Page 10 of The Main Event

“And what do you want me to do with this?” Jax asked.

“I want you to run the party.”

“Excuse me?” Genuine shock reverberated off of him.

“Well, you think my job is easy,” I said as I hopped down from the stool. “You don’t think I’m necessary here. You should run the party tonight with Tammy, the woman you want to hire to replace me, and see how it goes.”

Jax worked his jaw. It was obvious he sensed that I was setting him up. He was too proud to back down, though. “Fine.” He gripped the folder. “I’m sure we’ll be able to make it work.”

I held back a laugh. Taunting him wasn’t going to make things better. “Good luck. I’ll be looking forward to your report on how things go tomorrow.”

I held my head high as I traipsed toward the door. I had wind in my hair as I prepared to make my dramatic exit. Levi caught me before I could escape into the lobby, though.

“What are you doing?” he hissed in a low voice. “They’re going to totally screw up that party.”

I nodded. “Delilah is going to complain regardless,” I agreed in a low voice. “She’s one of the worst teenagers I’ve ever met. We were going to get complaints no matter what I did. Now he’ll be the one absorbing the complaints.”

Realization dawned on Levi’s handsome face. “And he’ll be the one who realizes as he’s in the middle of it that your job is way harder than blowing up some balloons and arranging for some egg rolls on a platter, which is basically what he thinks you do.”

“It’s actually fortuitous timing,” I agreed. “Delilah is terrible, and Jax needs to learn a lesson.”

“What about Tammy?”

I darted a look toward Jax’s assistant, who was doing her best to flirt with him as they looked over the folder I’d provided them with. “She’s going to get what’s coming to her, too,” I replied. “She’ll be desperate to prove she’s infallible. That will make it all the sweeter when she falls on her face.”

“It’s going to be a hard lesson,” Levi noted. “I might switch shifts to bartend at the party just so I can watch it in real time.”

I liked that idea. “Take video.”

He shot me a thumbs-up. “You’ve got it. Have a nice, unexpected night off.”

That was the plan. It likely wouldn’t be a reality, however. I was too keyed up. “I’ll do my best.”

4

FOUR

How hard could running a party be?

That’s what I kept asking myself as I pored through the information Daisy had left behind before—rightfully?—storming out. Had I been wrong to go after her right away? I was starting to think so. The minutiae in the file she’d put together was impressive. It wasn’t what I was expecting in the least.

Tammy, of course, said we would have no problem handling the party. She’d gone home to change so she could look “young and hip” for the teenagers. I appreciated her gung-ho attitude. However, I was fairly certain there wasn’t a teenager alive today who wouldn’t roll their eyes at the words “young and hip.”

“This is a lot,” I said to nobody in particular. I was back at the bar, although I had a different bartender this time. Apparently, Levi was working the party—how did that even work since he’d already worked a shift this morning?—and also had to run home and change.

“What’s a lot?” The evening bartender’s name was Lana Beckham. I knew from reading her file that she was twenty-eight, had gone to school with the bulk of the other workers, and only had one disciplinary mark on her record. Apparently,two years before, a drunk tourist had slapped her ass. She’d retaliated by kicking him in the nuts. The guest threatened to sue, but my grandfather stood strong with her.

I had to appreciate both her reaction and the loyalty my grandfather showed his employee. That’s who I wanted to be once I was settled in.

“There’s a party tonight,” I explained to Lana. “In the ballroom. I didn’t realize there was so much involved in a teenager’s party.”

Lana made a face. “Isn’t that Daisy’s job? You should let her handle it. She knows what she’s doing.”

I squirmed on my stool. “Um … not tonight. She kind of left me in charge tonight.”

Rather than cluck sympathetically and take my side in the matter, Lana cocked her head. “What did you do?” she demanded.

“What makes you think I did anything?”

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