Page 18 of Chasing I Do
All four brothers looked at Gage and a bad feeling started to coil in his gut. “No, I am not planning your wedding.”
“I’m not asking you to plan my wedding. Between Steph’s Pinterest board and her Wedding Binder, it’s all planned out. What I am asking,” Rhett leaned back, his grin too wide to be anything but trouble, “is for you to get to know Darcy again, remind her that we aren’t assholes, and find out what it will take to get on her good side.”
“You always said the key to closing a deal was to know the client’s weakness.” Clay held his tumbler in the air in a toast. “If you don’t think it’s financial, then here’s to finding out what it is.”
“Oh,” Rhett said. “You get to tell Mom.”
???
“A hundred thousand dollars?” Jillian said, piping numbers on every one of the two dozen jersey-inspired cupcakes.
It was the first Tiny Tykes football meet of the new season, and with Sam being the Bull Frog’s newest member, Darcy had offered to help with the after party. She’d thrown lots of kids parties in the past; it was how she paid her way through college—well, that and dressing up like a clown. But managing twenty five-year olds in cleats and shoulder pads, double the amount of helicopter parents, and a cheerleader who refused to trade in the tutu for pompoms, was enough to give even the most experienced of planners a rash.
Darcy picked up a waffle cone, filled it with fruit salad, and stuck it in the serving tray, fashioned from an old egg carton. “That was their counter offer, and it just covers my fee.”
“That would go a long way toward paying down the loan,” Jillian said, and Darcy thought about the septic tank, the AC, and just what she could do with that much money. “Who are they bringing in for entertainment?”
Darcy rattled off a few of the names from Gage’s email, and Jillian slapped a hand over her mouth. “Are you kidding?” she said through her frosted fingers. “That sounds like the lineup for this year’s Grammies.”
Darcy understood her friend’s excitement. Having a VIP list of that caliber, having them come and spend an evening at Belle Mont would send its popularity soaring. Overnight, her historic labor of love would become the premiere venue for events in the Pacific Northwest.
“I know. Makes it hard to say no, huh?”
“This is your dream, your business, your daughter. There is no wrong answer here.” Jillian placed the cupcakes on a green felt board, lining them up in a starting position. “Out of curiosity, what did you say?”
Darcy closed her eyes and willed her stomach to stop churning. “That I’d be willing to talk about it.”
“Oh my God.” Jillian said, taking Darcy’s hand and jumping up and down. “Oh my God! This is so exciting. Rhett Easton and that stellar butt of his, which I believe was voted best backside of the year inPeople Magazine, is going to marry Stephanie Stone at Belle Mont House. This is huge!”
“I still haven’t said yes.”
“But saying you’re thinking about it is like a yes in Darcy-land. You’re too sweet to give people false hope.” Jillian stopped. “So why aren’t you jumping?”
“I found the letter,” she admitted, feeling like a loser.
Any smart businesswoman would know when a contract that had the potential to put your company on the map said,Please discard the earlier letter,they wouldn’t go in search of the letter. They’d put their emotions aside, sign on the dotted line, and take their daughter to Disneyland to celebrate.
But once Darcy knew there was a letter, she couldn’t sleep until she’d found it. And when she found it, buried among her bills, and saw that it was written in Gage’s writing, she cracked the seal. It didn’t take a genius to guess what she’d done next.
So, yes, she was too emotional right then to be smart.
Jillian took the cone out of her hand, that was cracked and dripping blueberries onto the grass, and tossed it in the trash bin. “You want to talk about it?”
“No.”
“You sure?” Jillian placed a cupcake on a napkin and sat on the park bench behind them. “You look like you want to talk about it.”
“Maybe.”
Jillian waved the cupcake in the air, then patted the bench next to her.
“Fine, I want to talk about it.” Darcy took a seat next to her friend, took the cupcake, and took a big bite. “He ruined what should have been an easy yes.” She looked out at the herd of laughing kids, her eyes immediately zeroing in on Kylie. In her tutu and cheer shirt, she was chasing a group of boys around the bounce house. “He said he was sorry.”
“That jerk,” she teased.
“He made it personal. Took what was supposed to be a simple business decision and added all of these warm fuzzies to it.”
“Warm fuzzies? That must have been some note.”
