“Naturally.” Lacey tucked her hands in the pockets of her dress pants and circled the desk. “And when is all of this supposed to start?”
“Well, if the wedding’s in August, I’d say we need to move them in by sometime in May or June.”
She nodded. “That’s only a few months away. And you’re going to oversee all of this? You know how to handle penguins? I won’t have to do a thing?”
“That’s right. In addition to my time in Antarctica, I used to work with penguins in the summers over at the big marine life park in Houston. I’ll handle everything, assuming I can get full access to the property so I can keep the penguins in check.”
“The penguins who will be living in my warehouse . . .”
“I’m sure they’ll want to have the wedding there, too. If you could touch base with the wedding planner they’ve hired to get plans rolling for that . . .” I reached into my wallet and pulled out the piece of paper I’d scrawled the wedding planner’s name on. “Here you go.”
Lacey took one look at it and started to fan herself. Her cheeks turned red as she flipped the tiny piece of paper back and forth. “You’re kidding me.”
“What?” The way her face flushed, like she had a hot rash marching up her cheeks, made me wish I hadn’t requested aprivate audience with the mayor. I couldn’t let her pass out. What would her assistant think?
“It’s . . .” Lacey wheezed. Her chest heaved, and she looked like she couldn’t catch her breath.
“Hey, are you okay?” I wrapped my hands around her upper arms. “Take some slow breaths, nice and easy.”
She met my gaze, her green eyes wild. “But it’s . . . Chyna . . .”
“Yeah, weird name, huh?”
“You don’t understand . . .” She drew in another deep breath. “Wedding planner . . . famous . . .”
I nodded, my pulse spiking as I tried to get her to calm down. “Breathe in . . . one . . . two . . . three . . .”
Lacey blinked fast as she broke away from my grasp. “She wants to come here?”
“Yeah, what’s the big deal?” I asked.
Before she could answer, Lacey collapsed to the ground. I stood, totally paralyzed for a long beat, every part of me frozen in place. What if I’d just killed the mayor?
Then I dropped to my knees next to her. “Mayor Cherish?”
Zina
I pushed the curtain to the side as I entered Lacey’s hospital room. My friend sat propped up in bed, her back against a fort of pillows.
“Are you alright?” I moved closer to the bed and reached for Lacey’s hand.
Lacey gritted her teeth, not meeting my gaze. “I’m mortified is what I am. How did you hear about this? Please tell me there’snot a photo of me sprawled out on the floor of my office that’s gone viral on social media.”
I bit back a laugh. “Bodie called me from the road and asked me to check up on you. He sure sounded worried.”
“He had to do some training down in Austin. I told him I was fine and not to come back. Can’t have him hovering around, makes me nervous.”
“You really passed out in your office?”
“Flat on my ass.” She finally turned her head, her eyes searching out mine. “And right in front of Alex Sanders.”
“So he managed to track you down?”
“Yeah. He wants to use the warehouse as temporary housing for . . . wait for it . . . penguins.”
I stepped back, my hand still clasping Lacey’s. “Penguins?”
“Can you believe it? Tad Munyon’s daughter is getting married and wants a winter wonderland wedding.” She rolled her eyes.
