Page 44 of Summer Ever After
Mrs. G. swatted Trey’s hand. “Smarten up. You’re a grown man.”
Tara’s cheeks were the same shade of pink as the meat that had just been stolen from the sandwich. If there wasn’t something going on with her and Trey, there should be. The two of them ignored each other like high schoolers, but I caught them sneaking glimpses at each other. “And you, Rosie. The hat?” Mrs. G folded her arms. “We don’t wear hats at the table here.”
“I don’t mind.” Trey interrupted.
“Me neither,” Tara added. “I think it’s okay if you’re a girl.”
Mrs. Graham looked at the two of them. If I could see the electricity between Trey and Tara, so could she. The rest of the cottage-keeping staff had started to trickle into the work cabin. Mrs. Graham’s radio squawked and she pulled it from where it was clipped on her vest. She pointed at me with the antennae – “Rosie. The hat. If I let you do it, I’ll have to let everyone.”
I gulped down my bite of roast beef sandwich, pulled the hat from my head, and hung it on the side of the wooden chair.
“My dear Lord.” Mrs. Graham stepped backward like she’d been slapped. Self-conscious, I attempted to tuck my hair behind my ears. She walked behind the chair and set my hat back on my head. “Come and see me after lunch,” she whispered.
ELEVEN
MAX
In the weekleading up to the ball, the event coordinator Tracy had moved into one of the cabins on Starling Island. She had been working twelve-hour days, and now it was the day before the event and she looked like she’d been run over by a truck.
“The logistics of this event, Max.” She shook her head as she tapped a message on her phone. “Never again. Dry land only.”
We walked through the tent. “I hear you, but you have to admit, this looks good.”
She looked up over her glasses. “Enchanting. Do you know how much we had to spend in extended coverage to insure this?”
“I heard that it was a custom quote. Tracy, if I knew how much the insurance was going to cost, I would’ve axed this thing immediately.”
“It was an honest mistake. Something that I should’ve anticipated – but I’ve never done something like this. Thanks for not firing me.”
The profit margins for the event had been getting slimmer by the second. “Even with the insurance, are we still going to be able to raise some significant funds for the charity?”
“As long as nobody important falls into the lake.” She peered over the side of the structure - the entire tent was on a floating dock. The only thing stopping a drunken partier from falling into the thirty feet of water surrounding it was white velvet ropes.
“Did my uncle RSVP?” I asked.
Tracy scrolled through her phone. “Yes. He’s coming, along with his daughter and her family.”
“Really? Bronwyn is coming?” I hadn’t seen my cousin in years. She was the East Coast version of me, daughter to the Yates Petroleum dynasty. Their family cottage was in Laketown – the bougier version of Windswan. Brownyn almost got disowned when she married their boat mechanic. “I can’t wait to meet her family.” She had surprised me. After years of gallivanting around the world as a model, spending her inheritance, I’d expected her to turn into a typical socialite, not fall in love with a blue-collar guy and have his baby. She’d been prepared to give up her inheritance for him too. It was something I’d admired from afar, and I couldn’t wait to see her in person and tell her just how inspiring she was to me.
Leading me to the seating chart, Tracy pointed out where the who’s who of the party was sitting. We had specifically separated a couple of the big fish for the auction; nothing gets people more worked up than two men battling it out from across the room. “We’ve got a hole here though.” She tapped a vacant seat.
“I thought we were sold out.”
“We are. Talk to your sister about that.” Tracy’s phone pinged with a message. “Oh my God.” She shook her head. “I have to make a call. The peacocks weren’t canceled and they’re loose at the marina.”
Tracy was doing a good job, and if we were able to get through the evening without any major incidents, I was planning to give her a nice fat bonus.
A hand clapped on my shoulder. “It looks good, son.”
My father’s hand felt big and strong on my shoulder, even though I was a full-grown man. “Thanks. But you just missed Tracy. She’s the one holding it all together.”
“That’s not what I heard. I heard that it’s all you, Max my man.” My father was wearing his golf clothes.
“Shit. Dad, I’m sorry, I forgot about the golf game.” I had promised my dad that I would play with him and a couple of the executives that morning.
“You need more than a secretary, Max. There’s room in the budget for you to get a personal assistant, one that can run your social calendar. You seem to be forgetting a lot of things these days.”
I knew that he was referring to the regatta. It wasn’t that I was forgetting about things, it was that this damn event had taken over my entire life. We walked past a ladder and a white rose fell to the floor in front of me. I paused to pick it up. The florist, Hank, clambered down the ladder. “I think you dropped this.” I held up the rose.
