Page 12 of A Summer Mismatch
Winnie laid out the situation for the Secret Seven and then held her breath while she waited for a reaction from them. The conference room they were using was feeling extra warm, as though the air conditioning couldn’t quite counteract the ever-rising heat and humidity outside.
“So Logan and Julia,” Nancy summarized. “The grandson of your husband’s rival matched with your granddaughter.”
“It’s a bad idea,” Don said.
“Really bad,” Harry agreed.
“Me gusta,” Rosa said. She’d brought the latest Allegra Winters book with her to the meeting, her bookmark sticking out from the last third. She slapped her hand against the illustrated cover to punctuate her statement.
“I like it too,” Polly said.
Winnie placed her head in her hands. What had she been thinking? This was a terrible idea. Just because Logan had winked didn’t mean she should go shaking everything up like this.
“I should let go of the idea.” Her gaze landed on Nancy who was always so decisive. “Circle back to Timothy.” Even as she suggested it, her stomach churned.
Nancy stood to peer closer at Julia’s picture. “No circling back. Timothy isn’t right for her.”
Walt thumped the table with his hand. “I’m a fan of circling back.”
“Timothy dumped Julia again. Through text.” Nancy gave Walt a pointed look. “Still think he’s a great option?”
Winnie hadn’t necessarily wanted everyone to know about the text. Their hushed gasp spoke volumes.
“Guess not,” Walt mumbled. “I’d want to have a word with anyone who treated one of my granddaughters like that. Tucker would never.”
“Of course he wouldn’t,” Nancy agreed. “And that’s why we need to find someone like him for Julia.”
“We need to see Logan and Julia together,” Polly said. “Gauge their chemistry. It’s not worth all the heartache and stress if they don’t have a spark.”
“So, step one.” Don pulled out his notebook. “Get them into close proximity.”
“How are we going to do that?” Harry asked.
Winnie hadn’t been this nervous since she’d tried to put an outfit on Sweetie for the first time. There was a reason she’d recruited Don to help her.
“Lydia said that Logan is coming to dinner Friday,” she offered up.
Don wrote something down on a pad of paper and then pointed his pencil at Winnie. “Can you get Julia to your house Friday night?”
“I think I can. She’s so busy, but I’ll find a way to convince her to stay for dinner when she comes to pick up Cameron.”
“This is going to take a lot of quiet communication to pull off.” Nancy eyed each of them. “I know you all have mixed feelings about texting, but we’re going to need to lean into it. Did you all take Samantha’s texting class?”
“I saw most of you there,” Samantha jumped in to say. “But I’m more than happy to help you if you want to explore GIFs or emojis. I already helped you set up a group text a few targets ago, so you should be good to go there.”
“GIFs and emojis?” Don scoffed. “Sounds like made up words.”
“That’s all my grandchildren use to communicate,” Rosa said seriously. “Entire text chains without a single word, and just filled with picture after picture. They are very real.”
“Why don’t you just start with words,” Samantha cut in to say to Don. “We’ll go from there when you’re ready.”
“I’m uncomfortable with a written record existing of our communications.”
All the women groaned, and Nancy—the only personality strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Don—placed her hands firmly on the table. “Well, get comfortable with it, Don. And get a password on your phone if you don’t have one already.”
“Of course I have one,” he grumbled, but he didn’t argue further, so it seemed the matter was settled.
Nancy turned to Winnie. “Convince Julia to take a walk on the beach after dinner. We’ll take care of the rest.”
