Wedding Survivor Read Free Page A

order the flowers and help with the dress and shit like that
, he'd told them. Frankly, the less Eli talked about weddings, the better, and he was only doing this one under official protest.
    "What is our final destination, anyway?" Marnie asked, trying to see out the window again.
    "Where the audition will be."
    "Audition!" She laughed at that.
    Eli glanced at her again. "What's funny?"
    "That just sounds funny. Like I'm going to have to try out or something," she said, and laughed again.
    She had no idea. Eli suppressed a smile.
    "So what's the deal with the Thrillseekers?" she asked. "Anything you can tell me about them? What they're like?"
    "Well… they don't like to talk a lot," he said, and looked at her meaningfully.
    "Really?" Marnie asked with a charming smile, missing his point completely. "That's too bad. I like to talk to people. Don't you? I like meeting new people and hearing about them and what they do. I guess that's why I'm such a good wedding planner. I really
listen
to the bride and groom and try and make their vision of their perfect day come true," she said, and blithely launched into all the ways she did that.
    With a small sigh, Eli folded his arms and stared forward.
----
Chapter Two

 
    MARNIE was fully aware of the bad habit she had of talking to fill the space around her, especially when she was nervous. But she really didn't know how to stop, especially not when she was this nervous. She was beginning to think that maybe she'd jumped a little too hastily into what was really a whack job.
    That wasn't so far-fetched, seeing as how she'd found out about the job to begin with by eavesdropping on a hushed conversation at a wedding trade show. While Marnie was not in the habit of eavesdropping on other people's conversations (well… unless it was something
really
juicy), she'd been a little desperate. She needed this job in a bad way—if she had to live with Mom and Dad another month, she'd hurl herself into the ocean and let herself be washed out to sea. And besides, a certified wedding planner without an actual solo wedding under her belt couldn't afford to be too choosy.
    Oh, who was she kidding?
    The very thought of doing Vincent Vittorio and Olivia
    Dagwood's wedding sent chills up her spine! They were the two biggest stars in the universe and Marnie couldn't
wait
to meet them—she could imagine her and Olivia becoming best friends as they planned everything, and then, when Marnie had pulled off the wedding of the century without a hitch, Olivia would hook her up with some of her A-list stud friends and refer tons of fabulous clients to her so that Marnie could become
the
wedding planner to the stars.
    Hey, a girl could dream, couldn't she? And that dream alone prompted her to put on the red hat and purchase the fruit, per the bizarre instructions of Thrillseekers Anonymous.
    Then the Lincoln had appeared.
    When she'd seen Eli leaning against the Lincoln in a black Astros hat, with dark glasses resting on a straight nose, and a sexy shadow of a beard dusting a strong chin and some killer lips, not to mention the long, lean look of him in general, Marnie had been pleasantly surprised. Bonus! The job had a really good-looking guy involved!
    Unfortunately, good-looking did not mean particularly friendly. He reminded her of a cowboy in one of the old westerns, the strong silent type. A Clint Eastwood with steely eyes—well, she
presumed
there were steely eyes behind those shades.
    And what was all that about an audition?
    The Lincoln turned, and Marnie caught a glimpse of towering iron fences through the front window that could only be surrounding huge monolithic houses, and she felt a tingle of excitement.
Wedding planner to the stars
, here she was!
    Actually, telling Clint Eastwood that she'd wanted to pursue a career in wedding planning was a big fat lie. When the dot-com she'd been working for went belly up, she'd tried to get another job in the tech industry, along with everyone else and all