Charlie had no opinion at all. He thought everything Emma said was fantastic. It didn’t seem to matter what idea she proposed; he liked them all. It strengthened her belief that he was here to spy, not to actually help.
“You really put a lot of thought into this,” Charlie said, flipping through the binder. “Do you only plan weddings? My dad’s retiring in June and my sister wants to have a party for him. We could use someone as organized as you to get the thing off the ground.”
“I’m not a party planner. I love my sister, and the last time she got married, I was in college and had no time to be much help.”
“It’s cool that you and Kendall are so close. I come from a big family, spread out all over the country. I can’t remember the last time we were all under one roof.”
“Maybe you will be for your dad’s retirement party,” Emma suggested.
“Maybe. Having all my sisters together can sometimes be more trouble than it’s worth. You and your sister seem to get along better than mine ever did.”
“Did you guys grow up in Chicago?”
“Northern suburbs, near the Wisconsin border. Ever been to Six Flags Great America?”
“Only every summer until I was about twenty.” Going to the amusement park once a year was one of her favorite childhood memories. Emma loved roller coasters and rides that made her stomach drop. One advantage to being so tall was getting to ride them with her sisters even though they were older than her.
“I grew up just a couple miles away. Worked there in the summers when I was in high school.”
“Wow, that makes working at the grocery store as a teenager seem really boring.”
“It was a pretty fun job. The best job I ever had, though, was at a pancake house while I was training to be a paramedic. My pancake-flipping skills are top-notch. I make perfect pancakes.”
This was why everyone found him so endearing. His quirkiness was a refreshing change from guys who spent all their time telling a woman how much money they made and how fast their car went. Emma liked that he wasn’t really full of himself and his attitude toward life in general was always so positive.
“I’m impressed by this, honestly,” she said. Emma had grown up in a house where her father made pancakes for the girls every Sunday. The first batch was always a mess and every pancake was usually burned on at least one side.
“But enough about me. Let’s talk about you,” Charlie said.
“Aren’t we here to talk about Max and Kendall’s wedding?” The point of this meeting was making less and less sense as it went on. She had let him distract her from their reason for getting together.
“Yes. Let’s talk about the wedding. Are you bringing a date?”
“What does that have to do with the wedding plans?”
Charlie shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I wasn’t sure if the maid of honor and best man should bring dates or not. I was thinking of coming alone so I don’t shirk any of my responsibilities.”
She was beginning to believe he had no ideas. That this whole meeting was a setup so he could report back to Max. “Well, I do plan on bringing a date, and I will still make sure everything goes off without a hitch. Max has nothing to worry about.”
“Oh, yeah. I mean...” He shook his head. “I wasn’t implying you wouldn’t be able to help. Max isn’t worried, either.” Charlie’s face fell. “So you’re bringing your boyfriend or something, huh?”
Emma blew out a frustrated breath. “I thought you said you had some ideas for this wedding. Isn’t that why we’re here?”
“It is. I do,” Charlie insisted, finally dropping the Twenty Questions. “I was thinking about the boys.”
“The boys?”
“Simon and Aidan. It would be nice if we found a way to include them in the ceremony. My oldest sister did this thing at her wedding. It was a second marriage for both her and my brother-in-law and they both had kids from their previous relationships. So, instead of lighting a unity candle, they had the kids come up and they all filled this vase with different-colored sand. It symbolized the blending of the two families into one. The boys would like that, don’t you think?”
That was actually a really good idea. So good, Emma couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it herself. She’d totally forgotten about incorporating the boys into the ceremony aside from having them be ring bearers. She wrote down the sand-art idea in her notebook.
“I love that. They love those kids more than anything.”
Charlie seemed to sigh with relief. “I’m glad you like it. I thought since Max had them help propose, it was something to consider.”
“Did your sister do anything else? Maybe at the reception?”
“I don’t remember. I can ask her. I’m sure she’s got some other tips.”
“All right, sounds good.” She closed up her notebook and slipped it and her wedding binder into her giant tote bag. She planned to sneak over to her parents’ so her mom would invite her to stay for dinner. For Emma, there was nothing worse about being single than having to cook for one. “I think we’re done here. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Wait,” he said as she began to slide out of the booth. “We’re done?”
Emma laughed. What more could they possibly talk about? How much he liked every idea she had? How excellent she was at picking out the perfect colors for a summer wedding? Maybe he could tell her one more time that she should be getting paid for this. Or perhaps he’d start in on the personal questions again.
“You agreed with everything I had to say,” she told him. “You made this meeting super easy and fast. Now we have the rest of the day to ourselves. Good work.”
He didn’t seem so excited about it. “Yeah, great job, Charlie,” he muttered.
THE FIREHOUSE DINING ROOM had two banquet-size tables butted up against one another to make enough room for all the hungry firefighters and paramedics on duty. Charlie and a bunch of the guys from the house were hanging out, reading the paper and making small talk.
The station’s rookie/probie was bending Lieutenant Kyle Keller’s ear about his most recent date. “I just don’t get it. I thought we had a great time, but she hasn’t returned my calls or answered any of my texts.”
“Something tells me your definition of a great time and a woman’s definition of a great time are two very different things.”
A few guys at the table laughed. One of the other firefighters joined in. “Jones thinks dinner at a burger joint and a couple hours at an arcade is a great night.”
“Be quiet, Alvarez. Arcades can be a ton of fun,” Jones argued as the entire room erupted in laughter.
Lieutenant Keller shook his head. “I hate to break it to you, Jones, but there may be plenty of first dates in your future but absolutely zero second ones.”
Probies were usually on the receiving end of a lot of teasing, but Jones had a way of saying and doing things that made him the biggest target of all. He looked to Serena, the only female at Station 22. “Hayes, you’re a woman. Help me out here.”
“Why do I think I’m going to regret this?” she grumbled from behind the Chicago Tribune.
“You’d have fun at an arcade, wouldn’t you?”
She peered over her newspaper at him. “Did you really take some poor girl to the arcade? What was she, ten years old?”
“Come