Page 14 of The Soul of Archer
"How the hell am I going to get through this?" She whispered.
Chapter 7
When Lance came downstairs he found Alora already gone. Growling, he stalked to the coffee pot and poured a mug. He had been up half the night replaying what had happened the night before. There was definitely something happening between him and Alora and like always, when it came to him and the opposite sex, things had gone FUBAR.
Leaning back against the counter and sipping his coffee he began making plans. He needed her to let him explain what he had meant about not crossing the line with a client. He had seen instantly that she had thought he saw her only a client. Nothing was further from the truth and damnit he would tell her.
Satisfied that he had a battle plan, Lance fixed himself a quick breakfast then headed out. First things first, he had a meeting with Danny and the others at Blackout. As he pulled out of his drive, he failed to see the non-descript dark blue sedan parked two houses down.
***
Alora pulled the fresh croissants from the oven and placed the sheet on the cooling rack. That morning she had quietly gone about her morning routine and the second she heard Lance moving around, she bolted. She still wasn't ready to face him after the events of last night. Hopefully by the end of the day she would be calm enough to look at him and not make a fool of herself.
"Hey boss, your nine o'clock consult is here."
"Thanks Carlo." She nodded.
Wiping her hands on a nearby towel, Alora headed for the consultation room. She walked in to see two couples. One looked to be in their early thirties and the other in their mid-sixties. Plastering on a bright smile, she moved to them.
"Good morning and welcome to Sassy Explosions." She greeted. "I'm Alora St. James."
"Good morning Ms. St. James. I'm Joe, this is my wife, Margaret, our daughter Bethany and her husband Jordan." Joe introduced.
"How do you do." Alora replied as they all sat at the table. "Now, what can I do for you guys this morning?"
"Well, Joe and I are celebrating our forty-seventh wedding anniversary on June 15th and the same day Bethany and Jordan will be celebrating their seventeenth." Margaret began.
"Me and mom thought it would be fun this year to combine the two and have a joint anniversary party." Bethany added.
"Wow, that does sound fun." Alora agreed. She turned in her seat and grabbed a sketch pad and pencil from the small table behind her. "Were you guys thinking of a theme or anything?"
"Yes. Me and Beth got married at the same beach front in Galveston that Joe and Margaret did. We're having the party at a beach house near there and we all thought, since it was at the beach to have a luau." Jordan replied.
Alora started sketching a rough idea. It was a five-tiered cake, yet each tier was a different shape. The bottom was a planked square like the Galveston boardwalk. The next was in the shape of a seashell, and so on.
"What about colors?" She questioned.
"Something fun and bright. Like you would see at a Hawaiian luau." Bethany spoke up.
"And tropical flowers." Margaret threw in.
Alora made notes to the side and drew up different accent pieces. When she was finished, she turned the pad around, so the two couples could see what she had in mind. "So, as you can see it will be a five-tiered cake with each tier a different shape that is either beach or luau related. I can even use brown sugar as sand along the bottom of the base and on maybe the tier with the boardwalk and shell."
"That looks perfect!" Bethany gushed.
"Joe? Jordan? Was there something you guys would like to see? I want you two to feel included." Alora said.
"Joe and I do like fishing..." Jordan started.
"Then how about on the boardwalk tier I put you guys there with some fishing poles at the pier?" Alora suggested.
For the next ten minutes she and the couples finished out the ideas before they headed over to the cashier. Since the cake wasn't need till June, Alora had a little time before she would need to begin work on it. She tore the sketch from the pad and headed for her office to put it in her file and mark her calendar.
***
Lance stood next to Gage and Ethan as Danny finished laying out what he had. Lance was surprised at all the information the D.E.A. had on the Malconi family. Finally, Danny sat the empty box on the floor and looked up at them.
"Okay, this is everything the Austin office has on Sam, Monica and Ian Malconi. I'm sure dad and Austin PD and the Feds have more. About three months ago I managed to slip one of our undercovers in. Dad told me that Alora said Sam had been acting like he was hiding something and my undercover just confirmed last night what that is.
