Free Twisted Arrangement by Mora Early Page B

were now hauling round dinner tables toward the conservatory, “we can begin dressing the rooms down here.”
     
    “What’s left to do tomorrow?” he asked, impressed with the huge transformation Emma and her team had wrought already.
     
    “My team and I will get here around 10 a.m. to do a final walk-through of the game rooms and make sure everything is in place. But I’ll be off before the ball starts. Dag will be coordinating the rest of the staff.”
     
    Josh rubbed a hand against his slightly stubbled jaw. “What if something happens during the ball? Shouldn’t you be here in case any crises arise?”
     
    She flicked an unreadable look at him up through her long lashes. “I have some private family matters to attend to over the next few days. Vince will be overseeing the kitchen and waitstaff. Charlotte is handling the front of the house—the coat check, valets, and footmen. I’ve assigned Ari to the musicians. Should they need anything at all, he’ll arrange it for them. Tanya has the games covered. And Dag can reach me in the event of an emergency. They’re all supremely competent, Joshua. I wouldn’t leave them in charge if I didn’t have complete faith in all of them.”
     
    “I didn’t mean to insinuate. . . .” He trailed off, backtracking over what she’d said. “Wait, we have footmen? What on earth for?”
     
    “Checking invitations and opening doors.” She raised her brows. “You didn’t expect your guests to open their own doors, did you?”
     
    His lips quirked at the dry tone of her voice. “Yes, actually. If I’d thought about it at all, I would have.”
     
    She shook her head. “That’s why you hired Picture Perfect: to think of these little details. Not only will it impress your guests, but it will help keep the flow of foot traffic away from the doorways. Trust me, you’ll be grateful for the footmen.”
     
    “I’ll take your word for it.” He grinned.
     
    Emma tucked her pen into her bun. “The rest of the Picture Perfect support staff will be at the office. Think of them as backup if anything goes wrong. Which it won’t,” she assured him. He was about to speak when she spun, catching the sleeve of one of the burly movers. “Wally, make sure they don’t unload all the chairs, please. The ones at the very rear of the truck are going back to Steinem’s.”
     
    Wally nodded. “Are they remainders?”
     
    “We always get a few. But Janice is waiting for them, so if you can run them over to her as soon as you guys are done here, she’ll swap them out for you.” Emma smiled at him and patted his muscled forearm. “Thank you.”
     
    Josh watched her pluck the pen from her bun and mark a check on her clipboard. He chuckled when she slid the writing instrument back into her hairdo. She glanced up at him.
     
    “My mom does that, too.” He gestured toward her bun. “The pen-in-the-hair thing. Sometimes she’ll end up with three or four in there by the end of the day. How do you not feel that?”
     
    She blinked at him for a moment, and then a fleeting smile darted across her lips. “Well, I don’t know about your mother, but my hair is very thick. The pen doesn’t even touch my scalp, so there’s nothing to feel, really. Just a tiny bit of added weight. You know,” she said suddenly, “you need to give me those signed releases for the photographers.”
     
    He frowned slightly at the abrupt shift in topic but motioned her toward the stairs. “Right. They’re in my office.”
     
    Emma bit her lip. Was she nervous to be alone with him? They’d interacted one-on-one plenty of times, but never in a confined space like his office. Not that the room was small, but it was considerably narrower than the great living room or the conference room at Picture Perfect. He watched her straighten her shoulders, apparently shaking off whatever trepidation she was feeling, and turn to climb up the stairs before him.
     
    Josh caught himself staring rather