Flowers and Financiers by Alina Jacobs

6

Sebastian

“You’re covered in dirt,” I told my brother when we got home.

The Svensson brothers were half-feral. They had all grown up out in a compound in the desert, left by their parents to fend and fight for themselves. Whenever I saw my brother play roughly with them, I always had to bite my tongue and not beg him to be careful.

It had been years since Alfie had recovered from childhood leukemia. He wanted to be a normal kid. I knew that, and I had moved us out to Harrogate so that he could have that classic childhood experience after years of hospitals, needles, and tubes. Still.

“Is that chili sauce or mud?” I scrubbed at his face.

“Probably both,” Alfie said happily. “We were playing Nerf war!”

I shooed him into the bathroom and threw his clothes into the washer. Out of habit, while Alfie was upstairs, I started to clean.

When his immune system had been shot because of the chemo, everything had to be sanitary. My company had invented a new industrial-strength cleaner just so that I could feel better about Alfie’s environment. Even with all the best soap, the reality was that if you wanted something clean, you needed to douse it in alcohol and set it on fire.

“You don’t have to keep cleaning,” Alfie said, exasperated, as he came into the living room, where I was meticulously dusting the TV. He flopped down onto the couch. “You need to get out more. Find a girlfriend.”

“You’re only ten. What do you know about dating?”

“The Svenssons all have girlfriends. You’re a billionaire too, and you’re a CEO,” my brother said, stretching out on the sofa. “You could totally get any girl you want.”

“I can’t just bring a random woman here to live.” I frowned, shooing him into the kitchen.

“You’re not finding a wife,” Alfie countered. “Just go on a date for fun.”

“I’m far too busy,” I said and handed him the snack I had made him, still amazed that he was here, alive, and healthy. “I’m Hunter’s best man.”

Alfie laughed. “I can’t believe they roped you into that.” He shook his head. “Those Svensson brothers.”

* * *

I wasn’t as putout by being involved in the wedding as the Svenssons must have thought I would have been. There was something nice about weddings. They were happy and beautiful, and there was something moving about the start of a new family.

Of course, that was assuming that the wedding consisted of two normal people from two normal families, and not Hunter and his litters of brothers, and Meg and her three sisters and, of course, half the town. I had to force my way through people who were crowded around the Gray Dove Bistro, where we were having the kickoff meeting.

Phone cameras were out, and the local news crew was breathlessly narrating the arrivals of the wedding-meeting attendees.

I had originally relocated my company to Harrogate so that Alfie could be out in nature with greenery and fresh country air. I had thought the small town might be better for him after he had spent a year and a half of treatment cooped up in my steel concrete-and-glass penthouse in Manhattan and riding in cars through the cavernous city streets.

The town had seemed quaint, and the people friendly, when we had attended the festivals as visitors. Now that I was a full-time resident, the small-town quirks were much more apparent.

“We have the private dining room booked for the wedding meeting,” Hazel, the café owner, told me.

Ida and Dottie, two of the town’s senior citizens, were acting as bouncers at the stairs. Both were dressed in matching bright pink tracksuits with big gold chains and sunglasses.

“ID?” Ida asked as Dottie crossed her arms.

“Seriously?”

“No ID? Then you’re not going up there.”

“He’s the best man!” Hazel shouted at Ida.

She took off her sunglasses and peered at me while Dottie flipped to a page on her clipboard.

“He checks out,” Dottie said, nodding.

Ida waved me up the narrow staircase.

“I can’t believe I’m missing work for this.” I sighed.

If they were paying a wedding planning company—not just a planner but a whole company—why did I need to be at the kickoff meeting? Wasn’t that the bride’s and the bridesmaids’ jobs? I had thought I would be planning the bachelor party, organizing the rehearsal dinner, and helping Hunter select the wedding ring. Now I was at a kickoff meeting, like this was a major corporate merger or something.

“Hey, Sebastian!” Meg waved to me from across the room. She was standing next to several huge windows that looked over Main Street. “Thanks for organizing food!”

“That seemed to be the only way people were going to show up,” I said dryly.

“They were going to be here anyway.” Meg shook her head. “You’d think with festivals forty out of fifty-two weekends a year, people wouldn’t want yet another town gathering, but you would be wrong.”

We peered out of the windows.

“I think some of my employees are down there,” I said with a frown.

People cheered when they saw us at the window.

“Let’s get this meeting started,” I said, taking a seat.

A dark-haired woman who seemed oddly familiar stood up at the head of the table.

“Welcome to the start of wedding planning!” she said. “I’m Ivy, the lead planner at Weddings in the City, and these are my colleagues.”

The women all introduced themselves and explained their part in the wedding planning process.

“And we have one final member,” Ivy said, looking at an empty seat.

A short, plump woman with a mess of curly hair popped up from under the table.

“Hi! Sorry, I was trying to get the projector to work.”

The screen at the front of the room brightened, and I blinked then looked at the girl.

“You!” I barked.

Amy blanched. “Oh…shit.”

She tangled her hand in her hair sheepishly. Twigs, leaves, and flower petals rained onto the table.

“Oops! Don’t mind me. I was doing a little gardening.” She was dusty, dirty, and covered in bits of mulch and grass trimmings.

“They can’t plan this wedding,” I said flatly, turning to the mayor.

“They’re the best in the business,” Meg said.

Hunter glared at me. “Weddings in the City is who Meg wants to plan the wedding, Sebastian.”

I pointed. “That girl, Amy, dumped barbecue on me.”

“Not on purpose, I’m sure,” Meg said with a laugh. “I know Amy. She and I both like our food. No way are we wasting it by dumping it on someone!”

Amy nodded. “Yeah, it was totally an accident. I had a leetle bit too much to drink.” She placed an enormous bag on the table. “It was a super-awesome event, though. Congrats on the win. Hunter, you killed it out there.”

“I’m surprised you remembered,” I grumbled.

She opened the bag. “Also, I brought you something, Meg, as a wedding-kickoff present.” Out of her bag, she pulled an enormous plant with wand-like stems and waxy, emerald-green leaves.

“What the hell?”

“It’s a Zanzibar gem. They are drought tolerant and great for offices.”

“It’s beautiful,” Meg said.

I looked around the room. “Is no one going to remark on how crazy that is? She just pulled a whole plant out of her purse.”

“Oh, that’s nothing,” Amy said with a laugh. “Once, I had a squirrel in my purse and didn’t realize it, and it hopped out of my bag in the middle of a town hall meeting!”

Everyone in the room laughed, like that wasn’t the grossest thing in the world. Then a horse neighed.

“Shhh, Baxter,” Amy said under the table.

“You brought your horse here?” I asked in shock.

Amy glared at me. “On Saturday, you were going on and on about how he wasn’t a horse. He was a stuffed animal,” she shot back.

“You had him dressed in sneakers!” I railed.

“He’s so cute!” Meg cooed. “Baxter has to be in the wedding.”

“Speaking of,” Ivy said, writing in her notebook, “Hunter, which one of your brothers did you choose to be your best man? We will need to coordinate with him.”

Hunter leaned back in his chair. “None of my brothers who could be trusted with the task wanted to do it. And the ones who did want to do it, I wouldn’t trust with a pet rock, let alone a wedding. So Sebastian is going to be the best man.”

“Oh, hell no!”