Alexa realized she owed them more. They had, after all, come to New York to support her plan, so she delivered. “Yes, still fully operational. And, I can tell you this, it was my idea to spend the night and his idea to drop me off this morning. In addition, he informed me that he would have quite a bit of free time in January and might like to spend some of it with me on the Aegean.”

This is what the table had wanted, and they offered up a small ovation.

“Brava,” said Toots.

“A fine head of hair!” said Roxanne.

“Nice catch,” said Ming. “And he doesn’t need your money.”

“I’m sorry that Sarah had to get that van back to the lacrosse team in Connecticut,” Frannie said. “Or else she would whoop it up and scream, ‘LFG!’”

“What does that even mean?” Roxanne asked.

“I don’t know. But something good.”

The women all toasted with their coffees. “LFG!”

*  *  *

After breakfast Alexa only had a few minutes to get ready for the day before Penny arrived in the lobby expecting an art tour, not an ambush. Alexa had her get-ready-quick drill down: dry shampoo, body-only shower, moisturizer, and foundation. Then she slipped into her New York travel outfit of black on black on black with a decent bag and good, European-chic sneakers. She blew out her hair, put on makeup, slipped the Operation Butterfly baseball hat and a pashmina into her bag. She was ready, at least physically.

She took a second to breathe deeply.

Her stomach was in knots at the thought of seeing Penny. Her daughter. Her heart and soul.

She needed this to work. She needed to get back to the closeness they shared. She needed to hear Penny say that she was forgiven for whatever had caused the rift. She wanted her daughter to be happy again.

She let out one last, long breath. Please let this work, please let this work.

Chapter 30
The Scheme

The Mother of the Groom

“Mom? What are you doing here?”

“Supporting you!” It was the answer that Abigail had rehearsed, knowing this moment would come when she and Alexa had finalized the plans. Her son was going to ask, so she had better be ready, she told herself. “We respect you. We adore you. And we want you to be happy.”

“What is going on?” Chase said, looking around at the assembled crew, which included his parents, his boss and his boss’s security detail, a cellist, two aging ballroom dancers, those DAR friends of his mom’s in wellies, and his college buddy, who was holding his little sister’s hand. None of this made any sense to a logical, one-step-ahead guy like Chase. “Is this an intervention?”

“A love intervention!” Sarah answered, and everyone laughed. Everyone but Chase.

“Could someone please explain this to me?” Chase said, looking directly at his father.