AllFreeNovel
Share Us
By the time we were done, I was ready to jump in the lake. It was definitely a hot one. Of course we were running around making sure everything looked perfect as Gillian supervised and barked orders to the catering staff.
Mason was getting as sweaty as we were as he and Lucky installed the tables he’d finished the night before.
In the end, we had an hour to clean up, take a break to eat, and change before the guests were due to arrive.
I took a few precious minutes to disappear into the bathroom with my bag and pump as I cleaned up.
One thing I didn’t love was taking time out of every few hours to take the pressure off. It was far different when I was holding Ariana to feed her than to put a stupid battery-operated machine on me to do the same.
I did take a moment to call my brother as I ate one of the breakfast bars Clint had stashed in my bag. He didn’t answer, but he texted me back that he was feeding bean so I gave him a pass.
I pushed aside my makeup bag and found a rolled-up dress at the bottom of my bag.
“Bless you, Kitty.” My brother certainly wouldn’t have been smart enough to put a change of clothes in the bag for me. Kitty had even added a few pads so I wouldn’t have any boob accidents through my dress.
Clearly, I had the best sister-in-law in the history of sisters-in-law.
I swapped my wilted dress for the deep plum-colored dress. It was simple and lightweight with silvery leaves embroidered along the neckline. A perfect day to night dress. Bonus points, it didn’t cling to any of my fluffy parts.
Someday I’d have my waist back. Hopefully.
The dress fell to just above my knees and showed off my best feature—my legs. I found a nude pair of heels in the bag as well. For the first time in weeks, I felt like a woman and not just a mom.
I tucked the bottle into the tiny cooler on the side of my bag and finished cleaning up with some baby wipes until I almost felt human again. I even fussed with my hair until the curls looked less like duckling fuzz and more like wild curls.
A dab of makeup and concealer freshened me up and I was good to go.
Showtime, whether I was ready or not.
EIGHTEEN
I was bone deep tired.I’d been working on last minute details on the barge the night before. Instead of going home, I’d crashed in my office.
Not on purpose, I’d simply fallen asleep with my face planted on some invoices. Because while this party had been my focus for weeks, I did still have a restaurant to run.
Creating this party had shown even more cracks in my process. I kept taking on more things, but I didn’t hire enough people to help me.
While I did have Emmaline’s help for the barge, I didn’t want to overwhelm her with all the things that needed to be taken care of behind the scenes. The ordering of food and catering staff, shuffling money for all the decorations, the unexpected cost of the built-ins for the boat itself.
All of it had to be put on the books for the unsexy things like taxes and permits. Hell, I had to worry about a spot check visit from the Health Department any time now.
But now, as I stood in the center of the second floor of the barge, I couldn’t believe it was the same place.
Fold-down tables in strangely perfect octagon shapes jutted out from the corners. Right now, they were hidden under tablecloths in the peach and deep purple of Gina’s wedding colors.
The rest of the boat was white walls and glossy teak floors with mason jar accents all over.
I couldn’t help but smile as I found one of the extra duck statues that were all over the restaurant had been hung over one of the lights.
A nod to the creatures that had made their home on my property. When I spotted a few ducklings peeking from random light fixtures, I knew Emma had been the one who’d added the ducks. Her whimsical sense of humor had been so much a part of the planning of this party.
Two of the tables were full of the mason jars and small plates for finger food. A third had a charming section to write a note to the new parents or the bride and groom—the same couple, but they could address the notes however they wished. The last table held a bunch of instant cameras for some candid shots to stick on a board to give to Jared and Gina at the end of the night.
With the nature of my brother’s job, it was hard to get all the family and friends together in one gathering so we wanted to commemorate it with some physical proof.
A photo on your phone was all well and good, but it was rare for people to actually print them out anymore. We lived in a digital world these days, and it was good to have something to actually hold onto.
The barge was strangely quiet. Everyone had headed off to get ready for the party or to take some downtime to eat. The rest of the night would be a blur, and I knew firsthand how easy it was to forget to eat when things got too busy.
