Wedding Survivor by Julia London

Unfortunately, I don't sit around with anyone but Mom and Dad."
    "Issues," he snorted, and looked down at his list.
    "Yes,
issues
! Issues you know nothing about!"
    "Oh really? Would it be issues like maybe too many shopping sprees? What is it with women and shopping, anyway? Why would anyone spend every dime they ever made and then some on shoes and clothes and spray-on tans?"
    Marnie gasped. "How did you
know
that?"
    "We run a very thorough background check. We can't afford to have some flake infiltrate our operation."
    "Is there a reason you act like we're working on some top military secret?"
    "That's a great description, because this is exactly the way we treat our business. The sooner you start thinking that way, the better off we'll both be."
    With a huff, she slid down in her seat like a chastised child. "Is there anything else, general?"
    "Yeah, private," he responded with a grin, and explained how they would work, how she would bill for expenses, how she was to report in to him on a daily basis. How he and Olivia and Vince would leave for the mountains a week ahead of her for the canyoning, and how
no
, Marnie could not go, because she had work to do.
    "There's one last thing," he said. "You need to manage the couple's expectations."
    "Meaning?"
    "Meaning, we are going to be high in the San Juan Mountains and very remote. It's not exactly Santa Monica where you can truck in a bunch of cute lights or whatever, or have limousines drive the wedding party around. Trust me on this—I know Olivia. She's going to want the sun and the moon. It's your job to give her that, but on a scale that matches up with a wedding in a remote mountain location. Just keep thinking about logistics."
    Marnie nodded pertly. "Manage expectations," she said, jotting it down. "Got it."
    She didn't have it. He knew she didn't have it because she knew nothing about the way these people lived. Eli did know, and that's why he and Marnie would be talking on a daily basis. He'd worked beside a number of Hollywood stars, befriended them, dined with them and knew them to be self-centered egomaniacs who thought the world revolved around them. Hell, he'd almost married one of them.
    That prompted a dull thump in his chest and he abruptly flipped his notebook shut. "You ready to meet the bride?"
    Mamie's face instantly lit with an enchanting smile. "I can't
wait
," she said, and quickly began gathering her things.
    * * *
    MARNIE met Olivia Dagwood in her trailer on the set of
WonderGirl
.
    Her trailer was really cool, decked out in great, really cool Scandinavian-looking furniture, a big mirror and makeup lights, a separate room with a bed, a Jacuzzi, and a plasma TV on one wall. There were a couple of people inside—one man Marnie thought was a makeup artist, because he was holding a palette of what looked like eye shadows. And there was a woman with a PDA and the ear-bud of a cell phone in her ear.
    Marnie didn't even see Olivia Dagwood until she stood up. She was wearing a very sleek and very modern superhero
WonderGirl
outfit. "Eli!" she purred, and went up on her perfect little tiptoes to air-kiss him before turning to Marnie, bending her head back to greet Marnie with a lovely smile. "So you're my wedding planner!"
    Olivia, Marnie was extremely disappointed to see, was no bigger than a child. She was maybe two or three inches over five feet and might have weighed one hundred pounds. Marnie herself was five feet, eight inches, and a perfectly acceptable size ten. But next to Olivia, she felt like the Incredible Hulk.
    Frankly, she was stunned by Olivia's tininess, because she looked so much bigger than this on the silver screen. And that outfit had to be a kid's outfit she was wearing. And her
head
—of course Marnie would never say this to another living soul—but Olivia's head seemed about two sizes too big for her tiny body. And if Olivia Dagwood was
this
tiny, and she and Vince Vittorio always seemed to be about the same height in the movies,