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Del sat withMia, Brooklyn, Robyn, Barbara, and Margaret, watching Isaac interact with the others from across the yard. She knew he’d been nervous about tonight, and for the first few minutes he’d kept a firm grip on her offered hand. But once Drew started razzing him about his Yankees cap, he’d relaxed and ventured off to engage in baseball banter. Now he sat at a card table with Drew, Chase, Harold, and Nan, dealing out a hand of Texas Hold’em with an easy smile on his face. As she watched, he caught her gaze from across the way and gave her a wink.
“Looks like your man is enjoying himself,” Margaret said over the top of her red Solo cup.
“Yes, it does.” She clinked her cup to Margaret’s. “The party was a great idea.”
“Parties are always great ideas,” said Mia, who had broken out a bottle of her favorite wine and appeared to be feeling no pain. With Mia, it didn’t take much. She issued a happy, wine-infused sigh. “I’m so glad Aunt Faye finally made it. I was starting to worry.”
“You, worry?” Del teased. She received a dark look from her tipsy sister. “Yes, I’m glad she made it, too. Stinks that Pops had to work and couldn’t join us, though.”
“I agree,” Robyn said. “Your dad always cracks me up when he gets to drinking.”
“Which is why we try to keep that to a minimum,” Mia said. “That man can’t hold his liquor.”
Which, apparently, he’d passed down to her. The rest of their group exchanged a look with Del, who just shook her head and smiled.
“So what all do we have left to do ahead of the talent show? We’ve got food vendors lined up, and those two awesome food trucks from Fort Wayne agreed to make the drive—that’ll be huge. And Max agreed to handle the beverage tent.”
“Plus, he’s giving us most of the proceeds, which was very sweet of him,” added Mia who, they all knew without her ever having to say it, had always harbored a secret crush on Max Williams. But Max was happily married, which meant that crush wasn’t going anywhere.
“Right, very sweet of him,” Del said. “And Robyn, you and Faye were rock stars this week, getting those two, huge new sponsors. Isaac said he’d add their logos to the website this weekend.”
“It took some heartstring tugging, but Faye eventually won them over,” Robyn said. “She’s got another one on the fence; I’ll be following up with them on Monday.”
“Excellent.” Margaret nodded. “Sounds to me like all we have left to do now is a whole lotta waiting: waiting to see if we get enough applicants and sell enough tickets.”
“Not if,” said Aunt Faye, returning from the food table. “When. And we’re still trying to line up a portable stage for the land next to the old depot. I’ve got a few feelers out, should know more later this week.”
Del clinked her cup to Faye’s as she took the seat beside her. “Fantastic. Great work, everyone.”
As the conversation continued, Del scanned the faces around her. Aside from her father and Hannah, and the Picketts who’d already stopped by and left, all her favorite people were here and appeared to be having a wonderful time. Now all she had to do was figure out how to keep things this way.
“I just hope Isaac will still be here for the show,” Mia said, reading her mind.
“Me too.”
“Why wouldn’t he be?” Brooklyn asked.
“Because they might call him back to work before then,” Mia said, pouting. Yep, she was definitely further into that wine bottle than Del had thought. “Until then, he’s gotta lay low.”
“Because of the video you told me about?” Brooklyn frowned. “I thought it wasn’t supposed to be all that good.”
“It was good enough that a ton of people saw it and believed it, so he’s been kinda stuck hiding from everyone,” Del said.
“Then just make a new one that shows it was fake.”
Margaret elbowed Del in the side. “Now there’s a good idea. You tell ’em how it’s done, kiddo.”
“You really don’t know?”
Brooklyn grabbed her phone and held it up, recording the card game across the lawn for several seconds. Then she tapped her phone and brought up an app Delaney hadn’t heard of before. Though, in all fairness, Del hadn’t heard of most of them. On purpose.
“So, you just pick your video here, and then tap where you want to add audio over the top of it. When the microphone icon comes up, you tap to start recording your voice, then again to stop recording. Watch.”
Within minutes, Brooklyn had added her commentary of the card game over the top of the original video. It was downright scary, how easy she made it look.
It also reinforced Del’s desire to stay off the internet and away from social media.
“See? It’s so simple, pretty much anyone can do it.”
