“What are your thoughts on that?”
Teddi blinked, looked up at Kelly, who’d asked the question. “I’m sorry?”
Kelly pointed at the screen. “I really love these chairs.”
Focus, Teddi. A clear of her throat. A moment to return to business mode. “Well, they’re nice chairs. They also cost more to rent. We haven’t gone over your budget yet, but you’ll need to decide what’s important to you. What’s worth spending extra on, and what’s not. Where are you okay laying out a little more, and where does it make sense to cut some corners?”
A big sigh. “That’s what Leah keeps telling me.”
“Mm-hmm,” was all Leah said. Teddi could feel her eyes on her but didn’t meet them.
“But look how pretty they are.” Dreamy voiced, Kelly traced a finger over the twirly back of one of the chairs in the photo.
“Tell you what—let’s talk numbers first.” Teddi took the tablet and set it aside. “We’ll revisit the chairs. I promise. I have a warehouse where I keep all the larger supplies I’ve collected over the years, including several different kinds of chairs. We’ll come back to them, okay?”
“Fair enough.” Kelly gave one nod, then turned to her sister and waved a hand as if conceding the floor to her. “All you.”
They were surprisingly good at talking business, she and Leah. It was something she noticed right away. Leah was solid, had a budget that was generous but not ridiculously so, and spoke with a confident certainty. Teddi addressed any cons she saw, concerns they might run into—not many—and finally gave a nod.
“All right,” Teddi said, setting the tablet aside and waiting for Kelly to meet her eyes. She was acutely aware that Leah’s eyes were also on her, but she addressed the bride-to-be. “I am here to make your wedding planning run smoothly. To take any stress off you that I can. I can make any recommendations you ask for. I can even make calls for you. I have a large variety of vendors I’ve cultivated relationships with over the years. I know who will be able to fill your requests and who might not. And come the day of your wedding, I will be there running the show so that you don’t have to. Bottom line: I am here for you. Never hesitate to call me. No question is stupid. We can work as closely together or as loosely casual as you want. Okay?”
Happiness. Excitement. Relief. Lots of that last one. Teddi was used to the emotions that played out on the face of a bride-to-be when she essentially took much of their worry off their shoulders. All of them ran across Kelly’s face before she opened her mouth to speak.
“Closely,” she said with a grin that bordered on embarrassed. “I want to work closely because I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. Your Pinterest board is pretty thorough.” Reassurance was another thing brides-to-be often needed, and Teddi had become a pro at offering it. “I’d say you do have an idea what you’re doing. And I’m looking forward to helping you put it all together.”
“Good. And with my mom’s schedule being crazy and unpredictable, Leah’s going to be my right hand in all of this.” Kelly smiled at her sister, squeezed her hand. “So the three of us will be working together.”
There was something in the way Kelly said it, something in the way she looked from Leah to her and back again, something said but not spoken. Kelly was reiterating what she’d said in her text without actually saying it. Fine. Enough. Teddi would say it.
“Listen, I’m a professional.” She kept her tone calm, did her best to allow no snark or anger or bitterness to seep in. “The history I have with your sister is just that. History. Do I wish the circumstances were different? Of course.” Teddi could feel Leah’s eyes on her, wanted desperately and inexplicably to meet them, but forced herself to stay focused on Kelly. She didn’t think she could keep a grip on the calm if she looked at Leah. “But the bottom line is that I want you to have the exact wedding you want, to be the happiest bride you can be. I’m sure your sister wants the same thing.”
“Absolutely,” Leah said, though Teddi still didn’t look.
“So we’ll put our differences aside and focus on that. Okay?”
“That would be great,” Kelly replied. Teddi hadn’t realized that Kelly might actually be as worried as her sudden relief seemed to imply, but when her smile grew and her shoulders relaxed, it was clear. “That’s all I want. After all, I am the bride.”
The meeting wrapped up, Teddi sending Kelly home with a few assignments, things to think about or explore online, and they scheduled to meet again in mid-November. This time, Kelly forewent a handshake and threw her arms around Teddi instead. Not unusual. Brides-to-be often ended up as Teddi’s friends, at least for the duration of the planning. But Leah was standing right behind Kelly, so Teddi had nowhere else to look. Leah’s tiny smile was hesitant, and she looked away quickly as Kelly let go.
“Ready?” Kelly asked Leah as they donned their jackets. Leah nodded and didn’t glance Teddi’s way again.
Teddi found that unnervingly disappointing. Karma? For doing the same thing to Leah the whole meeting?
Once the door closed behind them and Teddi stood alone in the middle of the shop, Preston said, “You did great.” A slight relief. Teddi heard it and felt it. “I was glad you addressed things head-on.”
Teddi inhaled and let it out. “Yeah.”
“Don’t hate me for saying this, but man, that girl can pull off a pantsuit.”
Teddi turned to him, not even trying to hide her admiration. “God, right?”
* * *
Were bacon and eggs the ultimate in comfort food?
Leah often wondered that as Lizzie twined around her legs, purring, waiting for a handout. She pushed the down lever on the toaster and thought of other things that might qualify, as she flipped her eggs. Macaroni and cheese. Mashed potatoes…
Her phone interrupted her thoughts. Tilly. Leah answered, hit speaker. “Hey, Stretch.”
“You are so original with the nicknames. Because nobody ever calls the tall one Stretch.”
“Shut up. I’m tired.”
“What are you frying? I hear sizzling.”
“Eggs.”
“Tell me there’s bacon.”
“There’s bacon.”
“Is it that turkey crap?”
“It is that turkey crap.”
A disappointed groan from Tilly. A laugh from Leah.
“It’s late for you to be having dinner,” Tilly commented. Nine thirty-seven. She wasn’t wrong. “You work late?”
“Yeah, I went back to the office after meeting with Kelly and the wedding planner.”
“Oh, fun times. Did she yell at you? Sob uncontrollably? Tell you that you ruined her life? Tell you bad lawyer jokes?”
Leah thought back to the meeting at Hopeless Romantic, how it went smoothly and also made her kind of sad. “It was fine. I mean, she never made eye contact with me, but it was fine.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, but it’s…whatever. Kelly’s happy and that’s all I care about.” Mostly true.
“Why does it sound like you care about more?”