“That actually looks better,” she agrees. “We can take off more vases and redistribute the flowers and your cost will go down without the extra vases.”
I smile at her. “Music to my ears,” I tell her. “Now, let’s look at cutlery.”
It takes about two hours to figure out all the little details, with Mindy telling me she’s going to do a mock-up of everything we changed and email me the pictures.
I put on my sunglasses before stepping out into the scorching sun and walking to my car. The phone rings from my purse and I quickly reach for it and see Cheryl is calling me. “Hi, Cheryl,” I answer, putting the phone to my ear as I pull open the car door and get in. “Did you get the pictures I sent?”
“I did,” she confirms and I can hear her walking on her end of the phone call with lots of people. “It’s stunning and looks so much better than last year.”
“I think so too,” I agree with her. “She’s going to send me a full mock-up tomorrow.”
“That’s great. Listen, the reason I was calling you was because I have to call Kirby today to discuss what the auction entails, and I got my times mixed up with tomorrow,” she explains breathlessly. “I have someone coming over to the house to go over the plans for the remodel, and I can’t cancel on him. It took me a month to get this appointment and Harold will kill me if I push it more.”
“Oh,” I say, turning on the car and putting the air-conditioning on, “I’m sure you can call Kirby tomorrow.”
“It won’t take you that long,” Cheryl states. “I’ll send you his number.”
“Okay,” I reply, not sure I want to do it, but if I say no, she might think I’m hiding something. The last thing I need is for gossip to get back to Trent about him. “Sounds good.”
I disconnect the phone and pull out of the parking lot, looking down at the center console and seeing I have about three hours until Trent is back. I stop at the flower shop, ready to pick up my white roses for the week. Stepping in, I see the pink lilies right away. “Oh my, those are so pretty,” I compliment, walking to the counter. “Hi, Rhonda,” I greet to the owner of the flower shop.
“Lexi,” she returns with a smile, “I have your roses in the back to be delivered in an hour.”
“I was out and figured I would just pick them up. Can I also get two dozen of those lilies at the front?” I say to her and she smiles even bigger.
“Aren’t they gorgeous? You know what? Why don’t you let me put those in a vase for you and I’ll send Henry out with them now.”
“Are you sure?” I ask her and she nods her head. “Perfect, I can’t wait.”
I turn and walk out of the flower shop at the same time my phone beeps, and I see Cheryl has sent me Kirby’s number.
I close my eyes and decide I’m going to call him once I get into the house. Parking my car in the garage, I then walk into the mudroom. I slip off my beige sandals before walking into the house. Stopping in my office, I put my purse down on the coffee table in the middle of the seating area before I sit down and call him.
I close my eyes at the same time the phone starts to ring. “Don’t pick up. Don’t pick up.” I look at the clock and see it’s just after four thirty, so he might be out or practicing or even playing golf. My leg starts to move up and down as the second ring starts. “Please don’t pick up,” I whisper, and when the second ring stops and then the third starts, I think I’m in the clear until in the middle of the third ring, he picks up.
“Hello.” He sounds out of breath, as if he ran for the phone.
“Kirby,” I say his name, “it’s Lexi, with the hospital fundraiser.”
“Lexi,” he says my name and I turn my head to look out of the window, the nerves in my body making me get up to my feet.
“Is this a bad time?” I ask him, not sure what else to say. It’s like I’ve never been on the phone before.
“Nope,” he confirms, his voice is tight and he’s not friendly like he was the last couple of times.
“Oh good. I know you were expecting Cheryl to call you to go over the details of the auction, but something came up and she asked me to call you.”
“Is that so?” he retorts. “I would think that you would be too good to call someone like me.” The minute he says the words, I feel like I’ve been kicked in the stomach. The hatred for myself fills in even more. I close my eyes and I want to crawl into the corner, knowing he heard what I said.
“Kirby,” I say his name softly.
“Lexi, why don’t we just talk about what you are calling for?” he suggests. “Cheryl said she was going to call to discuss what the whole auction would be like.”
“Yes, of course,” I agree with him. He obviously wants to get this phone call over with as much as I do. “So, as she mentioned, we have ten bachelors.” I start at the beginning of the pitch I’ve heard her say. “There will be a bunch of auction items throughout the night outside of just the bachelors and there are also silent auction prizes.”
“Where do I come in?” he asks me, and I hear the sound of slamming coming from his end of the phone.
“The ten bachelors will be auctioned off at the end of the evening. You will dance with your partner.”
