Two Bar Mitzvahs (No Weddings #3)(14)

There were fourteen emails. Most were standard communications from Invitation Only’s vendors, but three were from Kristen. With urgent subject lines, shouted in all caps.

I frowned and pulled out my phone. Had I missed texts from her? I clicked the thing on and then off, verifying I hadn’t.

With limited time, and since Hannah and I were heading to Kristen’s place anyway, I opened the most recent one entitled “NEVER MIND” to be sure she still didn’t need me to call or text right away.

All the email said was:



Never mind. Crisis averted.



Feeling an acute hit of déjà vu, I checked the other emails from Kristen.

The first was a rant about how our florist had screwed up an order for an upcoming wedding vow renewal that Invitation Only had been planning for months. She was pissed as hell to have to deal with the client’s disappointment.

The second outlined how she had argued with the florist for over an hour. They insisted Kristen had called and substituted the flowers. She swore to them it never happened—and by swore, she meant she politely but vehemently asserted. But by the time her anger reached my email, she colored it with every four-letter variety known to man, along with a few patented Michaelson creations.

On a scowl, I scanned my brain for who could be messing with us, and it stopped at the same name it had before: Madison. But “reformed” Madison didn’t fit the mold. She’d been right—if she wanted to make amends, it made no sense to screw with me. I pulled up and read again the text she sent a few hours after we met for coffee:

Thank you for meeting me. It was great to see you again.



Yep. Nothing adversarial about that.

Searching further, I remembered Carmen’s anger when she’d stormed out of my house months ago. She’d been happy to be one of my many f*ck buddies—until she hadn’t been.

My thoughts came up with a big fat zero as to another culprit. Then they gravitated back toward Madison. How vulnerable she’d seemed at the coffeehouse. And how very incongruent that was to everything I’d ever known about her. Of her.

“Sorry I’m late. You okay?”

I glanced up.

Hannah stood in front of me, looking incredible. Dark hair loose around her shoulders. Hazel eyes shining bright green in the late morning light.

I exhaled a slow breath. “Yeah, sorry.” I turned my tablet off, shoved it into my messenger bag, and stood. “Trying the figure out what the hell is happening. Kristen emailed about another bizarre screw-up by an Invitation Only vendor.”

Concern darkened her expression as she stepped toward me.

I wrapped my arms around her and buried my face into her hair, inhaling her calming scent. “Damn, I’ve missed you.”

When I made no move to let her go, she squeezed me tighter and lifted her face, pressing a kiss to my neck. “Missed you too. Bad. Sorry things have been so busy here.”

On a sigh, I bent down and kissed her hard. Then I slowed the pace, savoring her soft sweetness, licking and sucking. With my lips, I nipped her lower one, tugging it as I pulled away. I rested my forehead on hers as I caught my breath. “No. Don’t ever apologize for your business being successful. We’ll work around the schedule.”

She nodded. “Anything I can do to help with the Invitation Only issues?”

“Yeah. Let’s get over to Kristen’s. It’s time for a family meeting at our business meeting.”

By the time we stepped into Kristen’s living room almost twenty minutes later, I’d pulled apart the puzzle and pieced it together a dozen different ways, but still, nothing fit. Kristen already sat on the far end of the couch, beer in hand with a backup on the table beside her.

Kendall, who was older than me by two years, yet the youngest of my three sisters, shut the fridge. On her way back to her usual spot on the floor, she gave Hannah and me each a chilled Fat Tire. “Tread carefully.” She jerked a nod toward Kristen. “She’s in rare form tonight.”

Kiki popped up from my favorite worn spot on the couch and tugged Hannah away from me, pulling her into a big hug. “Hannah! I’ve missed you. We need to hang. Get some girl time in again.”

I ruffled the top of Kiki’s head. “Gee, thanks, sis. Missed you too.”

“Pffft. You know I always miss you, Cade. That’s a given. There’s no one worthy to harass when you’re not around.” She kissed my cheek, then gave a pointed look toward Kristen, who seemed to be taking a deep breath in between every healthy swallow of beer.

I blinked. Kiki and Kendall not giving me shit? The carefully orchestrated calmness by those two underscored Kendall’s warning. Kristen really was pissed the f*ck off.

Clearly, we were in need of some strategic analysis.

“Okay.” I took a seat on my corner of the couch while Kiki dragged Hannah over to a couple of throw pillows on the floor. “The wedding-vow-renewal thing. Tell me what happened with this florist.”

Kristen huffed out a breath. “They said I called to replace the same rare orchids Natalie Richards had on her original wedding day with white roses. Natalie called me in a meltdown panic when the florist delivered her a beyond-wrong sample bouquet.”

“And John, the tent and furniture vendor, said you’d called to outright cancel his order.”

“Utter f*cking bullshit.” She growled in frustration.