Chapter 6
HARPER
Harper was surprised when Theo actually showed up at the bar, and further surprised that he was relatively on time. She had brought a book along with her, anticipating that she would need to entertain herself and conceal the fact that she was waiting for someone who might or might not show up.
But she’d hardly been there five minutes when he joined her. He took a seat beside her at the bar and looked around. “This place isn’t half bad.”
“You sound surprised by that.”
“I’ve never been in here before. I thought it looked a little… not my kind of place from the outside. But it’s nicer than I expected.”
“Glad to hear it meets with your approval.” She picked up her drink. “Why don’t we move to a table?” One had just opened up in the corner. “We’ll have a little more peace over there, and we’ll be able to talk without yelling.”
She made her way toward the table without looking back to see whether she was being followed. One thing she was beginning to understand about Theo Davenport was that he would argue with anything and everything, and it was best to simply assume that he already agreed with her and act accordingly.
Sure enough, when she looked up, she saw that he’d followed her to the table she had chosen.
He sat down across from her and watched as she pulled out her wedding book and set it on the table between them.
She pulled out a checklist of everything that needed to get done and handed it to him, and she was about to give him a pen when he pulled out one of his own.
Harper was impressed in spite of herself. It was the first time he had ever given her the impression that he was prepared, when it came to wedding events.
A server came by and took Theo’s drink order. “Would you like another?” he asked Harper, gesturing to her glass.
She nodded.
“Better make mine a double, then, so I can get caught up here,” Theo said, settling into his chair.
The server walked off. Theo perused the list he had been handed. “So, this is everything you want to talk about?”
“There are a couple of things on there that will solve themselves,” Harper said.
He was being more agreeable with her than he had at any point so far, and she found herself wanting to make it easy for him and not push him away.
“The dresses, for instance — you don’t need to be involved in that.
I’ll work out the important details with Tara and the other bridesmaids.
But you probably will need to get in touch with the groomsmen at some point.
It will be your responsibility to make sure everyone gets their tuxes in plenty of time.
And you’ll want a mailing list so you can put the bachelor party together — I mean, if that’s something you’re planning on doing. ”
He looked up at her. “You’re not going to tell me I have to do a bachelor party?”
“Well, I would do one if it were me,” she said. “But that’s really between the two of you.” Then she saw the twinkle in his eye. “Oh, you’re making fun of me.”
“Maybe a little. You have to admit, you do like to be in control.”
“I just like to make sure everything is going smoothly,” she said.
“I know that’s part of why Tara made me maid of honor — she knows she can count on me.
She doesn’t have to worry that I’ll skip doing a bachelorette party.
But what you do for the groomsmen is your business.
I’ve marked the things I think you and I should collaborate on, and they’re in priority order. ” She pointed to the sheet.
Theo looked down at it. “Invitations?”
“They need to get out as quickly as possible, of course,” Harper said.
“I’ve got the ‘save the dates’ ready. I went ahead and did that myself, because there was no time to waste.
” She reached into her purse and pulled out the sample she’d been carrying around with her.
She was proud of how it had come out — a simple postcard with a montage of pictures from Tara and Max’s relationship. She handed it to Theo.
He looked it over. “That’s pretty good,” he admitted. “I know Max really likes that picture of the two of them at the beach.”
“You see? This is the kind of thing I need you for!” Harper exclaimed. “I knew Tara liked that picture, but I would never have guessed it was one of Max’s favorites, and it’s just good luck I included it. Don’t you see how important you are to this whole enterprise?”
“I don’t think Max cares what the ‘save the date’ card looks like, though — that’s my point,” he said, accepting the drink the server brought to him and taking a sip. “No guy really cares about these things.”
“He might not think he cares, but if there’s even the slightest part of him that will be glad to see this picture when he looks at this card in the wedding album in twenty years, it’s worth having it there,” Harper said staunchly.
“And that’s why I want your help. I want to include the little details, the little touches, that will make the wedding feel like it belongs to both of them.
Now, let’s talk about invitations. That’s what needs to be done next.
I’ve already sent these cards out, but we need to do the formal invites. ”
“I have a company that can do that for us, if you need one,” Theo said. “They did the invites for the last charity gala we hosted at the ball club. They turned out really well, in my opinion.”
“Well, I don’t think we need to hire someone for this,” Harper said.
“We should work together to make something, I think. That would go better with the ‘save the dates’. It would have the same personal touch. I thought maybe we could use the engagement photo they had done in the woods — you know, the one that was on social media.”
“Yeah, that’s a nice picture, but it would be just as easy to send that along to a printing company,” Theo said. “We don’t have to do it ourselves.”
“I’m not talking about a crazy amount of work here,” Harper said. “We could take a few afternoons this week… or evenings are probably better for you, I guess. You could do the cutting and gluing. I’m guessing I’m probably better at calligraphy than you are.”
“Calligraphy?”
“Well, we have to address the envelopes!”
He stared at her in obvious consternation. “You know what year it is, right? We don’t have to make wedding invitations by hand. I know you’re trying to make it magical for Tara, but she isn’t even going to get a wedding invitation.”
“Of course she is! You don’t think I’m going to give one to her?” Why did they have to fight over every little thing? He was so stubborn, and Harper had no idea what to do about it.
Theo sighed. “The thing is,” he said, “I can’t do this, Harper. Whether I think it’s a good idea or not, I can tell how much time a project like this would take, and I just don’t have that kind of time to put into it.”
“Only because your priorities are out of order.”
“Well, be that as it may, I’m not going to be able to give invitation-making the time it would take to come up with the sort of product I think you’re hoping for.
So, I think the only real option is to have them done professionally.
I mean, if you’d like to do them on your own, I’m happy to help finance the supplies. ”
“I didn’t come to you for money,” Harper said.
“I know you’ve got plenty of it, owning your own baseball team.
I know you could probably pay for this whole wedding without breaking a sweat.
Believe it or not, I’m not trying to make the invitations because I want to save money.
I actually think the personal touch would be really special. ”
“You’re more than welcome to go ahead, if that’s your vision. I’m not going to be offended or anything.”
“Yeah, well, there’s no way I could make three hundred invites by myself and have them sent out in time,” she said. “I was counting on your help. If you’re really not going to do it, then I guess they’re going to have to be stock invites from a retailer.”
“Look… your ‘save the dates’ are really nice,” he said, his gaze softening. Was it possible he actually felt bad? “People are really going to like them, I’m sure. And I know Max will. It won’t be so bad to have professional invitations. You got the personal touch in there too.”
He was just trying to make her feel better, and she knew it, but the odd thing was that it had worked.
She did feel better. He had a good point, even though it annoyed her and she didn’t want to admit it to him.
“Well, we’re going to have to have this conversation again when it comes to discussing wedding favors,” she told him, trying to inject a stern note into her tone.
“I’m not giving the guests some goofy store-bought trinket.
The favors are going to be something nice.
Something from the heart, something that really feels connected to Tara and Max, so that when people look at them, they’ll always think about the happy couple. ”
“Nobody keeps wedding favors,” Theo said dismissively.
“I have kept the favors from every wedding I’ve ever been to!
” she shot back. “Plenty of people keep them. And I have lots of ideas about what we could hand out. But we don’t have to worry about that yet.
All I really want to nail down today is the invitations.
” She sighed. If he really wasn’t going to help make them, they were going to have to go store-bought. “Can you take on that responsibility?”
“You want me to be in charge of the invitations?” His eyes widened slightly.
“You said you had a vendor.”
“I do. But… you’re going to trust me with something like that?”
“Here are the colors.” She pulled out the green and cream color swatches.
She’d picked up paint samples at the local hardware store to approximate what she wanted to use.
“I have a lot of these, so you can keep those ones,” she told him.
“Show them to your vendor and let them know these are the colors we want to incorporate into the invitations. Have them work up, I don’t know, three different samples?
And then you and I can go over them and decide together.
But this has to be rushed. I’d like to send them out by early next week. ”
“You don’t waste any time,” he observed, sitting back in his chair.
She had never seen him like this — relaxed, his face an expression of good humor.
And for the first time, Harper found she was genuinely enjoying Theo’s company.
In spite of the fact that he was still putting up a fight, still making things difficult, she was glad that they had met here today.
And she was glad that they were going to be working on planning the wedding together.
He was challenging, and she knew he would push back at her every step of the way.
But there was something exciting about that challenge.
He wins this round. We’ll do the invitations the way he wants to do them.
But I’m not giving in, and it’s not going to be anywhere near this easy for him to get what he wants the next time we have to come to an agreement about something.
Next time, I have every intention of getting my way — and Theo Davenport will just have to deal with that!