It was beautiful inside the Hyatt. With Tara’s help, Jenna and Ty had chosen a perfect location not only for their wedding reception, but also for the rehearsal dinner. They checked their coats and found Gavin’s dad at the coat check.
“Your mom is already inside with Tara and Mick,” Jimmy said.
“I think we’re going to need to feed Jenna oxygen,” Tara said, pulling Liz away from Gavin.
“Oh? Why’s that?”
“No particular reason. And for every reason.”
“Ah.” Liz nodded. “Pre-wedding jitters.”
“Exactly.”
They found Jenna talking to the catering manager. “This is not the food I ordered.”
Clyde looked confused. He opened a binder. “Ma’am, if you’d like to go over the forms you filled out, I can assure you it is.”
“It can’t be. I hate salmon. Who would order salmon?”
“Clyde. Let’s go over a few things,” Tara said, motioning him away from a near frantic Jenna, who then turned to Liz.
“The food isn’t right. Look at this.”
Liz blinked as Jenna fanned the paper in front of her.
Liz took the menu. “Jenna. Calm down. Tara will take care of everything. Remember, this is what she does for a living.”
Jenna fell into a chair. “I’m not going to make it until tomorrow. Mick had a game on Thursday, so he just got back in the nick of time. Cole has a bye this weekend. Ty at least has a couple of days off, as do his two friends and teammates, who are ushers. And Gavin is off season. Do you have any idea what it was like trying to plan my wedding around the schedules of athletes in three sports, one that’s off season, and two that are in season?”
“Actually, yes, I do.”
“Oh, of course you do. Anyway, a fucking nightmare. And Christmas is next week. What the hell was I thinking getting married the week before Christmas? No one has time for this shit. No one’s going to show up. I just know it.”
Yeah, Jenna was on the first-class express to meltdown city. Direct flight, no stopovers.
Liz signaled for a waiter. “Bring me a shot of tequila. And make it a double.”
The waiter nodded and Jenna lifted her head. “Oh, no. I’m not drinking tonight. I’m going to be calm and rational and not drunk and crazy.”
“Okay.” Liz leveled a direct look at her.
“I’m already crazy, aren’t I?”
“No, you’re stressed and nervous. It’s normal. I was a spewing volcano the night before Gavin and I got married.”
Jenna’s lips curved. “I remember that. You suddenly decided the venue couldn’t possibly be big enough for all the people who were invited, and we needed to move it somewhere else.”
Liz laughed. “Yes. So trust me, I was a much bigger basket case than you could ever hope to be. This is just pre-wedding nervousness that all brides have. Tara calmed me down the day before mine, so now I’m going to do the same for you and tell you that your wedding is going to be perfect.”