Happy Ever After Read Free

all together before springing it on you. It’s business,” Parker said. “It would be our business, so it needs to be formed that way from the ground up.”
    “Our business,” Emma repeated. “Weddings. What’s happier than a wedding?”
    “Or crazier,” Laurel put in.
    “The four of us can handle crazy. Parks?” Mac’s dimples winked as she held out a hand. “I’m so in.”
    “You can’t commit until you’ve seen the model, the figures.”
    “Yes, I can,” Mac corrected. “I want this.”
    “Me, too.” Emma laid her hand on theirs.
    Laurel took a breath, held it. Released. “I guess that makes it unanimous.” And she put her hand on theirs. “We’ll kick wedding ass.”

CHAPTER ONE

    C RAZY BRIDE CALLED AT FIVE TWENTY-EIGHT A.M.
    “I had a dream,” she announced while Parker lay in the dark with her BlackBerry.
    “A dream?”
    “An amazing dream. So real, so urgent , so full of color and life! I’m sure it means something. I’m going to call my psychic but I wanted to talk it over with you, first.”
    “Okay.” With the grace of experience, Parker reached over, turned her bedside lamp on low. “What was the dream about, Sabina?” she asked as she picked up the pad and pen beside the lamp.
    “Alice in Wonderland.”
    “You dreamed about Alice in Wonderland?”
    “Specifically the Mad Hatter’s tea party.”
    “Disney or Tim Burton?”
    “What?”
    “Nothing.” Parker shook back her hair, noted key words. “Go on.”
    “Well, there was music and a banquet of food. I was Alice, but I wore my wedding dress, and Chase looked absolutely amazing in a morning coat.The flowers, oh, they were spectacular. And all of them singing and dancing. Everyone was so happy, toasting us, clapping. Angelica was dressed as the Red Queen and playing a flute.”
    Parker noted down MOH for Angelica, the maid of honor, then continued to record other members of the wedding party. The best man as the White Rabbit, the mother of the groom as the Cheshire Cat, father of the bride, the March Hare.
    She wondered what Sabina had eaten, drunk, or smoked before going to bed.
    “Isn’t it fascinating, Parker?”
    “Absolutely.” As had been the pattern of tea leaves that had determined Sabina’s bridal colors, the tarot reading that had forecast her honeymoon destination, the numerology that had pointed to the only possible date for her wedding.
    “I think maybe my subconscious and the fates are telling me I need to do an Alice theme for the wedding.With costumes.”
    Parker closed her eyes. While she’d have said—and would say now—that the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party suited Sabina to the ground, the event was less than two weeks away.The decor, the flowers, the cake and desserts, the menu—the works—already chosen.
    “Hmm,” Parker said to give herself a moment to think.“That’s an interesting idea.”
    “The dream—”
    “Says to me,” Parker interjected, “the celebrational, magical, fairy-tale atmosphere you’ve already chosen. It tells me you were absolutely right.”
    “Really?”
    “Completely. It tells me you’re excited and happy, and can’t wait for your day. Remember, the Mad Hatter held his tea party every day. It’s telling you that your life with Chase will be a daily celebration.”
    “Oh! Of course!”
    “And, Sabina, when you stand in front of the looking glass in the Bride’s Suite on your wedding day, you’ll be looking at yourself with Alice’s young, adventurous, happy heart.”
    Damn, I’m good, Parker thought as the crazy bride sighed.
    “You’re right, you’re right.You’re absolutely right. I’m so glad I called you. I knew you’d know .”
    “That’s what we’re here for. It’s going to be a beautiful wedding, Sabina.Your perfect day.”
    After she hung up, Parker lay back a moment, but when she closed her eyes, the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party—Disney version—ran manically in her head.
    Resigned, she rose, crossed over to the French doors to the