“Where’s our places?” said McKenna. And where was Nate? She needed Nate. Nate would look at her with one of his looks and she’d know she made the right decision with wearing the dress and everything from here on out was going to be perfect.
“Should we stand from tallest to shortest?” said Barb. “That might feel more welcoming.”
“Oh shoot,” hissed Georgie. “I just remembered I was going to make one of those golden stars to put on his bedroom door.”
“Are you sure this bow tie looks right?”
It didn’t. At all. McKenna’s fingers shook as she tried fixing Gus’s tie. She quickly gave up. “Looks great,” she said when the creak of footsteps sounded on the porch steps.
“Places,” whispered Georgie. Everyone scrambled to form a line in front of the check-in desk. Tallest to shortest, because Barb was right. It did feel more welcoming.
Then after one more exchange of nervous giggles and smiles, everyone—except Evie, who shouted “I’m staying in the bathroom!”—took a collective breath and waited for Harry Connick Junior to enter.
Right away, McKenna knew there’d been a mistake.
“Good evening,” a weathered-faced man with shockingly white hair and a matching goatee said upon entering. His friendly smile looked as broken in as the cowboy boots, blue jeans, and long-sleeved denim shirt he was wearing. “Pleasure to meet you all. I’m Harry.”
This man wasn’t Harry.
“Oh, the pleasure is all ours, Harry,” said Georgie as she stepped forward to grasp his hand. “We are so happy to have you here. Just so, so happy. Thank you for coming. Truly. This is such an honor for us.”
McKenna stole a peek at the others, who all remained in ramrod position, grinning at Harry. Why were they grinning at Harry? This man wasn’t Harry.
“Oh, trust me,” said Harry, who wasn’t Harry. “The pleasure and honor is all mine. I’ve been counting down the days for this event. Saturday can’t get here fast enough as far as I’m concerned. I can’t even begin to tell you how thrilled I was to receive your email.”
“Well,” Georgie said with a girlish laugh McKenna had never heard from her before. “Trustme, Harry. As thrilled as you may havebeen, I guarantee you we were even more thrilled to getyouremail saying that you were coming.”
Before this got any weirder, McKenna stepped forward and grabbed Georgie’s hand. “Excuse us. I know you just got here and we’re only getting started on the introductions, but I need to borrow Georgie for a few minutes. We’ve got ourselves a bit of a pickle-salad crisis in the kitchen. You know how that is.”
“Of course,” he said as if pickle-salad crises were an everyday occurrence. “I’ll just go ahead and grab the rest of my things if that’s okay.”
“Need a hand carrying anything in?” said Gus.
“Oh, I’m sure Harry can manage,” said McKenna, grabbing Gus by the bow tie and motioning with her head for Barb to follow them into the kitchen. “You know what they say. Pickle salad can be a fickle beast. If we don’t get on top of this now...”
“Completely understand,” said Harry. “Take your time. I’m not going anywhere,” he added with a good-natured laugh.
Soon as the front door closed behind him, McKenna shoved everyone into the kitchen, then pointed toward the front of the house. “Who in the world is that?”
“Harry,” Georgie said with aWhat do you mean who in the world is that?look on her face.
“Harry? Harry Who? Because I assure you that man is not Harry Connick Junior.” McKenna reached for her phone, then remembered this dress didn’t have pockets. Her phone wasn’t on her.
“Of course he is,” said Barb.
“Why else would he be here?” said Gus.
“Because Georgie emailed him, apparently,” said McKenna.
“Exactly,” said Georgie.
“But you didn’t email Harry Connick Junior. That’s what I’m saying.”
“Then why would Harry Connick Junior be here if I didn’t email him?” said Georgie.
McKenna wanted to shake Georgie by the shoulders of her polka-dot green shirt. “Don’t you know what Harry Connick Junior looks like?”
Georgie folded her arms. “People look different in person than they do in pictures.”
