Read Online One-Off by Lynn Galli - Free Book Online Page B

worry. Half joking, in all honesty. The security teams should be enough to prevent that possibility. “Worst case scenario for the wedding: they get back here the day of the ceremony.”
    Ainsley halted on the street and reached out to stop me. “He said it could be a little dangerous, but are you kidding?”
    I flinched again. Now I’d transferred my speculative worry to her. “We have plenty of security and a firm that specializes in kidnap and ransom recoveries covering them at all times. It’s dangerous, but we’ve taken every precaution.”
    “I’ll kill him if he gets killed.”
    I chuckled, thankful that she seemed to have the same trait for masking her worry. I was pretty ticked at them both for deciding that they had to be the ones to get this story. It could have been handled by field reporters. It wouldn’t have been as powerful to see our field reporters bringing in the story, but it would have ensured my friend and her fiancé stayed safe.
    “Were you always close?” I asked about her and her cousin.
    “Aye.” A fond look crossed her face. “As a family, we’d travel to the U.S. for a few weeks every summer. Dad and Colin’s dad were best mates from the PGA tour and my mum and aunt were always close. Colin and his mum would come back to Scotland for the rest of their summer holiday. After my aunt died, Colin would spend summers with us on the farm.”
    “All summer?”
    Sadness tightened her lips. “His dad was a little lost without his wife. He took a job coaching pro golfers and traveled a lot. He was happy to let Colin spend some time with his mum’s family in Scotland.”
    “Friends from the start?”
    “Our other cousins would come out to our farm occasionally, but they were all older and thought of Colin and me as pests. We all get along as adults now, but Colin and I were left to knock about on our own as kids.”
    “So that’s a yes?” I teased.
    “Aye. We shared an apartment at Columbia for two years after my first in the dorms.”
    “Then you moved in with Gwen and Petra and got stuck with me.”
    “Stuck is right.”
    I shook my head. Why did I even try with her?
    She gave me a moment to jab back and seemed perplexed when I didn’t. “Are we visiting the second caterer tonight?”
    “I have to call—” My cell rang. I looked at the display. “Hi, Gary.”
    “What did you do to Katrina?”
    “It’s not like we physically hurt her. Calm down.”
    “Calm down? You just burned every spec of goodwill I had with those caterers.”
    I sighed at his dramatics. “We gave our honest opinion. Oh, and why did she think we were the ones getting married?”
    “They pay closer attention if you’re the clients not if you’re deciding for the clients.” He didn’t bother sounding contrite. In fact, he sounded like he enjoyed throwing us into the fire pit of catering pretention.
    “That was a bad call on your part. If you haven’t noticed, we don’t exactly get along.” My eyes flicked to Ainsley to see if she objected. Hopeful on my part, and as expected, no rush to object on hers.
    “Pull up your big girl pants, Skye. There’s a fabulous wedding to plan.”
    “Your compassion pales only to your customer service,” I snarked.
    “You’re lucky I’m secretly in love with Dallas.” No surprise there. Dallas just seemed to bring that out of men, even the gay ones. “Anyway, I’ve called ahead to the next place. They can see you in half an hour. You better like what they have to offer. If not, you’ll be hiring a food truck for the wedding. No one else can take them in two and a half weeks.”
    “Thanks,” I said with genuine gratitude. He was right. This kind of a tight deadline diminished our options. I ended the call and looked at Ainsley. “He’s upset and we’re down to our last choice.”
    “You don’t know another Morgan of catering?”
    “Not for this kind of job. If it were sixty people, sure, but two hundred plus, no.”
    “Let’s hope the salad