Chapter 11
THEO
By the time they were an hour outside of Houston, Theo’s good mood had evaporated. “If you’re going to tell me your idea is that they should get married in a cornfield…” he began.
“Of course not,” Harper said. “Although there would be something charming about that, wouldn’t there?”
“There absolutely would not.” Sometimes he couldn’t tell when she was kidding and when she was serious. After a moment, she smiled, which gave him the answer to his question, but he was still irritated. “How much farther is this place?”
“Not much.”
“Do you really think wedding guests will be willing to drive all the way out here into the middle of nowhere?”
“There’s a hotel by the venue,” she said. “I’ve used this place before. I’ve always really liked it.”
“Why would we ask people to pay for hotel rooms when most of the guests live in the Houston area?”
“We can reserve a block of them. The venue offers a package like that.”
“You’re saying we should pay for the hotel rooms?”
“Money was no object, I thought,” she said.
He ground his teeth. It wasn’t, of course. If Max had told Theo he wanted this place, Theo would have shelled out for it without question. But that wasn’t what this was. Was he really expected to pay an exorbitant rate for a wedding venue because Harper liked it?
It’s not as if the Crystal Ballroom is cheap, the nagging thought occurred to him. We aren’t looking at any budget options here.
All right, so he couldn’t reasonably be upset about the cost. But even so, there was something he didn’t like about the fact that she was making him drive all the way out into the countryside.
It would be easier and more convenient to have the wedding downtown, and there was no reason to make everyone come all the way out here and stay in a hotel.
She was just trying to make things more elaborate than they needed to be again.
And here I was, trying to prove that I really do care about my brother and want the best for him. She’s just trying to one-up me. That’s what she always does.
“Take this road,” Harper said, pointing. “The venue is at the end of it — it’s just about a quarter of a mile from here.”
“This really is in the middle of nowhere. Nobody will even be able to find it.”
She was bouncing in her seat slightly, like a kid who was excited about being taken to a party. “You’re going to like it, Theo,” she pledged. “I promise. And people will be able to find it. We’ll draw little maps for them and send them out. It will be adorable.”
“Oh, when are we going to find the time to draw maps of country roads?”
She didn’t get the chance to answer. The car’s engine made a guttering noise that filled Theo with dread. A moment later, the engine died, and they were left in silence but for the cheerful noises of the countryside.
It felt to Theo like they were now in a competition to see who could go the longest without speaking.
Though he knew it wasn’t remotely Harper’s fault the car had broken down, he couldn’t help feeling angry with her, and he thought she ought to offer an apology.
If she did, he would tell her that he knew it wasn’t her fault — he wasn’t going to be a jerk about it — but surely she was going to say something?
She didn’t, though. She glanced briefly at him, then stared out through the windshield in total silence.
“What?” he asked her after a moment.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Well, we’re in a mess now. Unless you have a phone number for a taxi company?”
“No,” she said. “Do you think you could call someone to come out here and pick us up?”
“I could call Max.”
“You absolutely cannot call Max.”
“Why not?”
“Because he has children. Because he and Tara asked us to handle this so that they wouldn’t have to. Pick any reason you want. The point is, we can’t bother them.”
“So, you think we’re just supposed to sit out here until someone happens along this way?”
“Hey, don’t shout at me,” she snapped, even though he hadn’t been shouting. “It’s your car that broke down. I’m just trying to get us to the venue.”
“Great. So, what do you propose to do now?”
“Well, we’re just going to have to walk. It isn’t far from here. And then we can have them call a tow truck for us. It won’t be a big deal.”
Theo had to admit that it was a better plan than any he had.
He got out of the car without waiting for her and gathered up his most important things — the keys, his wallet, his phone — and walked out onto the road, waiting for Harper to join him.
She did so a moment later, though she didn’t look in his direction but started to make her way along the road they’d been driving down, clearly heading for the venue that she had indicated they would find at the end of it.
He watched her go for just a moment, then hurried after her.
“Do you really think someone will be able to call for us?” he asked. “Because my phone is about to die.”
She still didn’t look at him. “I thought you had it plugged in when we were in the car,” she said. “I noticed you were on the charger the whole time, so I couldn’t get a charge.” She held up her own phone, and he saw that the screen was black.
“You could have told me that your phone was dying.”
“I didn’t think you would let me use the charger if I did tell you.”
“And you decided that making a point by letting your phone die was more important than just finding out?”
“You didn’t offer your charger,” she said, “so I assumed you needed it. Don’t make out like it’s my fault now because I didn’t insist. Anyway, wasn’t yours plugged in?”
“I guess it wasn’t drawing a charge because of the car battery not working,” he said. As he spoke the words, the screen faded to black. He tapped it, trying to bring it back to life, but it was hopeless. “Damn it. I should have called Max! Why did I let you talk me out of that?”
“You can’t blame me for everything, Theo. I didn’t know your phone was dying.” She sighed. “Let’s just get up to the venue. They’ll be able to help us make a call, and we can get a tow truck and get out of here.”
“You must be joking.”
Theo peered in the window of the quaint little event space. All the lights were off. There was nobody inside.
“Closed on Saturdays,” he said, not bothering to look back over his shoulder at Harper. “Unless someone makes an appointment. I’m willing to bet that’s what’s going on here. There’s nobody here because the place isn’t open today.”
Uncharacteristically, Harper was quiet.
“Which means we drove out here for nothing, since we can’t get a tour of their place,” he said. “And we aren’t going to be able to use their phone either.”
Silence.
He looked back at her. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”
“What do you want me to say?” She shook her head. “I didn’t know. You want me to say this is all my fault and to prostrate myself at your feet, apologizing for it.”
He stared at her. “This is your fault,” he said. “The car breaking down isn’t, I’ll give you that, but if you had called in advance, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“You’re not wrong,” she said, “but it’s also pretty rich of you to lecture me about transparency and planning when your whole day was based on lying to that poor woman.”
“Stop it. I didn’t lie to anyone.” He backed away from the window.
“You let her think that we were planning a celebrity wedding!”
“If she jumped to conclusions, that’s her own business,” he said.
“And besides, we’re going to need to fudge the truth a little if we’re going to get anyone to seriously consider letting us book their space.
For a woman who’s always talking about how much there is to do for this wedding, you don’t seem to realize how little time we have to prepare.
We need to get a venue booked yesterday if we’re going to have a place to throw this wedding. ”
“I know that!” Harper snapped. “What makes you think I don’t know that?”
“You didn’t even call to arrange a tour!” He raked a hand through his hair. “And now I have no idea how we’re going to get out of here.”
“We’ll have to go over to the hotel.” She pointed to a small building several yards away, and headed towards it.
Theo squinted. “That looks more like a bed-and-breakfast than a hotel,” he said, reluctantly following after her.
“You’re splitting hairs, as usual.”
“Aren’t you the one who said we could have the wedding guests stay here?” Theo asked. “You can’t possibly think there’s room enough for all of them in this place.”
Harper sighed. “You know what, Theo?” she said. “You are impossible to deal with, and I’ve really tried.”
“Excuse me?”
“Nothing is ever good enough for you. Nothing ever makes you happy. Either you don’t want to engage at all, or, if you do, everything has to happen exactly to your standards.
And I get it. You’re used to running that ball club, so I’m sure everyone else in your life does exactly what you want them to without having to be told twice. ”
“Oh, don’t even start. This isn’t a situation where things didn’t happen exactly to my liking,” he snapped. “I’m not being insanely particular to want to be able to actually look at the place we came out here to see.”
“It was a mistake, Theo. Anybody could make a mistake. You’re the guy who obviously hasn’t gotten your car serviced regularly enough.”
“Hey. This car is new. Whatever’s wrong is a manufacturer problem. It isn’t my fault.”
“Great. Bully for you. I hope it’s still under warranty.” She strode ahead and jogged up the steps to the house she’d pointed out as being a place for guests to stay.
Now that they were closer, Theo could see it was bigger than he’d realized.
It stretched out farther behind the front porch than he had thought — it was more of a lodge than a house, and there probably would be room for all the wedding guests.
This hadn’t been as shoddily planned as he had originally thought.
He was about to say something to that effect, and to apologize for being so critical of her, but he waited as she rang the doorbell.
They could talk more at length when they got inside, he decided.
But the seconds dragged by, and there was no answer.
Frowning, Harper turned the knob and pushed her way inside.
The place was dark and quiet.
“You’re kidding me,” Theo murmured.
There was no one here. The lodge was every bit as empty as the main venue had been.
The two of them walked into the dark room, Harper turning in a slow circle and taking in her surroundings as she went.
Finally, she turned to face Theo, and for the first time, he saw a hint of remorse on her face.
“Okay,” she conceded, “we might have a problem.”