“Encore Events specializes in pulling off the impossible, which she certainly did tonight.”
He hadn’t glanced away from Sofia, even though she had yet to meet his eyes.
“Best of all,” Lara continued, “they have several locations in Texas, including one in Corpus Christi.All of your centennial celebration problems are solved.”
Understanding dawned, hot with possibility.Sofia had said she was from Corpus, but she hadn’t mentioned she had offices there.
“We’ll leave you to it.”Lara nudged Connor.
“Right,” Connor responded.“I think I’ll dance with my wife.”
“Does this mean we’re not having a brawl?”Nathan asked.
“It means you need to excuse yourself,” Connor told him.“Unless you want to get dragged into discussions about petits fours and color selection.”
“I kept you out of those decisions,” Lara replied.
“I owe Sofia my eternal and undying gratitude.”
Lara flashed Connor a sunny smile.“You can thank me later.In private.”
He skimmed his finger down Lara’s throat and across the diamonds in her necklace.For a moment, the two appeared lost in each other.
Nathan cleared his throat.Still, it took Connor a few seconds to drop his hand and stop staring at his wife.
As if nothing untoward were happening, Erin filled the silence by saying, “Cade will need your centennial celebration guest lists.”
Nathan groaned.
She glared at him.“By the end of the week.”
“It’s not too late to burn the whole thing down,” Nathan said to Cade.
Erin punched him in the biceps.
“Damn.”
“Be glad I hit like a girl.”
“Christ.What the hell?Have you been taking boxing lessons?”
“Thought you said you’d been working out?”Cade asked easily.
“She only hurt me because my muscles were sore from pumping iron this morning,” Nathan replied, but he rubbed at his arm.
“Uh-huh,” Erin said.
A few seconds later, Lara and his siblings returned to the clubhouse.
Then he was alone with Sofia.He thumbed back the brim of his hat so he could get an even better look at her.The glow from a nearby lamp reflected off the coppery highlights in her mahogany hair.She wore it pulled back, in some sort of fancy braid that he itched to free.
Out here, under the filtered lights, he noticed that her hazel eyes were flecked with gold.Unusual and arresting.
“Erin and Lara mentioned you’re planning a centennial celebration for the ranch sometime this fall,” she continued.“I was told, in no uncertain terms, that there will be no buffalo chicken wing cupcakes on the dessert table.”
“She’s correct.Turns out planning a party is outside of my usual job description, and I was just informed that I should have already sent out a save-the-date announcement.”
“We can do that.And we can handle as much or as little as you want.I have a generic checklist of all the things that need to be considered.I can email it to you.You can decide which things you want to handle yourself and which you want to hire out.If you want to be your own coordinator, it will give you a list of the service providers you may want to consider.”
