“None taken.” Lincoln grinned at her.
“But I don’t want fancy, fancy tux and evening gowns either. What’s the word for in between?”
“Formal,” Addy said. “That would mean the men would wear suits and ties, the women in nice dresses. Casual is self-explanatory. The ballgown and tux wear is what we classify as black-tie.”
“Yes, formal,” Ainsley said. “So far we’ve come up with a guest list of three hundred people. Do you do the invitations or do we?”
“I can do them, again, you’ll pay me at the end. We’ll have to agree on a theme, a color, and the message. Then I would need a list of all the addresses of your guests. We can sit down later to discuss it all, I’m just giving you the basic bare bones of what I do and offer from Addy’s Events. Now, what are you thinking about for a color scheme? The twenty-fifth anniversary is silver.”
“Can we have silver and another color?” Ben asked. When the women looked at him he shrugged. “What about silver and black. Your parents always wear black.”
“We could do that,” the sisters agreed, then nodded.
“Yes, silver and black. But we don’t know what to do for decorations.”
“Leave that to me. So far we have silver and black, surprise anniversary party, three hundred people. If you get me the guest list, I can get started on that. We can have the invitations printed and ready to send out after the first of the year. I’ll just need you to come into my office to approve the invitation. But what you’ll have to decide on is whose number to put on it for the RSVPs. That is one service that we don’t do. We have too many other things to do to worry about that. But as the time gets closer, I’ll need a final count.”
Lincoln sat back and watched his wife in action. He never ever in a million years thought that when she met with a client there was so much information to go over. His love and admiration for her just went up a few more notches. He still wouldn’t sign the divorce papers. Now that Steph had been arrested and he had a clean bill of health, he could work on restoring his marriage. The last time he’d seen her was at the hospital when his parents were there. As soon as the tube had been taken out and he could talk to be understood, he told his parents to leave, and that if they ever treated his wife that way again, he would never speak to them again.
“Okay, now are you looking at maybe having dancing?”
“Does that matter?” Lincoln asked.
“It would help in considering what room we’ll book. Some have carpet, some hardwood floors. Dancing would be better on the hardwood floors.” Addy paused. “Why don’t we take a tour? Heather, how many rooms are available that day?”
“Actually all of them. If there’s three hundred people, I’d recommend the ballroom on the second or third floor. Why don’t we take that tour?”
Everyone stood and followed them. Lincoln was far enough behind Addy that he watched as her hips swayed as she walked. He frowned as she continued to walk ahead of him. Addy felt Lincoln’s eyes on her and looked over her shoulder with a frown. “What’s wrong with you, and eyes up.”
“How much weight have you lost?”
“None of your concern,” she whispered, and they ended up walking side by side. “Not that this is any of my concern, but how are you?”
“Good, got a clean bill of health. Mother hired some company that cleaned the house, they even fucking starched everything I fucking own.” The look on his face made her giggle.
She looked up and saw everyone staring at her. She gave herself a mental slap and hurried forward. “Okay, this room holds three hundred and fifty. There’s carpet on the floor. Ashley, Ainsley, before we walk in, I want you to do me a favor.”
“What’s that?” Ainsley asked.
“Stand here.” Addy positioned them. “Now close your eyes and picture that it’s the night of the event. You’re about to enter, and you hope all your wishes and visions had been met. Tell me what you see.”
They frowned, but did as told. Addy looked at Beth who was writing furiously to get down all the details. When they wound down, Addy smiled at them. “Now, do you think this room will fit your needs?” She swung open the doors and indicated for themto walk through. As Addy thought after listening to the girls they would be disappointed.
“No,” they said as one. They all went up to the third floor and she made them pause before she opened the doors, but not before telling them to again picture what they had on the lower floor. Addy had the doors opened and watched their reaction. “Yes, this is it. Exactly how I pictured it.” Ainsley hugged her sister’s arm.
“Me too. I love the windows and the arches. And at night with the black sky and the twinkling stars, it’s perfect, but isn’t it too big?”
“The windows make it seem that way,” Addy said. “It’s directly over the room we just looked at and the same size.”
“Can we book this one?” Ben asked.
“Sure, because of the secrecy, how about we refer this to the Hall event?”
“Sounds good,” Frank said, and turned to the club members. “Now remember, you guys are going to be Ash and Ainsley’s eyes and ears with her parents. You spend more time with them than we do. If Dad starts to make noise about a pig roast, we’re counting on you guys to talk him out of it.”
“Shut him down,” the girls implored them. “Don’t get us wrong, we love your pig roasts, but it’s time to take their anniversary to another level.”
“Thanks a lot.” Greaser snorted. “But we’ll try our best. Right guys?” They all agreed and the meeting quickly broke up after that. Addy was in the backroom of the original meeting place, gathering her notes when she felt a presence behind her. She slowly turned and saw Lincoln standing there. They looked at each other intently. He shifted his feet and the light glinted off the pins on his vest. She frowned and stepped forward and studied one. She slowly reached up and touched it lightly with her forefinger. Lincoln looked down and sucked in his breathwhen he saw which pin she was touching. It was a small key. They both had one on their vests. She had bought them and presented them to him on their first anniversary, saying that they held the key to the other’s heart.
