Snowed In with Her Ex by Andrea Laurence Read Free Book Online Page A

Judging by what you’ve said and the estimate I received, you all are doing quite well now.”
    Bree chuckled. “Not all our weddings are on the same scale as yours. We have everything from week-long million-dollar extravaganzas to couples that elope in the garden with only their parents. Whatever a bride wants, we can make it happen.”
    “How did you start all this?”
    “I met the others when I transferred to UT. During our senior year, while we were trying to think of what we wanted to do with our lives, one of us came up with the idea of a wedding facility. A friend had gotten engaged and complained that it was hard to find the right kind of venue that wasn’t at a church or wasn’t a tacky, in-and-out kind of chapel. We spent months putting together our grand plan and trying to round up investors.”
    “I can imagine it wasn’t cheap to get off the ground.”
    “Oh, no. Even with some startup investments and money from my dad, we’re mortgaged to our eyeballs. The initial costs were astronomical, but that’s because you have to buy all the things you’ll use repeatedly over the years like chairs and tables and stemware. Once you’ve got it, though, you’ve got it, and our expenses have gone down over time. Like I said, it took several years of hard work, but we’ve managed to make a profit every year. The facility itself will take a long time to pay off, but that’s the nature of the business.”
    “Did you buy a place and renovate it?”
    “No. We bought land and built everything exactly the way we wanted it. Natalie had a vision of how it should be laid out, and there was nothing even close on the market. Having a dad in the construction business certainly helped there. I probably saw him more that year than I did all the years before it.”
    Ian noticed the faint bitterness in her voice when she spoke. He knew her words earlier hadn’t been solely intended to antagonize him. She’d meant them. She knew what it was like to be the child of a busy, driven man. He never wanted to do that to a child, which is why he’d deliberately not married or started a family. Missy getting pregnant was a mistake. Until he held his child in his arms, it would be hard to think otherwise.
    “So...care to tell me what’s going on with you and your pop star? It doesn’t exactly sound like you two are living the fairy tale the magazines are reporting.”
    Ian sighed. “Can’t we talk more about your photography? It’s far less depressing.”
    Bree set down her spoon and crossed her arms over her chest. “Come on, Ian. From what you told me earlier, seems like you need someone to talk to.”
    He popped the last of his sandwich into his mouth and stood up. “Wine first,” he said, carrying his plate back into the kitchen. He opened the small wine chiller and perused the collection. A nice 1993 chardonnay ought to do the trick. “You want some?”
    “Sure,” she said, following him in and putting her dishes into the dishwasher. By the time she turned around, he’d poured two generous glasses and had one held out to her.
    “So, Missy and I...” he began as he took a sip and walked into the living room. Ian settled into the large leather chair by the fireplace. “Were never really Missy and I. I signed her to my label three years ago. She was one of my first. She was on the brink of hitting it big and I signed her just in time. I’ve made a fortune on her, don’t get me wrong, but she’s been a handful from the start.”
    He paused to look at Bree. She was curled up in the chair on the other side of the hearth, listening intently. It was easy talking to her. It always had been. He didn’t realize how much he’d missed that until this moment. He hadn’t had any long, meaningful conversations that weren’t about the business in quite a while.
    “Her contract ended with this last album. It didn’t do well. Her single barely cracked the Top 40. I wasn’t happy with her, but she wasn’t interested in