Party of Two (The Wedding Date #5)(60)

Finally, she was ready, thirty minutes before Max was due to pick her up. She took a picture of herself and her outfit in her full-length mirror (long, flowy blue sundress, jean jacket, gold wedge sandals) and a close-up selfie to get her jewelry and makeup (dangly gold earrings, tortoiseshell sunglasses, pink lip gloss, and just a hint of highlighter) and texted both pictures to Alexa and Ellie.

Okay, we’re really doing this. How do I look? I’m going for woke up like this



Ellie immediately responded.

You look fantastic!



That was all well and good, but this was a time she actually wanted some constructive criticism on her outfit. She would have trusted Ellie better if she’d told her to change her lipstick or to wear the yellow dress or the gold hoops instead. It was like how she always trusted a proofreader better as soon as they found a typo.

I’m with Maddie and she says you look excellent but that you need a bracelet—don’t you have a gold one? Oh, and roll up the sleeves



Thank God for little sisters and their best friends for giving her the notes she’d been looking for. She grabbed her gold bangles out of her top drawer and slid them on her left wrist, and rolled up the sleeves of the jean jacket. She snapped a new picture and sent it to Alexa.

How’s this?



The text came back in seconds.

PERFECT



“You ready to go?” Max appeared in the doorway of her bedroom. “Oh wow, you look amazing.”

She tucked her phone into her pocket and picked up her bag. Shit, she hadn’t consulted with her fashion advisers about the bag, but she thought it worked—a big caramel leather tote she’d bought a few weeks ago. Well, if it didn’t work, it was too late now.

“Thanks.” She smiled at him. He looked great, too, in jeans, sneakers, and a blue-striped button-down. But tonight, he had no fake glasses, no wig, and no baseball cap. And instead of the tousled hair he usually had when he was off duty, his Ken doll hair was in all of its shellacked glory. That told her more than anything that tonight was going to be different.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” he asked.

She definitely was not.

“Thank you for giving me room to back out, but let’s do this.”

He smiled and kissed her lightly on the lips.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

He touched her knee on the car drive over.

“Nervous?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“It’s just a concert, right? I’m fine.”

That wasn’t exactly true, but maybe if she said it enough, she’d feel fine.

“You talked to your staff about me, right? Did you tell them— ”

Max slid his hand in hers.

“Don’t worry. They’re very happy for us, and my chief of staff completely embarrassed me by saying she already knew I was dating someone because I seemed so happy.”

She shot her head in his direction.

“Really?”

He laughed.

“Really. Also, Kara says there might be a flurry of stories about us for a day or so and then people will get bored and move onto something else in the news cycle.” He squeezed her hand. “I’m really glad we’re doing this.”

She nodded again, and tried to ignore that What have you gotten yourself into? rattling around in her head.

They pulled into the parking lot. Max turned off the car, and they looked at each other.

Olivia smiled at him.

“I’m glad we’re doing this, too,” she said. Despite all her fears, she was.

Max took her hand as they got out of the car. Olivia tried to look straight ahead as they walked into the Hollywood Bowl, when all she wanted to do was to look around for the photographer in the crowd. But no, she was trying to look as natural as possible, so she just kept a smile on her face and her hand in Max’s and kept walking. The whole crowd was amped up tonight—it was mostly lots of women of all ages who seemed just as excited to see Dolly Parton as Olivia would have been if she weren’t vibrating with anxiety about everything else going on tonight.

They walked through the first level, up the stairs, and to the box seats, where Max waved her in front of him into their seats. As soon as she sat down, she let herself relax. No one would probably take a picture of them up there, right?

“So is this what it’s going to be like, then, going out in public with you?” Max asked under his breath. “Complete silence except for periodic sighs of relief?”

She realized she hadn’t said a word to him since they got out of the car, which was at least ten minutes ago.

“Give it some time, okay? I’m just trying to figure out how to do this.”

He touched her elbow with his.

“I know, I know, I’m sorry. I was just teasing you.” He stood up. “I think we both need a drink. Wine?”

She looked around for the first time—really looked, instead of surveying the crowd.

“Oh wow, we’re in the fancy seats, aren’t we?” She let herself grin. She found it sort of hilarious that her first time at the Hollywood Bowl was with a damn millionaire senator. “God yes, a glass of wine is exactly what I need. Rosé if they have it, whatever white they have if not. Normally I’d be a lot more picky than that, but tonight isn’t a night to be picky about the wine selection.”