8
“Are you okay?”Chrissy asked as Liv rejoined her at the table.
Liv wanted to leave so badly but she didn’t want to give Jordan the satisfaction. “It’s not just that he’s here. It’s that he’s here with someone.”
“I know. That’s bullshit.” Chrissy glared in the direction of her ex and his date, Natalia, then turned to Liv with an excited expression. “You know what you need? A date.”
Actually, that wasn’t a horrible idea, but it’s not like she could just dial 1-800-FIND-A-DATE and have a man delivered.
Liv didn’t want Jordan to ruin her evening, and she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he’d gotten to her so she forced herself to smile. “No, I don’t, it’s fine.”
“Yes, you do and I have the perfect man.” Chrissy motioned her head toward her brother who was playing darts with several guys in Whisper Lake PD T-shirts.
“I didn’t know you had a brother.”
“He’s Jim, my ex’s brother. But he’s nothing like Jim,” Chrissy rushed to clarify. “Grady is amazing. He’s hard-working, honest, funny, ambitious and the best uncle in the world. He’s also easy on the eyes.”
Chrissy did not need to sell Grady to Liv. She’d been interested from the moment she opened the door and laid eyes on him.
“He’s amazing, but I couldn’t ask him to—"
“Yes, you could! It’s perfect!” Chrissy clapped her hands together then leaned over and spoke barely above a whisper. “Grady is the newest target of the Needlepoint Mafia, and they will not stop until they get him in a relationship.”
“The Needlepoint Mafia?” Liv repeated.
“It’s a knitting club run by three women in their eighties. They are mafioso cupids. Once they decide you are the mark, they will do anything and everything to get you in a relationship.”
Liv couldn’t help but chuckle. As ridiculous as this weekend was, her attending her own wedding as a guest, not to mention her ex showing up to their wedding with a date, what Chrissy was saying sounded even more outlandish.
Chrissy’s face remained stone cold serious. “Do you remember Mrs. Chen?”
Mrs. Chen was a librarian at the local library. One look from her could quiet a marching band on speed.
“Of course, she used to terrify me.” The woman never smiled.
“She’s the head of the organization,” Chrissy explained.
Now it didn’t seem so funny.
Chrissy continued, growing more and more excited by the second. “It’s a genius idea! You two can go to the wedding tomorrow and then you can go back to Chicago. He can pretend to date you for a few months and they will back off. It’s a win/win.”
“I don’t think—”
Chrissy pulled out her phone and began typing.
“What are you doing?!”
“I’m texting Grady our plan.”
“Your plan! And no, don’t!”
Not even a second later Chrissy’s phone dinged. She looked down and announced. “He’s in.”
Liv’s pulse was racing a hundred miles a minute. Could she actually do this? Could she pretend to be on a date with someone?
Chrissy’s phone dinged once more, and Liv watched her friend’s expression drop. The first thought that popped into Liv’s head was that Grady was now out. She was surprised by the disappointment that swamped her considering it hadn’t even been a real date, and she hadn’t even been sure she could go through with it.
Chrissy typed furiously as she stood up.