Instead of fighting her, I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, until I felt her heartbeat against mine. “Thank you.”
She relaxed in my hold. “I’ll remind you of this moment when my team completely takes over your space in the next few hours.”
I laughed. “So that means we have a few hours?”
She kissed my neck. “Well, maybe half an hour.”
“I can work with that.”
Her phone rang again. She growled against my shoulder. “We can ignore it.”
I resumed stroking down her back, tangling our legs to draw her closer. When her phone started up again, she cursed and reached for it.
“Esther?” She sat up and held the blanket to her chest. “I’ll pay for your hotel upgrade in Hawaii if you come here and help me. Yes, bonus upgrade with a view. I don’t care. I just need your help with a Christmas set design that will blow everyone away.”
Knowing our slow start to the day was a pipedream at this point, I rolled out of bed and took a quick shower while she hatched whatever plans she had in mind.
I had my own fires to put out.
It wouldn’t do much good if they fixed everything in Haven Winter Wonderland and we still didn’t have internet for the retailers to check out people.
We both spent most of the morning on the phone then had to take a ridiculous number of photos for her designers. By mid-afternoon she had a diagram and a plan of attack.
Her team started arriving around lunch and the takeover was an understatement.
Power tools were at the ready, and even a guy with welding tools started in on the broken benches. They replaced the busted barrels with sturdy metal holders with frosted plexiglass that could be linked up to the lights so we could customize its look for years to come.
Everything they came up with was an iteration beyond what we’d started with. The retail storefronts were renovated to fix the structural damages and then also improved upon.
Even the lights didn’t go untouched. Amber was going to use it as a backdrop for her concert.
Experiencing her in her element was an education.
By the third day, we welcomed the retail artists back in to set up their wares once more. Rachel’s Cocoa Bus II arrived on Thursday night along with a logging truck full of Christmas trees from the Brothers Three Orchard.
Noah and the Roth Defense group made good on their promise of security.
This time I didn’t need to worry about protecting my girl.
I had to worry that she’d see that living in Haven was more trouble than it was worth.
And I wasn’t sure I could survive that.
30
amber
Harini couldn’t make it,but Ramsey came and saved the day for my hair and makeup.
“Okay, I need your help.”
Ramsey paused as she held a curling iron. “What have I been doing for the last forty minutes?”
“I mean with clothing choices.”
“You don’t want my input, sister.”
I laughed. “I really do. I have this new song that’s a little less pop than I usually write. I need to make the clothes match.”
