Page 121 of Need You
TJ knocked on the door. “Everything okay in there?”
“We’re good,” Delaney called back. “Five minutes to show time.”
“I’m gonna take a seat, then. Break a leg. Are you supposed to say that for fashion shows?”
She opened the door just wide enough to wedge her face through. “Sure. Why not? Keep your fingers crossed that this goes off without a hitch.” Which would be a miracle, since there was always a hitch.
“Will do,” he said, and headed to his chair.
“So all those Garner brothers are single?” Karen asked, staring over Delaney’s shoulder to get a peek at TJ’s ass.
“Josh is married and Colt ... he’s spoken for.”
“But TJ—and what’s the youngest one’s name?—single?”
“Win. Yep, single.”
“I’m getting a place in Glory Junction,” Karen said.
The Garner brothers were certainly eye candy and enough to entice even a hard-core city woman to move to Timbuktu. At least on the weekends.
“Let’s roll,” Delaney announced, and left the dressing room, only to encounter several reporters and photographers milling around the hallway. A few flashes went off and Delaney immediately slipped into her game face. Big smile, lots of feigned confidence.
“Thanks, Ms. Scott.”
“You’re welcome, Todd. You all get some food?” She’d had Rachel from Tart Me Up set up a feast in one of the back rooms. Lord knew the models wouldn’t eat any of it, just copious amounts of Diet Coke.
A few members of the media nodded and a reporter she recognized fromVogueasked, “Will you be available for interviews after the show?”
“Of course.” She glanced at her watch. “Time to move out.”
Karen relayed the message to the male models’ dressing room on her headset. They were starting the show with the adventure line and ending with the couture collection. Delaney followed Karen to the back of the stage where the models began to line up. They’d be able to stay there and watch the show on short-circuit TV while tending to any mishaps, including wardrobe malfunctions.
The director motioned for the lights to go down, except for a single dramatic spotlight that shined on the first model. Delaney could hear a hush fall over the crowd. Then the music went on and shards of colored light strobed across the stage. Pictures of ski slopes, mountains, rivers, and lakes flashed in the background. Even from the back, Delaney could feel the energy in the room. Granted, she’d packed the audience with locals who probably had never been to a high-end fashion show like this. Still, the mood was electrifying. She couldn’t see Colt in the audience; the cameras focused on stage. She wished she could see the expression on his face. He’d been so instrumental in the line and helping her reclaim her creativity. In a lot of ways, he’d had more faith in her design ability than she’d had in herself.
“We’re moving into the ready-to-wear,” Karen whispered in her ear, and suddenly the music switched from Townes Van Zandt’s “My Proud Mountains” to Rascal Flatts’s “She’d Be California,” signaling the change in program.
“What do you think so far?” she whispered back.
Karen peeked behind the curtain, which Delaney had been too anxious to do. “I think we’ve got a hit.”
They just had to make it through the rest of the show without any snafus. Of course, the press would have the final word. If they liked what they saw—fingers crossed—the money would come pouring in. The next ten minutes went so fast Delaney forgot to breathe. By the time her couture collection strutted up and down the runway, she was ready to hyperventilate. Next thing she knew she was hoisted up on stage to take her bow to a standing ovation. Someone whistled and she looked down to see Colt smiling up at her. His face was so reassuring, so proud, that she considered doing a swan dive right into his arms.
After the lights went on she was inundated by reporters and then VIPs who’d been flown in for the show, losing track of Colt, though her eyes constantly searched for him. It wasn’t until the after-party that she saw him again. The entire Garner clan came and she immediately reached for Colt’s hand, forgetting herself. He took it, raised her knuckles to his lips, and kissed them.
“You killed it!”
Her heart soared because she really had, and because it was the first time all day she’d had time to spend with him. “I missed you,”and I love you, she almost started to say.
“Yeah?” He scanned the room and found his family shamelessly staring. “We have an audience.”
“Is that so terrible? Don’t you think it’s time to take us public?”
“I’m going to get us something to eat,” he said, and dropped her hand.
Apparently that was as big a commitment as she was going to get. A plate of food from the buffet line. Why couldn’t he trust her? Instead of letting it ruin her night, Delaney decided that she’d give him time to see that she wasn’t Lisa. That they could have something together, even with her design career.
She planned to talk to him about it when they got home. But that never happened. Her lawyer had been trying to get a hold of her all day with a dire message. The ruling had come in and she needed to do damage control.
