Page 34 of The Main Event

“Absolutely.” I bobbed my head. “It will be the party of your dreams. Trust me.”

We talked over a few more things with Caroline, and then they left to head back to Boston. Jax let loose a sigh as he kicked back in his chair and watched them leave.

“Well, that was depressing, wasn’t it?” he offered.

“A little,” I agreed. “Caroline seemed to perk up when you came around, though.”

Jax’s smirk was smug enough that I wanted to smack it off his face. “I’m a charming guy.”

“You weren’tthatcharming.”

“I don’t think you really believe that.” He turned to me. “Why did you suggest the gold package instead of the platinum? Wouldn’t we make more money off the platinum?”

The conversational shift was jarring, but I understood why he was asking. “Yes, but they didn’t have platinum party money.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because her shoes, while nice, weren’t Lord & Taylor nice. They were DSW nice.”

One of Jax’s eyebrows winged up. “You judged her by her shoes?”

“I didn’t judge her. I just read the situation. She wouldn’t have gone for the platinum no matter what, and if I’d gone for the hard sell on it, she would’ve picked the silver just to spite me. She wanted to impress you, but she’s well aware of exactly how much her ex-husband is willing to spend.”

“Maybe he has more money than she does,” Jax suggested. “Maybe he has Lord & Taylor shoes.”

“It’s possible, but I’m guessing the new wife is going to get a say in this too. The gold package was the safe package. We’ll still make a five-thousand-dollar profit off it.”

“That’s how much profit we’ll make?” Jax’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “How much is the party in total?”

“Twice that.”

“Wow.” He looked dumbfounded. “I had no idea there was so much money to make in Sweet Sixteen parties.”

“It’s a lucrative market, and people want us for their parties. We have a two-month waiting list at this point. We’re going to be able to charge even more in about six months.”

“What happens in six months?”

“The waiting list will be four months, and that’s when it will become a great ‘get’ to say that they’re having their party here.”

“Huh.” Jax cocked his head. “That’s very … interesting. You obviously know what you’re doing.”

“I tried to tell you that the day we met.”

“Oh, don’t bring that up again. It’s old news.” He waved his hand.

“It hasn’t even been a week,” I countered.

“It’s old news.” He pressed his fingers to the inside of my wrist to get me to look into his eyes. When I did, he didn’t remove his fingers.

There was that electricity again. Crap. It was just zinging through me like a poorly patched wire.

“I’m on board with the parties,” he said. “I get that you do a good job. I’m just trying to figure out if we can bring in more money.”

“Well, the good news is that as soon as the first phase of the renovation is done, we can charge more for those rooms. Eventually, we’ll be able to mark up the rates on all of them, and we’ll be a much bigger destination for the rest of the year.”

He nodded, tapped his fingers against my wrist twice, and then pulled his hands away. “That’s totally possible.”

He wasn’t committing to a future at the hotel. That irritated me on multiple levels. The biggest was George. I couldn’t help but believe George had been thinking outside the box when he left the hotel to Jax. Somehow, he had to know that Jax was the only one in his family who might keep his legacy alive. Now I just had to get Jax to see it.

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