Perfectly Planned (Perfectly Series Book 3)

Chapter 4

On Sunday afternoon, Chloe stood in the lobby of her apartment building and checked her watch. Cory wasn't late—she was early.

She shifted the bags sitting at her feet and wondered again if she'd brought enough. All of her siblings and the three grandchildren would be at her parents' potluck birthday lunch. Pamela had assigned the drinks to her, so she bought two bottles of wine, two-dozen juice boxes, and a case of cream soda.

She usually brought appetizers to family shindigs. Last year, she'd made two kinds of wraps cut into pinwheel finger sandwiches. Chocolate and banana, the kids had devoured those, and gherkin pickle and peanut butter. Delicious. At least, she'd thought so. Pamela had wrinkled her nose and this year told her to bring drinks.

Specifically, wine, juice boxes, and soda. Jeez. Like she didn't know what drinks meant.

Obviously a message in there somewhere. A little jealous, perhaps? Trying to be the favorite aunt? Chloe smiled. It would take more than chocolate and banana for Pamela to get to favorite aunt status. Although, she was handy in a medical emergency. Being cool as a cucumber worked great then.

Chloe waved as Cory pulled up in his Toyota Celica. She had breathed a sigh of relief when he'd offered to drive. It saved answering a bunch of questions about her car.

Her dad considered each of the vintage cars his babies. He lovingly spent hours restoring them. He didn't begrudge them being used. In fact, he prided himself on keeping them roadworthy and made a ceremony of handing over the keys as a gift when each of them turned twenty-one. But she knew, better than any of her siblings, that it stung a bit when one of the cars landed in a shop for bodywork. He fretted.

She picked up the bags as Cory jumped out of the car and opened the door to her apartment building.

"Hi, sis," he said with a smile. He held the door with one hand and reached for the case of soda with the other.

"Hi, Cor. Thanks," she said, handing it over.

"Got drinks this year, did ya? Pam mad at you?" Chloe laughed. "Served the kids chocolate appetizers last year, and that's all they ate."

Cory nodded. "That'll do it. She gave me something safe, too. The cake. 'Course, she ordered it. All I had to do was pick it up and pay for it." He set the drinks carefully around the cake box in the trunk.

"Make one tiny little mistake . . ." Chloe laughed.

"I know," he agreed, shaking his head.

They settled into the car and fastened their seatbelts.

As Cory pulled out, Chloe looked around. "Your car is so clean. It always looks brand new."

He glanced over briefly. "Hard not to with Dad coming over to tinker every few days."

"Do you mind?"