Chapter 5

“So, let me get this straight,” Scarlett started to say as she sat at breakfast with Drake. “You proposed without even giving me the slightest of hints, and now you want to get married in less than a month.”

“Actually, in two weeks, but yes,” Drake said as he calmly drank his coffee.

“You are batshit crazy!”

“Is that a yes?” Drake laughed.

Scarlett was one of the best public relations people in the country, and her new Los Angeles firm had already been buzzing in the newspapers. She was busier than both Drake and Sam combined, but that was how she liked it, and Drake knew that. He wouldn’t have asked anyone else for help; Scarlett was the one who knew Sam best, and she would be the one who could talk with Sam and get details out of her when they needed them.

“Is she going to be alright with this?” Scarlett asked, getting serious for a moment.

“She said she wanted to do it fast. I think she’s going to love it. Of course, what do I know, though; I’m just a guy. That’s why I’m asking you for help. We are going to meet with a couple wedding planners this afternoon, and hopefully will find one willing to work at short notice.”

Scarlett made a stressed face at Drake as she started to rummage through her purse. Something he had said wasn’t making her happy at all, and he sat there waiting to see what she would pull out of her purse.

“Call him,” Scarlett said as she handed over a business card. “He owes me a favor; tell him I sent you.”

“Colin Firm?” Drake said with a chuckle. “He sounds like a porn star.”

“I think he used to be,” Scarlett said with a serious face. “But he can plan a party quickly, and Samantha will love him.”

Drake looked at the card and then back at Scarlett. He wasn’t sure he wanted a former porn star planning his wedding, but if Scarlett trusted him, then Drake was going to trust him as well.

“Can you call him and fill him in on our little secret? When I come to visit him with Sam, I’ll say it’s two months away, but it’s really two weekends away.”

“I’ll tell him.”

“Oh, and I need a reason to have a party that night. I don’t want anyone accidently telling Sam it’s a wedding, so I was thinking we could call it an engagement party. That way we could ask Sam more questions about what she might like without throwing her off too much.”

“Yeah, we can tell the guests it’s an engagement party. Is there anyone else you want to tell the truth to?”

Drake had to think about it for a moment. He didn’t want too many people to know what was going on, or the secret would get out. Instead, he thought almost everyone should be kept in the dark, including Robert and Sam’s family. Even though they had suggested the early wedding, Drake thought it would be great to surprise them with the wedding when they weren’t expecting it.

“Nope. Just you, me and the wedding planner,” Drake answered with a huge smile.

“Wow, this takes a lot of balls. She’s either going to love you forever or leave you,” Scarlett said with a shrug of the shoulders.

Drake obviously hoped Sam would love him forever, and that was why they were getting married. Sam had all but agreed to the early wedding when they were in bed the night before. Drake felt confident if he pulled off the wedding details, that Sam was going to love the idea.

“We do have one major problem, though,” Drake suddenly thought out loud. “The dress. We can’t just have one there for her. What if she doesn’t like it? What if it doesn’t fit?”

Scarlett thought for a moment and then decided that she would have to handle the dress part of the plan herself. There was no way she was going to leave that in the hands of Drake or the wedding planner. Scarlett knew clothes, and she knew her friend, Samantha, very well. She thought she would be able to find the perfect dress for her, but the problem was going to be getting a dress tailored to fit her.

“I’ll handle the dress situation; you and the wedding planner deal with the rest of things.”

Drake instantly felt relieved when Scarlett offered to be in charge of the dress. It had been his biggest worry, and with Scarlett in charge of it, he didn’t feel like he would have to worry about it at all.

“What else am I forgetting?” Drake asked as he flipped through some notes he had written down in his phone.

“I think we have enough for now; let’s get started, and we will keep in touch throughout the week,” Scarlett said. “I’ve got to get back to work.”

Drake knew Scarlett had been busy since she opened her L.A. office. Every time he and Sam had stopped by to see her at work, the office was packed with people. Scarlett had successfully remodeled the building, hired staff, and acquired a full load of clients in only a few short months. She was certainly an amazing woman; Drake couldn’t deny that.

“Alright, I’ll let you get back to building your empire. Thank you so much for helping me.”

“Oh, I’m doing it for Sam, not you,” Scarlett said with a wink.

The mischievous look on Scarlett’s face brought Drake back to the night he made his final decision after the women had spent the whole week at his home. Sam was angry with him and had gone right up to Scarlett and kissed her. He could still feel the gut-wrenching pain of jealousy when the two women looked like they were enjoying each other’s company more than Drake’s.

That whole week had been a series of events that Drake knew he would never forget. Not only had it given him the clarity to choose Samantha, it convinced Sam that she wanted to give a relationship with Drake a try. No matter what else happened, the week was worth it purely because of the outcome that he had obtained.

Out of all the women who had been at the house, Scarlett was the only one that Sam and Drake kept in close contact with. But they had talked with a couple of the other women since they left as well. Lauren and Scarlett were friends, and Scarlett had started to work with Lauren as a client. Lauren was one of her first L.A. clients.

Emily moved to Los Angeles and was working from a small apartment on the beach; she and Allison were very close friends and hung out often. Drake had even seen a tabloid story that said the two women were a couple, but he didn’t believe it at all.

Sometimes Drake forgot that he had slept with the women and just looked at them as friends. He had talked with Sam about the women and wanted to know if it made her uncomfortable to continue to be friends with them, but she insisted that it didn’t bother her. Sam was an amazing woman, and Drake was lucky to have her.

“Thank you so much for your help, Scarlett. I don’t care who you’re doing it for. I really appreciate you.”

Drake gave Scarlett a hug and sent her on her way so he could go through his notes and continue the planning process. He had pulled a list of things to do off a wedding planning site and was checking them off on his phone as he got started on each necessary item.

He really had no idea if he was going to be able to pull off a surprise wedding, but there was a part of him that knew he wouldn’t fail. Drake had spent his life mastering the art of completing impossible tasks; he certainly wasn’t going to let a wedding deadline be the one thing that he didn’t master.

After getting himself organized, he called the wedding planner that Scarlett had suggested. Luckily, she had already called him, and he was prepared to talk with Drake about the short deadline.

“I’m going to have to charge you extra for the rush deadline. It means I’ll have to stop all work on my other clients’ events,” Colin Firm said to Drake.

Drake had a seriously difficult time keeping a straight face every time he thought of the man’s name. He couldn’t help wondering if it was his real name or if he was using his porn name in the hopes of getting more clients from the novelty of it all.

“My soon-to-be wife is going to want to meet you. Can you come to the Starbucks on Twelfth Street around two this afternoon to meet her?”

“Yes, I can make that happen. I’ll have a ton of questions for her.”

“Remember, she thinks the wedding isn’t happening for two months. We will tell her the event in two weeks is our engagement party,” Drake said, starting to get a little nervous.

“No worries; I can plan an engagement party and a wedding,” Colin said.

Drake rolled his eyes as he took a deep breath and prepared to explain everything again to the wedding planner. He really didn’t have time for this.

“No, just a wedding,” Drake said curtly.

“Yes, but she is going to want to plan an engagement party and a wedding. I’ll need to work with her on both, even though they will be the same thing.”

Drake understood what Colin was getting at but wasn’t sure Colin really understood that there wasn’t going to be an actual engagement party. But Drake was exhausted and couldn’t stand the idea of trying to go through the whole thing again. He decided he would send Colin an email later in the evening after he and Sam had officially hired the wedding planner.

“Okay, I’ll see you at two this afternoon. Please be on time; it’s one of Samantha’s pet peeves, and I won’t be able to convince her to hire you if you’re late.”

“I’ll be there,” Colin said and then hung up the phone.

Drake didn’t feel super confident in Colin, but if Scarlett recommended him, he had to be good at his job. Plus, Drake didn’t think many other planners would be willing to give up their other clients for two whole weeks while they worked on his wedding; so he didn’t have many choices besides Colin.

The wedding was going to be there before he knew it, and Drake couldn’t imagine he would get much sleep between then and the big day. His mind was already swirling with information on what he needed to get done and what order everything had to take.

For a man who had never planned a wedding, Drake was getting nervous about everything he had to do. He was involved more than any man he knew and wasn’t all that sure it was a good thing. He desperately hoped he didn’t mess something up in the process of the planning. His worst nightmare was that he would forget some essential item that Sam couldn’t get married without.

He took a few deep breaths as he prepared for the next couple of weeks ahead. Drake was in for a marathon of wedding planning that was going to be utterly exhausting. But in the end, it would mean a wife for him and the happily ever after fairy tale ending to his love affair with Samantha.