Page 34 of Perfect Harmony

Jealousy made her face hot when she saw theblonde woman hanging off of his arm. She wore a soft pink business suit that fither slender frame perfectly, her shoulder length hair was sleek and smooth, andthe diamond necklace draped around her neck had to cost thousands.

Grace self-consciously touched the messybun on top of her head. Her curls were particularly fuzzy and out of controltoday and she hadn’t even tried to tame them - just thrown them in her usualbun. Now, she wished she’d at least made an attempt.

The woman looked vaguely familiar to herand more jealousy raged through Grace when, her hand wrapped firmly aroundGideon’s bicep, the woman tugged him over to the seat next to hers.

“Okay.” Wanda stood at the head of the table.“I’m pretty sure all of you know Gideon. This lovely lady sitting beside himis Cheri Ladd. She works at the jewellery place in the mall, The GemstoneGallery, and -”

“I’m the manager,” Cheri said. “I manage TheGemstone Gallery.”

“Right,” Wanda said. “Sorry. Anyway, Cheri,this is Warren, Emsley, Arianna, Rayna, and Grace.”

“Nice to meet you.” Cheri said.

Her hand was still wrapped around Gideon’sbicep and Emsley studied it before saying, “Nice to meet you. Are you and thesheriff dating?”

“No.” Gideon tugged his arm free of Cheri’shand.

“Oh, sorry. I thought…” Emsley trailed offas Cheri beamed at her.

“It’s fine. Gideon and I look like acouple. We hear that a lot when we’re together in public. We’re very closeand if we both weren’t so darn busy, we might even give dating a shot.”

The hair on the back of Grace’s neckprickled at the way Cheri said Gideon’s name. Were the two of them having sex?Cheri certainly acted like they were.

Cheri crossed one leg over the other, therasp of her nylons weirdly loud. “Just the other morning, we were having breakfasttogether and -”

“At Nan’s,” Gideon said with a quick lookat Grace. “I was having breakfast at Nan’s and you were there too.”

“That’s right,” Cheri said. “We werehaving breakfast together and so many people were excited for us.” She laughed,a tinkling pretty sound that still made Grace want to punch her in herpiehole. “It was actually a little embarrassing how eager people were to thinkwe were a couple. Maybe we should give the people what they want, hmm, Gideon?”

Gideon stared at Wanda who said, “Okay, let’sget started.”

Grace leaned back in her chair as Raynasaid in a low voice, “You okay?”

She was staring at Grace’s clenched fistsand Grace made herself relax and nod. “Never better.”

* * *

“Grace?”

Grace looked up at Wanda. She’d been smackdab in the middle of a pretty sweet fantasy where Cheri’s perfectly highlightedblonde hair was turned Kermit green in a tragic colouring accident.

“Yes?” Shit, what did Wanda say? “Sorry,I was, uh… sorry.”

“That’s fine, sweetie. I know I’ve been talkingfor a while, and it’s late and I promise we’re almost done,” Wanda said. “WhatI asked was if you preferred to be more of a ‘behind the scenes’ volunteer, or ‘frontand center’ kind of volunteer.”

“Oh, um, I guess… I mean, wherever you needme I can help,” Grace said.

“Perfect!” Wanda said. “Then I’ll signyou up for doing some silent auction donations solicitation. Basically, you’llgo around to as many local companies as you can and ask if they’re willing todonate an item or service to the silent auction. They can also just straightup donate if that’s their preference.”

“Okay, sure,” Grace said.

“Rayna and Arianna, you’ll be in charge of arrangingthe details for the dinner. This includes caterers, decoration, hall rental,tables and chairs etc. Of course, I’ll be there to help you and answer anyquestions you have,” Wanda said.

“No problem,” Rayna said.

“My dad, like, totally gets a discount atthe Falls Country Club,” Arianna said. “I’ll talk to him about using it as avenue.”

“It might be a little too expensive even withthe discount,” Wanda said. “We need to keep costs low.”

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