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Robin Grover stared at her phone as if it had personally betrayed her. As a wedding planner, she should expect problems—and she did.
At the same time, she’d planned and executed dozens of weddings where emergencies didn’t happen, Mother Nature played nice, and everything went off without a hitch.
But apparently, Liam and Julia’s wedding tomorrow—tomorrow—wasn’t going to be one of them.
She let her eyes fall closed, and she held the position as she breathed in deeply. It was her job to find solutions to the emergencies.
Flowers, she thought even as the florist’s panicked voice echoed through her head. There had to be thousands of flowers in Five Island Cove. Robin just needed to find them and get them to the white sand beach on the south side of Diamond Island.
No big deal.
She opened her eyes and started scrolling through her contacts. She had whole binders filled with vendors, and she landed on a name—Poison Ivy. Maybe not the best name for a wedding florist, but a florist all the same.
In fact, with seven weddings—yes, seven—on the calendar in the next six months, the desk in her office had disappeared beneath a sea of binders, sample books, and to-do lists. Her wedding planner’s emergency kit—a massive file folder box filled with everything from safety pins to smelling salts—sat open on the counter lining the built-in bookshelves, ready for tomorrow’s festivities.
Hey Jessa! she said, texting the owner of Poison Ivy. Wondering if you have flowers for a wedding tomorrow? Colors are sage, pumpkin, and sky blue, but I’ll take anything you can get close. There’s been an emergency at my regular supplier.
Robin didn’t have to apologize for not booking Poison Ivy the first time around. She just needed to find centerpieces for tomorrow’s beachside dinner.
Duke appeared in the doorway, his broad shoulders filling the frame. “What’s going on? I’ve yelled for you three times. Lunch is here.”
Robin looked up at the shortness in his tone, realizing she’d fallen into her work again. “Sorry,” she said with a sigh.
“Bad news?” Duke came forward, and Robin eased herself into his arms. He hadn’t gone to Alaska this summer for the first time in years, and she prayed every night that the catch here would be enough to pay their bills.
They had a wedding to pay for too, after all.
“The florist just called. Their refrigeration unit broke down overnight.” Robin stepped back and ran her fingers through her honey-blonde hair, not caring that she was destroying the careful styling she’d done for today’s final venue walkthrough.
It was supposed to rain anyway—just one more thing Robin needed to solve. But she couldn’t reach up into the atmosphere, throttle Mother Nature, and make her blow the approaching storm away from Five Island Cove.
Robin looked at the scrawled note on the notepad on her desk. “Half the flowers for Julia’s centerpieces are wilted beyond salvation.”
“Well, that’s not good.” Duke huffed out a breath, and he was such an amazing man and perfect partner that he’d probably go anywhere to get Robin the flowers she needed for tomorrow’s nuptials. “Can they get more?”
“They’re trying, but it’s June, baby. Every florist on the Eastern Seaboard is booked solid with weddings—and it’s not like I can just run to another city and get some.”
Robin picked up her planner and flipped through it with such force she nearly tore a page. “I’ve got seven weddings this summer, Duke. Seven.”
One of which was their daughter’s, and fine, Robin could admit having her twenty-year-old get married wasn’t exactly the most comforting thing in the world for her.
“And the first one is falling apart before my eyes.”
Duke placed his hands on her shoulders, his touch instantly grounding her. “Robin, love, if anyone can find a few flowers, it’s you.”
Robin leaned into his solid warmth for just a moment before pulling away. “I need to call Maddy, because she’s meeting me for the walk-through tonight, and we need to make sure the impending rain isn’t going to ruin the whole day.”
“It’s supposed to blow over overnight,” Duke said.
Robin barely heard him. “I still need to meet Alice to go over the legal paperwork for our three family weddings.”
“I thought you finished the paperwork last week?”
“That was just Julia and Liam’s, and another client, McKenzie. Alice is helping with all the marriage licenses, prenups, and property agreements for the kids.”
“Mm-hm, sure.”
“Ginny just confirmed she’s moving her wedding from October to August, and Mandie—” Robin’s voice caught as her emotions surged. “Our daughter moved her wedding from next summer into Ginny’s spot.”
They’d so planned that too, which didn’t surprise Robin. Ginny, Mandie, and Charlie all lived together, and Mandie was best friends with her fiancé’s sister. Her gaze swept the desk, the bookshelves, even the couch covered in fabric samples.
“I’m drowning in details.”
“Come eat lunch.” He took her hand and gently guided her out of the office. Robin loved her new house, including that she could close the door on her wedding planning and leave it behind to deal with later.
Duke actually pulled the door closed with a final click, then took her into the kitchen, where the scent of coffee mingled with the vinegary one of her balsamic vinaigrette.
Duke poured her a fresh cup of coffee and slid it across the counter as she sat at the bar. “I’m glad I decided to skip Alaska this season.”
Robin paused, the mug halfway to her lips. “I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here.”
“You’d manage.” Duke kissed her forehead and transferred her salad from the plastic clamshell container to a bigger bowl. He poured in the vinaigrette and handed her a fork. “But I wouldn’t miss our daughter’s wedding for anything, even if it did get moved up by nine months.”
Duke had definitely been handling Mandie and Charlie’s engagement better than Robin, though she thought she’d been hiding her worries fairly well.
Robin’s phone buzzed just as she’d forked up her first bite of lettuce, avocado, and chicken. “Oh, it’s Jessa.”
She’d barely seen the first few words of the text—Let me see what I can do and—before her phone rang. Julia’s name covered the text, and Robin very nearly dropped her phone in surprise.
“It’s Julia,” she said, abandoning her salad completely. “I’m going to put her on speaker.”
“We’ve got this.” Duke sat beside her and picked up his BLT.
Robin swiped on the call. “Julia, hey.”
“Robin, I just checked the weather app again.”
“I told you not to do that,” Robin said. “It’s June, and we live in the middle of the ocean.” The weather changed minute by minute, and checking the weather now for an afternoon event tomorrow didn’t help anyone.
“Sixty percent chance of rain tomorrow at four o’clock,” Julia said. “That only goes up by five.” She didn’t speak in a supersonic voice, the way some of Robin’s hysterical brides did. But her even, almost dejected tone was somehow worse.
“I just need you to be straight with me,” Julia said. “Will we be able to have the ceremony on the beach?”
“I don’t know.” Robin sighed and looked over to her husband. “Maddy and I are going over there in a couple of hours. And Julia, the Winehouse knows what to do in the case of inclement weather. They’ll have a plan, and the wedding will be absolutely beautiful.”
She refrained from adding anything else. The wedding would be beautiful, period.
“I know,” Julia said, but she didn’t sound like she believed Robin.
“Did your boys make it to the cove?” Robin asked, deftly guiding the conversation somewhere else. For a few months, Julia wasn’t sure all three of her sons would be able to attend her wedding, as her youngest worked for the FBI, and apparently had a lot of red tape to go through to get time off.
But Andrew had managed it, and Julia’s three sons and her one daughter-in-law should’ve arrived on the eleven-fifteen flight from New York.
Yes, Robin had too many details in her head.
“Yes,” Julia said, her tone brightening then. “They’ve all arrived, and we just sat down for crab cakes.”
“Then why are you on the phone with me?” Robin laughed lightly and shook her head. “I’m hanging up. I’ve got everything handled, Julia. You have nothing to worry about.”
“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” Julia said, and Robin let her end the call.
Robin sighed, her shoulders pressing forward as if she carried something heavy there.
“You didn’t tell her about the flowers,” Duke said.
“It’s policy to only tell the bride what she needs to know.” Robin picked up her fork and stuck her bite of salad in her mouth.
Duke chuckled and shook his head. “All right, but I saw that note in your office that said Liam’s mother is allergic to daisies, so…” He nodded to her phone. “You better check with Jessa to see what she’s got.”
Robin practically dove onto her phone. “I forgot about the daisies.” That would’ve been a disaster. But things didn’t get better when she saw Jessa’s messages.
Let me see what I can do and I’ll get back to you.
I can get you a bunch of lilies, roses, peonies, and gardenias. Not sure on the colors, but I can see?
Just heard back from Greg, who’s in the city today. I spoke too soon. He can only get peonies and gardenias. He’s sending pictures.
The next few texts showed white flowers, along with some nice, pink peonies. Too bad pink wasn’t a color Julia had chosen for her ceremony.
How many centerpieces can you do with that? Robin sent her. And what am I looking at in terms of cost? The wedding is tomorrow, Jessa…
She started thinking about dying the white flowers the color she needed—which was totally insane. Robin didn’t have time for that, did she?
“Hon, you need to eat.” Duke plucked her phone from her hand and turned it over before setting it down on his other side. “What can I do?”
Robin thought for a moment while she took another bite of her salad. “Call your fishing buddy, Steven. Marianne has that cutting garden, right? See if she has any orange tiger lilies, or anything white that isn’t a daisy that I could buy.”
“On it.” Duke pulled his phone out. “What else?”
“I’m going to pick up the table runners from the dry cleaner on my way to the Winehouse, but I’d love it if you could follow up with Mandie on the bridesmaids’ gifts. She was supposed to be getting those from the jeweler next door to the drug store today, and I don’t want her to forget.”
“Your daughter? Forget something?” Duke scoffed, but his fingers continued to fly across the screen. He grinned at her and leaned over to give her a quick kiss. “I can see you’re dying without your binders.”
He picked up her phone and handed it to her. The way it vibrated as she took it told her someone else had messaged. Hopefully Jessa, saying the flowers were free and they’d be here by five o’clock tonight so Robin could inspect them.
“Go. Take your salad back to your office and save the world.”
Robin took an extra moment to kiss him properly, savoring the way her love for him sparked and kindled way down in her stomach. She smiled as she ducked her head, the moment lengthening and reminding her what weddings were really about.
Love. True love, like the kind she shared with Duke.
She wished that for all of her brides that summer, especially her own daughter. As she gathered her salad and took it and her phone with her, something inside her calmed when she thought of Mandie and Charlie.
They’d been together for a long time, and Robin didn’t need to doubt either of them. So she thought they were too young; it didn’t mean getting married wasn’t the right thing for them.
Heck, she and Duke had gotten married young too, and Robin refused to be like her mother in any way. She would not say anything to Mandie that might indicate that she didn’t trust her, or believe in her, or that she might not—even slightly—support her.
When she needed to leave, Robin gathered her planner, phone, and an emergency notebook just as a crutch. She found Duke asleep on the couch, the neighbor’s cat curled on his chest, and a bolt of gratitude struck her fully in the chest.
He got up at three in the morning to go fishing, and he’d given up his position on an Alaskan team that had earned them enough to pay for this beautiful new home, support Robin and the girls, and provide them with the amazing life she enjoyed.
And he’d been doing it for decades.
She smiled softly at him, grabbed her keys, and slipped out of the house. After taking a moment to text Jamie—I’m doing the walkthrough on the beach tonight. Dad’s asleep on the couch, and Mandie’s closing the drug store. Tell me you’re going to be responsible about coming home after work—no side trips to see anyone—and that you can help Dad get dinner on the table—she took a deep, cleansing breath.
Thankfully, Jamie didn’t have a boyfriend, and she did have a job at a cookie company that had come to the cove. She still seemed to be boy-crazy, and Robin didn’t quite know how to deal with it. Mandie hadn’t really been like that.
I’m finishing up now, and Paulo brought over a bunch of pizza that didn’t get sold during lunch, so I’ll have dinner for everyone.
Perfect, Robin said, and then she flipped her minivan into reverse and got herself down to the beach to make sure tomorrow’s wedding went off without a hitch.
She noticed the crystal blue water, then the way the clouds rolled in and cut off the sunlight casting sparkles everywhere. Robin peered up through the windshield, actually glad to see the arrival of the storm. That meant it would bluster throughout the night and leave tomorrow alone.
As she pulled into the Winehouse, her phone buzzed with a text from Alice: At the courthouse. Got all the paperwork for Julia and Liam.
Thank you, Alice, Robin texted back. You’re a lifesaver. She reached over to her bag and pulled out the clipboard. She checked off marriage certificate and looked at the long list of things still to do before the I-do was said.
A great sense of overwhelm hit her, but she reminded herself sternly, “You’ve done this before. It’ll all come together.”
Dead flowers, threatening rain, panicking and yet dejected bride…so about usual.
And Robin would handle it all, the way she always did.
She caught sight of Maddy as she stepped elegantly out of a RideShare, and Robin reached for her bag and heaved it across the console and into her lap.
“All right,” she told herself, straightening her shoulders. “Time to go make some wedding magic happen.”
