Page 22 of Among the Stars
Chapter Six
“New Year’s Eve?”Veronica exclaimed. The man was insane. Who planned a wedding in six days?
“We don’t want to wait any longer,” Ash explained. “We’ve waited twelve years already.”
The high school sweethearts separated by her evil parents only to find each other a dozen years later and get their happily ever after. These two were a flipping Hallmark movie.
“But that’s a week away. Less than a week.”
Ash paced the living room. “I know. But Jesse starts her radio tour the week after, and by the time that’s over she’ll be in rehearsals for the spring tour. It makes sense to do it now before life gets crazy.”
The latest artist signed to Shooting Stars Records, Jesse Gold was set to launch her debut album in a few months. The album Ash was producing. If the label’s track record continued, Ms. Gold would be a bona fide star by the end of the year. The fledgling operation had already sent Dylan Monroe to the top of the charts—plus a best new artist award—and redeemed country music bad boy Chance Colburn with a stellar relaunch of his rehab-interrupted career.
Veronica wanted to help the couple out, despite her own existential crisis about her ex remarrying, but her party planning didn’t stretch beyond her own backyard. And they were not having the wedding there. She had her limits. Plus. . . Winter.
“How big do you want this shindig to be?”
“A lot of our friends are off the road, so I’m guessing a hundred, give or take.”
They’d had only fifty at their wedding, but whatever.
“You’ll need a good-sized venue. On a holiday. A party holiday.”
“It’s a tall order, I know.” Ash dropped onto the couch and leaned his elbows on his knees. “There has to be someplace.” If there was, it would be a miracle find, and Veronica was short on those. “Wait a minute,” he said, snatching Cam’s card off the coffee table. “This guy owns that bar downtown, right? Rhodes Tavern?”
Oh, no.
“We could use the top floor. We’ll even pay extra to make it worth his while. Veronica, you have to hook us up.”
She couldn’t even hook herself up with Cameron Rhodes. Not for real.
“I don’t. . . I mean. . . That’s a big ask. They probably make a ton of money that night. I’m sure there’s another option.”
“Come on, Ronnie. It’s perfect. I did a songwriter’s night there once. There’s a back elevator we can use so no one has to go through the other floors. We can have the service, and then kick off the party right there, with the lights of Broadway behind us.” Pride prevented Veronica from admitting that she and Cam were a hoax. “And I’ll have you as my best woman,” Ash added.
“What? There’s no such thing as a best woman.”
Well, there was, but not in this context.
“You’re my best friend, Ronnie. There’s no one else I’d want standing up there beside me.”
“But I—”
“Now that you have this Cameron guy, all that weirdness from October is out of the way. You wouldn’t have taken him home for Christmas if it wasn’t serious, right? Now we’re both happy.”
That weirdness was what had led her to take a stranger home in the first place. After her annual Halloween bash, Veronica had confessed that seeing Ash with Jesse had really bothered her. They’d agreed that she just had to get past it. Or rather, she’d agreed so that Ash could be happy. She really did want that for him. Like it or not, Jesse did that for him.
“Okay,” she said, backed into a corner of her own making, “I’ll ask him. But I can’t guarantee he’ll say yes.”
She couldn’t even guarantee he’d see her. This was going to take some explaining and that meant more than a phone call.
“You’re the best!” Ash exclaimed as he twirled her in a giant bear hug. “Jesse is going to be so excited.”
“Don’t tell her until I know for sure. You don’t get a bride’s hopes up like that. It’s cruel.” It was highly unlikely that Veronica was going to be the hero at the end of this, so best to mitigate his expectations now. “We don’t have much time, so I’ll ask him tomorrow.”
“What about tonight? The sooner the better, right?”
Cam’s departure an hour ago conveyed loud and clear that he didn’t want to see her again, but she couldn’t tell Ash that. He did say that if she ever needed anything to call. She definitely needed something.