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ridiculous questions but still answered them with aplomb. Better yet, she gave up just enough of her made-up version of the wedding for the press to have a story, but not enough where they could actually learn when or where it was.
    The last phase of the audition was Jack's creation. He thought it necessary to give the candidates some "what-if" scenarios to see how they'd react. "The bride hasn't decided what to wear for the wedding," he said, harking back to an Oscar moment that Olivia had told them about. "She has three or four dresses. When she gets up to the site, she decides to wear a Vera Wayne, but you don't
have
a Vera Wayne," he said, making it sound like a matter of life and death. "What do you do?"
    "Wang," Marnie said.
    "Huh?"
    "Vera Wang. This is a tough one," she said thoughtfully. She tapped a manicured forefinger against her lips, then said, "Okay, here's what—I'd try and talk sensibly to her and point out all the good things about the gowns she's got."
    No one had anything to say to that.
    "Okay, that's dumb," she said hastily. 'This
is
Olivia Dagwood we're talking about. How about… I'd try and pass off one of the gowns there as a Vera Wang?" she asked. When no one spoke again, she said, "No? Okay, I give. What is the right answer?"
    "Hell if we know," Jack said.
    In the end, having exhausted everything they could think of, and being in turn exhausted by Mamie's knowledge of weddings, the guys sent Marnie back to the Lincoln to wait, and they caucused in the pavilion.
    It was clear they had their wedding planner. Jack lamented that she didn't have the physical stamina they were hoping for, but they all agreed that she likely wouldn't look as hot as she did if she had the physical stamina of a discus thrower, which was, if they boiled it down, what they were hoping for.
    "So what do you think?" Cooper asked them all. "Do we take her on?"
    "Have we got another choice?" Jack asked. "She'll do, assuming she comes up clean on a thorough background check."
    "I like her," Michael said. "She's cheerful. I like cheerful in a wedding planner."
    "I like legs on a wedding planner, and she's definitely got those," Coop snorted. "I say we do it."
    The three of them looked at Eli. He sighed wearily. "I still say it's the dumbest thing we've ever done."
    "Great," Cooper said, and with a grin, shoved Mamie's forgotten melon at Eli. "Then you can call her with the good news when we finish the background on her."
----
Chapter Four

 
    MARNIE was waiting on the front bumper of the Lincoln when Eli strolled up the path, and she couldn't help noticing that the man looked as good coming as he did going in those old Levi's.
    He smiled in a very soft, very sexy way that made her belly do a weird little flip as he reached the parking lot. "You forgot something," he said, indicating the now-bruised but still enormous casaba melon she hadn't even noticed until now.
    "Thanks!" She quickly took the melon from him and waited for him to say more. Like,
You're hired
.
    But he lifted his hand to signal the driver and said, "You can get in."
    That was hugely disappointing. She'd thought she'd done pretty well at her audition. She was really hoping that he'd come up and tell her, while she was standing on Vincent Vittorio's property, that she had the job. And she thought he ought to be a whole lot more cheerful than this, because she deserved at least cheerful after what they'd just put her through. And really,
why
couldn't he have told her to wear some
workout
clothes instead of some
banging-around
clothes?
    It was the rope, she thought as he opened the door to the Lincoln for her and she carelessly tossed the melon inside. It was that damn rope! It had been her bane from the moment she'd first met it at age six, and it was still kicking her ass!
    She climbed in; the driver shut the door as Eli got in beside her. A moment later, they were backing out of the little lot.
    Her arms crossed, Marnie let the casaba melon roll listlessly on the