Page 62 of About Last Night

After a few requests, and scrupulously avoiding the lobby, she found Manny at a loading dock arguing heatedly with a deliveryman trying to wheel in a cartful of red and white carnations. "Janine! Just the person I needed to see. I wanted to call you, but it's been so crazy now that we're actually back in business." He wagged his finger at the burly man. "Call your boss. SheknowsI strictly forbid carnations for our live arrangements." He clucked. "Smelly weeds." Turning back to Janine, he tugged her inside to some kind of workroom.

"I read on the sheet left in our room that the quarantine was lifted early this morning."

He rolled his eyes."Veryearly this morning. The CDC traced the bacteria to a bad batch of barbecueanda peck of bad stuffed peppers served last Thursday, all from a caterer we sometimes use in a pinch. Past tense, natch."

"Is everyone going to be okay?"

Manny nodded. "All but two guests have been released from the hospital, and those two are recovering well, according to Dr. Pedro."

Starved for good news, she smiled. "Excellent."

"And now for the bad news," he said, his gaze somber.

"You didn't find the ring."

"No, I didn't." Manny pointed to the grass-stained cuffs of his white pants. "I swept the entire area with a metal detector. I found three quarters and a dime, but not what you were looking for." He stroked her hair. "I'm sorry, doll, but I'll keep looking. It'll turn up somewhere, and I have an extremely trustworthy staff. If it's here and we find it, you'll get it back."

"I'm offering a reward," she said, morose. "My firstborn."

He laughed. "I'll put out the word." Then he sobered. "And what's this my catering director tells me about the wedding being back on?"

"He's misinformed," she assured him. "I amnotmarrying Steve Larsen."

"And does he know that?"

She puffed out her cheeks, then exhaled. "I'm on my way to tell him about the wedding... and the ring."

"And about Mr. Stillman?" he probed.

Her heart jerked crazily. "No. Derek and I made a pact."

"To bear children?"

A silly laugh escaped her. "To secrecy. There's nothing between us except a mistake."

He lifted one eyebrow.

"Okay, two mistakes. But that's all."

"You don't have feelings for him?"

She smirked. "Manny, don't you think I have enough problems for now?"

He nodded and relented with a shrug. "I guess I got carried away, what with my perfect matchmaking record and all."

"I hope this failure isn't going to keep you from getting wings or something," she teased, thinking the silver lining of this black cloud had been making a new friend.

"Don't concern yourself about me. Now, go." He shooed her toward the door. "Put this dreadful task behind you, then burn that coat, girl."

She threw him a kiss, then made her way toward the lobby, her pulse climbing higher and higher. Every other step she reminded herself to breathe, refusing to have a panic attack now. She'd made her bed, and now she had to lie in it... alone.

Which was, all things considered, better than lying underneath it.

Steve was easy to spot pacing in a conversation area furnished with over-stuffed furniture, but she was surprised to find him alone, and apparently agitated. Pausing next to a gray marble column, she observed the man she'd thought to marry, hoping to see some kind of justification for why she had accepted his proposal in the first place.

Steve Larsen was a strikingly handsome man, no doubt. Pale-blond hair, perpetually tanned, with breathtakingly good taste in clothing, housing and transportation. She squinted.

And an ice pack against his mouth?

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