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I chuckled. “You ever go to the learning center they started across the street?”
He frowned. “Is that where they went? I’ve seen the signs on the road but figured it was a private school or something.”
“Nah. It’s there for everyone. You ever have trouble and need help, head over there, okay? Or just swing by and say hi to Mr. Campbell. I bet he’d love to see you.”
“Here’s your milkshake.”
“Thanks.” I studied the kid a minute before mentally shrugging. He’d either go or not, but I couldn’t do much more than I had.
I headed over to the table and gave Whitney her milkshake before snagging a chair and sitting. I sampled my ice cream and nodded. Yummy. Definitely also girly. But so be it. “Any other plans for tonight?”
Whitney shook her head. “Just the usual. Bath and bedtime. You wanna come over and hang?”
“Thanks. I wasn’t looking for an invite. I was just curious.” I ate more ice cream.
“You’re still welcome.” Scott tipped his head to the side. “We could watch a movie or something.”
“I’m good. I appreciate it, though.”
“So you have plans?” Whitney poked her straw up and down in her milkshake.
“Actually, yeah. I’m heading over to Season’s Bounty in Arlington for a menu tasting for the Christmas gala.”
“Noah mentioned you got saddled with that.” Scott sent me a pitying glance. “I figured you’d weasel out of it.”
I shook my head. I hadn’t even really considered it. I mean, when an assignment came straight from the second in command, was no even an option? “Megan’s been a lot of help. It’s not so bad now that I’ve got the venue reserved. Once catering is nailed down? It’ll be a breeze.”
Whitney laughed. She looked at me, and her laughter trailed off. “Oh. You’re serious?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I pictured the checklist of tasks that I’d typed up. It really seemed like all that was left was the invitations and then managing the responses as they came in. How hard could that be?
“Just seems like a big event probably requires a lot of babysitting. Maybe I’m wrong.” Whitney pulled three napkins out of the dispenser in the middle of the table and started attacking the ring of chocolate around Beckett’s mouth.
Shoot. Was I forgetting something obvious? Maybe I’d see if someone at work who knew what they were doing could take a look at my list and tell me what I was missing. Of course, the best person to do that wasn’t working at Ballentine anymore, but surely there were others who knew what they were talking about?
Or maybe not. If those people existed, wouldn’t Jackson have tasked them with this?
Ugh.
I could send the list to Megan. She’d know, wouldn’t she?
I should probably leave her alone. Stop trying to involve her in this whole fiasco. If Scott had already picked up on how I felt about Megan, how long would it be before Noah, Wes, and Tristan figured it out?
Although…none of them had a girlfriend. I was pretty sure, given the looks Whitney and Scott exchanged, that he hadn’t come up with his theory on his own.
So maybe I was in the clear.
“I guess we’ll see.” I sighed and frowned at my ice cream. “I really hope I’m not underestimating. Because some of my regular work is slipping while I get this all spun up, and that can’t go on indefinitely.”
Scott nodded. “You’ll figure it out. I’m confused why they don’t hire an event planner, though. They surely have the funds for that.”
I shrugged. “I imagine they think having someone internal do it is a better use of the money? I don’t know.”
“The optics matter with a nonprofit.” Whitney scooted her chair back so Beckett could climb into her lap. “Even if the cost is roughly the same between hiring someone and using an internal resource, donors like to see it being handled from inside. Because they don’t think that means their donation is being used to drum up other donations.”
It made no sense. But it also made perfect sense. People had bizarre ideas about things.
“Well. For this event, they get me. I’m hoping I won’t make a mess of it. But I figure if donations are down by a lot because I did something wrong, I can just make up the difference myself.”
