To Have and to Hold (The Wedding Belles #1)(4)

“What happens Friday?” Seth asked, somehow fairly certain he wasn’t going to like the answer.

Maya did another one of those happy hand claps. “Oh, I didn’t tell you! The Wedding Belles have an opening.”

Seth stared at his sister blankly.

Maya rolled her eyes. “Come on. The Wedding Belles?”

He shook his head. “Is that, like, a fancy dress shop, or something?”

“Um, try the premiere wedding-planning company in the city. Maybe the country. They have access to all the best venues, the top designers, and they never do the same wedding twice. Everything is custom, original, perfectly tailored to the bride’s needs. One of a kind.”

That, Seth could translate: expensive.

Still, if their father were alive . . .

“They’re super exclusive,” Maya said. “You have to book them, like, years in advance, but I called, and they had something open up!”

“That’s great,” Seth said, rubbing a hand down his face. He knew full well that the convenient opening had likely been a result of Maya’s very recognizable last name.

“So anyway, Friday is just a consultation. They want to hear what I’m looking for and my timeline—”

“What is your timeline?” Seth interrupted.

In other words, how long do I have to figure out whether Neil’s the gold digger I think he is?

“Well, I’ve always liked the idea of being a June bride,” Maya said, “but that’s less than six months away, so we all know that’s not going to happen . . .”

Seth blinked. It wasn’t? Six months seemed like a hell of a long time to him, but then he wasn’t the one who’d been marrying off the family dog when he was six. What did he know?

“So I’m thinking maybe a Christmas wedding,” she said. “It’s so festive, with the red and green, or I could go metallic, or even blue—you know what that does with my eyes . . .”

Seth tuned his sister out as she ran through possible color schemes.

Christmas. That gave Seth eleven whole months. Plenty of time to get to know his future brother-in-law, and then find a way to get rid of the bastard if he didn’t pass muster.

But if Seth was going to make this work—if he was going to have a shot at getting to know the real Neil—it meant he’d have to spend some time with the money-grabbing bastard. He had to be there when the man inevitably slipped up.

“What time?” Seth interrupted.

Maya paused mid-description of the pros and cons of flocked Christmas trees. “What time for what?”

“Your meeting on Friday with the Wedding Chimes. What time is it?”

Maya laughed. “The Wedding Belles. And it’s at two, at their headquarters on the Upper West Side. Why?”

“I want to be there.”

His sister blinked in surprise. “You do?”

Seth lifted a shoulder. “I want to be involved in all of this. I don’t need to come along to dress fittings and whatever the hell else you’ve got going on, but the big-decision stuff . . . I want to be a part of it.”

Maya laughed. “You are so like Dad. He always liked to know how every penny of his money was being spent.”

Sure, let’s go with that. Easier for her to think he was pinching pennies than checking out her fiancé.

Seth smiled. “Guilty. You want live doves, we’ll get live doves, but I want to make sure these wedding planners don’t think they have a blank check just because our last name is Tyler.”

Maya shrugged and bent down to retrieve her various shopping bags. “Suit yourself.”

Seth walked his sister to the office door, dipping his head slightly when she went up on her toes to kiss his cheek.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Seth nodded. “I just want you to be happy.”

“I am,” she said, beaming up at him. “I’m so happy. And I’m really sorry you haven’t had a chance to meet Neil, but it all happened so fast.”

Tell me about it.

“He’ll be there on Friday, right?” Seth asked. “How about the three of us go out for a late lunch after the meeting with the wedding planner?”

Maya nodded. “Perfect. You’re going to love him. And he can’t wait to meet you.”

Me and my wallet, I’d bet.

“Friday, two o’clock,” Maya said, kissing his cheek one more time. “Don’t be late, ’kay?”

Seth blinked. “Have I ever been late?”

His sister laughed. “Good point. Would you be less grumpy about the whole thing if I told you we’ll do an open bar at the wedding, stocked with all your favorites?”

Seth only had one favorite: Four Roses Bourbon. And if the ever-increasing tension in his chest was any indication, he was going to be drinking a lot of it in the coming months. Starting with tonight.

He told his sister good-bye, and then went straight to his bar cart in the corner and poured himself a generous tumbler of his beloved bourbon—hell, he deserved it. Then he went immediately to his computer to search for every possible detail he could find on one Neil Garrett.





Chapter Two





BROOKE BALDWIN DOUBLE-CHECKED the weather app on her phone. Then triple-checked it.