“Yeah. Business, but…the food is a perk.”
“I bet.”
“We should have dinner at one of my favourites when you come down.”
For business, she reminded herself. “That would be great. Get a better feel for the competition.”
“Sure.” He stretched again. “When are you coming?”
“I don’t know. Maybe next weekend.”
“Not this weekend? I’m in California after that for a week. I won’t be back until the end of the month.”
She really couldn’t make it down that soon. And at the end of the month… “I’ll be busy when you get back. I have a gala dinner here that I’m not looking forward to.” It slipped out. She’d convinced herself she wasn’t going to ask him to be her date. She didn’t need a cover like that.
“Oh right, Evie mentioned that.”
Jess groaned. “What did she say?”
Evan chuckled. “Nothing bad, I promise. I know, she’s a gossip, but she means well. Her heart is big, even if she doesn’t know where to stop. She said you had a gala dinner that you needed a date for, and I should go with you.”
“That’s not—”
“I know.” His voice was low now, quiet and soothing in her ear, and her jumping pulse responded by calming down—a little bit. “But I could come to you for that, if you can’t come this way sooner.”
Jess swallowed hard. “I won’t have a ton of time to talk shop, though. I’m on the gala fundraising committee, so it’ll be a lot of glad handing and getting commitments for next year.”
“I’m good at that.”
“I bet you are.” She scrunched up her face. “That’s not all. It might be personally a bit messy for me. The reason I told Evie about it is that my ex will be there, and—look, this is embarrassing, okay?”
“Hit me. I do embarrassing shit all the time.”
“Without going into all the pathetic details, he left me right before Evie and Liam’s wedding. Ghosted me, in fact. Now he’s getting a commendation at this dinner, and I can’t skip it because I’m on the planning team, and I’m a bit of a mess when I think about being face to face and having to be polite. Frankly, if I could show up with Ryan Reynolds on my arm, I’d still be nervous that he’ll pop out of the woodwork with a younger, hotter fiancé or something.”
“That fucker.”
She laughed.
“Sorry, that wasn’t professional.”
“No, it’s okay. I feel the same way sometimes.”
“So you need a date.”
“No, I don’t.”
“But you could use a date? I’m no Ryan Reynolds, but I’m available, and I own a tux.” He laughed again in her ear. “How about this: Hey, Jess, can I be your date for the gala? I clean up pretty good.”
“I couldn’t ask you to do that,” she whispered.
“You’re helping me save my town,” he said quietly. “It would be the least I could do.”
Somewhere, Evie Calhoun was cackling over the success of her plan, Jess was sure of it. She closed her eyes, ignored the butterflies in her belly, and nodded. “Okay. I would love that, actually. Yes, please. That would be lovely. And something to look forward to, for sure.”
* * *
The next coupleof weeks flew by. Evan tried to stay in touch with Jessica, but his trip to California was pure chaos. By the time he landed back in Canada, it had been a while since they had talked.
