Lacey glanced from Alex, who seemed to have gone mute at the talk of pregnancy, to me, who clenched my hands together so hard they hurt. “Oh, about six weeks.”
Alex groaned, his hands clasping behind his neck. “This isn’t good. Dammit. How are we going to make this work?”
“That’s where I come in.” Lacey’s lips shifted into an encouraging smile. The same kind of smile she’d used when she tried to teach me how to ride a horse. It was her you-can-do-it and just-keep-going smile that was supposed to inspire confidence. It didn’t work then, and it wasn’t going to work now.
My knees bumped together, and my hands began to shake. “Oh no.”
Lacey reached out. “Give me your hand, Z. You’ve got this.”
“No, no, no.” If I said it enough times, I’d wake up. All of this would be a bad dream. The shelter roof collapsing, Alex Sanders coming to town . . . I’d close my eyes and wake up in my own bed with Buster the farting dog next to me. In an attempt to make it happen, I clenched my eyes shut tight.
“That’s not going to work, sweetie.” Lacey’s voice pulled me back.
“I can’t.” I opened my eyes.
“You have to. For the dogs, for the town. We don’t have a choice. There’s no one else.”
Alex must have realized if I didn’t say yes, he’d be on his own to face the formidable Chyna and her unrealistic demands. He sat back down and leaned forward, his elbows on his thighs. “I’ll help. We’ll work as a team. That’s the only way we can turn this around.”
A team. Me and Alex? I’d never heard such an awful idea in my life. Thenobalanced on the tip of my tongue. Hovered there,just waiting for me to open my mouth. But then Alex hit me with that dreamy blue-green gaze. I shifted my glance to catch a ridiculously hopeful expression on Lacey’s face.
Somehow thenofell away. “Fine.”
My stomach clenched as I spoke, already regretting my agreement. It wasn’t fine. It was a horrible, awful, terrible idea. We’d never be able to pull this off.
Alex
I rode the rest of the way back to the warehouse in a state of shock. For someone who rarely committed to anything, much less anyone, I sure had wedged myself into a jam.
“You okay?” Zina glanced over, and I could feel her gaze settle on me.
My cheeks burned. How could I have let myself be so cocky, so sure? All I’d wanted to do was make things right for Lacey. But she had to step down. Zina and I were in this together now. For better or for worse.
“I’m not sure what happened in there,” I admitted.
“I do. You overpromised something you’re going to underdeliver. And not just you, now it’s ‘we’ since you pulled me into it.”
She made it sound so simple, so final. “How can I fix it?” I turned to face her as best I could in the front seat of the truck.
“I guess you’ve got two options.”
Good, she was willing to help. I’d do whatever she told me. “Go on.”
“Number one.” She held up her pointer finger and cast a quick glance my way. “You call Miss High-and-Mighty and tellher you made a mistake. That after considering everything, you realized that there’s no way you can give the bride the wedding of her dreams on such short notice.”
“You think that’s what I need to do?” My stomach clenched at the thought of backing out on the infamous wedding planner. “What kind of fallout do you think we’d get if I went that route?”
Zina shrugged. “I’m not sure. She might decide you’re telling the truth and convince the bride that she needs to wait.”
“Or?”
“Or she could cancel the whole thing, which puts all of us in a bit of a crisis, don’t you think?”
I groaned. “What am I supposed to do?”
“There’s always option two.”
“Which is?”
