Page 100 of Forever By Morning

“Thank God.”

The three of us hustled around Jenny who waved at me with a comically large smile. God, she’d probably been on the desk last night.

Kill me now.

“So, how do you know bridezilla?” Bells asked me under her breath.

“Our families know one another.”

And her mother made mine look positively passive aggressive. I’d rather not run into her when I still hadn’t returned a single one of my mother’s messages except for a brief text to let her know I was extending my stay.

“Oh boy. Is she local?”

“No. She’s from the city.” Cara filled her in on the truly obscene schedule Daphne Washington was putting the orchard through.

I would be avoiding her at all costs.

The hallway took us to the gardens and Bells gasped. “This is where the party is going to be held?”

“Yes.” I looked around and tried to see what she saw. Me? I saw all the options, but there was a lot of work to be done.

Bells kicked off her heels and quickly walked around. “It’s amazing. Needs a bit of cleaning up though.”

Thankfully, the police tape had been taken down and two boxes of lights were sitting under one of the tables that had been delivered sometime this morning from the taproom.

Cara was still hugging her tablet. “We might need to steal a few guys from the orchard to hack at the overgrown bushes.”

“Good plan.” Bells dug around the gear that Kira’s people had left and hummed as she seemed to be counting in her head. “What’s the count on the party?”

Cara looked down at her screen and tapped around. “It’s a fortieth birthday with eighty guests give or take some who don’t show up.”

Bells whistled. “That’s a fair bit of people.”

“Yes, but I was thinking a few stations of food and conversation areas would keep the group from getting overwhelming.”

Bells glanced at me. “That’s a good idea. Maybe use that big rectangular table to make a gifts area?”

Cara quickly started typing on her screen.

I nodded. “I didn’t think of that. A gifts table and maybe something to match the birthday drink?”

“Oh.” Bells’ dark eyes sparkled “There’s a drink?”

Cara nodded. “We have a taproom on the north side of the orchard. Over where the concerts are. We’re going to borrow a few bartenders and waitstaff from Kira’s place since the taproom isn’t open for the season yet.”

“Interesting. And classy. Do we have a color theme or anything?”

Another thing I didn’t think of. “No, but that’s a very good idea.” I opened my tablet to see if we had a contact number for the person hosting the party.

It was going to be a very busy morning.

Three hours later, I collapsed into a chair with a bottle of water. “Who knew a garden party would need this much work?”

Bells sat across from me with her own water. “Girl. That to-do list was clutch, but it seems to be multiplying like bunnies.”

Cara had been pulled away for a shift at the desk and we’d both been poring over lists, calling in for catering, and booze. We’d gotten a hold of the birthday girl’s sisters who were paying for the party and nailed down the colors.

The birthday girl, Brandy, was an elementary school teacher, but her sisters wanted to give her a Bridgerton-esque garden party minus the big gowns since it was heading for summer. But it gave us a jumping off place.

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