Margot glared at Taylor.
“Are you saying that I look so bad right now that ten minutes isn’t enough to fix this?”
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, okay?” Taylor grinned at her. “Go.”
Margot went.
She jumped into the tiny shower in the winery bathroom, showered faster than she ever had, and pulled on the red sundress she’d bought just for the party. She’d almost worn black—it made more sense for a day when she’d probably be moving stuff around and spilling things everywhere. But she knew that people would be pointing her out all day from a distance—at least, if all went well they would—and so she decided to take a lesson from Queen Elizabeth and wear a color that made her easy to spot in a crowd.
She laughed at herself. Was she literally thinking of herself as a queen? No, but look, despite the many problems of the monarchy, the woman had some good ideas, okay? Plus, that would be a good fantasy, if today went poorly—she could just pretend she was on some royal holiday somewhere.
No, she couldn’t think like that. Today wasn’t going to go poorly. Today was going to be great.
However, today was also going to be far too hot and frantic for a lot of makeup. She swiped on a few coats of waterproof mascara, put her longest-wearing red lipstick on, and called it a day. She put the final touches on her hair, sprayed it with an enormous amount of hairspray, and checked her phone. Twelve minutes. Not bad. That meant people would start arriving . . . any minute now.
She smiled at herself in the mirror to make sure there was no lipstick on her teeth, and then she took a deep breath. It was showtime.
When she walked back out toward the lawn, the first person she saw, walking toward her with a huge smile on his face, was Luke.
“You’re here early!” she said. “I didn’t expect you here until later.” She wanted to reach for him, but she didn’t. Not here. She and Luke had been together for almost a month now, and she was going to have to tell Elliot about it sometime, but she didn’t want him to find out like this. Not today especially.
He beamed at her, but he didn’t reach for her, either.
“Avery called to see if she could get a ride here, since her car was in the shop, and we thought it would be best to get here early, to get parking.”
It wasn’t until then that she noticed Avery was with him. Margot smiled at her.
“Hi, Avery,” she said. “Thanks so much for all of your advice for the party. You’re on the list, you know. This is on me.”
“Thanks, Margot, but it was my pleasure,” Avery said. “I can’t wait to see what you put together.” Then Avery looked from her to Luke, and smiled indulgently at them. “You two are so cute.”
Margot blushed. Luke grinned.
“I . . . um—”
Avery laughed.
“I’m not going to embarrass you anymore—if I do, this one will murder me,” she said, pointing at Luke.
Luke nodded.
“It’s true, I will.”
Margot laughed at both of them.
“Come this way and get some wine, both of you.”
Luke walked next to her, and Avery dropped a few steps behind. After they’d walked for a few seconds, he leaned down and whispered in Margot’s ear.
“You look beautiful.”
She blushed again.
“Thank you.” She touched his hand, just for a second. “I’m really glad you’re here.”
“Of course I’m here,” he said.
Her cheeks got hot again, and she looked away from him as they turned the corner to the back lawn. Taylor was walking right toward them. Margot took a step away from Luke.
“There you are, Margot. Luke!” She grabbed him and gave him a hug. “We miss you around here, you know.”
He grinned at her.
“I miss this place. I fully expect you to start ordering me to wash glasses and pour wine today, just out of habit.”
Taylor laughed.
“I never ordered you around! Well . . . not exactly.”
Luke burst out laughing.
“Oh, really? What do you call it, then?”
Taylor turned to Margot.
“Do you see this, Margot? Do you see how he’s talking to me, now that I’m not in charge of him anymore?”
Margot grinned. Luke wiggled his eyebrows at her, where Taylor couldn’t see.
“I do see that,” she said. “I always knew this one was trouble. Remember, Elliot hired him, not me.”
They all laughed, Luke and Avery a little harder than Taylor.