Page 42 of Snowflakes and Ice Skates

I kept a smile in place while cheering on the inside. That was promising! Almost a date. I eased my elbow away from Cora and nodded. “That would be great.”

Hayden stood up suddenly. “I’ve got to get back to work. I don’t want to be here late again tonight.”

Milly and Lane followed him.

“Oh right.” I watched as they gathered their things.

“It was really great to get to know you two. We’ll have to do this more often.” Milly smiled and waved as she turned to cross the room. Hayden left with her, but Lane hoovered.

“It was nice meeting you both. We’ll have to get in touch soon about the party.” He stared down at me. “And we’ll find a time to go to the market.”

I nodded. “Sounds good.”

“Have a good day,” Cora called as he waved and walked away.

Once they were out of hearing distance, I twisted to face Cora. “Oh my gosh.”

Her smile matched mine. “That went a thousand times better than I could have imagined!”

I nodded. “I can’t believe it!”

I was shocked by how easy it had been. We’d accomplished so much in so little time.

“Cora.” It was all I could get out.

“Looks like we have a party to plan!”

I let out a laugh and fell back on the couch. “No big deal, right? We just have to get food, decorations, and more guests in two days.”

She chuckled. “We got this.”

I squeezed her hand. “Thank you.”

She winked. “Don’t thank me yet. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Five

A thick envelope dropped on my desk. I glanced up to find Cora grinning at me with a tired smile.

“Good morning.” I reached for the envelope, unsure what it was.

“Morning. I just picked these up. It took a lot of persuading last night, but I finally convinced the man at the copy and printing place up the street to get these done overnight.”

I pulled out the contents and smiled. Elegant black-and-white invitations for the New Year’s Eve party. “Ring in the New Year,” I read aloud. They had Cora’s address and instructions to arrive at nine. “These are beautiful. When did you have time to design them?”

She smirked. “I had Cody draw them up.” She nodded toward one of our graphic designers, who sat on the other side of our floor.

“And you got them printed last night?”

She nodded. “I exchanged my phone number and an invitation in order for them to get done before I came in.”

I cringed. “You didn’t have to do that. We could have just emailed people.”

Her smile grew. “It wasn’t a hardship. The printer, Anthony, was quite cute actually. I wouldn't mind if he was my New Year's kiss.”

I laughed and put the invitations back. “Well then. Fate seems to have stepped in.”

She raised a shoulder, noncommittal. “We’ll see.”