Page 65 of You've Got Hate Mail
I don’t have to solve this for her.
But I feel like I do.
Like I need to give her a second childhood on top of doing everything in my power to help Mabel pull off this wedding and save the winery from foreclosure, all while still having enough time for the jobs on my calendar and for Lav.
Lav, who actually comes first.
“Sorry. Rambling again. Wait. Not sorry.Thank youfor letting me ramble. Anyway. I hope we can do a really nice wedding for Caro and Mike.”
“It’ll be memorable.”
She winces, then eyes me like she wants to ask something, but doesn’t want to say it out loud.
“Mike—he’s Michael Morgan Stone,” I say, taking a guess at what she wants to know, considering I spotted her listening in long before Mabel did.
She makes the tiniest squeak, which I expect is as much as she’s able to stifle the real reaction she wants to have.
“He’s a regular dude. Don’t get too excited.”
“TherealMichael Morgan Stone?”
“Yes.”
“The one who’s neck and neck with Simon Luckwood for that annualWorld’s Sexiest Leading Manaward?”
“Won it. Saw the headlines on a magazine at the grocery store.”
She squeaks again, then digs back into the wood pile to grab another stake. “I’ll be cool. Totally chill. I’ve interviewed celebrities before. This is more or less the same. Except he’s a little above the D-list celebrities I interviewed. And clearly without the interviewing. I’m never doing on-camera interviews again. And I won’t betray anyone’s trust here. I just—he did my very favorite movieeverwhen I was in college.”
“Strawberry Lemonade Sunshine?”
“Yes!Do you love it too?”
“Mabel does.”
“Ooh. That makes sense. I’ve seen her watching it at least twice this week.”
“Surprised you haven’t heard her quote it yet.”
“It’s so quotable!Eloise, darling, when a duck clucks and a chicken waddles, it’s time to step away from the coffee.”
If she says so.
Overheard Olivia and Samantha saying the quotes aren’t Mabel’s favorite part though.
The scene where you see Mike’s ass is.
Which I willnotbe telling the happy couple. Or myself ever again.
“You’ve met him before?” Cricket asks.
“Stayed where you’re staying a time or two when they’ve been out to visit Ginny.”
She makes that squeak again and leaps back from the stake pile.
“I washed the sheets,” I add dryly. “Don’t get too excited.”
“Mouse.”
