Page 24 of Playing It Forward

Knox studies me and I do my best not to squirm under his scrutiny. “You thinking about retiring?”

I freeze. I’m not retiring. I’m not giving up. I’m not ready to give up. I want that Super Bowl ring Dad never won. The one he ignored his family for.

But what if I have to retire? What if my shoulder can’t handle the upcoming season?

I force those thoughts away. I can do this. I’m not retiring early.

Chapter 9

There’s nothing worse than realizing you were wrong.

Terri

My assistant peeks into my office. “I have a question.”

“Please tell me it’s not how to get egg stains out of tablecloths.”

Nadia giggles. “I didn’t expect women in cocktail dresses to have a food fight.”

It wasn’t a little food fight either. The women completely destroyed the buffet of food. I tried stopping them, but when I ended up with a yogurt parfait in my face, I phoned Hudson. By the time he arrived five minutes later, the women were lounging on the floor drinking mimosas and laughing like hyenas.

And when they were escorted out by the police? They started betting on whose husband would arrive first to bail them out.

“You never know what the super rich will do. They think normal rules of behavior don’t apply to them. I once had to send a courier on a private plane to fetch a baby monitor from California because the mom couldn’t live without it.”

Her nose wrinkles. “She couldn’t buy a new one?”

“Nope. And, trust me, I offered.”

“Rich people are crazy.” Her eyes widen, and she slaps her hand over her mouth. “Sorry,” she mumbles.

I wave away her apology. “You’re fine. But don’t let them hear you calling them crazy pants. No matter if they ask you to delay the sunrise. Or ask you to import ice from Antarctica. Or request bottled air. Or want the sand removed from the beach. Or demand you lower the humidity in the air.”

She giggles. “This job is totally different than the one I had at Sirens & Saddles. The craziest thing to happen there was a bunch of bridesmaids drinking prosecco at ten in the morning and crying because they felt the horse judged their pink cowboy hats.”

“You gotta love Smuggler’s Hideaway.”

“You’re so lucky you grew up here.”

“Yep,” I agree despite not moving here until I was twelve after my mom died. My youth was no picnic party at Prohibition Beach. But everything turned out all right in the end. “What was your question?”

She bites her lip. “Do you mind reviewing the setup for the retirement party this evening? I don’t know if I captured the boats, booze, and bad decisions theme. The cake is a whiskey barrel. It’s supposed to pour actual whiskey but it’s leaking everywhere.”

I stand with a sigh. “I knew when he requested the moonshine fountain, we were in trouble.”

“I’m glad you refused.”

“I should have refused a cake that pours whiskey,” I mutter as I start to follow her down the hallway toward the room reserved for the retirement party tonight.

“I’m worried about tonight.”

Tonight is the first event Nadia is handling all on her own. She was supposed to handle a birthday party last Saturday on her own. But she freaked when the generator for the bouncy castle failed and a dad and his kid got trapped.

I came to rescue them but ended up staying when the goat decided to steal all the cupcakes. Three adults chased the poor animal around the resort until some kid got trapped in a restroom stall with the goat. Everyone panicked, but the kid declared the goat was his best friend.

Things did not improve from then on.

I really need to speak to Hudson about banning birthday parties for anyone under thirty from the resort. He won’t. But at least I can bitch to him about a goat for thirty minutes.