After I explained to Avery that I need to step away to change, Tess led me to a smaller room on the floor above the ballroom. I laid my dress on the comfy couch at the back of the room.
“Hey, here’s an idea! Do you want to participate in the raffle?” she asked.
“I’d love to. Oh, wait, Avery—”
“You won’t dance all the time, and Avery will barely even look at you. Trust me, we’ve thrown plenty of these events.”
I pondered this, but knowing my girl, she would barely leave the kids’ corner. And I could step away from the dance floor whenever she needed me.
“Okay. I’m in.”
“Perfect. I’ll tell Skye to add your name to the list. She’s in charge of that. Need help with the dress?”
“No, thanks. I’m good.”
While I changed behind a lovely golden screen, I asked, “You and Skye have a store for lingerie, right?”
“Exactly. We’ve only been online until now, but next week is the opening of our brick-and-mortar location. We still have a lot of boxes to unwrap and some last-minute shelves to put up.”
“Wow, will you even have time to recover after tonight’s event?”
“Not really. Timing isn’t great, but it couldn’t be helped. We were hoping to open this week already but weren’t ready, and we can’t afford to stay closed much longer. We’re having a hair and makeup party, and everyone who attends gets a discount for the lingerie.”
I remembered Ryker being worried that his sisters were taking on more than they could chew, and it sounded like he was spot-on. When I came out, I twirled around a few times.
“Ready?” Tess asked.
“Oh, yeah.”
“So, my brother surprised us all when he told us you and Avery were coming.”
I grinned. I’d just wondered why she wasn’t asking anything about Ryker.
“I’ve always wanted to come to a Ballroom Gala,” I replied, unsure what else to say. It was true after all.
“I see. So you’re just here for the gala, not for my brother?”
***
Ryker
One thing I loved about the Ballroom Galas was that the time we put into organizing them also doubled as family time.
I arrived at the venue before the event began to oversee the last preparations. I was just about to shoot Cole a message when I saw Heather and Tess coming out of the changing room. What was Heather doing here so early? She looked stunning. I had to admit, when she’d described her dress, all I could do was picture her out of it. The top was tight, and her cleavage tempted me. All I wanted to do was pull her closer and touch all that soft skin until she blushed just for me. But we were not alone. Yet.
Tess waved at me. “Hey, brother.”
“Hi!” Heather said shyly.
“I asked her to come a little earlier so I could explain a few things.”
That made sense, except the glimmer in my sister’s eyes told me that wasn’t the only reason. And how exactly had Tess known Heather’s number?
Before I had the chance to ask anything else, Skye joined us too.
“Avery’s already all set up,” she said. I peeked at the corner we’d set up for kids. It wasn’t all that usual to bring kids to high-profile events like these, but we’d set it up this way from the very beginning, and our donors loved it.
“Oh, Skye, Heather agreed to participate in the raffle.”