She laughed. "Oh, well, if it's ourthirddate…" She hesitated. "What time?"
"Seven."
Her face fell. "We're going to be working until dark. I'm sorry, Ollie. I don't think I can."
"Boss." Parker, the big guy who had saved the bee-stung man the day before, had been loitering and obviously eavesdropping. Ollie had known it; Tiffany, who jerked toward him with surprise, clearly hadn't. "Boss, we can build a gazebo without a site manager," Parker said dryly. "We'll knock off at dark and you can come inspect our work in the morning. It'll be fine. Go have a good time."
Responsibility conflicted with longing in Tiffany's expression. A burst of hope bloomed in Ollie's chest at the fact that she evidentlywantedto go to the dinner with him, and Parker, who was now Ollie's best friend in all the world, shot himan amused, exasperated look before saying, "Goon, Boss, or do you need me to get the whole crew over here telling you to go have fun?"
"No! Jeez, no. Fine. Fine! I don't have anything to wear." She turned back to Ollie, and from behind her, Parker gave him a wink and a thumbs up before turning away as Tiffany said, "It's dressy, right? I don't have anything dressy. Why would I have something dressy? I wasn't planning to go to a wedding rehearsal dinner."
"You know what, if you need to wear jeans, that'll be fine, but Charlee isn't very tall and I bet she might have something you could borrow."
"I am not borrowing the bride's clothes the night before her wedding! Especially not after wrecking her gazebo!"
"Thereisa tailor's shop over there," Parker said in the still-exasperated voice of a man who was pretending he wasn't listening. "Didn't somebody say there's some fashion designer who's got a workshop here?"
"Why would anybody have a workshop inVirtue?" Tiffany demanded. "Also, why are you still here? Don't you have work to do?"
Parker smiled beatifically at her. "I am working. I'm working to make sure my boss remembers that there's something in lifebesideswork. Somebody has to set a good example for us worker bees, right?"
"It's not that dressy tonight," Ollie said hastily. "Not formal-formal. No thongs and shorts, but?—"
"Thongs? At awedding rehearsal? I should hope not! I don't have a swimsuit with me but even if I did why would I wear it at the wedding rehearsal? And I'm certainly not going in my underwear!"
Ollie stood, half-frozen with confusion and a little alarm. "Thongs...underwear? Oh!Oh! No,thongs!" He lifted a foot. "That you wear on your feet! Sandals with a toe thong!"
"You meanflip-flops?"
"Why do Americans even call them that?" Ollie demanded, half outraged.
"Because they go flip-flop, flip-flop, when you walk!"
Ollie opened his mouth and shut it again. He had to admit there was a certain logic to that, but Australians never used two syllables where one would do. "Ah. Well, all right. But no thongs of any kind at the reception dinner. I don't know. Maybe it's just a bad idea."
NO IT ISN'T!
"No it isn't!" Parker and Ollie's koala spoke at the same time, startling him. Parker was eyeing his boss now. "You've always gotsomethingdecent to wear. She likes dressing up," he informed Ollie. "It's an antidote to all the testosterone she works around."
"Why are you talking about me like I'm not here?" Tiffany asked indignantly. Not very indignantly, though. She really looked like she was somewhere between embarrassed and trying not to laugh. "Okay, all right, Iguessmight have a couple of dresses with me in case I had a chance to go out to dinner when I wasn't sweaty and disgusting."
"You're glowing," Ollie said a little sappily. She eyed him. He examined her briefly, then made a face. "Okay, fine, you might be a little sweaty." To his amusement, she looked much more satisfied with that than his attempt at romantic politeness.
"I told you," Parker said with considerable satisfaction. "Go get gussied up, Boss. You'll have fun."
"All right, all right. If anything goes wrong!" Tiffany spun toward Parker with a lifted finger and he raised his hands in a promise.
"I'll text, I promise. But come on, Boss, we can handle a gazebo. Go!" Parker opened the safety gating, which Ollie suspected might have been the only reason Tiffany actually left.
"What on earth is your family going to say about you bringing a total stranger to the wedding rehearsal?" Tiffany asked under her breath, and then in a more normal voice, except alarmed, "Oh my God, is it a set dinner? Did you tell them in advance you were bringing a date? You can't just mess with wedding numbers, Ollie!"
"I—oh. I don't know. And no. I didn't. Because I didn't know I was bringing a date until now. But I will! It'll be fine, right?"
If it's not I'll bite somebody!
For just the briefest moment, Ollie let himself enjoy that idea. He had no intention of letting the koala bite anybody, but the thought of the little beast rampaging and ravaging through the hotel kitchen amused him. "If it's not," he said, "I'll speak to the manager. We'll work something out." He grinned at Tiffany suddenly. "We'll get burgers from the main restaurant and drag a kiddie table in and sit over to the side like we've been badly behaved. See? A solution."
"You can sit at the kiddie table," she said dryly. "I'll take your assigned seat at the grown-ups table, because I tell you what, being this short gets you treated like you're younger and dumber than you are, so I'm not going to play into that. But…yeah, it's a solution." She smiled up at him, and Ollie had to look down to make sure his feet were still on the ground. He felt like he was floating.
