Page 57 of The Business of Love Box Set 1: Books 1 - 4

RICK

V erity swept her sleek black ponytail over her shoulder before she leaned forward from where she was perched on the edge of the hotel bed.

She reached for the straps of her heels—six-inch sky-high unstable beasts—but struggled with the buckle due to her long, glamorous, champagne-colored wedding nails.

She pouted her bottom lip and looked up at me. “Can you help me, baby?”

“Of course.” I pushed myself off the bathroom doorframe I’d been leaned up against and crouched down in front of her. I lifted her foot to rest her heel on my thigh so I could do up the four buckles of the shoe: two around the ankle, two around the calf.

Verity put her hand on my shoulder and gave me a sweet smile. “Thank you.”

“Always.” I took her other foot and began working to do that shoe up as well. Her toes were painted the same color as her fingernails and her skin was a shimmering bronze color after her final tanning session yesterday and her spa treatments. “Are you excited to go out with the girls tonight?”

Verity nodded as I set her foot down. She wiggled her toes.

“Very. It’s been such a long time since we were all able to go out for a night of fun together like this.

” Verity put her hand on my shoulder and leaned in for a series of sweet kisses.

She tasted like grapefruit. “But I feel a little bad that you’re not going out with your boys. ”

I shook my head. “Don’t feel bad. I did this once before, remember? A bachelor party isn’t important to me. Making sure you have a peaceful mind tomorrow morning is.”

I’d agreed to sit down with Kim tonight down in the hotel bar while Verity was out with her girlfriends just to run through things once more.

The big day was tomorrow and so much planning was all coming to a head and I knew Verity would be stressed to her absolute max tomorrow morning.

If there was something I could do to help with that, even a little bit, I was more than willing.

“You’re a good man, baby,” she cooed.

I helped her to her feet. “I’m looking forward to showing you just how good of a man I am tomorrow night after all our guests leave and we have this bed to ourselves.”

She giggled and rolled her eyes at me. “Why am I not surprised?” I slapped her ass when she passed me to collect her clutch from the dresser. She let out an adorable yelp and scowled at me over her shoulder. “Bad boy.”

I flashed her a devilish grin. “Only when I want to be.”

Verity turned back to face me with her clutch in one hand. “I have to go.”

“Go. Have fun. Don’t get into any trouble.”

She gave me a kiss on the cheek. “No promises. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“At the end of the aisle.”

Verity pressed a hand to my chest ever so lightly before rewarding me with a deep kiss. “At the end of the aisle. Before we know it, we’ll be husband and wife.”

“On that note, Mrs. Verity Garrett, get your sexy little ass out of here and have a good night.”

I made it down to the hotel lobby bar at a quarter after nine.

When I arrived, Kim was already there. She was sitting at a table by the window overlooking the grounds one floor below.

Gardens sprawled out beneath her and were broken up with white stone terraces framed in tropical flower beds and boasting comfortable outdoor sofas where other guests were lounging and sipping Hawaiian cocktails.

I took the seat across from Kim and she looked away from the window and up at me. “Hey.” She smiled. “How are you feeling?”

“Nervous,” I admitted. Even though I’d done this whole wedding gig before, I couldn’t shake the nerves that accompanied it.

Tomorrow was going to be a big day. A lot of people were going to be in attendance, including photographers and journalists, all important people Verity had invited to make sure our wedding day was properly—and rigorously—documented.

“I keep trying to tell myself it’s all going to go smoothly, but with a bride like Verity, you never know what’s going to try to take a bite out of you. ”

Kim gave me an understanding nod. “I suppose that’s half the fun for some people. Is she off for the night with her girls?”

“Yep.”

Kim didn’t say anything. Perhaps she wondered why I wasn’t partaking in the usual ritual of a bachelor party myself.

“What are you drinking?” I asked.

She didn’t have a drink in front of her, but there was an open drinks menu on the table that I assumed she’d been looking through.

“I haven’t decided yet,” she said. “Something indulgent. Tomorrow is going to be a big day and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, too.”

I pulled the drink menu toward me and scanned the list of drinks. “You? Nervous? I didn’t know that was possible.”

“Then you haven’t been paying close enough attention.”

I chuckled and closed the menu. “Or you’re very good at putting on a brave face.”

“Perhaps.”

I flagged down a waiter in a white uniform. He came to our table with a smile ready to take our order, and I asked for the nicest bottle of red wine they had for Kim and me to share.

“You don’t have to do that,” Kim said, her eyes widening a little with surprise.

“I want to. You’ve been an immense help, Kim.

Just sitting down to do this with me tonight is above and beyond.

I know you would much rather be up in your room putting your feet up relaxing before tomorrow.

It’s a big day for me and Verity but I can only imagine how intense it’s going to be for you. ”

She leaned back in her seat and studied me. “Well, you’re not wrong.”

“Good. Then we will share the wine.”

The corner of her lips curled in a smile. “If you insist.”

“I do.”

“Very well.”

I chuckled and nodded at the binder on the table. “Is that the list of events for review?”

“And vendors.” Kim pulled the black three-ring binder toward her. On the front were the gold embossed initials “R & V,” and when the wedding was over, she would be giving us the binder as a keepsake.

She flipped through the first twenty or so pages and then paused and turned it to me, showing me a schedule of tomorrow’s events, starting bright and early at seven in the morning.

On the schedule were little notations in Kim’s elegant slanted writing and red ink.

“I left some notes on the columns for you guys. Like right here. I know it seems unimportant to be reminded to eat, but trust me. Wedding days get away from you. One minute, you’re getting ready for the ceremony, and the next, you’re walking into the ballroom for the first time as husband and wife after pictures and you haven’t eaten in over five hours.

With all the stress of the day, nutrition is important.

Nobody wants a headache or fatigue on their wedding day. ”

“Good point.”

“I know. I’m kind of a professional.”

I laughed. “What else?”

Kim proceeded to review the schedule with me. She gave me some pro tips on how to manage time and when to pause to take a breath and soak in the moment.

“It will all be over before you know it,” Kim said. “It’s really important that couples have little moments of quiet on their wedding day to check in with each other. Share some kisses. Talk about how crazy it all is. Trust me. You’ll be glad you did it.”

“Consider it done.”

By the time we finished going through everything in detail, it was a quarter to eleven and we’d drank our way almost through our entire bottle of wine.

Naturally, I ordered us another bottle. Kim protested fiercely but eventually caved, and when the second bottle arrived, we took it outside onto the grounds and sat in the comfortably cool evening Hawaiian air on one of the sofas in the garden.

Kim leaned back against the cushions and rested her head in her hand. “How did Chessie spend this evening?”

“With her nanny. She and Jennifer have been having a hell of a good time here. But when I go back to the room, I’ll be spending some quality time with her too.

” I took a sip of wine. “I know it’s late, and some people might say that’s irresponsible, but this is our last night just the two of us.

Everything will be different as of tomorrow and I don’t want her to feel like she’s any less special after Verity and I are married. ”

“That’s very sweet,” Kim said. “I’m sure it’s a memory she will cherish for the rest of her life.”

I nodded. “I hope so too.”

Kim’s brow furrowed and she set her wine down on the table by her elbow. “Is everything okay, Rick?”

I shrugged. “I’m a little worried about Chessie and this whole thing.

We’re so used to our life the way it is and things being just the two of us.

Sure, Verity practically lives with us already, but she does spend a lot of evenings out of the house.

After we’re married, that’s going to change.

The father-daughter time will be greatly reduced. ”

“Are you worried about your daughter, or are you worried about what this is going to cost you?”

I smiled. “Maybe it’s a bit of both.”

Kim smiled knowingly, reached out, and put her hand on mine in a reassuring touch. “Don’t worry, Rick. Chessie is a smart kid. She’ll be able to handle Verity.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

Kim blinked. “Hm?”

“What do you mean, ‘handle Verity’?”

“Um.” Kim’s cheeks turned a bright shade of pink and she pulled her hand away from mine. She tucked herself up into the corner of the sofa and picked up her wine to take a big mouthful. She swallowed hard. “Nothing. Sorry. That came out wrong.”

I didn’t think it did. It sounded like something that came out exactly how she’d intended and now she was backpedaling.

“No, really,” I said. “What did you mean?”

Kim studied me and licked her lips. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Indulge me.”

Kim was quiet for a moment. Then she sighed and hung her head.

“Fine. It’s just… I’m not Verity’s number-one fan.

But that doesn’t matter and it’s not my place to say such a thing because I’m not marrying her.

And I don’t really know her. Who am I to know what she’s really like?

I’m not the one who’s in love with her. I just know her as a bride and…

” Kim trailed off and shook her head. “I’m going to stop talking before I make an even bigger ass out of myself. ”

“It’s all right.”

“It really isn’t,” she said. “That was terribly unprofessional of me, Rick. I’m sorry. Can we just pretend I never opened my big fat mouth?”

I lifted my wine glass. “To never having opened your big fat mouth.”

Her smile was radiant. “Thank you.”

When we sipped our wine, she eyed me over the rim of her glass. I could tell she was still a little embarrassed and wished she hadn’t said anything, so I put a hand on her knee. She looked down at my hand.

“Truly, Kim, forget about it. I know Verity is a complicated woman. She has a tendency to rub a lot of people the wrong way.”

Kim was still staring at my hand on her leg. “Mhm. Right. The wrong way.”

I gave her knee a squeeze. “She has more good qualities than bad.”

Her eyes swept up to meet mine. Her lips were slightly parted, her cheeks still rosy, and her breath seemed to flutter in her chest.

I pulled my hand away.

What was I doing? Why did I keep crossing these lines? It was the night before my wedding and I was putting my hand on another woman. A beautiful, intelligent, fierce, bold, take-no- prisoners woman. A woman I could easily have seen myself with had I not already been engaged.

A woman who was looking at me like she might have been thinking the same thing.

“I should get back up to the room to see Chessie,” I said.

Kim nodded. “Yes. You should.”