Back Check (Aces Hockey #4)(4)

 

She'd known it was going to take time to build her own business, but it had been going slower than expected and she wasn't sure why. She was damn good at her job.

 

She'd moved to Chicago three years ago and had been ecstatic to land a job with Constance Beck Events, one of the biggest event planning companies in the city. It hadn't been long before she'd realized she was working for a backstabbing, manipulative bitch. Constance was good at fooling the clients, and there was no doubt she was a savvy businesswoman, but she relied heavily on her team to come up with the creative ideas and get things done. In the two years Katelyn had worked there, there'd been a complete turnover of staff, which in itself was a strong message. After going to work every day with a sick feeling in her stomach, with her neck and shoulders in perpetual knots, and with a constant headache, the last straw had come when Constance had blamed her for double booking a venue, when it had been Constance herself who'd done it. So Katelyn had quit.

 

She'd stayed as long as she could, because she knew she needed to build up a network of connections in the city to get more business. Maybe she hadn't stayed long enough, though.

 

But this was good news! Another wedding to plan, and the deposit check would be very helpful to pad her bank account a little.

 

The next evening at seven o'clock she arrived at the condominium high-rise on North LaSalle. The doorman cleared her to go up to the twentieth floor. She looked around at the lobby as she crossed it, heading toward the elevators. Gorgeous. This couple might have some money to spend. She smiled and mentally rubbed her hands together. But it wasn't just for the money … sure, a big job was great, but it also might mean more creativity with the ideas and maybe even more referrals, and that was always good.  

 

She knocked on the door of unit 2002 and it opened almost immediately. A young woman with long red-gold hair smiled at her. "Hi! I'm Lovey. You must be Katelyn."

 

"Yes." She smiled back and extended a hand. "Katelyn Medford."

 

Lovey shook her hand with a firm grip. Katelyn liked women who gave good handshakes.

 

"Come in."

 

Katelyn followed her into a spacious living room with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. A man sitting on the couch turned off the television and tossed the remote onto a table as he rose.

 

Katelyn took in his height and bulky muscles, then his handsome face. And she blinked. He looked familiar … Oh dear God. Her steps slowed as she recognized him.

 

Marc Dupuis.

 

Captain of the Chicago Aces.

 

Thoughts sped through her mind as she kept her smile firmly in place and introduced herself to the hockey player. "So nice to meet you."

 

Marc Dupuis's face was familiar to most Chicagoans. He was a talented player and super popular in the city. Katelyn tried to avoid hockey, but everyone in the city knew who he was.

 

For a moment, she actually considered backing out of this. She could make up some excuse … she'd overlooked a booking on her calendar, she had a trip to Kiev planned that weekend … something.

 

Because Marc Dupuis was a hockey player and probably his friends were hockey players, and guests would be hockey players … and she avoided hockey players like she avoided dark alleys at night and spiders and organ meats.

 

But she needed this job. She really needed this job. Plus, wow, talk about high profile. A job like this could totally launch her new business. She needed to keep her shit together and be professional here.

 

What if they wanted some kind of hockey-themed wedding? Was that why they'd contacted her? She was hard up for business, but organizing weddings like the last one she did, with the Walking Dead theme, and the upcoming one, where everyone was going to dress like superheroes, wasn't exactly what she wanted to spend her life doing.

 

Lovey offered her a drink and Katelyn accepted a glass of water.

 

"So what is the exact date in June you've picked?" she asked the couple, still thinking she might have to discover a scheduling conflict.

 

"June thirtieth," Lovey replied, sitting next to her fiancé on the couch.

 

"We should change it," Marc said.

 

Lovey gave him a pouty frown. "I don't want to change it, honey."

 

"It's going to be busy enough. What if we make it all the way this year? The season could go until June fifteenth. And then we're going to get married two weeks later?" The man's faint French accent was mesmerizing.

 

"I'll be looking after everything. Well, me and Katelyn." She beamed a smile at Katelyn. Then her eyebrows pinched together. "Do you think we should change the date? Are we really going to be able to pull this off in six months?"