Chapter 4
HARPER
“So, this is your private box?” Harper asked.
“This is it,” Theo said. “If you need anything to eat or drink, just press that buzzer on your left and a member of the waitstaff will come to take your order.”
“I wouldn’t want to be an inconvenience.”
“You’re not,” he said. “They’re doing their jobs. Order something if you want to.”
She nodded. “Maybe in a little bit. It’s only the first inning, after all. I hope the Stallions win!”
“They won’t,” Theo said dismissively.
“They won’t? Are they up against a strong rival or something?”
“Not particularly strong, but the Stallions aren’t any good. I’m thinking of firing the manager and bringing in someone new. I haven’t done it yet because the current manager has been with the team for years, and I think some of the players might leave with him.”
“If the players really like the manager, he might not be the problem,” Harper said. “Maybe it’s something else?”
“I don’t know. Maybe this team is just a loser. But either way, my job is to make us profitable, and the only way I can reliably do that is by trying to get us some wins,” he said. “I need to see what I can do to make sure the team turns their season around. That’s why I come to these games.”
“Not because you love baseball?”
“I’m not crazy about baseball.”
“Then why do you own a baseball team?” she asked him. “You must have made the decision to do this. Why bother, if you’re not passionate about the sport?”
“It’s a good investment,” he said.
“That’s it? You’re only in it for the money?”
He cracked a smile. “No,” he admitted. “That’s not the only reason, although it’s what I bring up to Max when I want to get under his skin.
I like sports generally, and I like Houston, so to own a sports team here was ideal for me.
I had a few investments pay off well for me in my twenties, and then the opportunity came up to purchase this team.
I don’t know if you’d remember, but as weak as they are now, they were a lot worse then. ”
“I wouldn’t remember that,” she said. “I’ve never really followed baseball, so I’m not familiar with the team’s history.”
“Well, that’s how I was able to afford it. And it’s been profitable for me, of course, but I have shareholders I need to think about, and… none of this is what you asked, though.”
“That’s all right,” she said. “I can see now why you decided to do it. You were looking for a good investment that would also be fun for you. Even if you can’t admit it to yourself, I bet it’s really satisfying to do something your inner child would have liked.”
He looked away. “Don’t think you know me so well.”
“Okay, jeez, sorry.” Harper had somehow forgotten he was this standoffish. Well, they didn’t need to talk about anything personal. That was fine with her. “Are you ready to go over the vendor list? Did you bring yours?”
“I don’t need to add mine,” he told her. “The list you put together is more than fine, and we can just work from that one.”
“You really don’t have any favorite vendors you want to use? Even just to throw them our business?”
“You want to be a wedding planner professionally, right?” he asked her.
“Well, I already am. But I want to go into it full-time instead of general events planning.” She would lose her mind if she had to plan one more corporate team-building retreat. Weddings were just so much more fun.
“I’ll let you take the lead on this, then,” Theo said. “That ought to please you, right?”
“Well— I suppose.” She was a little taken aback. “I thought we were going to be working on it together, though.”
“I’m not saying I won’t help out. I’m just saying whatever you want to put together is fine with me. I’m not going to push back on anything.”
“Well, all right,” she said hesitantly. “Just make sure you let me know if you think Max would or wouldn’t like any of the ideas I’m coming up with.
I know weddings are conventionally all about the bride, but Max is such a great guy.
I want to make sure he has a good time too, and that everything is the way he’d want it to be. ”
“I will.”
Harper looked down at the list. “Where do you think we should start?”
“Hmm?” He wasn’t paying attention. He was scrolling on his phone.
She simmered. “Can you put that away?” she asked. “It’s nice that you let me come to the game, but the main reason I’m here is to discuss wedding planning, and I feel like you aren’t very dialed in.”
“I’m just getting some important texts,” he said, typing.
“They can’t wait?”
“This is about a promotion offer one of our players is getting. He’s going to sponsor an energy drink — well, if he accepts. There might be a question of competing sponsorships. I should have someone look into that…”
She cleared her throat. “Does that need to happen right now?”
He looked up at her. “The wedding isn’t tomorrow.”
“If the wedding were tomorrow, we would be screwed. These things need to be planned months in advance most of the time, and they’ve only given us six weeks.
I’m happy for them, getting married so quickly — I know it’s what they both want — but it’s going to make it insanely difficult to plan this wedding.
I want to start calling vendors tonight.
I don’t think we can afford to wait on this. ”
“That’s fine. Whatever you think is best. Why don’t you just do it alphabetically?” Theo suggested.
She stared at him. “Alphabetically?”
“Yeah, you know, start from the top of the list and work your way down until you find someone who can work with the date in question.”
“I understand what alphabetically means. That’s really how you would want to choose the vendors for your own brother’s wedding day?”
“I thought you wanted to get this done as quickly as possible,” Theo said. “That would get it done quickly. You could have all the decisions finalized in the next twenty-four hours or so. I think it’s the most practical approach.”
“But this is their wedding,” Harper said. “And they’re trusting us to plan it. I thought you said you were going to defer to me on these things.”
“I did. And I am. But why isn’t this a good idea, in your eyes? It seems like what you’re most stressed out about is the possibility that we might not get things done in time, and this removes that problem, doesn’t it? I’m just trying to help you out here.”
“If you want to help me out, you could call some of these vendors. Or better yet, we could make appointments to go and visit them together, so that we could see what they have to offer. Don’t you think that would be the best idea?
I mean, don’t you think that’s what Max had in mind when he asked for your help planning this wedding?
Don’t you think he thought we would actually make the best choices for him and Tara, instead of just going down a list and seeing who was free that day? ”
Theo was unyielding. “I don’t know how figuring out who’s free on a given day isn’t making the best choice,” he said.
“And my brother knows I don’t have time to be chasing all over Houston looking at cake decorations.
He knows how seriously I take my work. He would never have asked me to get involved on that level. ”
Harper couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
She had understood from the moment she’d met him that Theo wasn’t going to be the fun-loving guy she had fantasized about sharing this wedding-planning experience with.
She’d made her peace with that fact, she thought.
But this was something else altogether. His brother was getting married.
How could he be so cold about the whole thing? He seemed as if he hardly cared at all.
“Are you really only worried about what’s practical?” she asked him. “Is that all that matters to you? Knowing that this is going to be the most important day of their lives?”
“That’ll be true no matter who brings the flowers,” he said. “You’re acting like I’m suggesting we have the wedding in someone’s basement, for God’s sake. I’m just saying we don’t need to visit every vendor in Houston. One is pretty much as good as another for this.”
“And I’m saying we do need to,” Harper said, though she didn’t quite mean it literally. They didn’t need to visit every vendor. But she had never asked for that! She had come to him with a very reasonable, very researched list. “You don’t want to get the very best for them?”
“One vendor is going to be as good as another,” he said.
“I bet you wouldn’t be saying that if this was for some work function. I bet then you would actually give a damn.”
She couldn’t quite believe she had said that aloud — and apparently, neither could he. He stared at her for a long moment. “It doesn’t sound,” he said, “as if you actually want my help on this at all.”
“Well, I want you to want to help.” She was perfectly aware of how ridiculous that sounded.
“You know what? If this is how you feel about it, maybe I should just do the whole thing on my own. Maybe it doesn’t matter what you think.
I wanted to work with you for Max’s sake, but if you’re going to be this disengaged then it’s probably better for Max if I just leave you out of it entirely. ”
And finally, a hint of some sort of emotion crossed his face.
It wasn’t quite anger. In fact, Harper wasn’t sure she knew what it was. But there was a twist of discomfort in his expression, and he looked away from her.
“Fine,” he said. “I think you should. I think this wedding will be better if you handle everything, since you’re a wedding planner.”
“So, now you’re not even going to help at all?”
He stared at her. “You’re the one who just said I shouldn’t help.”
“Don’t flip this around on me. Maybe I did say it, but we both know why I said it.
What you’re doing isn’t helping. You’re just…
you’re trying to get it over with — that’s what you’re doing, and it isn’t right.
Don’t you see that we’re lucky to have been entrusted with planning the biggest day of their lives?
And you treat it like it’s just a burden.
” She shook her head. “The thing is, I was really looking forward to meeting you. To working on this with you. And now I feel like you want nothing to do with it. So yeah, stay here and focus on your job, since that’s what you care about.
I’ll plan your brother’s wedding for you. ”
She got to her feet and began to gather her things, and even now, she expected that he was going to stop her. That he would see he’d gone too far with all this and say something. Call her back. Tell her that he would help her after all. Surely, he couldn’t just mean to let her walk out?
But he said nothing, and after a moment of waiting, Harper turned and let herself out of his box.
Forget him, then!