Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“That’s them,” Noa said, pointing to the boxes.
“All of those?” I asked.
She giggled and nodded. “Halo said she might have gone overboard.”
No kidding.
“Let’s get these out there. Maybe Saylor will be here by the time we get this all to the great room and can figure out what to do with it.”
“How much time do we have?” I asked.
She scrunched her nose. “Cressida said about an hour.”
Dang. This Saylor person needed to hurry up.
We began carrying the boxes to the great room, and it only took five trips with both of us doing it to get them all there. In Hawkins’s closet were two pink wreaths for the front double doors and five more boxes. While we stood, looking at the overwhelming task and taking a minute to decide what to do first, there was a faint chime that I’d learned meant someone had just come through the gate.
“Please, Lord, let that be Saylor,” Noa sighed and glanced at me. “I guess we can start with getting these open.”
Sounded like a plan.
We made it through several boxes each when the sound of the front door opening was followed by a female voice saying, “No, leave those here and bring the others into the great room. Then go get the rest of them out of the Escalade. I’ll need those in the kitchen.”
Noa grinned. “She’s here.”
Whew. Because I myself was not a party decorator or planner. And there were things in these boxes I had no idea what to do with.
I started opening another box, then glanced up at the sound of heels clicking on the hardwood, getting closer.
“I need the arch there.”
Glancing up, I saw a Barbie with platinum-blonde hair, wearing a hot-pink miniskirt, a shiny gold off-the-shoulder top, and pink-and-gold cowboy boots, pointing toward the center of the room. Beside her were two other women, who were dressed much more casual, carrying what looked like massive bags of inflated balloons.
“We only have an hour,” she told the other women.
“Yes, ma’am. We can get it done in thirty minutes,” the older lady told her.
“Excellent. But I want it impressive. I have the pink roses coming. They’ll be here shortly,” the blonde, who I assumed must be Saylor, said.
Then she swung her gaze over to us, and a big smile spread across her face.
“All right, ladies, let’s deck this place out!” she said, clapping her hands. “I can’t wait to see what all Halo bought.” She made her way over to the boxes we had opened.
“Elsie, this is Saylor,” Noa said. “Saylor, Elsie.”
Saylor held out a hand with long almond-shaped nails that were also pink with some shiny rhinestones decorating them. “You’re as gorgeous as Gathe claimed,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you.”
A large diamond ring added to all the glitter on her hand as it rested just above a band lined in its own diamonds. Whoever Saylor was, she was married. To which of the guys though?
I shook her hand, and then she let go and began to pull things from the box between us.
“I was worried about Halo’s taste, but she did good!” Saylor exclaimed. “Aren’t these adorable?! You can use these on the balloon arch too,” she told the women who had started putting together poles that apparently were going to become an arch.
Saylor picked the box up and carried it over to them. It contained shimmery pink and pearl hearts of different sizes.
“The more pink, the better,” she added. “Add in the gold like I said, but pink is our primary.”
Seemed she’d dressed to match the color scheme. This one was high maintenance, but I liked her energy.
Another set of footsteps that were heavier drew our attention to the doorway, and an attractive man appeared, carrying several white shopping bags.
His gaze went directly to Saylor. “Where do you want them, baby?” he asked her. While his wavy, dark brown hair was long enough that he had it in a ponytail at the nape of his neck, he seemed more clean-cut than the other men around here. There wasn’t a darkness behind his green eyes as he looked at Saylor as if she had, in fact, hung the moon and he worshipped at her altar.
“Kitchen, please,” she replied in a sultry voice.
He nodded his head once, then headed that way.
“Oh, I’m preoccupied with all this. Elsie, this is my husband, Jude. Jude, this is Elsie. The houseguest I told you about.”
He gave me a brief, friendly smile. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Uh, you too.”
He continued on then, and Saylor spun around to beam at us like a kid in a candy store.
“Time to get to work.”
And we did. Directed by Saylor and her eye for decorating. Neither Noa nor I made any suggestions. We were happy to do whatever she said. Which seemed to make her all the happier about things. She liked to be in charge. And again, that made me wonder who Jude was and why no one had mentioned him before. Or maybe they had. When they’d gone over who everyone was, I hadn’t exactly been in the mental state to care.