Page 154 of Say Yes to the Death

Nicole walked out of the office. “The magazine just confirmed the event. They’re scrambling to put together some marketing, so I offered to help. Can I use your laptop?”

“Go for it. It’s on the desk in there.” Claire glanced at her watch. “Where are the boys? They’re behind schedule. It’s like they’ve never planned an event before.”

“Excuse me,” a snotty-sounding voice interrupted from behind the closed bathroom door. A bookcase, a life-size statue of the Venus de Milo, and half of the broken Eiffel Tower barricaded the door.

Claire groaned. “What, Wendy?”

“This yogurt is lemon flavored. I hate lemon,” Wendy whined.

“You know what you’ll hate more? Being brutally murdered by a cult of homicidal frat boys.”

“And the only thing on TV is Stepwives of Secaucus. I’ve already seen this season. And this beanbag chair smells like a dog.”

They ignored her.

“I’m going to sue all of you, you know,” she called again. “You can’t just hold me here against my will. It’s false imprisonment.”

Nicole waved a hand. “Don’t worry, false imprisonment is only a misdemeanor.”

“And kidnapping?” Claire said grimly.

“Let’s not worry about that right now.”

Claire turned up the brainstorming music and drowned Wendy out. There was a very real chance she would face jail time for kidnapping Wendy. But at least her life would be spared.

Claire reached into Mindy’s purse and pulled out Wendy’s phone. There was no passkey for her phone, which seemed a bit risky for someone who was cheating on her boyfriend with half of the town council. But what did Claire know? She scrolled to Wendy’s message with Jason. A surprise dick pic elicited a full-body shudder.

Wendy: Working late tonight babe. Keep the bed warm for me.

Sending that message was only slightly less nauseating than that time she and Nicole had ridden the Vomit Comet four times in a row during Campus Carnival freshman year. The last piece of the puzzle in making this a believable lie meant impersonating Wendy on social media. She navigated to Wendy’s Instagram and posted a gushing message about being honored at the Women in Business networking event. It would have to be enough. She turned off the phone and set it on the conference table.

The door banged open. Claire screamed and unstrapped Taser #2 from beneath the conference table. Was it ESA? Had they somehow found out where Wendy was hiding?

Kyle burst into the room, bouncing on his toes. “All right, ladies, what can we do? Give us a job.”

Claire breathed a sigh of relief.

“He had four lattes,” Luke explained. Five-o’clock shadow had spread across his sharp jawline, and he looked exhausted. Sawyer pulled up the rear.

Luke dropped the rapidly filling binder onto the conference table. He had even added a label. His bedazzling could use some work, but his preparation skills were definitely igniting something beneath her belt.

Claire looked at Mindy. “What do you think, blush and champagne? Lilac and lavender? Navy and sage?”

“I was thinking cobalt and coral,” Mindy said, brows furrowed.

“Tie breaker?” Claire called to the office.

“Champagne and blush. Make it glam,” Nicole yelled.

“I would have gone with watermelon and lemon,” Wendy called from the bathroom. “It is a summer event.”

“Nobody asked you,” Claire and Mindy said.

“Okay, boys, follow me.” Claire walked down one of her rows of shelving. She pulled carefully labeled totes down from the shelves and slid them across the concrete floor. “We’re trusting you with an incredibly important job. I need you all to go to the Walker house and start setting up for the event. Someone from the historical society will meet you there. They already have chairs and banquet and cocktail tables, but you’ll need to add tablecloths, vases, and floral arrangements.”

She dropped several more boxes and shoved them toward the boys.

“You want us to…decorate?” Luke asked.

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