He nodded. "Yeah, hi."
"And then are you Emma?"
Well, that was new. Everyone knew who Chase was, but Emma? Now she was intrigued. "I am."
The man smiled and pointed to the name tag on his t-shirt. "I'm Dylan. I was wondering when you guys would come in."
"Wait, you knew we were coming?" Emma asked.
"Your grandmother is Dorothy, right?" Emma nodded. "So she came in here last year maybe? She said she had a surprise planned for Chase Warwick when she passed away." A sad look came over Dylan's face when he realized why Chase and Emma were here, and he put his hand to his chest. "Oh, no. Is she gone?"
Emma took Chase's hand to steady herself. "It's been a few months."
"I'm so sorry. She was only here once, but she was so nice and spent hours talking to us. Her request was a bit unusual, but she charmed Macie and I so we made a note of it for later."
"Um, OK." Emma turned to Chase to see if he could help at all, but he looked as bewildered as she was. "So, what exactly was my grandmother's request?"
"One second," Dylan said before heading back to an office, returning with a piece of paper and a woman.
"Oh, my gosh. You're Chase Warwick!"
"Uh, yeah. Hi."
"I love the Project Lyonheart movies," she gushed. "I'm Macie, by the way!"
She held out her hand for Chase to shake, and Emma watched him put on that fake Hollywood smile of his as he introduced himself (even though she obviously knew who he was) and thanked her for the compliment.
"Macie, this is Emma," Dylan told her.
"Oh, Emma!" Macie gave her the same sympathetic look. "Your grandmother made quite an impression on us when she was here last year. She was so much fun."
"Thank you."
Macie's smile quickly returned as she clasped her hands together. "But she told us to have fun, and that's what we're going to do."
Emma looked over at Chase, who still seemed to have no clue about what was going on. She also couldn't tell how Chase felt about this turn of events, which was good because she was having trouble figuring it all out as well.
"Um, I'm sorry, but Emma's grandmother never explained why we needed to come here."
Huge smiles spread across the faces of Macie and Dylan, who seemed to be ready to burst with whatever secret they had been keeping.
"So." Macie dramatically stepped up closer to them. "Dorothy has requested that we go shopping together to get some things specifically for Chase."
"Your grandmother said you would pay," Dylan added with a smile directly at Emma.
Of course she did. Of course the final challenge from Nana would once again include Emma spending money on Chase. Seriously, what was her grandmother's obsession with Emma spending money on Chase and not the other way around? And yet with all that planning, Nana never had a clue that she was leaving millions of dollars ofinheritance to Emma. Never a clue that Emma would be paying for a private jet to Vegas or a five-thousand-dollar hamburger or rent for Chase's guest house.
But this last challenge seemed more in line with what Nana's assumptions were about how big Emma's inheritance would be. A fun little shopping trip for barware for Chase. Nana probably assumed they would show up here after a fancy dinner that would be all she needed to complete her inheritance challenge for Emma.
Nana had been so wrong about so many things with this challenge, and after all this, Emma really wondered what her grandmother would think about the month she spent with Chase.
"So where would you like to start first?" Macie asked them enthusiastically.
Chase got that brilliant smile on his face that Emma missed. "Martini glasses."
He turned and gave Emma a big smile that she couldn't help but return, basking in Chase's enthusiasm for this. If they had to go on this one last adventure for Nana, martini glasses were the perfect choice.
"OK, let's go!" Macie said enthusiastically. "Dorothy said that might be your first choice."
