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Chapter 17
Connor
Connor was exhausted. Not just kind of tired, but bone-weary. He wasn’t sure how he’d been roped into attending this planning meeting for the Christmas benefit that, frankly, he also wasn’t quite sure how he’d been roped into…but here he was.
The first person he saw when he stepped into the meeting room at the community center was Gen, and then Ella sitting next to her. On the other side of the table was Abby, and next to her was Allison. He smiled at the women. “Wow. It’s a gathering of the women who love the Valentine brothers. I feel kind of out of place.”
“Don’t worry,” Gen laughed. “Not everybody’s here yet. But you do kind of fit in. Sometimes I think you spend as much time with Gavin as I do, out back working on that car.”
He pressed a hand to his chest. “That Mustang, Genevieve. To just call it a car is, like, sacrilegious or something.”
“Duly noted. Oh! And here are our last two attendees now.”
Connor turned to see Luna walking into the room. It gave him a jolt even though he’d known he was going to see her here. He was coming to realize that seeing her would probably always give him a jolt, no matter what.
But walking in right behind Luna was the real surprise guest of the evening. It was Mrs. Valentine, the matriarch of both the Valentine family and, really, the town that was named after them as well. She was grandmother to Gavin, Donovan, Jet, Troy, and their younger sister Mila—but most residents would’ve said that she was their honorary grandmother.
Connor had always had the urge to call her Madame Valentine. It just seemed right somehow.
And, honestly, seeing her at the meeting shouldn’t really have been a shock. She was heavily involved in most of the town business. He guessed it only surprised him because she seemed to be such a larger-than-life figure that seeing her in person always seemed a little surreal to him.
“Fantastic, now that we’re all here, I’d like to call this meeting to order,” Gen said, and he took the closest seat. Luna sat down next to him, which gave him a little headrush. There were plenty of other empty seats she could’ve chosen, but she chose the one next to him.
Score.
“Genevieve, dear, do you have an estimate for how long the meeting might last? I’d like to let Fernando know how long I’ll be.”
Connor could see Genevieve pushing down a smile, but when she spoke there was no hint of it. From what he knew about Mrs. Valentine and her honest if sometimes sharp tongue, that was probably a wise move on Genevieve’s part.
“I’d say no longer than half an hour, ma’am.”
Mrs. Valentine nodded sharply. “Good, then. Get started without me. I’ll be back in a moment.”
As soon as she was out of earshot, Luna leaned forward eagerly. “Who is Fernando?”
Ella explained in a hurried whisper, “He’s the latest in a long line of young and handsome health care aides who have a lot more to offer in the brawn than brains department. Have Connor fill you in later.”
Luna looked up at him and they exchanged a look. After just a second’s worth of eye contact, she blushed and looked away.
His stomach twisted, but it was far from unpleasant. Damn. He really liked the idea that people around town were starting to think of them as a joined pair again. The fact that he and Luna were spending so much time together that other people put them in the “have Connor fill you in later” category was pretty much the greatest thing he’d heard in a while.
When Mrs. Valentine returned to the meeting room, Connor could’ve sworn she was just a tiny bit flushed from her conversation with the mysterious Fernando, but he decided not to think too deeply about that.
She bustled over to the head of the conference table and settled into the seat.
As Gen passed out agendas, she said, “First of all, I’d like to thank everyone for making the time to be here tonight. I know we all have busy lives and schedules, and I appreciate you taking the time.
“That having been said, I would like to move through the agenda as quickly as possible. There is a lot of work still to be done in the next two and a half weeks, and I for one would like to get started on it.”
Everyone nodded as they looked over the agenda. Gen continued, “So, quick rundown of who all is here and why—Grandmother Valentine is the main benefactor of the event—”
“Not to mention the emcee,” she interjected.
Genevieve nodded, suppressing a smile, then continued, “That’s correct, also the emcee. I’m coordinating…well, everything. Ella is heading up aesthetics and decor, Allison is wrangling the talent, Abby is curating the wine list, and now we have the addition of Luna and Connor, who have so generously offered to head up the food portion of the evening.”
Luna put her hand in the air hesitantly, and Connor thought that it might just be the cutest thing he’d ever seen. She even had a couple of false starts before she managed to get it all the way up.
“Now honey, if you have a question, just speak right up. We don’t bite,” Mrs. Valentine said, her voice firm.
