Page 16 of Four Weddings and a Baby Shower

Chapter Nine

Silver

What could go wrong?

An hour or so later, I realized how naïve that question had been. Maxwell Donovan, the son I’d wanted to charm, was accompanied by an extremely jealous girlfriend who would not leave his side. Nor would she let any female under the age of fifty go near him. Liam wasn’t faring any better. Apparently, Harold had a new assistant, and she was someone Liam knew. And for some odd reason, he did not want to go near her.

Finally, we sat at a table in the far corner of the ballroom, trying to come to terms with our defeat. “Well, the entire night is a wash,” I said, feeling utterly defeated. “Maybe we should just accept our losses and call it a night. I still have Gavin, I can call.”

“Not yet,” Liam said. “I'm working on a new angle. Just give me a little time to figure something out.” Liam’s words belied the expression on his face. His eyes darted back and forth across the crowd like he expected a ghost to come up from the middle of the crowd. He looked terrified.

“What happened between you and the assistant? Why can’t you talk to her? Did you dump her by text? Ghost her? Quit calling her after doing the deed?”

Liam shifted his attention to me warily. “Why do you think it is something I did?”

I gave Liam a fake smile. “Are you really asking me that question?”

He muttered something unintelligible under his breath. His handsome face fell into a frown. I could see the tension in his body, the frustration in his face that was out of character for him. Liam was a person who usually brushed off the negative. He was a man who grabbed challenges with both hands. Something was really getting to him tonight. Was I pushing him too hard?

“What happened with her?” I asked in a softer tone.

“I went on one date with her. She’s nuttier than a fruitcake on Christmas day.”

My eyes widened at this information. Liam wasn’t normally rattled by women. He could charm the venom out of a snake. “How so?”

He suddenly jumped out of his chair. He grabbed my hand and pulled me up, dragging me along with him out the French doors and to an outdoor terrace.

“What the hell?” I stammered as he finally stopped next to a wall, behind a large planter with some sort of bushy tree. “Are we hiding?”

“It’s Penelope. She was coming our way.”

“My god, Liam. Why are you so terrified of this woman?”

“I’m not terrified of her. I’m afraid she’ll make a scene. If she does that, we’ll get attention that we don’t want. Including being kicked out of the wedding. And then, bye-bye to any meetings with Magnum.”

“I thought you said you secured an invitation from the wedding planner?”

Liam’s face was raw with worry. “I did. But Penelope is histrionic. She’ll make a scene and call security. And then, every chance at a contract with Magnum will go down the tubes just like that,” he said with a snap of his fingers.

I looked across the patio, where Liam’s eyes were razor focused on the French doors we’d just ran through. One of the doors started to open, as if in slow motion. An attractive woman with vibrant red hair in a silky green dress stepped over the threshold and onto the patio. I heard Liam whimper next to me.

“For god’s sake Liam, she can’t be all that bad,” I said.

And then she saw us and her eyes met mine with a hair-raising flash of anger. Omg. Liam was right. She was petrifying. She was wearing closed black shoes that were stern and sturdy. They came crashing down in terrifying, menacing stomps as she marched towards us. She was clutching something shiny in her hand.

“Oh god, Liam, we’re going to die,” I whispered. “What are we going to do?”

Liam dragged me back against the wall, as far away from Miss Psycho as possible. “Kiss me,” he said, as he positioned his body in front of mine.

“What?”

“She won’t risk humiliation. She’s too much of a narcissist. We don’t have time to debate this. Now damn it, Silver, kiss me.”

At that moment, I wasn’t sure what I was more afraid of, a confrontation with his she-devil femme fatale or locking lips with Liam. Honestly, it was a toss-up.

“We’ll lose Magnum Hotels forever,” he warned.

That was the final straw. I was not going to lose the Magnum account again, especially to some crazed, fatal-attraction loon.

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