Wedding Duress (Events By Design Cozy Mystery Series Book 2) by Ally Gray Page B

make sacrifices in order to keep things running.
    She was prevented from saying anything gloriously nasty by a knock on her office door. She called out for the person to enter, and was surprised to see her new assistant leading a short, elderly Asian man, his arms loaded down with a wrapped bundle.
    “Thank you, Mandy,” she said to the younger woman, looking over the tops of her reading glasses before turning to the newcomer. “May I help you?”
    “Ah, yes miss. I am from the dry cleaner. I have coat for you.”
    Stacy was confused for a second, but brightened immediately. She jumped up and ran around her desk to retrieve the package from the old man. “Thank you so much! You didn’t have to bring it all the way down here, we could have come to pick it up!”
    “It’s no problem, miss. We do good work for weddings!” He bowed as he handed over the suit bag, smiling as he helped lay it flat on the stuffed chaise by the window. Stacy unzipped the bag and removed the mink coat, holding it up to the light. She tentatively sniffed it, smiling at the absence of musty smell from being stored in an attic trunk.
    “Very good work! We will definitely call you in the future, and I am happy to recommend you to clients.” She beamed benevolently as the overjoyed man grabbed her hand in both of his and shook them eagerly, jostling her entire torso in the process. Mandy gave the man exactly twenty more seconds, then escorted him out.
    “What’s with the dry cleaner?” Nathan asked, eyeing the animal fur suspiciously.
    “This is a century-old mink coat, apparently, one that has been in the bride’s family forever. Her great-grandmother was known for this coat, and even wore it every day while living in a nursing home.” Nathan made a disgusted face and took a large step back from the offending wrap. “Stop it, I think it’s sweet. It’s definitely bizarre, and certainly not PC, but since the great-grandmother—God rest her soul—cannot attend the ceremony, the bride is going to have a coat rack fitted with this coat and have it stand in the corner on her family’s side.”
    “The beauty queen has a weird streak? Who knew?” he asked.
    “Oh no, not the beauty queen’s wedding. This is for a different wedding. Much smaller, slightly more eccentric, but still exactly as special. They’re all exactly as special,” Stacy explained with a wry smile, smoothing the grain of the dark fur to lie in the same direction.
    “I’m impressed,” Nathan said happily. “If I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I would never have believed it.”
    “What’s that?”
    “YOU… are a romantic.”
    “I am not! This is my job, a job that I take very seriously, that’s all. And trust me, once you’ve seen the whole process from the inside looking out, romance is the last thing you can believe in.” Stacy looked smugly at Nathan, daring him to defy her. Instead, he looked even more confident, certain that this was just another case of the lady doth protesting too much.
    “Don’t worry, darling, your secret is safe with me!”

Chapter 2
    “ M iss Barber , a pleasure to see you again as always,” Stacy said, gently thrusting her hand forward as she rose from her desk to greet the young woman who was officially the most beautiful, talented, and all-around perfect woman in the state. “If you’ll come this way, we’ve got your flower array in the florist’s viewing room.”
    Stacy led the small cluster of ladies from her office and down the hall, a group which included the mother of the bride, the mother of the groom, the maid of honor, and the official handler of the reigning queen, a requirement whenever the crown’s representative was out and about in a formal capacity. This wedding, while technically the doorway to making her no longer a Miss, was about as official as things could get given the public attention on her nuptials, and the handler had to ensure that all proper protocols and decorum were