Devil in Texas (Rugged and Risque 1)

She must’ve caught a flicker of candlelight in the corner of her eye because she turned abruptly and stared into the room, where Sean had just finished filling the tea glasses.

“What have you done?”

Liza’s stomach dropped to her knees. “Um, I just thought I’d spruce things up a bit.” Her teeth clamped down on her lower lip in nervous anticipation.

Fuck. She hadn’t thought to ask Jess or Sean about whether there was some sort of tradition in regards to the way things were set up for the Junior League.

Had she just ruined their entire luncheon?

Her gaze shifted to Sean, who was grinning from ear to ear. “Looks awesome, doesn’t it, Mrs. Mills? And she totally did it in, like, less than an hour.”

Liza held her breath, awaiting Jess’ response. Fearing the worst.

Jess stepped into the room and surveyed it. Meanwhile, Sean slipped out in order to set up the sparkling cider service, as they’d agreed upon.

“Please tell me you don’t hate it,” Liza said.

Jess whirled back to face her, her eyes lit up with excitement. “Are you kidding me?” She clasped her hands together at her chest and exclaimed, “It’s absolutely breathtaking!”

“Oh thank God!” Liza said with a heavy sigh. Her stomach returned to its appropriate place. She could breathe again. “‘Cause you had me going there for a minute.”

“You did all of this?” Jess asked, her voice now full of astonishment and awe.

“I had help. Sean is great. Very level-headed and resourceful.”

“Liza,” she breathed. She stepped forward and gently gripped Liza’s shoulders, because her hands were full. “The ladies are going to love this. Really, they’ll be beside themselves that you went to so much trouble for them. They’ll feel like queens for the day!”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” she said with a shrug.

Jess practically glowed with enthusiasm. “Way above and beyond, Liza! I mean, this is just…so perfect!”

Then she frowned and Liza’s heart sank again. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t have a camera.” She made a tsking sound and added, “Darn it. We should have a photo of this for our album. Clearly you have party planning skills… We could add that to the business!”

As her brain seemed to go into overdrive, Liza grinned. She and Jess were kindred spirits.

“I bet Sean has a camera on his cell phone,” Liza offered. He seemed like a hip kid.

“I bet you’re right!”

And then, suddenly, the hallway was filled with women’s voices and Liza had to pull away from Jess to dispose of the boxes. “When should I come back to break all this down?”

“Don’t go yet!” Jess exclaimed. Grabbing a box, she added, “Let’s take these out to the van. Then I want you to meet the ladies.”

“Oh well.” Liza hedged. “I’m not exactly dressed for that.” She glanced down at her white T-shirt and gray, wide-legged jersey pants and sandals. She didn’t miss the smudges of dirt on her shirt.

“Don’t worry about that. They’ll understand. Once they see this room, they’ll know how hard you worked. Of course you couldn’t have done all this in your Sunday best! And really, Liza. You saved me today.”

Her look was so sweet, so genuine, what was Liza to do?

“All right,” she acquiesced. “Let’s get these boxes out of here. Sean is serving the ladies sparkling cider—his idea to buy me more time.”

“Clever,” she said.

“I really couldn’t have pulled this off without him.”

“Then I owe you both.”