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“I’ll bring the design when I come to look at her.”

“Then we’ll talk. Now tell me how your dog became a fan ofKing Kong—the old one.”

“Original,” he countered. “And who isn’t? I can come by tomorrow, after work. About five maybe.”

“Fine, as long as you understand, you can’t take her or frame her for several weeks.”

“Months? That’s longer than you took to paint her.”

“Yes. Welcome to my world. I wanted to use oils,” Cleo explained. “I used a medium that cuts the drying time. Otherwise, you’d be looking at six months, not two.”

“That’s the way it works?”

“It is.”

“Then that’s the way it works.”

When the meals came, conversation drifted into general areas, easy talk.

Halfway through, Bree Marshall bolted out of the kitchen, chef’s hat over her short red hair. Nudging Owen over, she scooted onto the edge of the booth.

“I’ve got five minutes. Tell me about this event. How many people?”

“Well, we don’t know yet,” Sonya began. “But—”

“You need to get a ballpark soon. You’re going to order food from all the restaurants in the village?”

“That’s the plan, so—”

“You want to nail down what you want from each. You don’t let them choose, or you’ll have a mess of it. You want servers, bartenders, a kitchen crew. And you need somebody to monitor the bathrooms. People will want to pee.”

Cleo leaned forward to look around Owen. “How would you feel about helping coordinate all that?”

“Like you’re smart,” Bree said, and grinned. “I need to see the venue. I can come up next Monday, about eleven.”

“Perfect,” Sonya told her. “We appreciate your help.”

“You’re gonna need it. Open houses are chaotic, and I live in the chaos.” She smiled over at Trey. “That’s why we’d never have made it.” Then she gave Owen an elbow bump. “We’d have been a better match.”

“I tried to tell you.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Subliminally.”

“Oh. I missed that.” She gave him a smacking kiss on the cheek that made him laugh. “Too late now. Manny’s got me by the heart and hormones. Gotta get back. I’m ordering you two ramekins of chocolate lava cake and two of strawberry shortcake to share. You’ll thank me.”

And just like that, she was gone.

“Why do I feel we were run over by a flash flood of whipped cream?” Sonya wondered.

“She does that.” Then Trey angled his head, looked at Owen. “Subliminally?”

“She’s hot.” Owen shrugged. “She’s always been hot. But I stood by the code. Anyway, she’s right. You’re smart to enlist her for this deal you’re doing.”

“She lives in the chaos because she knows how to manage the chaos,” Trey said.

“And people,” Sonya added. “Which is why we’re sharing chocolate lava and strawberry shortcake for dessert. To which I have no objections.”