“You’ll have it within the hour,” I promised.
Lisa left and I dove back into work, feeling relieved that we at least had a venue but feeling equally overwhelmed at everything else I still had left to arrange.
Chapter 21
Lukas
The Monroe ballroom was as beautiful as ever.
I’d been to my fair share of weddings in this ballroom, all of which had been overdone, tacky, and obnoxious. But tonight?
The place was perfect.
The lights were dim and candles flickered on nearly every surface, creating a warm ambiance and inviting atmosphere. White plates sat on gold saucers, framed by gold cutlery upon burnt orange napkins. The centerpieces were elegant floral displays of rich fall colors: red, copper, gold, orange, and hints of yellow. The place had the feel of extravagance and minimalism all at once, and I knew immediately that Kayla had a hand in the decor.
Had she hired someone, it would have been as over the top as usual.
I stood in the entryway for a brief moment to get my bearings. There, across the ballroom, was the bar. Above it hung a long crystal chandelier which had been fed through with more floral arrangements that matched those on the tables, creating a woodsy aesthetic. The bar itself was elegantly appointed, and each and every stool in front of it was full.
The night was already in full swing.
The guests milled around in their best dresses and suits. Women walked arm in arm with their husbands, who stopped to discuss business with other men whose wives hung off their arms. The women would smile pleasantly but never open their mouths. Their heads would turn on swivels as they looked around and studied the crowd for familiar faces. Diamond earrings caught the light and glittered in competition with diamonds draped around necks and wrists and fingers.
Peacocks, I thought morosely. They’re all damn peacocks.
“I need a drink,” I concluded.
I began making my way through the ballroom toward the bar. On my way, I was stopped several times by the businessmen and their wives.
“Mr. Holt,” a familiar and stout man with a bald head said, stepping in my path to the bar. “It’s good to see you, young man. How have you been?”
“Doing well, sir,” I said. His name was lost on me. His eyes, friendly and brown, were familiar, but I could not recall how I knew him. “And you?”
He ran a hand over his concealed belly beneath his suit jacket. “Quite well, quite well. This is a function and a half you have on your hands tonight. I must admit I’m a little surprised.
“Surprised?” I asked.
“Well, this hardly seems like your neck of the woods, son. A fundraiser? For a non-profit?” The man chuckled knowingly, and his brown eyes slid across the ballroom toward the stage on my left. “Perhaps there are other factors at play here?”
I followed his gaze until I saw who he was looking at.
Kayla.
She stood up on the stage by the podium. She was speaking to a hotel employee in black pants and a crisp white suit. He was a young man, probably no more than twenty-four, and whatever she was saying to him was making him smile.
She had a way of making everyone smile.
The stage lighting shone down on her and lit her up like she herself was part of the ballroom decor.
Her dress was simple and sleek. It was not like the gowns the other women at the gala wore. Where they wore puffy, sparkly, excessive dresses that needed to be picked up for them to walk, Kayla wore one that hung close to her body. It was silky and dark forest green. It looked familiar, but I must have been imagining it.
As I watched her, I realized she seemed uncomfortable. This was not a familiar environment to her. She held herself stiffly, like she was anticipating something going wrong at any moment, and even though she was smiling at the hotel employee, her eyes continuously darted around the room, looking for where she might be needed.
Then her gaze landed on me and she went rigid.
A jolt of electricity rushed through me. My fingertips tingled with the force of it. She was so beautiful and so off limits it hurt.
I gritted my teeth.
“Yes,” the brown-eyed man said with a knowing smile. “Other factors indeed.”
I grunted. “Sorry, sir. I was on my way to meet someone at the bar. Maybe we’ll run into each other again later.”
He let me leave without any protest and I made a beeline to the bar, where I ordered a whiskey on the rocks. As soon as the drink was in my hand, I took a greedy sip, followed by another, until the sharp sting of wanting the girl I couldn’t have felt a little less sharp.
Conversation rippled around me.
“Did you hear about his daughter? Her husband has been having an affair for six years and she had no idea! Can you imagine?”
“That’s his mistress in the red dress.”
“She’s not even that pretty.”
I kept my head down and tried not to get sucked into the gossip transpiring between the two young women at my end of the bar. They had their backs to me and were watching the herd of socialites like two hungry lionesses.
“She must be so embarrassed.”
“No wonder she hasn’t shown her face yet.”
“Do you think her father knows?”
“Do you think he cares?”
I moved to the other end of the bar to ignore the petty conversation. Here, I found myself between an older couple waiting patiently for their drinks and two middle-aged businessmen, both of whom were leaning on the bar with their heads bowed together as they chuckled about something.
“I didn’t want to come to this damn thing,” the taller of the two men said before he tipped his head back and drained the contents of his glass in a large gulp. “But the wife insisted. She claimed it would do
