Hands on her hips, Alexis gazed back up at him. “Pink, yellow and green,” she repeated. “No blue.”
“She’s right, Logan,” Kinley seconded from beside her. “It’s in the orders.”
He sighed heavily and started down the ladder.
Around them, frantic preparations were taking place for the wedding that would start in only a couple of hours. Back at work part-time after his appendectomy, but still not cleared to do any heavy lifting, young Zach helped the florist’s employees set up a half dozen freestanding white wrought-iron candelabra, each holding six tall tapers in the chosen pastels. Curtis and his brother-in-law were setting out spring flowers in big pots also wound with strings of fairy lights. The folding white chairs had already been set out in rows facing the gazebo. The aisle chair in each row would be decorated with a nosegay of ribbon and flowers and battery-powered fairy lights to be turned on just before the first guests were due to arrive. Once the sun set, the grounds would be aglow with tiny pastel lights and candle flames in addition to the soft path lighting and upward-pointing fountain lights that were always on in the gardens. It would be just the romantic scene the bride had requested.
Logan looked into the big box he’d brought down with him from the ladder shelf. “Why are there strings of blue lights in the box that was delivered to me?”
“Obviously an error,” his sister retorted. “Please tell me the other colors are in there.”
He dug through the box. “Yeah. Pink, yellow, green and blue.”
“Don’t use the blue,” his sister ordered.
“Yeah, I got that,” he grumbled, frowning up at the garland that he’d already wound with strings of pink and blue lights before Alexis and Kinley had checked on the progress of the decorations. “I’ll have to take out the blue strand and put in the others. What’s wrong with blue, anyway?”
“It just doesn’t match her theme,” Alexis replied.
He gave her a look, but shrugged. “Fine. I’ll fix it. Anything else?”
She shook her head. “Everything’s looking very nice. Thank you, Lo—”
Her words were cut off when she was bumped abruptly from behind. She looked around and then down to find Ninja sitting at her feet, his tail wagging on the grass. He grinned up at her around a white rose held carefully between his teeth, and then he reached out and laid the flower at her feet.
“Ninja!” Kinley groaned loudly and snatched up the flower. “Where did you get this? I swear, if you’ve ruined one of the baskets...”
“Zach!” Even as he yelled the name, Logan took hold of his dog’s collar. “Did you leave the padlock off the gate to my yard when you got that push broom from the storage shed?”
Zach grimaced. “Yeah, maybe,” he confessed. “But I made sure the gate was latched.”
Logan blew out a hard breath of exasperation. “You know he can open the latch.”
“I found the basket where he got the rose,” one of the florist employees called from the other side of the gravel aisle path. “It’s fine, he took it right off the outside.”
Kinley carried the undamaged bloom in that direction.
Zach stepped forward to reach for the dog’s collar. “I’ll take him back. And I’ll put the padlock on this time.”
“Don’t fuss at him, he didn’t cause any harm,” Alexis said, bending to pet the dog, who was wagging a bit more tentatively now. “Thank you for the gift,” she whispered in his ear, “but you’d better be good for the rest of the day.”
He nuzzled her face, knocking her glasses askew, his low, affectionate rumble vibrating in his broad chest. Giving him one last pat, she straightened and moved aside so Zach could
lead Ninja away.
“You’re still spoiling him,” Logan accused in a tone low enough that only Alexis could hear.
She flashed a smile at him. “Sorry, I can’t help it. He’s such a sweetie.”
Their gazes held for a moment until Kinley returned to them. “Okay, no damage done,” she reported. She looked quizzically at Alexis. “That mutt sure does like you.”
Alexis smiled brightly. “He knows I like him, too. I was just telling Logan that his pet is a sweetie.”
“His pet is a scoundrel.”
Laughing, Alexis nodded. “Maybe that’s what I like about him.”
Logan turned on one boot heel toward his ladder. “I’ve got to take the blue lights out of this garland and put in the yellow and green. Let me know if there’s anything else, but give me time to take care of it if there is.”