“Totally wish I could be there,” said Willa.
“Get over here, then,” said Marlow. “The more the merrier.”
“My parents would disown me if I disappeared to France the week before university.”
“Don’t tell my folks that,” said Noah. “Who will be here any minute, so shake a leg.”
“Gotcha,” said Willa. “I can share our checklist for the invites, food, entertainment, auction—we had a silent auction for the smaller stuff and a live auction for the really sweet stuff. Do you know people who can come? And people who can donate auction items?”
“We do,” said Guillaume. Luc, Lali, Aubin, and Pierre nodded, too.
“Hit us with the details,” said Marlow. “Spare us nothing.”
Willa recounted everything the prom committee had done over six months (this crew had a week). Willa did excellent renditions of Peyton and Rachelle arguing over the menu, venue, and font. Everyone laughed and asked questions. Yakiv played ball. Noah kept an eye out for Bill and Iris.
“They’ll have to know about this at some point, won’t they?” asked Sabine.
“Yes,” said Marlow, “but let’s hold off in case it fails.”
“You don’t have to get it right,” said Guillaume, “you just have to get it going. I heard this once in a business course.”
That saying struck Sabine as something that could be said for her life, too.
“Afternoon!” said Bill, approaching with Iris. “What do we have here?”
“Nothing,” said Marlow. “We all just ran into each other. I’m on my way to work at Guillaume’s, and everyone else has things on the go, right?”
Everyone nodded, understanding the mission.Get this party started.
“This is Pierre,” said Marlow, “Luc’s cousin who runs a travel company, and he’s going to take you around for the day, so you can see the sights.”
“And I am going to join,” said Noah. “I want to see the sights, too.”
Those sights being Pierre Celeste,thought Sabine.
“Sabine, let’s go,” said Iris, “we’d like to talk to you about your future.”
“Wish I could, Grams,” said Sabine, “but I have a bunch of things to do.”
“What could be more important than spending time with your grandparents?” asked Bill. “We haven’t seen you all summer.”
“It’s just,” said Sabine, “I have a bit of a summer job here, working on the house.”
“Over dinner, then?” asked Iris.
“Love to,” said Sabine. Lie of her life, but she’d gotten good at lying this summer, if nothing else.
Bill and Iris got into the minibus with Pierre and Noah—but not without alarmed glances at the rusty fenders.
Sabine threaded her fingers through Aubin’s. Things had gotten exciting here and she was glad to have him by her side. They had a ton to do.But maybe there will be enough time for something more,she thought, pulling him close. She was sure she could make time.
The night before the event, Marlow bundled her parents off to Madame Belleville’s and collapsed in bed. She made a mental list of how it was all going.
She’d thought she’d been busy improving Maison Perdue and working for Renegade remotely, but the past week had been breathless. In the mornings, before her parents really surfaced, she and Noah organized the fundraiser. They brainstormed the menu, sold tickets, collected auction items, and planned how to decorate the square. For Marlow, one of the perks to the madness of the week was being back in the trenches with Noah. It was like the old days, planning secret parties their parents had no idea about (and there’d been plenty of those).
At one point, when Marlow’s living room floor was covered with a thousand small paper French flags that she and Noah were threading onto string to make bunting, he eyed her and said, “So? Are you moving here for good or what?”
The question took her by surprise. “Nah,” she said. “Can’t afford it. I’m just trying to get out of back taxes jail.”
