'Smoke and water damage,' Remy explained to Declan. 'Over and above the fire damage. They're not going to be able to put it back together in time.”
'It's my fault.”
Mirroring Remy, Declan crouched. 'Okay, honey, why'd you start the fire?”
It made her laugh-for a split second. 'I wanted to use that old plantation house. It's romantic and so lovely. Remy said it'll all be easier booking a hotel ballroom, but no, I just had to have my way. And now look. We've got less than three weeks, and we're … We're just sunk, that's all.'
'No, we're not, honey. We'll find another place. Pleure pas, chhre.' Remy kissed the tip of her nose. 'Worse comes to worst, we'll have the wedding, then we'll have our party later. We'll have us a real fais do-do, after the honeymoon.”
'Where are we going to get married? City Hall?”
'I don't care where we get married.' Now he kissed her fingers. 'Long as we do.”
She sniffled, sighed, leaned into him. 'I'm sorry. I'm being silly and selfish. You're right. It doesn't matter where or how.”
'Sure it does.' Declan's statement had them both staring at him, Effie with tears still swirling, Remy with baffled frustration. 'You can't let a little fire screw up your plans. Use my place.”
'What do you mean, your place?' Remy demanded.
'The Hall. Sure as hell big enough. Ballroom needs some work, but there's time. I have to strong-arm some painters, but I finished the entrance this morning. Gardens are in really good shape, kitchen's done, parlors, library. Lots of rough spots yet, but people won't care about that. They'll get the house, the grounds, the ghosts. They'll talk about it for years.”
'Do you mean it?' Effie snagged Declan's hands before Remy could speak.
'Sure I do. We can pull it off.”
'Dec,' Remy began, but Effie rolled right over him.
'Oh God. Oh, I love you.' She threw her arms around Declan's neck. 'You're the most wonderful man in the world. An angel,' she said and kissed him. 'A saint.”
'Do you mind?' Declan said to Remy. 'We'd like to be alone.”
Laughing, Effie spun to her feet. 'Oh, I shouldn't let you do this. You'll have all those strangers roaming around your house, trooping all over your lawn. But I'm going to let you because I'm desperate, and it's so perfect. I swear, I swear you won't have to do any of the work. I'll take care of everything. I'm going to owe you till my dying day.”
'Giving me your firstborn son will be payment enough.”
Remy sat on the edge of the desk and shook his head. 'I say I'll marry you anywhere, anytime, all he does is give you a broken-down house and he's the one gets kissed.”
'I already got you.' But she turned, wrapped her arms around Remy and, with a sigh, rested her head on his shoulder. 'I want it to be beautiful, Remy. I want it to be special. It means a lot to me.”
'I know it does. So it means a lot to me, too. We'll have us some party, won't we?”
'We will.' She gave him one last squeeze, then whirled away. The sad, sobbing woman was replaced by a dervish. 'Can I go out now?' she asked Declan. 'I need to get my mother and my sister, and we'll go out right now and start figuring it all out.”
'Go ahead.”
'Thank you.' She kissed his cheek. 'Thank you.' Then the other. 'Thank you.' Then his mouth with a long, drawn-out smack. 'Remy, you come on out soon as you can. Oh, Dec?' She was pulling out her cell phone as she headed for the door. 'My bride colors are rose and blue. You don't mind if we have the house painted those colors, do you?”
His mouth dropped open as she shut the door behind her. 'She was kidding, right?”
'Probably.' Knowing his girl, and the pack she ran with, Remy blew out a breath. 'Cher, you don't know what you just got yourself into. You made my girl happy, and I'm grateful, but I gotta tell you, you're in for a couple weeks of pure insanity.”
'I couldn't stand seeing her crying like that. Besides, it makes sense.' Rose and blue, he thought. How much trouble could they get into with nice, harmless colors like rose and blue? 'Anyway,' he added, rubbing a hand over his sinking heart. 'I've been through wedding plans before.”
'You haven't met her mother before.”
Declan shifted his feet. 'Is she scary?”
'Pretty scary.”
'Hold me.”
Good deeds put him in a good mood. When he walked into Et Trois, he was ready for a cold one, a self- congratulatory pat on the back. And Lena.
She was behind the bar, pulling a draft and chatting up one of her regulars. He watched her gaze wash over, then land on him. Stay on him as he walked up, flipped up the pass-through.
She had time to slide the foaming mug across the bar to waiting hands, start to turn before he lifted her off her feet and planted his lips on hers.
The scattering of applause and hoots had him grinning as he held her an inch off the floor. 'Missed you.”
She rubbed her tingling lips together. 'Your aim seemed good to me.' She patted his cheek, gave him that quick, wicked gleam. 'Now down, boy. I'm working here.”
'You're going to need someone to cover for you.”
'I'm busy, cher. Go on and sit down, I'll get you a beer.”
He just hitched her up, giving her legs a little swing so he could get his arm under them. He elbowed the door to the bar kitchen. 'Lena needs you to cover for her,' he called back, then nodded toward the pass-through. 'Mind?' he asked the man sipping the draft.
'Sure thing.”
'Declan.' She didn't struggle, bad for the image. 'I'm running a business here.”
'And you do a damn good job of it. Thanks,' he added when the man flipped up the pass-through. 'It ought to run fine without you for a half hour.' He nodded as his new friend hustled over and opened the door for him.
He carried her outside. They got a few glances as he walked down the sidewalk and turned into her courtyard.
'I don't like being pushed around, cher.”
'I'm not pushing you, I'm carrying you. Where's your spare key?' he asked as he climbed the stairs. When she said nothing, he shrugged. 'Fine. We're going to get arrested for doing what I plan on doing out here on your gallery, but I'm game.”
'Under the pot, second from the left.”
'Good.”
To her shock, he shifted her, slinging her over his shoulder as he crouched down to retrieve the key. She continually underestimated his strength and, she admitted, her reaction to it.
'You've dropped a couple of pounds,' he commented and unlocked her door. 'Good.”
'I beg your pardon?' she said in her best frigid, southern-belle tone.
'I figure it's because you've been pining for me.”
'You're going to want to get a grip, cher.”
'Got one,' he said and reached up to squeeze her butt as he kicked the door closed.
'I can't tell you how flattered I am that you'd take time out of your busy day to come into town for a quickie, but I-was 'Excellent idea. It wasn't my first order of business, but why wait?' He hitched her more securely on his shoulder and headed for the bedroom.
'Declan, you're starting to seriously irritate me now. You'd better just put me down and-was She lost the rest-and the air in her lungs-when he flipped her onto the bed. He could see her eyes glittering dangerously behind her hair before she shoved it out of her face. And that, he thought, was perfect. He was in the mood for the fast and the physical, the sweaty and the sexy.
'What the hell's gotten into you? You come marching into my place like you own it, cart me off like I'm spoils of war. If you think I'm here to scratch your itch whenever it suits you, you're about to find out different.”
He merely grinned, yanked off a shoe and tossed it aside.
