One Wish (Thunder Point #7)(29)

Troy went to the front of the store to stand sentry while Grace had her meeting with the bridal couple. She usually met with couples like this at six or later, after work for them, after closing for her. This particular couple had to schedule something a little earlier, so she’d invited them to come at four, which was how Troy got this babysitting job. He positioned himself behind the small counter. There by the computer lay two phones—her personal and her work phone. Everywhere she went, two phones. When the shop was closed and they were together, she rarely answered the work phone. And the personal phone rarely rang. She’d gotten calls twice since they’d been a couple and both times it was Iris.

He heard her tell the couple to “start with this album.”

“There aren’t any prices,” the man said.

“Jake!” the woman said.

“That’s a reasonable observation and question. Every bouquet and arrangement can be downsized or enlarged, depending on personal taste. For example, see this beautiful arrangement of roses, fern and calla lilies? I had a bride want a much smaller version of this with just the dusty miller and lilies plus a little baby’s breath. I’ll be glad to itemize everything with cost per stalk, stem and vase.”

“I don’t know why we’re making it so fancy,” Jake muttered.

“It needn’t be,” Grace said. “Small weddings can be elegant, classy and memorable. In your life together there are going to be many moments you’re going to want to capture in pictures. You’ll be amazed when you get to your thirtieth anniversary how many boxes or albums or disks of pictures you’ll have—every camping trip, T-ball game, graduation, every family celebration. One of the first will be the day you marry. It doesn’t have to be any certain kind of wedding, just the one you both want. And done the way you want to remember it.”

“And there’s the problem,” Jake said. “Janet wants a big fancy wedding and I don’t.”

“I don’t need a big fancy wedding,” she argued. “I just want it to be beautiful!”

“Completely doable. When you talk it over, you’ll find a reasonable compromise. I’ll do whatever I can to help with that. I’ve had couples who ordered so many flower arrangements and bouquets I thought I was outfitting the Rose Bowl. There was a recent wedding where the bride and her attendants each carried a single calla lily. The good news is...for a spring wedding literally every flower will be available and the prices will be more reasonable than at other times of the year.”

“This is beautiful,” Janet said, looking at a photo. “Isn’t this beautiful, Jake?”

“I bet it cost a fortune,” he snorted.

“Hmm, if I remember, that wedding ran about twelve hundred dollars.”

“Are you freaking kidding me?” Jake said.

“Flowers were very important to that couple, but they didn’t have a fortune. Now, there are ways to bring the cost way down, to less than half of that, and still have a beautiful display. Bows instead of flowers on the ends of the pews, smaller altar arrangements or larger fluffier flowers and table centerpieces, less fussy bouquets for the attendants.”

“That’s still a lot of money,” he grumbled.

“When is the happy day?” Grace asked.

“June twentieth.”

“Perfect. A great month for flowers and flower prices. And do you have a budget?”

Just as Janet said six hundred dollars Jake said fifty. Troy made a noise as he tried to cover his burst of laughter.

“Let me start by asking you to select your favorite wedding photos from this book. It will help if you can come up with at least three you love and figure out why you love them. The particular blooms? The shapes? The arrangement of the flowers? The colors? Once you do that we can find the wiggle room in the ideas and the price, something that better fits your budget. You’re going to buy a lot of flowers in your lifetime, Jake. These flowers are going to live on forever in your wedding pictures. I’m sure you and Janet will find exactly the right ones. I’ll leave you to look through the pictures. Just call me if you have any questions. I’ll be right out front, ten steps away.”

Troy was smirking as she walked out of the back room to where he stood behind the counter. He put an arm around her waist and whispered in her ear. “That’s not going to work,” he said.

“You’d be surprised,” she said. “I think I can handle things if you want to leave.”

“Nah, I’m not leaving you with this. I think I’ll go get my backpack and start on those papers I have to look through. Then tonight I don’t have to spend all my time on homework.”

“Let me wipe down the worktable for you.”

For about twenty minutes the only sound in the shop was the soft murmuring of the bridal couple as they went through the albums. The loud and snappish remarks had stopped but when Troy glanced into the office, they really didn’t appear happy. In a very short time they thought they had selected a few pictures and Grace sat at her desk once more.

“Very good choices,” she said.

“I’m sure they’re out of the question,” Janet said. “They’re just too beautiful to be affordable.”

“Well, let’s see,” Grace said. She sat at her computer and, after looking at one of the selected photos, she went to work. She began to type in numbers. “And how many parents and attendants?”