Page 67 of The Deal Maker

Hope offered to stay and help me train, but I didn’t want her to miss her nail appointment two days before her wedding.

Her wedding.

How in the world is she getting married this quickly? When we were younger, we would talk about how fun it would be to have a joint wedding. If there was anyone on my radar, I’d think about persuading her to see if we could get married after Jason’s deployment. But there’s no point when I might be in the same spot I am right now.

I think back to my conversation with Duke. The guy must have some natural form of truth serum, like a cloud that touches me every time he’s around. I keep telling him things I don’t tell anyone.

It doesn’t matter. I’ll just keep doing my thing and the emotions will eventually recede. At least that’s what I’m hoping.

My phone rings and I grin as I see my aunt’s name on the screen. She’s been like a second mother all growing up, and I remember many nights spent at her house for sleepovers when my parents were working out their divorce. Their co-parenting situation was great by the time I was ten, but those first couple of years were dicey.

“Hey, Aunt Daphne,” I say, tucking the phone between my shoulder and cheek. “Are you ready for your daughter to be married?”

She laughs and says, “That’s strange to think about. I figured you two would end up living as roommates forever and causing trouble into your seventies.”

“There’s still hope for that on my part,” I say, chuckling.

“How are you, Maggie?” The change in the tone of her voice causes me to straighten. I wish we were on a video call so I could read her expression better.

“I’m good. Great. Just excited for the big day.”

“How about we set a date for Saturday? You come over and we’ll sit on the couch watching chick flicks and eating only chocolate for meals.”

“That sounds like the perfect way to do life. Except I’ll need to come back in and give our new employee a break while Hope is gone.”

Aunt Daph sighs. “Yeah, it’s a good thing you’re finally hiring another employee. You need time to explore life. Outside of candy and frozen dairy delights.”

Here we go. It’s just the start of the questions and lectures I’ll be receiving.

“I get out. A new business is a lot of work. I would hate for it to sink because I didn’t put in the work at the beginning.”

“I know, girl. You’re doing a great job. I’m just saying that now things are more established, it’s okay to take a break now and then.”

I nod, even though she can’t see me. “I’ll plan it in. Once Hope is back, I’ll take my own little vacation.”

“Plan it. I want to see the details at the wedding.”

I freeze. “I’m not going to discuss a vacation at your daughter’s wedding.”

“It will take two seconds to show me your itinerary.”

I cut the top of a bag of gummy sharks and take them over to the bins. Once it’s full, I say, “I’ll work on it.”

There’s got to be a way to fake a vacation, right? Because I don’t think I can get out of this place for at least another couple of months. And even if I do, I don’t want to go alone. Maybe I can convince Hope to go with me while Jason is deployed. But with her surgery coming up, we’d have to wait until she is recovered.

Duke is up for adventure. Maybe we could go on a little road trip.

I smile, thinking about how much fun that would be. There’s no way I would’ve had this much fun on the scavenger hunt with any other partner. And from how much I like him now, I don’t think I could stand to be with anyone else. I just wish I knew how he felt about me.

TWENTY-NINE

MAGGIE

It’s Thursday night. Have I attempted to talk to anyone about being my date for Hope’s wedding? No, no I haven’t.

Am I feeling the pressure right now? Absolutely.

But I technically don’t have to, since I went through with the scavenger hunt. The problem is that even with Hope’s nudging of my family, I know there will still be comments made. Especially after my invitations had gone out to the family for the wedding I was supposed to have and then had to call everyone back and let them know things were canceled. I don’t want to face that kind of humiliation again.

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