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Especially since…
“What’s the ETA?” I asked Marin in a hushed tone.
She looked down at her phone. “Mmm. Ten minutes maybe.”
I nodded. “Good.”
Billy was so busy being mad at me that he didn’t seem to notice how packed the restaurant was—or who it was packed with.
Since the gala, there had been a record turnout—a silent show of support from the town. Not from everyone, mind you—this wasn’tSchitt’s Creek—but a lot more than I’d anticipated.
If Billy noticed, he didn’t say anything.
But he’d see soon enough.
“Five minutes,” Marin said.
“Jesus,” I muttered. “He’s either going to kill us or?—”
“Us?” She scoffed. “As far as he knows,Ihad nothing to do with this, okay? This was all you. You’re already in the doghouse anyway.”
“All I did was logistics. It’s not like it was my idea.” I grinned, sitting back in my seat as we waited for our secret surprise to get here. I looked around the restaurant, seeing the friends who had turned out.
Jake and Molly sat with Millie, Aiden, and his brother, who was visiting from New York. Dean sat with Taylor and their wives. Gavin even managed to find a date—some leggy blonde. Probably a tourist. I was just glad he wasn’t ogling my girlfriend for once.
Everyone sat in nervous anticipation, talking among themselves.
Waiting.
Finally, Marin got the text.
She nodded, and I pulled out my phone.
Go time, I wrote in the group chat.
Me—in a fucking group chat.
Billy better appreciate this.
Everyone—and I mean, everyone—reached under their seats and pulled out individual candles, supplied by Millie. We all placed them on the tables, and while Billy was being distracted inside, they were lit.
The patio was instantly aglow in flickering flames.
“It’s so pretty,” Marin said, her eyes a little misty as she looked around.
Someone pulled out a speaker, and music filled the air. It was one of Billy’s favorites, and like a moth to a flame, he stepped out onto the patio.
“What the hell?” his deep voice said.
I watched his eyes dart from person to person until they finally landed on…Eli.
He was standing at the entrance of the patio, all decked out in his designer duds. A shit-eating grin plastered across his face.
Never in a million years would Billy have expected this.
“What the hell?” His voice was much softer this time as everything started to shift into place.
A chorus of chuckles echoed around me.
