Page 84 of Love Redesigned
Isaac would be on standby, ready to shuttle the dress off the premises as quickly as I could sneak it away. He’d promised us early that morning that he had a plan for securing transportation that would get him onto the estate with ease, but Alex and I were both doubtful.
Alex’s phone rang and he glanced down, answering the call then turning on the speaker. “Isaac? You’re on speaker. Dani is here.”
“Perfect. Go look out the window.”
We looked at each other, wondering what Isaac was up to, then crossed the room and stepped out onto a small balcony. Below us in the parking lot, Isaac stood in front of a large van, a giant bouquet of flowers painted on the side.
“It’s perfect, right?” he said. “I only had to pay the guy two hundred bucks to borrow it until tomorrow night.”
I shook my head and laughed, but I was hardly surprised.
Alex echoed my thoughts. “I think your brother could convince the Pope to lend him his motorcade if it were truly necessary.”
Minutes later, Isaac was back in the hotel room wearing a blue polo shirt, a florist’s logo embroidered on the breast pocket.
“He gave you his shirt as well?” I asked.
“I had to trade him the one I was wearing,” Isaac said. “No big deal.”
The three of us went over the plan one more time.
“Once we arrive this evening,” Alex said to Isaac, “we’ll text you and let you know of any additional security measures that are in place at the house. At the very least, the gate will be guarded, but with the flower van and a claim of a last-minute delivery, you should be able to gain access.”
“Wear a hat though,” I said to Isaac. “And sunglasses. We can’t risk someone recognizing you and wondering whenRandom Istarted moonlighting as a flower delivery guy.”
“Got it,” Isaac said. “So I wait for a briefing on security systems tonight, then tomorrow I hang out here until you give me the signal, I come to the house, you hand me the dress, then I whisk it away to a secure location.”
He made it sound so easy. But there were five hundred variables we weren’t sure about yet. And really wouldn’t be sure about until we were in the house and had determined, one, how much welcome would be extended to Alex, and two, how easy it would be to get to the dress. Then there was the matter of decidingwhento make the swap. In the middle of the night? Right before the wedding, seconds before Sasha would be putting it on? Timing was essential.
If Chase’s text was right, and my brief conversation with Sasha had been enough to plant the seed, my hope was that texting her and asking if I could assist her would be enough for her to let me in. It was risky. If Sasha thought too hard about it, she’d recognize the risks of letting me close. But I was banking on the size of her ego. She’d believed me when I told her I thought I’d made a mistake in leaving. She loved herself that much, she’d naturally believed I’d want to come back.
When I’d told Isaac of my plan, he’d rolled his eyes. “Oh, gross,” he’d said. “I mean, it’ll probably work, but gross.”
There was always the possibility that she would say no, but my gut told me she wasn’t going to.
“Meanwhile,” Isaac continued, gesturing to Alex, “you’ll talk to stepdaddy dearest and let him know who he’s really about to marry.”
“Do you think he’ll actually go through with the wedding once he knows?” I asked.
“I hope not,” Alex said. “Ireallyhope not.”
After saying goodbye to Isaac and getting an unexpected good luck hug, I followed Alex to areallynice BMW parked in the hotel parking lot. I paused on the sidewalk. “Is thisyourcar?” I had been expecting a rental. I’d ridden with Isaac from the airport in Miami, Alex claiming he had a quick errand to run and would meet us at the hotel. From the looks of it, his errand involved a seventy-five-thousand-dollar luxury sedan.
Alex looked a little sheepish. “Yes?”
I didn’t answer, not even attempting to hide the fact that my jaw was nearly touching the concrete.
“It lives at the summer house,” he said. He hesitated and a flash ofsomethingflitted across his face. “I don’t drive it much, but I figured I’d better pick it up before everything went down. I’m not sure how welcome I’ll be after.”
He popped the trunk and I placed my bag inside, then draped Sasha’s replacement dress, safely tucked away in an opaque garment bag, across the top. It was a masterpiece, that dress. With Chase’s help, it had pulled together beautifully. The silhouette of the dress was actually pretty elegant, but we’d glitzed it up with a layer of Las Vegas-style trashy that would have made Liberace proud. It was perfect.Awful.But perfect.
I climbed into the car, reveling in the butter-soft leather and finely finished interior. “So you’ve already been to the house? Do they know you’re here?”
He shifted his weight. “No. The house has several garages. I had moved the car to the one farthest away from the main house. It’s mostly used for lawn equipment. They’d probably forgotten it was even there.”
Severalgarages? “What have you been driving in Charleston?” I asked. I couldn’t actually remember what kind of car it was, though I’d ridden in it a few times when he’d taken me to the grocery store, and when we’d taken Chase to the beach.
“Oh. That’s myothercar.”
