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Bunny clasped my arm. “You simply have to hire Quinn here to plan the wedding. He’s the absolute best in the Thicket. I was talking earlier to Susie Dalton about a wedding she went to in Nashville that Quinn planned, and she said it was miles above anything else she’d ever seen.”
I stared at her in shock, but before I could ask her what the fuck, Anita wiggled excitedly in her chair and asked, “You’ve done big Nashville weddings?”
I nodded. “That’s all I did for a long time before moving to the Thicket. Now I do weddings anywhere. Right now, I’m planning a wedding for Marissa Drakes and Trey Dunwoody here at Marissa’s family farm. It’s going to be gorgeous.”
If it didn’t get canceled by a little inconvenience named Levi.
“Oh my gosh! Mom told me she wanted to hold it here in the Thicket, but she was worried there wouldn’t be a planner in Nashville willing to come this far. I’ve got to go tell her!”
“You do that!” Bunny called after her.
When Anita left, Bunny sank against the pillar again with a happy sigh.
“I… I don’t know what to say,” I began. I couldn’t help but feel like she was helping me under false pretenses. “I was serious before, ma’am. Champ—erm, Percy—and I are only casual friends.”
“Then I look forward to watching you both become enlightened. I feel like planning the SnoBall won’t be the only temporary thing that becomes permanent.” Then she winked—Bunny Champion winked—at me.
I flushed beet red, and Bunny laughed. “You’re an utter delight, Quinn Taffet. And to think, I wasted so much time trying to reconcile myself to the last boy Percy dated! Come and see me in a few weeks, won’t you? Once Carlotta’s daughter’s wedding kerfuffle is over. I’m planning a fundraising gala in the autumn, and I’d love to talk through a few ideas with you.”
“A gala? With… me?” I whispered. That was bigger than a wedding. It was bigger than five weddings. “But…”
“Bring Percy if you’d like, or not if things don’t work out.” The smile dancing around her mouth suggested she didn’t think that would be the case. “I have a lot of ground to make up where my son is concerned, but I’ll start with this.” She reached over with one finger and pushed up my chin, which had dropped open. “And Quinn? It’s worth noting that I might not have come here to be impressed… but I am anyway.” She straightened off the pillar with a sigh and resumed her usual intimidating mien. “You have a good night.”
I stared at her in such absolute panicked shock that I didn’t manage to whisper, “You too!” until the woman was halfway across the dance floor.
Dear. Sweet. Angel. Baby. Jesus.
Had that actually happened? Was this real?
I needed to tell Champ immediately—in fact, I was shocked he hadn’t made a beeline for me when he saw me chatting with his mother—but for the first time all night, I couldn’t see his blond head towering above the crowd.
When the strains of “Oh, What a Night” started, I waited for him to come and find me the way he had for the other two dances we’d danced together… but he didn’t come. So I went searching.
I spotted Carter talking to a handsome man with glasses and noticed Riggs wasn’t with him. I moved in his direction. “Hey, sorry to interrupt, Carter. Have you seen Champ?”
Carter frowned and led me aside. “He left with Riggs and the others. Didn’t he tell you?”
My breath caught—literally stuttered in my lungs like I’d forgotten how to inhale, of all ridiculous things. My arms began to tingle all the way down to my fingertips, and my stomach lurched like I was falling to Earth from a great height.
“No. He… no. Why did they leave? Was there an emergency?”
An asteroid headed toward the Thicket?
A random puddle of quicksand had appeared in the parking lot, and lives were on the line?
A litter of puppies needed good homes?
I wanted to hear something, anything, except…
“They’re on the job,” Carter confirmed. “So I guess it depends on what you consider an emergency.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “Hux informed them of the obvious. There’s no one at the farmhouse right now, so it seems the perfect night to do a more thorough search for the Horn.”
Alarm bells replaced my disappointment again. “But there are advanced security systems in place out there,” I hissed.
Carter studied me. “You know they’re former Marine intelligence operatives, right? A farmhouse alarm system is nothing to them, especially with Hux doing his computer thing.” He placed a hand on my arm comfortingly. “It’ll be okay. They never fail a mission.”
“Right.” I nodded woodenly. “Of course they don’t.”
Because the mission always came first.
I gave Carter a half-smile and made a lame excuse, but as I walked away, I realized I should really have expected this. Hadn’t everything with Champ been about the mission from the very beginning? He didn’t have feelings for me. Fuck, no. He was sweet because he wanted my cooperation.
