I

didn’t like seeing Rose stressed. I would have done anything to solve this problem for her, but the truth was, I could plan a party just about as good as Rose could probably build a house. Regardless of how useless I felt, I was going to stick by her side and help with whatever I could.

When we’d driven far enough down the mountain to get service, Rose had immediately called Riley, and all she got was more bad news.

None of their ideas for a venue had panned out.

They’d found someone to handle the bar and secured them, but without a location for the party, that wasn’t as exciting news as it could have been.

“Keep thinking, Riley. There’s an answer. We just have to think outside the box.”

“You got it, boss,” Riley responded from the speaker of Rose’s phone.

“I’ll be there in about an hour, I think,” Rose said, looking at me for confirmation.

I gave her a nod, but I thought I could probably get her there in forty-five minutes if I tried hard enough.

“I’ll see you when I get there, but call me if you think of anything before then.”

“Okay. Drive carefully, Aiden,” Riley called out.

“You got it,” I replied.

When we arrived at the office – Fifty minutes later, thank you very much – Rose and I found a whole team of people in the office, working hard on a Saturday evening.

After being brought up to speed, we learned nothing had really changed since we last spoke. They still needed a place to have a giant party.

“Have you spoken to the Reiglemans?” Rose asked Riley.

“Yes, unfortunately, the Hilton called them first, so Mrs. Reigleman called us panicked. But I was able to calm her down and let her know we were working on a solution. I told her everything would be fine. I think I got her to believe me, so there’s that. But she’s definitely waiting for us to call and tell her what the plan is.”

“There has to be something we’re not thinking of. You’ve tried the riverboats? OMSI? The Museum of Art?”

“They’re all either booked or can’t safely accommodate that number of people.”

“So, we need a big venue, that’s not booked on a Sunday evening, that can hold a thousand people in twenty-four hours.” Rose looked around at the ten or so people in the room who, I noticed, were all looking at her. She slumped in the nearest chair and scrubbed her face with her hands. “This is a disaster.” She inhaled deeply and then let it out. She sat up straight, squared her shoulders, and then stated, “We’ll just have to cancel. I can’t see a way out of this.”

Riley let out a quiet groan, but I heard it. Canceling the event bothered Riley just as much as it did Rose. “We’ll give them a full refund, and if they’ll let us, we’ll reschedule and comp the bill. That’s fair, right? I mean, it’s the least we can do.”

“Maybe we can offer to send a small group out to dinner tomorrow as an apology. It’s not a huge party, but it’s better than sitting at home when you’re supposed to be celebrating.” This suggestion came from Jasper, and I had to admit, it was a good idea. Any reasonable person would be able to see how far Rose was willing to bend over backward to make this happen and how far out of her control it was.

Rose sighed again. “I guess that’ll have to be enough. Call the nicest restaurant in the city who can hold a hundred people and see if they can make it happen. Keep calling until you find some sort of alternative. I can’t call this poor woman and tell her the party she’s been planning for a whole year is cancelled without something good to offer her. Book a suite at a nice hotel—not the Hilton—and comp that too.”

I went to stand behind Rose, rubbing her shoulders, trying to be there for her even if I felt useless.

Rose’s employees all went to work on the latest mission—find a crappy alternative to an awesome party. There was a buzz in the room and people started typing on keyboards and looking things up on their phones and making calls.

Jasper and Rachel were a few tables away, both deep in thought.

“You know how anniversary parties are. They don’t need anything exciting to do, they just need space.” They were clearly still trying to find a solution to the bigger problem. “Like, even just a field would do. We can get a DJ, no problem. Portland is full of them. I can call twenty right now who’d kill to play for a thousand people. We literally just need a place.”

And that’s when the huge light bulb exploded over my head.

“I’ll be right back,” I whispered into Rose’s ear and then walked as quickly as my legs would take me into the hallway.

My idea was a little crazy, but I didn’t want to get Rose’s hopes up.

As soon as I was in the hall, I made my way to the stairwell and pulled out my phone. I searched my contacts and when I found the person I needed, I hit Send.

The phone rang, and I realized it was a Saturday evening and I’d be lucky if the person I was calling even answered the phone.

When he did, though, I let out a relieved breath. But the battle wasn’t over. I still had to convince him of my plan.

“Hello, sir. It’s Aiden Daniels. I have a proposition for you.”