"You can do this," Aspen said, again.
Of course, she could do it. That was never in question. The problem came as to whether she should do it.
"I cleared the conference room," Aspen said, sauntering out the door and back down the hall.
Piper followed Aspen and said, almost too quiet, "I got a commitment from the Directors of Interment and Cremation Knowledge. They're having me handle all of their events."
Aspen paused, turned to Piper and smirked.
"I had no doubt you would." She hit Piper with a huge smile and clapped quietly. "As I said, you've got this."
She could scream or maybe even cry. This was supposed to be the moment she’d built her career up to, and she couldn’t even enjoy it.
Blah, just because she had that did not mean that she had this.
CHAPTER 3
90 DAYS UNTIL ANNA & DRAKE'S WEDDING
ZACH
A Cinderella moment wasn't on Zach's agenda for his sister's wedding planning meeting, but then came Piper. Her preoccupation with verbal volleying paired with her fucking-adorable control made him want more. He shook his head because he wasn't there to explore this thing between them.
Anna had asked him to be her voice of reason since they'd always done that for each other. Plus, he already had that email thread going with Tess about Wild Sacks becoming official team underwear.
So, no, he wasn't there to explore his chemistry with Piper.
Still, he caught the brief warmth in Piper's eyes before she hid it and vanished with Aspen.
Right after they disappeared down the hall, Tess's phone buzzed.
"Sixty seconds," she said, already moving toward the hall. "Hi—uh-huh—move the stadium loading dock to eleven. If it's a go, we'll need a quiet room on club level for the bride. I'm sending a dietary note to skip sushi this time, go light citrus. Put the influencer list on hold until legal clears. Text me the revised run-of-show." She ended the call, tapped a reminder, and was gone.
No wasted words. No wasted motion.
"Is she always like that?" Zach asked.
"Yup," Drake said. Super good guy who was currently digging through Anna’s purse, probably for a Gatorade or crackers or something.
Anna met Zach's gaze, opened her mouth, then closed it. Her eyes widened with alarm.
Oh crap, she turned an odd shade of green he recognized from the time he'd dumped a sticky mix of Elmer's glue and cornflakes in her shoes. When they were kids, clearly.
Dammit, he knew that look.
She was gonna hurl.
Without answering his question, Anna promptly tore off in
the other direction, the back of her hand covering her mouth.
"Anna." Drake called after her, then shot Zach an apologetic look before following her like she was the ball in a playoff game, and he absolutely refused to fumble the play.
Zach blew out a breath into the sudden quiet of the room.
Anna was busy tossing her cookies from the morning sickness that had invaded her life. His sister was pregnant, and it was not going well for her.
An official underwear deal with the Stallions would be game-changing for his start-up company. After years of his family's polite confusion about why he'd chosen to design men's underwear instead of joining the family's uber successful flower business, this kind of validation would silence the doubters. The main one being his dad.
