Page 55 of Last Night Was Fun

Piper sniffed once and spoke in a tear-clogged voice Emmy could tell teetered on the edge of full-blown panic. “They double-booked the venue.”

Emmy’s speeding heart stilled as she had a vision of her sister’s perfect dream wedding collapsing like a building. She could tell from the look on Piper’s face that of all the services Emmy could have provided in that moment—join in the argument with Ben as backup, offer to torch the hotel, maybe lead a smear campaign against the resort on social media—what Piper needed most was a hug.

“Oh, Pipes. I’m sorry,” she said, and wrapped her in her arms.

Piper took a shuddering breath and let out a brief but loud yelp of a cry. “This is a disaster.”

Emmy gently pushed her back and firmly held her shoulders. “Hey, no, it’s not. We’re going to figure it out, okay?”

Piper sobbed again, and Emmy reeled her into another hug. She caught Ben’s eye over Piper’s shoulder and could tell his conversation wasn’t going well.

He held up a hand to the employee he was speaking with, someone in a suit and tie with a name tag who had to be high up, and nodded. He stepped away and joined her and Piper.

“Hey, Em,” he said in a weary voice. He reached out and gave her a half hug before circling his arm around Piper’s waist. She leaned into him.

“So?” Piper asked. “What’s going to happen?”

Ben let out a long breath. “Well, their suggestion is we sit together with the other wedding party and discuss if anyone is willing to change plans.”

“Change plans?” Piper squawked in a voice closer to Bridezilla.“We’ve been planning this event for literally a year, and they want us to justchange plans?”

“I know,” Ben said, and gave her a calming kiss on the temple. “It’s ridiculous, and they will be giving us a serious discount after all this, but since both weddings have people flying in and can’t easily be rescheduled, they are trying to do what they can. We could swap days and have the wedding on Sunday instead of Saturday, or they can accommodate another location on the property for the event.”

Piper squeezed her face in her hands. Emmy could feel a tantrum brewing, and for once, she didn’t blame her at all. When she dropped her hands, her face had bloomed red. Her voice came out a harsh hiss. “Ben, no! I don’t want to change anything! We’ve been dreaming of this for months!”

“I know, Pipes! And we’re going to figure it out. I’m not going to let anything ruin this weekend, I promise. Just... take a breath, okay?” He inhaled his own deep breath and blew it out as he stroked his hands up and down her arms left bare by her white romper. Emmy watched in wonder as he basically diffused a bomb simply by touching her.

Piper matched his deep breath and leaned her forehead into his shoulder. “Sorry, it’s all the stress. It has me really emotional. I just wanted everything to be perfect.”

“It will be, okay?” he said, and wrapped her in a hug. “We’re going to fix this. Your sister is here now; the sun is shining. We’re getting married in two days.” He pulled back and lifted her hands to kiss the backs of both sets of knuckles. His lips spread into a soft grin that managed to pull a mirroring one from Piper. “I love you,” he said.

“I love you too,” she responded, sounding dreamy and pacified.

Ben kissed her forehead again. “Why don’t you head over to the room to relax, and I’ll stay here and see what we can do.”

“Okay,” Piper said with a nod. “Em, your room is under your name. Text me when you’re settled.”

“I will,” Emmy promised and then watched her sister glide offtoward a hallway like she’d just had the best massage of her life. Once she was out of earshot, Emmy turned to Ben. “You are a magician. Do you have, like, sedatives in your palms or something? Where were you when we were teens fighting over everything?”

Ben softly chuckled and stroked his chin. Then he let out a big sigh.

“So, how are you going to fix this?”

He squeezed the back of his neck and shook his head. “I have no fucking clue.” Hearing Ben curse, a sound as unnatural as “Jingle Bells” in July, put the situation into crisp perspective. “The other wedding is coming in today, too. Their rehearsal dinner is tomorrow at five, and their ceremony is Saturday at the same time as ours. It’s like an exact copy paste of our events—and, their party is huge, so all the rooms are booked. Everything is at max capacity.”

Emmy was still struggling with the shock of things derailing so quickly, it took her a moment to register what he’d said.

“I’m sorry—you said all the rooms are booked?”

“Yes. At leastthat’snot overlapped with the other wedding because this is the only hotel around for miles. Everyone’s room reservation is fine, it’s just the wedding venue that’s double-booked. God, what a nightmare.” He scrubbed his face again, and Emmy tuned out whatever he said next because all she could think of was her plan dying on the vine.

Her room had been booked for ages; Piper blocked a whole wing for the bridal party back in February. Given that she wasn’t exactly keen on sharing a hotel room with Gabe Olson, she’d planned to sneak down into the lobby and book him his own before he got there. But now Ben was telling her the place was at max capacity for the weekend. Which meant unless she convinced Gabe to sleep outside on a lounge chair, they’d be sharing a room. For three nights.

“. . . so, I don’t really know what other options there are.” Ben was still talking, but she was far away wondering what Gabe Olson wore to sleep in, and if she’d remembered to pack her floor-lengthbathrobe because no way was she wearing anything more revealing than that in front of him.

Ben checked his watch. “My parents should be here soon. Maybe my dad can... I don’t know.” He sighed, and Emmy mentally filled in the blank withthrow some money at the problem.

“Hey, if it saves the wedding, I’m all for whatever it takes.”