“What?” He glanced from Lacey to me.
I felt a sliver of pity for the man because I knew what was coming. Lacey was about to go WWE on him. She might not drop Alex into a gutwrench powerbomb, but she was about to give his ego a badly needed bruising. For a moment I wished for popcorn and a longneck so I could further my enjoyment of the show that was about to go down.
“Not only did you undermine my authority, but you just made a promise to someone regarding my town.” Lacey rose to her full height, her movements slow and deliberate.
“You said we needed to do whatever we could to keep Ms. Munyon happy. Based on the way the conversation was going it seemed like you were about to lose us both a very valuableclient.” Alex crossed his arms over that broad chest of his, totally unaware of the verbal thrashing headed his way.
Lacey rounded the large desk and then stopped in front of him. “You sure you want to stick around for this, Zina? It’s about to get gory.”
I scooted to the edge of my seat. “Wouldn’t miss it.”
With a nod, Lacey turned her attention back to Mr. Smug and Stupid. “Do you have any idea what you just promised?”
Alex shrugged. “She wants to move the date up a bit. No big deal.”
“A bit.” Lacey leaned against the desk and crossed one foot over the other. She might look calm and cool on the outside, but I could tell there was an internal volcano about to erupt.
“What’s the problem? I’m meeting with the contractor today. He’ll probably only need six to eight weeks to install everything. I just need a month or two to after that to get them trained and we’ll be fine.”
“So that’s two months to get the dome installed, say, another two months to train them, and then you’ll be ready?” She held up four fingers.
“Yeah. Sounds about right.”
“Well according to what you just committed us to with Chyna, the wedding will be happening in a little over six weeks.” Her eyes narrowed. She was going in for the kill.
Alex sputtered. “What? I didn’t say we’d be ready that soon.”
“Unfortunately, you did. Now, can you answer one question for me?”
Alex looked to me, his eyes sending an obvious silent cry for help. I gave him a sweet smile, then turned my gaze to the bulletin board behind Lacey’s desk. Tons of images from magazines, printouts, and photos covered the large surface. Looked like the wedding business was becoming the mayor’s sole focus.
“What’s that?” Alex leaned over, his forearms on his knees.
“How are you going to make it all happen?”
“Me?” Alex exploded out of his chair, his hands raking through his hair. “That would be impossible. There’s no way?—”
“I have every bit of faith that you’ll figure it out. Because that’s what you just promised Chyna.”
“I said no such thing.” He paced the small confines of Lacey’s office. “I’d never agree to that.”
“Yes, you did. And now it’s going to be up to you to make this happen.”
I couldn’t help the smug grin from spreading across my face. But as my smile grew, a tiny thought chipped away at my mind. Six weeks until the wedding meant I needed to get the dogs moved out as soon as possible.
“Wait a sec.” I leaned forward and met Lacey’s gaze.
“Yeah, I was waiting for you to realize what this means for the dogs. We’re going to need to move them. There’s no way Alex can get his penguin habitat built and bring in the birds if you’ve got a ton of dogs living there.” Lacey shuffled a few papers together. “I printed up listings for some alternate places. Unfortunately none of them look ideal, but we’ll have to figure something out.”
I took the pages and riffled through them. “These are all over the place. Swynton . . . Bellsview . . . even Beaumont.”
“Like I said, we’re going to have to figure something out.” Lacey took in a deep breath and lifted her gaze to meet mine. “There’s something else, too. Something I need to ask you to do for me.”
“What?” Whatever it was, I would have her back. Lacey ought to know that. We’d always been there for each other.
“The doctor’s putting me on bed rest. I fainted again last night, and he wants me to take it easy, at least until I get through the first trimester.”
My heart raced at the news. With everything Lacey had going on, how could she afford to take time off? “How long will that be?”
