Charlotte was shocked, to say the least. His words felt like bullets to her psyche. She chewed on her bottom lip as she tried to mull over things in her brain.
Maybe, if I wasn’t so depressed right now, I would go for it.
Tobias, I’m sorry to say—my husband just died in a fishing accident, and I’m not over it enough to handle something as big as this.
Tobias, I actually have decided to put my life on hold for the next thirty years, at which time I’ll...
No.
Claire was right.
She couldn’t limp around, waiting any longer. She needed to get out of this funk she was in and this would be the perfect solution to distract her.
“This will change your life forever, Charlotte Hamner, if you’re brave enough to accept the challenge,” he said, trying to tempt her.
Charlotte blinked out the kitchen window at the dark clouds that brewed on the horizon. Were they snow clouds?
“I’ll go over the numbers,” Charlotte said. “I’ll assess the possibilities. And I’ll have an answer to you—one way or the other—by the end of the day.” Then, she cleared her throat and said, “But Tobias. Why me? Why did you contact me for this?”
She had done a number of well-received weddings over the years, including some for celebrities but nothing of this caliber. Ursula was essentially a goddess among men.
Tobias considered this. “Do you remember those shoes you made for Tiffany Bugman?”
Charlotte furrowed her brow. Tiffany Bugman had been a client the previous summer, several months before Jason’s death. When Tiffany had hated the shoes she had purchased for her wedding, Charlotte and Rachel had bought these gorgeous flats and then bejeweled them for Tiffany, adding a bit of flair and pep to a day that Tiffany had said she wanted to be “fun, no matter what.”
“Of course,” Charlotte replied. “Tiffany was such a great client.”
“She’s a childhood friend of Ursula’s,” Tobias said. “Ursula couldn’t attend the wedding, as she was filming on location in South Africa, but she did read a long blogpost Tiffany wrote about the event, which spoke at length about the ‘specificity and care’ undertaken by a particular wedding planner.”
Charlotte marveled at this. She hadn’t expected that story to return to her like this.
“Goodness.”
“Yes, well. Your kindness seems to want to return back to you, tenfold—in the form of many, many dollar signs. I’ll let Ursula know that we’re expecting your call.” After a pause, he added, “I look forward to meeting you.”
With that, the call ended.
Charlotte hovered in the dark shadows of her kitchen as the first snowfall erupted from the dark clouds above. The memory of bejeweling those shoes sizzled through her. She and Rachel had sat at this very kitchen table—hard at work for hours at a time. Jason had ducked in and out, dotting kisses on their foreheads, hustling back out to fish and returning with snacks for them to eat as they worked. Charlotte and Rachel had complained and grumbled about it, both taking unique pleasure in the shoes’ artistry. And when Tiffany Bugman had first seen the shoes, she had burst into tears.
“It’s because you care so much about them,” Jason had said. “They can see it in your eyes. I get so jealous, you know? I thought you would only care about me for the rest of your life.”
Charlotte had giggled at the joke and kissed him. “You’re so selfish. You want all my love for yourself.”
Chapter Three
Charlotte headed to PJ’s Wine Bar later that afternoon, simmering with so much excitement and fear, she thought she might vomit. When she entered the wine bar, Christine and Lola waved their arms manically, then slowly dropped them. Lola’s jaw dropped, which left Christine time to say, “You look like you’re about to faint.”
Charlotte dropped into the spare chair across from them as Christine poured her a hearty glass of merlot. She rubbed her cheeks and then spread her hands to either side.
“Are you going to tell us what’s up?” Lola demanded. “Or are we going to have to guess?”
“I’ll start,” Christine said. “You’ve fallen in love with a vampire.”
“Ha. And he’s sucked all her blood,” Lola joked alongside her sister.
Charlotte rolled her eyes and tilted her head back to reveal her neck. “No bite marks on me, unfortunately,” she said.
“Okay. My guess, next,” Lola said. “You’ve just learned that all this time, Aunt Kerry has been a spy working for the government. She had to make a run for it.”
Charlotte giggled. “Mom isn’t a spy. At least, I don’t think she is. This would explain how she always knew what me and my siblings were up to when we were younger, though.”
“See! There’s always more to this than meets the eye,” Lola said.
Charlotte lifted her glass of merlot and cheered the other two. She then puffed out her cheeks and said, “I think I’m about to agree to the hardest project of my life.”
“What?” Lola demanded, her eyes wide with this news.
“Oh my gosh. You’re the one who’s the spy?” Christine asked. “Spill the details, girl.”
“No. I just received a call from Ursula Pennington’s personal assistant. Apparently, she’s just gotten engaged...”
“To Chris Evans?” Christine asked.
“No,” Charlotte said.
“Oh. It must be Bradley Cooper. She was linked up with him for a while,” Lola said.
“Neither. Apparently, they’ve only been seeing one another for a little while, and the whole thing is spontaneous,” Charlotte said. “Orion Thompson?”
Christine and Lola turned their eyes toward one another, considering the name.
“A basketball player?” Charlotte said.
“I think Tommy has mentioned him, maybe,” Lola said.
“Zach, too,” Christine said.
“Well, in any case. The women in our family were never
