Page 83 of One Week Wingman

“Is there nowhere else in town that can host us, babe?” Jason asks, still rubbing Daisy’s shoulders.

“No! It’s why we had to host at the school. Nowhere is big enough or has the space for catering and the bar. Oh god, the catering!” she exclaims. “I’m going to have to call them and cancel and we won’t get our deposit back and—”

“Slow down,” Sebastian speaks up. He’s texting someone on his phone. “Take a breath. How many people do you have coming to this thing?”

“About four hundred,” Nita says. “They combined classes for the event.”

“And your food and alcohol is all arranged?”

She nods. “We have everything except a place to host it. And the rosettes,” she adds tearfully.

“Well, I don’t know about rosettes, but I have a place we can hold the event,” Sebastian announces, looking up.

“You do?” I ask surprised. “That was fast.”

“You doubt my skills of charm and persuasion?” he asks me with a grin, then turns to Daisy.

“Let everyone know, the Ashford Falls high school reunion is now taking place at the most beautiful place in Connecticut: the Modesto Vineyards!”

20

ROXY

Daisy and Sebastianleap into action, and within a half hour, everything is arranged. They have charter buses to take everyone out to the vineyard, and the caterers and bar staff are already on their way over to set up. There won’t be hundreds of paper rosettes on every table, but there will be plenty of space and alcohol. Which is kind of the point of the whole night.

“Wow,” Sebastian greets me with a whistle, as I make my way downstairs after changing. I’m wearing a long, slinky dress sprinkled with navy metallic thread, like the midnight sky.

“Wow yourself,” I greet him, smiling. Because honestly, Seb in a tux is something else. Something so hot it has to be seen to be believed. And even then I’m not confident that I’m not just hallucinating the perfect man. “Hello, 007.”

“You want to be shaken or stirred?” Sebastian says, with a smirk.

I laugh. “Both, please.”

“Keep those hands where we can see,” Nita calls, from where she’s waiting with Evan on the front porch. And when I step outside, I find a huge white stretch limo at the curb.

“You didn’t!” I squeal, laughing.

“I didn’t, Daisy did,” Nita nods to where Daisy is striking a pose against the hood, wearing a flouncy, fluttery gold gown. Jason looks uncomfortable in his suit and tie but is gamely taking photos of her.

“Rox! You look amazing!” Daisy sees us and comes to smother me in a hug.

“Woah there, have you been hitting the champagne early?” I tease.

“No, I’m just so excited. Isn’t this perfect? I never got a prom,” she adds with a wistful sigh.

That’s right. I was off at college, but she got a killer case of the flu that week, and despite all her begging and red-nosed pleading, she spent prom eating dry crackers in bed—and then vomiting it up again.

Clearly, weak stomachs run in the family.

“But this is going to be perfect,” she says with a big smile. “Absolutely perfect.”

“Way to set the bar high,” I tease, amused by her excitement. “I’d settle for not completely miserable.”

“Don’t be silly,” Daisy says, linking her arm through mine. “Mom, Dad! Pictures!”

And, just like we really are teenagers, Daisy has us all pose in dorky prom poses on the front lawn.

“I feel like an anthropologist, deep in a foreign tribe,” Sebastian murmurs, his arms looped around my waist from behind as we line up for the pics. “Reenacting the traditional mating customs of the lesser-spotted American teen.”

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