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Before she’d finished her sentence, Roxie was around their workstation and drawing her into a hug.
“Oh, sweetie, of course you’re scared. You’d be a complete nut job if you weren’t.” Roxie pulled away and met her gaze. “We’re all here to help you. You know that, right?”
“Thanks, Rox.” She swiped away the last stray tears and let out a breath. Straightening her shoulders, she made her way to the sink to re-wash her hands. “So, about this thing tonight,” she said when she was back at the workstation. “What do you want me to wear?”
Seeming to understand her desperate need to change the subject, Roxie resumed mixing the bowl of pie filling. “What do you have?”
Her brow furrowed at the thought of her pathetic wardrobe. “Well, that would be the problem. Unless the dress code includes jeans, sweatpants, T-shirts, or sweatshirts, then I’m afraid you’re all out of luck.”
Roxie paused, setting the bowl aside. “Are you serious? You don’t have any dress clothes with you? Not even a skirt?”
“Let’s just say that when I started my drive out here, packing a diverse wardrobe wasn’t exactly on the top of my priority list.”
“Touché, smart-ass. Touché.” Roxie grinned and began rolling out dough. “Let’s see... It’s eight forty-five now. June is taking care of all the regular stuff up front, but we only have her until noon. Nina and Ella should be in any minute. With all hands on deck, the baking and prep work should be done by two. Nina and El are handling the packing and transport. They’ll have everything at the party hall’s kitchen by four.
“While they handle that, we can run back to the house and get dolled up. You and I will be ready and over to the hall by five thirty at the latest. Nina set up the hall last night, so all we have to do is put stuff out. The shindig officially starts at six thirty, and food only goes until eight thirty. Thankfully, Mrs. Green hired waitstaff, so we don’t have to handle that. They’re also doing all the cleanup, so I’ll only be staying until nine thirty or so. That work for you?”
Wow. Alex blinked. Twice. “It’s dizzying, you know that?”
“What is?”
“You. Listening to you hash something out.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before.” Roxie shrugged. “But does that time frame work for you? Oh!” she exclaimed before Alex could answer. “I have the perfect outfit for you. But in the meantime, after the next round of quiches hit the oven, I need four trays of mini lasagnas prepped. Three meat and one veg.”
Alex laughed and looked at her friend in wonder. “It must be exhausting to have all those thoughts racing around in your head. I’m amazed—I truly am.”
“Well, you should be.” A smug smile lit Roxie’s face. “I’m an impressive sort of woman.Butdoes the time schedule work for you?”
“Sure. I just need to make one quick pit stop before we head back to the house.” When Roxie gave her a questioning look, she clarified, “Post office. Joe set up a PO Box for me and said he’d mailed some stuff. It won’t take long. Promise. Iswearto you, your precious schedule will not be disrupted.”
They went back to baking and prepping, serenaded by another one of Aretha’s hits. When the song changed, Alex caught Roxie’s eye. “Can I ask you a personal question?”
“Sure.” Roxie began attacking a new piece of dough with the rolling pin. “But only if I get to ask one in return.”
“Okay...”
Roxie smirked. “Hey, you started it.”
“True,” she said. “What’s with you and Joe? You do know he’s going to be there tonight, right?”
Roxie’s rolling pin paused.
“He left a voicemail this morning,” she explained. “Along with the paperwork stuff, he said he decided to fly in later this afternoon. Something about loose ends he has to tie up or something.”
Roxie resumed rolling out the dough with what looked like more force than necessary. After a few passes of the pin, she said, “You know, Alex, I’m not really sure what’s going on. The three of us grew up together and had a really great relationship. Best freaking friends.” Roxie’s forehead scrunched. She shrugged again. “But somewhere along the line, something changed between me and Joe.”
She set the rolling pin down and turned to grab pie plates. “The three of us always had a really good dynamic. We balanced each other. Of the two guys, Joe was the charmer. Don’t get me wrong, Quinn can be just as charming if he puts his mind to it, but he’s lazy. For Joe, it’s a natural thing. He can talk anyone out of anything. And Quinn? Well, I think he had that strong-but-silent persona perfected by the time he hit third grade. Seriously.”
Alex grinned at the thought. It was too easy for her to picture a mini Quinn and a mini Joe causing mayhem. “And you?”
“I wasthe girl, of course.” Roxie chuckled. “It sounds horribly sexist, but that was my job. Since we got into a lot of trouble growing up, I was the decoy. I will egotistically admit that I was anadorablekid. Really cute and ridiculously well dressed. My mom’s motto was ‘if Nordstrom doesn’t sell it, then we don’t need it.’ I truly looked like the poster child for sugar and spice and all that’s nice. So, my job was to take the blame for everything, and we’d usually get off scot-free. After all, how could anyone blame such bad pranks on sweet little me?”
The woman flashed an angelic smile, and Alex laughed. Sugar and spice, indeed.
“We all had a good time growing up. It was always fun. We always had each other’s backs. We knew each other ridiculously well. Didn’t-have-to-speak-whole-sentences-to-get-our-points-across kind of thing. They took off to college a few years ahead of me, but we stayed in contact. They visited often, and everything was great. Then things changed when Joe moved away for good.”
“What do you mean, ‘for good’?”
