. Yeah, he avoided weddings, but come on. This wasn’t a wedding. It was pregaming at a local brewery. How bad could the planning be?
Chloe led the way into the Blue Barn’s lobby, which was empty at this time of day. Tyler’s gut panged at the two love seats in alcoves by the hosts’ stand, complete with floral backdrops and neon signs reading “Better Together” and “Happily Ever After”, clearly set up for an upcoming wedding.
“Told youuuuuu,” Chloe murmured under her breath, and fuck, was that a champagne tower?
Breathe. Stay calm. Assess the situation.
He could do this. “Burrito Hut,” he said from the side of his mouth as they moved farther into the lobby.
The space itself looked pretty cool, with light, wide-plank farmhouse floors and worn-leather booths that managed to look both roomy enough to relax in and cozy at the same time, and Tyler relaxed a little.
Right up until the woman behind the hosts’ stand caught sight of them and let out a smile-sigh that could only be classified as dreamy. “Ryan and Addison, right? Oh, my God, I could tell you were the bride and groom the minute you walked through the door. You are just the cutest couple!”
Chloe tripped to a halt as Tyler’s heart crashed into his sternum, battering ram style. There was no way the unexpected whammy wasn’t doing things to his face—his calm only went so far, especially when it came to Chloe.
But hers, it seemed, was in equally limited supply.
“Oh, no. No, no.” She shook her head hard enough to send her copper curls flying. “We’re the maid of honor and best man. We’re not…definitely not…no.”
The woman’s mortification was instant. “I am so sorry,” she stammered, eyes wide. “You looked so…I just assumed…”
“Nope! Not us.” Chloe chirped with another head shake, and somewhere, deep down beneath the slam of his pulse, another weirder feeling flickered.
Time to salvage the wreckage. “I’m Tyler, and this is Chloe. Not a couple,” he confirmed. “It’s nice to meet you…”
“Marina,” the woman said, pouncing on the opportunity to change the subject. She looked at Chloe. “Chloe! You and I have traded a lot of emails. It’s great to finally meet you face to face. Will it just be the three of us today?”
“Mmm-hmm,” Chloe said, seeming grateful for the shift in focus, and Marina nodded, taking a tablet from the hosts’ stand.
“Sounds perfect. We’ll just do a walk-through of the party space to review the details and make sure everything here at the venue looks the way you expect it to. I’d be happy to answer any questions you’ve got along the way, of course. If you’ll both follow me?”
“Sure.” Tyler stepped back, letting Marina lead the way and Chloe follow first, before falling in slightly behind her.
“Thanks for confirming that ‘Not if You Were the Last Guy on Earth’ thing for me,” he said, softly enough to keep the conversation between them only. “My ego’s officially a dry, dead husk.”
Chloe scoffed over her shoulder, having clearly bounced back like a champ. “Right. Because you’re so ready to binge watch Say Yes to the Dress all weekend. Please.”
He was saved, thankfully, by having to respond when Marina gestured toward the back of the restaurant’s dining room.
“Since your party is on a Saturday night, we’ll be operating during our regular business hours out here in the main restaurant.
There’s a separate entrance to the event space to ensure privacy for your group, though, and we’ll have signage at the hosts’ stand to direct your guests to the right place. ”
They headed past the tables and booths, and Tyler couldn’t help but admire the views of the wooded grounds through the expanse of windows along one wall.
Tall, arched ceilings gave the space—which looked to have been built on the bones of an actual reclaimed barn—an airy feel, wrought iron and crystal chandeliers casting a golden glow over the dining room.
But he nearly stumbled in shock when they made it past the hallway leading to the back of the restaurant, taking in the space reserved for the party with a series of blinks.
“And this is where your event will be held,” Marina said with a smile. “Chloe, it should look familiar to you, I hope.”
Chloe nodded, her blue eyes lighting up as they traveled the space from end to end. “Oh, my God. It’s even better than the photos.”
“I had a feeling we could accommodate your play on a backyard barbecue theme,” Marina said, and Tyler’s thoughts clicked.
“Like the one your family has every summer?” The Dempseys went all-in every year at the end of June. Between the food, the outdoor games, and the fun, casual vibe, their family gatherings were practically legend.
“Exactly like that,” Chloe said excitedly. “Addison said she and Ryan wanted something laid back that included everyone, so I thought making it like the annual cookout would be fun.”
Screw fun—this was perfect. The room was one large square, framed by floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors on three sides that offered the opportunity for an indoor/outdoor party, as long as the weather behaved.
A huge, two-sided stone fireplace stood in the center, loaded with candles and ringed by clusters of comfortable-looking seating.
As Marina and Chloe started talking about a menu full of sliders and deviled eggs and house-made potato salad, where the portable bar would be placed to serve up craft beer and wine flights, and the selection of outdoor games like cornhole and horseshoes that would be set up on the back lawn, Tyler began to realize exactly how imbalanced their task lists had been.
By the time they got to the s’mores in the fire pits, the multi-colored paper lanterns that would light up a deck full of Adirondack chairs, and the donut dessert bar Addison would surely be obsessed with, he was downright WTF.
Chloe must have spent every non-working hour on this party since the nanosecond Addison had asked her to be maid of honor.
Marina handed over a folder with hard copies of the contract—which Chloe appeared to be familiar with, because of course she was—and smiled. “I’ll let the two of you explore the space a bit, but if you have any questions at all, I’ll be back at the hosts’ stand.”
“Thank you so much,” Chloe said, turning toward Tyler as soon as she’d disappeared down the hallway. “So, what do you think?”
“I think the Burrito Hut has some major competition,” Tyler said, shaking his head. “Seriously, Chloe. This is amazing. You did a ton of work.”
Her cheeks flushed. “Well, Addison and Ryan had a lot of input since it’s their party, and this place speaks for itself. Plus, Marina made it easy. I really just organized some logistics.”
Tyler’s intuition twanged, and he narrowed his eyes at her. “You did a hell of a lot more than that.”
“Ah, it was no big deal. Really.”
She moved toward the sliding glass doors, suddenly seeming fascinated by the perfectly patinaed deck boards lining the perimeter of the room, and Tyler had no awareness of his legs cutting the space between them to mere inches.
“Yes, it was. It is.” He was close enough to smell the vanilla-sweet scent of her perfume, to know it was probably closer than he should be, but he didn’t give a single shit. “You clearly put a lot of energy into these plans. Why don’t you want the credit?”
“It’s not that I don’t want the credit,” she said. She didn’t elaborate, but neither did she move away, and Tyler wasn’t about to let her off the hook.
“Then what is it?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Who better to uncomplicate it for than your wedding wingman? Plus, I’ve got time,” he said.
For a second, Tyler thought she was going to stiff-arm him like she had for the past two months, and maybe he’d have deserved it.
But then Chloe exhaled softy and said, “My family just…babies me a lot, I guess. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for their support,” she added. “I wouldn’t have healed from Myles stalking and threatening me without it. But when things get even the tiniest bit stressful—”
“Like with this case,” Tyler said, understanding beginning to dawn, and she nodded.
“Like with this case, they all want to bubble wrap me, like I can’t handle anything.
Okay, so organizing this party was a lot of work.
” She paused to send a gaze around the room.
“But I needed the distraction, and I’m perfectly capable of doing it.
I wish they’d just trust me to handle things my own way rather than treating me like I’m made of glass. ”
Tyler processed this, piece by piece, then finally said, “I get that.”
“You do?”
“Sure,” he said, because it made perfect sense. “After a really big fire call, I work out. Ryan sleeps. Faurier finds Lucy to talk it out, and Hawk cooks. We all manage our adrenaline differently. You just like to keep busy by doing things like party planning. But you don’t have to do it alone.”
A second passed, then another. Then, she pressed a smile between her lips. “Right. You’re my wedding wingman.”
“I am,” Tyler agreed, and despite how much the thought of weddings gave him the shakes, he wanted to be a man of his word.
“Look, Chloe, I know you’re perfectly capable of thousands of things, including planning this party.
I don’t want to do the work because I think you can’t.
I just want to be on your team while we do the work together. What do you say? Deal?”
“You drive a hard bargain, wingman. But fine. Deal.”
She held out her hand, and the instant Tyler took it—like a dumbass—to shake, he realized that now, not only were they standing too close to each other, but they were touching.
Chloe’s fingers pressed tightly over his, sending an electric spark all the way down to his toes.
Her lips parted, the exact way they had two months ago in the second before he’d put his control in a shredder and kissed her, and his only thought was that despite knowing how spectacularly stupid it made him, he was going to do it again.
Tyler’s eyes locked onto hers, their faces close enough now that he could see her pupils dilate before her lashes fanned down and her chin tilted up…
And someone began playing the xylophone directly in his ear.
“Oh!” Chloe’s eyes flew open, and Jesus Christ, was he clinically insane? “Shit, I’m so sorry.” She fumbled through her purse for her phone. “It’s Sprinkles. The ringtone, I mean. I gave it to Addison because, you know, she loves…okay, I’m just going to…yeah—”
She put the phone to her ear while he forced his feelings back behind their gates. How could he have been so careless?
“Hi, Addison! I’m at the Blue Barn, and everything looks…wait, what?”
Chloe froze, and a ripple of unease chased the thought of their almost-kiss to the back of Tyler’s brain. “Are you sure? Oh, my God. You’re absolutely sure?”
A tense minute passed where he listened to the slam of his pulse and Chloe listened to whatever Addison was saying, but she wasn’t upset, so Esme must be safe and sound. “Okay. Yes. Do you know when?”
Another minute of back and forth where Chloe did nearly all of the listening, then, “Right. Please call me as soon as you know.” Pause. “I’ll do my best, but no promises. Okay, bye.”
She ended the call, and the look on her face made Tyler chuck all decorum out the window. “What’s going on?”
“The forensics from the crime scene just came in,” Chloe said, her voice vibrating with emotion. “There was blood on the body that didn’t belong to the victim, and the DNA is a perfect match to the man Esme identified as the murderer.”