“Sounds delicious. If you don’t have whiskey,” I joked, remembering Luke’s same words.
Rowan put her daughter into the bouncy seat, then went to the kitchen, which had a cut-out to the room we were in.
“Sit down and start talking,” Presley said, patting the sofa next to her. “This sounds serious.”
“I didn’t mean to come in and highjack the party,” I said.
Chloe waved off my objection. “What’s going on, Magnolia?”
I curled into the corner of the sofa opposite Presley, hugging a throw pillow to my chest. “So you can’t mention the name outside of this room, just because it’s business.”
Chloe and Presley nodded as Rowan came back into the room with my festive martini.
“Last week I got a call from Ella McCabe’s personal assistant to set up an initial consultation for her wedding.”
“Ella McCabe? The singer?” Presley practically bellowed in surprise.
“That’s amazing,” Chloe said.
“I was stunned but so excited,” I said.
“I don’t like the past tense,” Rowan pointed out.
“Our appointment was today at four. Her assistant, Allegra, left a message canceling it midafternoon.”
“Why did she cancel?” Presley asked.
“She didn’t say, and I didn’t get the message until right at four because I had another appointment before that. So I called Allegra and left a message asking her the reasons, wondering if I could’ve done anything differently. She actually called me back at almost six o’clock and was super nice and understanding.”
“So what was the reason?”
“Apparently Ella’s father is a business associate of Felix. Felix warned him against me. It took me a bit to convince her to tell me more of what he said, but she finally did. He told her father I’m mentally unstable and that I miss deadlines and have no respect for budgets.”
“What?” Rowan exclaimed. “Those are blatant lies.”
I shrugged, even though I was anything but nonchalant. “Her dad forwarded the lies to Ella.” I swallowed, fighting back the urge to cry. When I’d hung up with Allegra, I’d gone straight to screaming mad.
“What did you say to the assistant?” Chloe asked.
“I was so stunned I kind of faltered, then told her Felix James has it in for me. I didn’t think it was appropriate to lay all my family drama on her.”
Chloe nodded. “That would come across as unprofessional.”
“Exactly,” I said. “It’s one thing to want the people of this town to find out the truth, since they’ve known my family all along and lumped me in with my jerky parents. It’s quite another to have a complete stranger who wants to do business with me learning the craziness I was raised in.”
“I agree with that. Felix the Fuck is the unprofessional one but he’s trying to bring you down with him,” Presley said, then looked at the baby, whose eyes were now closed. “I’ll stop swearing before she turns one, Rowan, I promise.”
“I have faith in you,” Rowan said, shaking her head and grinning. “So what are you going to do?” she asked me.
“I’m going to drink this pretty cocktail and buy a voodoo doll with Felix’s name on it,” I said.
“I support all of that,” Presley said. “I’m so sorry, hon.”
“That man needs to burn in hell,” Chloe said, “sooner rather than later.”
“I’m for it,” I said. “I really thought this could be a foot in the door with the country-music world, you know?”
“It could’ve been,” Chloe said.
