thinking, not staying anywhere close to Planet Reality.”

“You’re not talking about Scary Linda now,” Laurel concluded.

“Oh, Mac.” Emma’s eyes darkened in sympathy. “You had a fight with Carter.”

“No. Yes. No.” Frustrated, Mac spun around. “You can’t have a fight with someone like him. People in a fight yell, or storm around. They say things they regret later. That’s why they call them fights. All he can do is be reasonable.”

“Damn the man,” Laurel stated and earned a vicious glare.

“You try it. You try to make someone like Carter understand you’ve taken the wrong direction and have everything you say bounce off the wall of calm logic.”

“You broke up with him.” From the tone, Emma’s sympathy took a sharp turn toward Carter.

“I don’t know what I did. Besides, how can you break up with someone when you haven’t said you’re together? Officially. It’s me, it’s my fault, and he won’t even listen to that. I know I let it go too far. I got caught up, swept up. Something. And when my mother walked in this morning, it was a solid slap back to reality.”

“You’re going to let her push your buttons on this?” Parker demanded.

“No. It’s not like that.” Mac spoke fiercely because part of her worried it was like that. Exactly like that. “I don’t want to hurt him. That’s what it comes down to. He thinks he’s in love with me.”

“Thinks?” Laurel repeated. “Can’t

be?”

“He’s romanticized it. Me. Everything.”

“This would be the same man who can only be reasonable. The calm wall of logic.” Lips pursed, Parker tilted her head. “But about you he’s stuck in fantasy?”

“He can have layers,” Mac argued, suddenly feeling tired and defeated.

“I think the question on the table should be not how Carter feels or doesn’t feel about you, but how you feel or don’t about him. Are you in love with him, Mac?”

Mac stared at Parker. “I care about him. That’s the point.”

“I call evasion,” Laurel said. “It’s a question that can be answered yes or no.”

“I don’t know! I don’t know what to do with all these feelings crammed inside me. He walks into my life, smacks his head into the wall, and I’m the one who’s dizzy. You said he wasn’t my type, right off the bat you said that. And you were right.”

“Actually, I think that’s one of the rare times I’ve been wrong. But you have to decide that for yourself. What’ll piss me off, Mac, what’ll disappoint is if you use Linda as your yardstick when it comes to love. Because she doesn’t even rate a measure.”

“I need some time, that’s all. I need time to find my balance, my rhythm. I can’t seem to find either when I’m around him.”

“Then take it,” Parker advised. “Be sure.”

“I will. I have to be.”

“One thing. If he loves you, I’m on his side.”

KATHRYN SEAMAN ARRIVED WITH HER DAUGHTER JESSICA AT exactly ten Monday morning. It was the sort of punctuality, Mac knew, that would warm Parker’s efficient heart. But she found it just a little scary.

Overwork, nerves, and emotional turmoil roiled an uneasy mix in her belly as she sat with her partners and potential clients in the parlor. Emma’s flood of tulips brought spring into the room even as the crackling fire in the hearth warmed it. Parker had set up her grandmother’s gorgeous Meissen tea and coffee sets, the Waterford crystal, and Georgian silver, all the perfect complement to Laurel’s glossy pastries.

If she’d needed a picture of lush, sophisticated, and female, this would’ve been it.

After the ritual small talk about the weather, Parker eased right in. “We’re so excited you’re considering Vows for your big day. We understand how important it is that you feel comfortable and confident in every detail that goes into creating a wedding that reflects who you are, and what you and Josh mean to each other. We want you to enjoy that day, and all the days leading up to it, knowing

you are our focus. We want what you want, a perfect and beautiful day full of memories to last the rest of your life.

“With that goal in mind, we’ve put together a few ideas. Before I show you the first proposal, do you have any questions?”

“Yes.” Kate Seaman opened the notebook on her lap. As her daughter laughed and rolled her eyes, she began peppering Parker with questions.

Parker’s answers were invariably yes. They provided that, would handle that, had a source for or a sample of that. When questions veered off into landscape, Emma took over.

“In addition to the wedding flowers, we’ll use annuals and pots in the flower beds and gardens, and those plantings will be specifically selected to enhance the arrangements Jessica ultimately selects. I realize it’s early in the season, but I can promise you spring on your wedding day.”

“If they’d wait till May.”

“Mom.” Jessica patted her mother’s hand. “We met in April, and we’re determined to be sentimental. It seems like a long time, plenty for all the planning. But already there are a million details.”

“That’s what we’re here for,” Parker told her.

“Right now, it’s the engagement party at the club, and the Save the Date announcements.”

“We can handle that for you.”

Jessica stopped, pursed her lips. “Really?”

“Absolutely. All we need is your list. We have several sources for cards. One of the more personal styles is to create a card from your engagement photo, or a photo of you and Josh you particularly like.”

“I love that idea. Don’t you, Mom?”

And I’m up, Mac thought. “The engagement photo itself might help you decide if you like that style, or want to go more traditional. Setting the date, your venue, finding that perfect dress, and the engagement photo are all early details that, once done, free your mind and your time for the rest. And also, they set the tone for your wedding.”

“You have samples of photos you’ve taken.”

“Yes.” Rising Mac picked up the portfolio of engagement shots, offered it to Kate. “I feel the engagement portrait is as important as a wedding portrait. It illustrates the promise made, the intent, the joy and anticipation. What brought these people together? Why have they exchanged this first promise? Tailoring that portrait, which announces to friends, to family, to everyone that Jessica and Josh found each other is my job.”

“In your studio?” Kate asked.

“Yes, or at whatever venue suits the couple.”

“At the club,” Kate decreed. “At the engagement party. Jessie has a stunning gown. She and Josh look wonderful together in black tie. And Jessie will be wearing my mother’s rubies.”

As her eyes misted, Kate reached over, took her daughter’s hand.

“It’s a lovely idea, and I’d be happy to set that up. But I did have another idea for this portrait. You and Josh met while riding, and that’s a passion you both share. I’d like to take a portrait of you on horseback.”

“On horseback?” Kate frowned. “It isn’t a snapshot. I don’t want Jessica in jodhpurs and a riding hat for her engagement portrait. I want her to sparkle.”

“I was thinking more a soft gleam. Romantic, a little fanciful. You have a chestnut gelding. Trooper.”

“How did you know that?”

“It’s our job to know about our clients. But not in a creepy way,” Mac added and made Jessica laugh.

“I see you and Josh on Trooper, riding double. Josh in a tux, the tie loose, the first few studs undone, and you behind him, in a gorgeous, flowing gown—and your grandmother’s rubies,” she added. “Your arms around his waist, your hair down, caught in the wind. The background just a blur of color and shape.”

“Oh my God.” Jessica just breathed it. “I love that. I really love it. Mom.”

“It sounds . . . beautiful. Magical.”

“And I think you’ll find the idea flows right into what we’ve put together as the theme for the wedding. Parker.”

Rising, Parker stepped to the easel that was set up. “We have photos that will show you overviews and details of what we’ve done in the past, what we can do, but as your wedding will be unique, we’re using sketches of our vision for your day.”

She removed the cover from the first sketch. “Fairyland,” she said, and Mac imagined each of her partners felt the same quick thrill she did when the bride gasped.

“I THINK WE GOT IT. DON’T YOU THINK WE GOT IT? GOD, I’M exhausted.” Emma sprawled out on the sofa. “And a little sick. I ate too much candy to calm my nerves. Don’t you think we got it?”

“If we didn’t, I’m taking up a collection to order a hit on Kathryn Seaman.” Laurel propped her feet on the stack of albums on the coffee table. “That woman is tough.”

“She loves her daughter,” Parker commented.

“Yeah, that came through, but God, we practically bled wedding perfection here, and couldn’t get her to commit.”

“She’s going to. Otherwise we won’t need the collection. I’ll kill her myself.” Rubbing her neck, Parker paced. “She needs to think it over, discuss it with her husband, just as Jessica has to talk it over with Josh and get his take. That’s reasonable. That’s normal.”

“Kate drives the train,” Mac pointed out. “I think she just wants to torture us. She was completely sold on the royal palace wedding cake.”

Laurel gnawed her lip. “You think?”

“I was watching her, I started watching her like a cat watches a mouse—or maybe I was the mouse and she was the cat. But I was watching her. Her eyes gleamed over that cake. I could hear her thinking, ‘Nobody’s getting that palace of a cake but my baby girl.’ We hit every note. Both of them got dreamy over Emma’s dogwoods and fairy lights. And the tulip cascade bouquet? Jessie wants it for her own. Then Mom casually mentions her husband’s two left feet, and Parker reaches into her magic collection of business cards and pulls out a personal dance instructor.”