Always You: A Lilac Bay Novel (Friends with Benefits) (17 page)

“But who’s going to handle this?” I asked, pointing at the people in the grass.

“Leave it to me.”

“You want to be in charge of decorations?” I asked, my eyebrows high on my forehead. Andrew didn’t like to be in charge of anything.

“Just get out of here before I change my mind.”

“But what are you going to—”

“Riley!” he snapped, grabbing my shoulders and turning me away from the group on the grass. “Go. Stop worrying. Stop micromanaging. Trust me.”

If it was just about anyone else, I might not have. But I did trust Andrew. If anyone could get this shit done so I could concentrate on the big picture, it was him.

* * *

L
ooking back
on those two days, I’ll never know how we got through it. For hours and hours the square felt like a chaotic mess as everyone worked on different pieces of the final puzzle. But somewhere around noon the second day, it started to come together. We had moved most of the operation up to the hotel. The tent was up, Andrew’s signs were taking shape. The décor team had cut out hundreds and hundreds of paper stars to be strung around the tent along with all the white Christmas lights they could find, and it already looked amazing. Inside the hotel didn’t need much décor at all—it was already basically perfect.

The dance captains had started to put their groups together to practice larger chunks of the choreography. The Mayor no longer looked like he wanted to throw up. In fact, he was doing great. He was engaging and encouraging with his dancers. Plus, the man could really dance. All barrel-chested, six-foot-four-inches of him.

The costume team had scoured the Island School drama department, Tina’s dance studio, and put out the word to the locals that they were looking for shift dresses for the girls and black vests for the guys. Luckily, black vests made up the uniform for the staff at the Big Hotel, and Jenny gave us permission to raid the storage closet. Now they were sitting in a circle on the grand lawn, gluing single feathers to headbands for the girls to wear.

By five that afternoon the dancers were all together, practicing the entire thing from start to finish. To my shock, it looked really good. Who knew we had so many decent dancers in Lilac Bay? Somehow it seemed like we were going to pull it all together.

At six thirty I made everyone stop what they were doing to come and stand on the porch.

“You guys are amazing,” I said into the megaphone.

“Hell yeah we are,” Cora called back, and everyone laughed.

“I’m so proud of the work you put into this,” I continued, vaguely aware that the cameras were on me. I couldn’t worry about that. “You’ve worked so hard and I know you’re getting tired. But I also know you have a few more hours in you. And then we celebrate!”

There was an eruption of cheers at that.

“This is what I need you to do now,” I said. “Go home. Take a half hour. Put on your costumes. Wash your faces. Have some water. Sit.” There was some laughing at that. “Be back here at seven fifteen for dress rehearsal. We’ve got this.”

There was some cheering and then everyone started to break up, heading in their separate directions.

“Take your own advice,” Rebecca said, appearing from the crowd, coming to stand at my side.

I shook my head. “Too much to do.”

“You gonna be on TV in that, when everyone else is in nice clothes?” she asked, looking skeptically down at my jeans and tennis shoes.

“I’ll run home to change before eight,” I assured her.

She looked like she wanted to argue but in the end she reached out and gave me a quick hug.

“What was that for?”

“For doing such a good job today.”

“It’s not over yet.”

My little sister shook her head. “You got this entire thing organized in less than ten minutes. You kept everyone from going crazy.” She met my gaze directly. “We don’t get to hear enough that we made someone proud, Riley.” I swallowed, thinking of our mom, currently God knew where. “So I’m telling you now. I’m proud of you.”

I cleared my throat, determined not to cry. “Thanks,” I muttered, not meeting her eye.

When eight o’clock finally rolled around, we were ready. There was food and drinks waiting on long tables in the tents, out of the way of where the dancers would be doing their thing. The stars and lights were hung in the tent, though it wasn’t quite dark out yet. Andrew’s lighted signs were finished, flashing the words “Just Dance” across the lawn. Every person in the hotel was wearing some approximation of twenties garb. I’d even had time to run home and put on a dress. And the dancers were in position.

“Dance captains,” I said feeling a flash of pure terror. “Everyone ready?”

They assured me that they were and I glanced around at the group. Should I say something? Give some inspirational speech? I felt like I was going to throw up. In the end I gave the captains a weak thumbs up and headed over to watch on the monitors with Gina.

The choreography called for the dance to start in three different places—the main staircase in the foyer, the grand ballroom, and the front porch. Each group would dance their way down towards the front doors until eventually they all joined up and spilled out onto the grand lawn for the finale. It was complicated and required not only the dancers but also the camera crew to be in the right places at the right times. I was sure that something, somewhere was going to get messed up, and the fear actually took my breath away as the music started.

But then the best thing happened—my neighbors started to dance, and all my nerves disappeared. I was too busy laughing to feel anything but happiness. It’s not that they were bad—they were really good! It was just hilarious and amazing to see them this way.

To see Rose Powell dancing like a flapper girl right next to her granddaughter. To see Zane and Eddie getting down in a fairly good approximation of a tap dance. To see the mayor in his vest and tie, leading the way. Everything about it made me laugh.

I couldn’t remember ever enjoying anything more.

When it was done, we all burst into cheers, the dancers jumping up and down, hugging each other. And those of us that weren’t on camera ran out into the crowd as well, laughing and cheering. It was awesome—there was no other way to put it.

“Now I think you all deserve to party!” Mayor Jones called out, and everyone cheered again before the crowds descended on the food tables.

The DJ started up on the porch, a few couples taking to the makeshift dance floor on the lawn, everyone eager to go over the flash mob detail by detail. And all the while the cameras rolled, capturing the people that I loved most in the world as they enjoyed their celebration.

“I have to tell you, Riley,” Gina said, coming up to stand beside me. “That was really something.”

“It was amazing,” I said, not caring in the slightest about being professional. “They were freaking fantastic.”

“You all were,” she said, gesturing around at the lawn. “This is so much more than a flash mob.”

“That was the goal,” I said, laughing.

“In all seriousness,” she said, leaning in a little closer. “You should be proud of this. I spent a lot of time watching you today, and you have a knack for this kind of thing.”

“For flash mobs?” I asked, and she laughed.

“No. For putting on events. For organizing large groups of people. You know, that’s half the battle when it comes to producing. I spend most of my time getting things organized.”

My heart was beating a little faster. “Well, you’re definitely good at it.”

“So are you, Riley. I saw your resume, you know. When we were going through all the paper work. You went to school for broadcasting?”

“I switched majors my senior year,” I told her, praying that she wouldn’t ask why.

“Well, if you’re ever interested in revisiting it, let me know. You could have a future in this.”

I gaped at her. “Seriously?”

She grinned. “Seriously. If you ever want to talk about job opportunities, give me a call. I’d be happy to give you a reference.”

“Wow.” I couldn’t seem to close my mouth properly. Did she have any idea how long I had dreamed of working in television? I couldn’t believe I was hearing this.

“Well, you certainly make my job easier,” she said, laughing. “So thank you for that.”

“Thank
you
,” I managed to get out. I shook myself, determined not to ruin her impression of me by acting like a bumbling idiot now. “Hey, you don’t have any food! You should eat. David is an amazing chef.”

“I will.” She squeezed my arm and then disappeared off into the crowd, leaving me to shake my head in disbelief.

She thought I could work in TV. An actual TV producer thought I could work in her field. I had to tell Andrew.

As if my thoughts summoned him, I heard Andrew come up behind me.

“Looks like you have a hit on your hands,” he said.

I turned to him, ready to tell him about the conversation with Gina, but found the words stuck in my throat.

Sometime in the last half hour, Andrew must have gone home to change. He was wearing a dark suit, the crisp white of his dress shirt contrasting with the tan skin of his neck. He had already loosened the tie and the top collar, but that only made it look better.

I could count on one hand the number of times I had seen Andrew Powell in a suit. His grandfather’s funeral. His cousin Greg’s wedding. Our senior prom. But I didn’t think I had ever seen him look quite so handsome.

“Wow, Andrew,” I blurted out. “You clean up nice.”

Something unknown flashed in his eyes, and he did that smirky grin thing—but somehow, I didn’t feel the need to tease him. Let his ego take the compliment. He looked fantastic.

“You don’t look so bad yourself,” he said. “Can’t remember the last time I saw you in a dress.”

I looked down at the gauzy black fabric, shrugging a little. By some stroke of luck, I’d had the perfect dress in my closet—me, the girl who never wore dresses. Rebecca had talked me into buying it a few years ago in one of her many attempts to get me to live a little. It was a straight black shift dress with a pattern of tiny beads all across the gauzy fabric. With my mandatory feathered headband, I could almost pass for a twenties girl myself. But now, looking down at the dress, I felt stupid, unable to come up with an answer. Since when did I have trouble finding a comeback for Andrew?

“Hey,” he said, his voice a little lower than normal, and I somehow felt physically compelled to look up at him. He wasn’t smiling, and his eyes were doing that flashing thing again. I swallowed. “Dance with me.”

That broke the strange spell that had fallen over me. “Dance?”

He rolled his eyes. “We’re at a dance, Riley. It’s what people do.”

“It’s not what
we
do,” I shot back. “Do you even know how to dance?”

His eyebrow arched. “Is that a challenge?”

“No, it’s—”

But before I could tell him what it was, he was grabbing my hand and pulling me over to the dance floor. Ella Fitzgerald was softly crooning from the speakers, and Andrew was pulling me up against him, one hand holding mine, the other on my lower back.

“There,” he said. “That’s not so bad, is it?”

I shook my head, my throat too dry to talk. What in the hell was wrong with me?

He held me like that for a long moment as we swayed slightly on the dance floor. It seemed to stretch on and on forever, us not talking, just standing there, way too close together. Close enough that I could smell his Old Spice, that I could see the individual stubble of his red beard, could feel the heat radiating off his body.

Oh, God, it was
awful
. I couldn’t be this uncomfortable around
Andrew
.

“Hey,” he said, shaking the hand he held in his. “Loosen up, Riley.”

“I don’t like dancing.”

“Well it would be rude to ditch me now, so you’re going to have to deal with it.” Was he laughing at me? I glared up at him and saw that his eyes were dancing, too, that the smirk back on his face.

“Shut up, Andrew.”

“Ah, there she is,” he said. “I was wondering where you went.”

“You’re the worst.”

“I know, I know. But at least you don’t feel like a statue anymore.”

I did feel a little better now that he was giving me a hard time. It was more…normal.

“Fine. Thank you very much for your service.”

“My pleasure. So. Are you happy with how it turned out?”

“I am! Oh, I was going to tell you what Gina said.” I filled him in on our conversation and he listened attentively, smiling down at me.

“That’s great, Riley!”

“I know, right? She said she saw on my resume that I had taken a lot of broadcasting classes and she could tell I would have been good at it.”

“Well?” he asked.

“Well what?”

“Are you going to take her up on it? Are you going to ask for a reference?”

“Oh.” My heart sank a little, though I wasn’t exactly sure why. Maybe it was just more fun to dream about it than to actually think about it in practical terms. “I don’t know.”

“You should! It’s what you always wanted to do.”

“Yeah, but things changed.”