by Ally Gray
“I’ve had more than she has, so my tongue is long past being held,” Tori offered suggestively, making a face at the poor cop. “And that’s the reason why I will answer on behalf of my boss. I declare the Stephanie Bindle/J-Max wedding event to be a complete and total success. No one got married—at least not here—which means no one’s getting divorced! No one is dead, and even that was touch and go for a while there. And how sweet is Stacy not to press charges against over-protective, crazy sister Michaela? But even better, the studio who rigged this whole thing signed our no-backing-out-and-expecting-a-refund contract months ago and paid the bill in full, which means all this great food and booze is just sitting here going to waste. We gave most of it to the homeless shelter, so some uptight lowlife Hollywood insiders just paid for a lot of really needy people to eat high on the hog, even if it’s just for tonight… and we’re not doing too badly ourselves!” She toasted the detective with her glass and popped another of Chef Pierre’s heavenly goat cheese pastry puffs in her mouth.
“And what about you?” Sims said, turning to Stacy. “How are you doing? And I don’t just mean the wedding planner business. I mean—”
“—you mean Nathan,” Stacy finished for him, trying to keep her emotions out of her response but failing. She sighed as she stalled for time, but decided it was safer for the party and for her mascara if she dodged the question. “I told you before, I’m not a wedding planner. I’m an event coordinator. And besides, I’m just the assistant.”
“Well, thanks to you and your inability to sit back and let me do my job without getting a gun pointed in your face, you still have a business to run. For what it’s worth, I happen to know there’s a guy waiting in the wings who’d be happy to promote you to co-owner if you’d only give him a chance.”
Stacy’s resigned but happy bubble popped when she thought of Nathan sitting in a hotel room somewhere. She’d love to pick up the phone and invite him to the last minute party, but there was no way to do that without making it seem like an invitation to something more. And as much as she desperately wanted to have that something more, it wasn’t right and she knew it. She shook her head and looked down at her half-empty glass.
“Fortunately,” Rod said, “I happen to know you’re stubborn. Therefore I took the liberty of inviting him myself. After all, this is still his company and these are still his employees, so it’s only right that he should be here to celebrate with you guys.”
“You invited my boss to celebrate our failure?” she asked without even a hint of bitterness. Instead, it sounded very close to humor.
“Oh, so now you think you’re a failure? Remember, princess, true love won tonight. Now it’s your turn. Go talk to him. He’s a decent guy and he knows his way around a pool table. That makes him the perfect man in my book, not that I know much about these things. He’ll be here in fifteen minutes, so now you’ve got a choice. You can go clean yourself up and talk to the guy, or you can get a fifteen minute head start.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, Detective, I don’t like being pushed.”
“I’m not pushing, I’m laying out your options. And by the way, I lied. He’ll be here in five minutes. In fact, that’s him walking up the driveway.” Rod pointed to the road where a silhouetted figure was walking in shadow. “Now, I’m gonna make this easy on you. What do you most want to do right now? Do you want to get in my car and have me speed you out of here, or do you wish you’d remembered to shave your legs today? Because how you answer that question will tell YOU how you feel about this guy.”
Stacy looked at Rod and realized he was serious. He paused as he registered her expression, then nodded in Nathan’s direction. Finally, he reached for her champagne flute and took it from her small fingers.
“Go. And don’t worry about the champagne, I promise we won’t let you do anything stupid tonight. Just go talk to him. You’ve been hiding behind the ghost of a dead woman for way too long. And I mean that in more ways than one.”
Also by Ally Gray
Available now:
Wedding Duress - An Events By Design Cozy Mystery - Book 2
Coming Soon:
In-Laws & Outlaws - An Events By Design Cozy Mystery - Book 3
The Bride Wore Black - An Events By Design Cozy Mystery - Book 4
Mob Wedding Mayhem - An Events By Design Cozy Mystery - Book 5
