The Slow Burn (Moonlight and Motor Oil #2)(76)

Gone were all of the updos that Margot had pictures of on the whiteboard.

“We have time for hair and makeup. We’ll schedule tryouts of that . . .” Margot walked to her day planner, flipped it open, shuffled through pages then reached and grabbed a Swarovski pen and tapped a page with it, looking up at Izzy, “late June. That gives you time to change your mind and have another run-through just to make sure.”

“Perfect!” Iz exclaimed, clapping her hands together.

I got up and started to pick up the discarded clips from the floor.

“Adeline, if you would, please, arrange those by category,” Margot requested. “I’ll be filing them and if Eliza wants another look at something, I want it handy what she wishes to see.”

“No probs,” I muttered, grinning to myself and still gathering.

I continued to do this, and alternately sit with Deanna, who was shoving the stuff in different plastic envelopes Margot gave her, for the next thirty minutes as Iz and Margot pared the three whiteboards down to two.

I also did this surreptitiously sending a text to Tobe, saying, This is even more hilarious than I thought it would be.

Toby texted back, Not surprised. Do I gotta tell Johnny he needs to sell a kidney?

Before I could reply, Margot ordered, “No outside distractions, Adeline.”

“Sorry,” I muttered, even though my presence there, so far, had been unnecessary, outside a happy witness to the hilarity and picking up rejected wedding ideas from the floor.

When she and Izzy got down to deciding when to do the cake tasting, I managed to send, I’m not allowed to text. Fill you in later. Please, God, don’t reply. I’ll get in trouble. Love you!

I hit send just as Dave strode through, obviously saw the void whiteboard and thus called, “Thank God. Now can I put that danged thing away?”

“We’re not done,” Margot replied.

“Margot, I’m half an hour from going to the airport to pick up Lance and his family. We’re gonna have ten more people in this house between now and tomorrow morning. We need space.”

“You can go get Lance, and when we’re done, I’ll put it away,” Margot said.

“No you will not,” Dave bit out.

Deanna, Izzy and me went still at his tone.

“David—” Margot began.

“You’re not done before I leave, Lance and me will put it away. You don’t touch that board, Margot,” he ordered.

“Okay, darlin’,” she said quietly.

Dave stalked off.

I looked to Iz who looked to me then to Deanna, who I looked to before we all turned to Margot.

“Let’s sort this out,” Margot stated, all businesslike, and completely ignoring that out-of-character behavior from Dave. “We’ll need focus come January and we have to know what we’re focusing on. But everyone has things to do today, therefore we need to get cracking so it can all get done.”

She was not wrong about that.

It was Christmas Eve’s Eve and my schedule was garbage.

Michael had hired some extra help, but except for one of them, they were all flaky.

This meant I’d been doing hints of overtime here and there all week, including three hours on Tuesday, which was my day off, and three hours that morning, Friday, which was my other day off.

And I had to work until six tomorrow, Christmas Eve.

The good news was, money was money and I needed it, and taking an extra hour at the end of a shift or working for a few and having the rest of the day off was no skin off my nose.

The other good news was, I had most of the day off that day to do this wedding business and then get ready for my night with Toby.

Izzy had taken a couple of days off to have a chill Christmas, so she was taking Brooks (who was right then napping in Margot’s guest room) and he was spending the night with his Aunt Iz and Uncle Johnny while Toby and I went to Lora’s party (then got it on at his place after).

And I was really looking forward to it, most of all looking forward to hitting Tobe’s after this and getting ready there since we were spending the night there.

I had not had the opportunity to do that since the night of the snowstorm and our avowals of love. But his place was more my gig, it was also just his place and I liked to be in his space.

So for me, until nine thirty the next morning, I had nothing but goodness to look forward to.

This wedding meeting was just the first part of it.

Sadly, it was over all too soon, but after Deanna took off, Izzy and I hung with Margot until Brooks got up.

We let him go from sleepy to lovey, and then after lots of snuggles from his mom, Iz and my boy took off.

But I hung back.

Because I wanted to chat with Margot.

“Don’t you have a party to get ready for, darlin’?” she asked.

Translation from Margot Speak: My firstborn is going to be here soon, my second born is showing later tonight, and my last born is driving up first thing in the morning so I have a million things to do. Hit the road.

“Just wanna make sure you’re all good. Lots of folks hitting your place, you need anything?” I asked.

“I had everything sorted last week, Adeline, but thank you for offering.”

I studied her face.

She looked no different.

But she was a dab hand with makeup and never had a hair out of place, so that didn’t mean anything.