Page 40 of Drunk on Love

“I haven’t, but I’m a real sucker for their ham and cheese croissant. I think I have it every time I come here.” She looked back at the bakery case. “Let me get one of the apricot ones for my brother, he loves those.” She waved toward the case. “Is that what you want? This is on me, you’re doing me a favor here.”

“Oh, I’m happy to help, but if you insist, yes, an apricot croissant and a large coffee,” Avery said. She glanced around the room. “I’ll grab us a table while you order.”

When she got to the front of the line, Margot ordered the pastries and their coffees. She reallydidappreciate Avery taking the time to talk to her, even though she wished they’d done this before she’d seen Avery and Luke together. Avery had been doing event planning for years—first with a local wedding planner, then bigger corporate events, many of which were at wineries. If Margot could have afforded to hire Avery to plan the party, she would have, but she was doing it all herself, so she was trying to glean all of the information she could about how to do this right. Avery didn’t have to take time out of her schedule to give Margot advice.

Damn it.

Margot caught Avery’s eye when she brought their coffee over to the milk station, and Avery shook her head at the milk, but nodded at the sugar, so Margot brought a few packets over to the table, after she stirred some milk into her own coffee.

“Thanks again for meeting me this morning,” Margot said when she sat down. She pulled out the new notebook that she’d designated as The Notebook for this event. “I’m really excited about this event, but I have to admit that I’m starting to feel a little in over my head.”

Avery laughed.

“Oh, that happens to me every time, but don’t worry, you have lots of time. All you really need is to have obsessively organized spreadsheets, and this will go great.”

“Avery, that’s music to my ears,” Margot said. “If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s obsessively organize spreadsheets.”

They both laughed, and then got down to details.

“Okay, so that’s all of the most important stuff,” Avery said, thirty minutes later. “I’m sure I’ll think of other things, but like I said, the key is hyperorganization leading up to the event, and then flexibility on the day of, because everything is going to go a little sideways.”

Margot looked up from her notebook.

“This has all been invaluable, thanks so much. Thank goodness for the great community here—between this info from you, the Barrel jumping in already to be one of the food stations, and then hopefully finding a landscaper through someone on my team at the tasting room, I’m starting to feel like we might be able to pull this off.”

Avery grinned.

“Oh, did Luke hook you up with Pete?”

Shit.She shouldn’t have made a reference to anything havingto do with Luke. In her defense, this last hour had been so all about business that she’d almost forgotten about Luke and Avery.

Also, apparently he and Avery had been dating long enough that she was on a first-name basis with his mom’s boyfriend. Great.

“Pete Smythe? Yeah, he’s coming by the winery later today,” Margot said. Time to move the conversation away from Luke. “The party is a good excuse to do this landscaping, I just hope we have time.”

Avery took a sip of her coffee.

“I’m sure Pete will be able to get it done for you. He’s great—I’ve known him forever. Luke and I went to high school together, you know.”

No, of course she didn’t know.

“Oh wow, really? What a small world this place is,” Margot said. What else could she say?

“Isn’t it?” Avery took another sip of her coffee. Wasn’t it cold by now? Didn’t she need to be somewhere? But no, she looked perfectly comfortable, like she was settling in for a nice chat. “Luke’s great. He’s been one of my best friends since we were teenagers. He’s like a brother to me.” She laughed. “We dated very briefly when we were fourteen, but quickly realized we were much better as friends.”

Wait. Did that mean that Monday night hadn’t been a date?

“I bet you’re glad to have him back up here,” Margot said.

Avery nodded.

“Yeah. I had kind of a bad breakup recently, and he helped me move to my new place.”

Oh.

It hadn’t been a date, then. Margot forced her expression not to change.

“I’m sorry to hear about your breakup,” Margot said.

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