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She blinked at him. She didn’t know if she was touched that he considered her one of his kids or horrified that he’d compared her to Levi. Before she could decide, he shooed her off. She was almost at the doors to the great room when a pack of Old Ladies, made up, confusingly, of both Miriam’s antique dealers and her own alcoholics, surrounded her, delaying her again.

“We heard you don’t date,” said Annie the possible witch. “Were you stringing our baby along?”

“We told you not to be a fool,” added the eldest of the sober ladies. “Do we need to spell out for you how that looks? Because you seem to have misinterpreted it.”

“How do you all know so much about my love life?” Noelle wailed, throwing her hands up.

“That Cole boy can’t keep his mouth shut,” another one of them said.

She gritted her teeth. She couldn’t kill Cole, not when she needed Miriam to forgive her. “I’m trying to make things right, but you are literally standing in my way. I need to get to her if I’m going to fix things, which means you need to move.”

They parted before her, Furies with their rage abated, and she finally made it to the barn doors.

As guests walked into the barn for the auction, they passed racks of Cass’s hats and boas for sale. Anyone who had fallen in love with the ornaments at the tree lighting could purchase their own Cass Carrigan accessory. Women in designer party dresses strolled around in vintage cloches and leopard-print capes.

Joshua was charming many a visitor into signing up for updates from the new Carrigan’s site, courtesy of Cole. Sideboards had been set up all around the perimeter, with giant platters of hors d’oeuvres and endless flutes of champagne, donated by a longtime Carrigan’s guest who owned a winery. A vanload of Rosenstein cousins had arrived (with another vanload of pastries) and were mingling with the Bloomers.

Noelle saw Cole huddled in a corner talking to Sawyer Bright. Sawyer was twirling one end of his mustache and looking up at Cole, who was blushing. Noelle definitely couldn’t kill Cole right now, as Sawyer was about to run for mayor of Advent and he’d be mad at her if witnessing a murder got in the way of his campaign. She kept scanning, trying to see the tops of Miriam’s curls over the crowd, since there was no way she’d be able to see the rest of her.

“Noelle!” came a voice behind her. She winced, but when she turned, she saw Elijah and Jason and breathed out a sigh. She loved her friends, they were at an important party she was hosting, and she was not going to yell at them for wanting to greet her. She was notthatuncivilized, even if she felt that way right now.

Next to Jason was a stately woman with skin as dark as his and a dimple she recognized. Her white hair was piled elegantly on top of her head in a chignon. At the sight of her, Noelle did genuinely smile.

“Jason! You finally brought your mom around! I thought you were ashamed of us.”

“Oh, I was,” Jason assured her.

“Elijah’s mother is always bragging to me about how she’s friends with all of their friends, and I couldn’t let her one-up me,” the woman said, holding out her hand to shake Noelle’s. “I’m Vaunda Green.”

Noelle reciprocated and said warmly, “Ma’am, it is an honor. Can I get you something to eat?”

“I hear a rumor you might be having girl trouble,” Mrs. Green said, and Noelle scrubbed a hand across her face. Apparently, everyone on the East Coast knew. “I won’t bother you for a plate while you’re trying to fix things. She’s right over there, if you want to talk to her.”

Noelle’s eyes followed to where she was pointing, and she caught a glimpse of sparkling silver.

“It was such a pleasure to meet you, ma’am! I hope you’ll join us for brunch tomorrow and bring the twins. I gotta go!” she called out as she went toward her new destination. Though now that she could see Miriam, she felt a new panic.

She had absolutely no idea what she was going to say.

Miriam was standing under the disco ball Cole had insisted on hanging, its glow bouncing off her curls and her dress, making her look like the brightest source of light in the room. Her tiny silver dress showed every inch of her legs all the way up and dipped in the back almost to her butt. She could not possibly be wearing a bra underneath it.

Noelle short circuited. Her first thought, when her brain came back online, was that Miriam was wearing that dress to fuck with her.

Immediately afterward, she was terrified Miriam wasn’t wearing it for her at all.

She realized, belatedly, that Miriam was surrounded by an impenetrable pack of people she thought might be famous on Instagram. Her palms started to sweat. Noelle grabbed a glass of sparkling cider and an hors d’oeuvre from a passing high school student. She chugged the cider (a mistake, she got bubbles in her nose) and stuffed the phyllo-wrapped cheese in her mouth.

She was starting to think there was no way she was going to get to Miriam before the auction started if she didn’t bring in reinforcements, and then she passed Hannah wearing an electric blue bandage dress and chatting to a Rosenstein cousin.

“Hannah, I need you to create a diversion for me,” she said, pulling her best friend away from her conversation. “For love.”

Hannah rolled her eyes. “Really? Shenanigans? Who are you, Blue Matthews?”

“Why do people keep saying that to me?” Noelle wailed. After this, she obviously needed to seriously reevaluate her life so people would stop comparing her to Levi.

“I will do this for you,” Hannah said, “but only because I am tired of the two of you swanning around my hotel pining after each other.”

“Also because you love me more than your own breath,” Noelle reminded her.