Page 23 of He Loves Me Knot
Liddy groaned and reached over to turn off the music. To Callum’s questioning look, she said, “My sister and Quinn want to talk to you.” She turned on the speakerphone.
Callum smiled—a genuine smile that dissolved his usually stern expression. “Hi, Elle. Quinn.”
“Callum Scott, I’m going to murder you. You’re lucky you have family here who might report you missing. Because otherwise, when you get here, I would definitely kill you.”
Wow, Elle sounds . . . frustrated.
Callum raised a brow.
“She didn’t understand that when you said rustic bungalows, you meant rustic,” Quinn explained, his tone apologetic.
Elle spoke up again. “It’s not that I didn’t get what rustic was—believe it or not, I can do rustic—but full-sized beds in all the rooms? Not to mention the size of the rooms. My closet at home is bigger than what most of our guests have to work with. And none of the ceremony amenities that were on the website appear to be here. I didn’t want to complicate anything—with Jasper here to perform the ceremony, I figured we didn’t need a lot—but there are no chairs for people to sit and watch. And the caterer we hired closed up shop without telling us, so now I have to find food for the reception.”
Yikes.
Just how much planning had Elle put into this wedding?
She was a fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants person, but not Quinn. Then again, knowing Quinn, he’d do whatever Elle wanted without questioning her.
I should have reached out and asked if she needed more help.
But every time Liddy talked to Elle about the wedding, Elle just said how much she wanted things to be relaxed.
“Isn’t there an on-site coordinator to handle the wedding details?” Liddy asked, avoiding looking at Callum. This was his mother’s place, after all, and she didn’t want to step on his toes if Elle was implying things were being shoddily run.
Elle gave an exasperated grunt. “I don’t even know. Everything just feels so chaotic. Grandma brought Leo with her, and now she’s claiming there’s not enough room in the room she booked for the both of them—which there isn’t—but I don’t have any place to put her. And don’t even get me started on the monkeys.”
Callum chortled. “You’re in Costa Rica, Elle. You should have expected monkeys.”
“Oh, yeah?” Liddy could practically hear Elle’s glare as she continued speaking. “Should I have expected to find a three-inch-long roach in my tennis shoes the first morning I arrived?AfterI put my shoe on?”
“Is the room dirty?” Callum asked, without reacting.
“No, everything is spotless, but?—”
Quinn said, “Darling, I think you’ll have plenty of time to air your grievances with Callum?—”
“Roaches are pretty much par for the course for this part of the world. No matter how much you try to keep bugs out, they’ll find a way in.” Callum flexed his arm, then casually set it on top of the steering wheel. “And I never tried to sell you onLa Hacienda.It’s no luxury hotel—just a low-key place for people who don’t mind roughing it a bit.”
Elle’s voice grew tearful. “Yeah, well, joke’s on us because Quinn’s mom is threatening to stay at the Four Seasons, which will make the entire schedule even more of a nightmare because it’s apparently several hours away. I had this dream of a wedding on the beach here and relaxing in hammocks and doing all the fun adventures people talk about, but . . . I just don’t know how much more I can take of this.” She sniffled loudly. “I’m so stressed out, guys. I’m sorry. I’m a mess.”
Oh God.
Guilt ate its way up Liddy’s core. As though she hadn’t already felt horrible about what she had to tell her sister about the dress.
“Um . . .” Liddy cleared her throat. She should just confess and get it over with. “Look, there’s something I have to tell you, Elle. It’s about your?—”
Callum turned toward her sharply and took the phone from her hand.
Liddy startled.What the hell?
“So sorry about everything, Elle. Listen, I’ll do what I can when I get there. See you soon.” He hung up almost as quickly as he had on his mom.
Her jaw dropped open. “Did you really just hang up on her?”
“Are you mad? Your sister tells you she’s stressed, and you think it’s a good time to tell her you lost her wedding dress?” Callum dipped his chin. “I may not know anything about women, but I know enough to know your timing couldn’t be ghastlier. Elle doesn’t need that right now.”
Liddy frowned. That Callum might care about her sister’s feelings was . . . strange.And he’s also right.Her cheeks warmed at his scolding. “I just didn’t want to wait and drop the bomb on her when we arrived. Let her think I was pretending everything was fine.”