Also as predicted, the employees, especially the female ones, had gazed at Sin with the kind of starry-eyed adoration usually reserved for boy bands or Hollywood celebrities.
He held out his ticket for the valet on duty to retrieve the car.
As the young man jogged away, I looked up at Sin. He had a half-smile on his face and a dreamy look in his eyes. Adoration had a way of doing that to you. “What did you think?”
“Hmm?” His brows lifted as he looked at me.
“About your first store visit? What did you think?”
“It was great. Such nice people. And the store was perfect. I hate to say it, but it was probably better organized and stocked than the one in Nocturne Falls.”
I smirked at his comment. “You know that’s because we paid them a visit. I guarantee you that if we told Juniper and Buttercup we were headed there for an official visit, they’d have that place whipped into shape too.”
“Yeah, that’s true.” He sighed, a happy little sound. “Very friendly staff.”
I laughed. “Very flirty staff, you mean.”
He made a face. “Flirty?”
“Don’t act like you didn’t notice.”
His grin gave him away. “It wasn’t like I was encouraging them.”
“I know. But I warned you. Becoming Prince Consort has made you irresistible.”
He put his arm around me and tugged me closer. “Are you saying I wasn’t already irresistible?”
“You absolutely were. To me. But now that you have a royal title…” I shrugged. “I saw you smiling. I know you were basking in the adulation.”
The valet arrived with the car.
Sin kissed my temple, then shook his head and sighed. “Now you have me worried.”
“About what?”
“My giant ego fitting into the car.”
Chapter Eleven
Sinclair
I loved teasing Jayne. She was always a good sport about it, and the banter between us was like the glaze on an already delicious doughnut.
I checked myself out in the Lamborghini’s rearview mirror, patting my hair gently. “Look at that. My head just fits.”
She poked me in the shoulder, laughing softly. “You’re so silly.”
I wasn’t ready to let it go. “What do you think sounds better? The Prince Consort’s Crazies or Sin’s Sinners?”
She was giving me that look like I’d lost my mind. “For what?”
“The name of my fan club.”
This time she laughed out loud, shaking her head. “Wait until I tell your mother how fame has affected you.”
“Speaking of, we’d better get moving.” I got us back on the strip and headed for the Oasis, the hotel casino my parents’ show had called home for the last five years. Before that, they’d performed at a few other smaller casinos, honing their tricks and timing into the show it was today.
“Are we going to be late?”
“No, we should be fine.”
“We still have to go to Will Call and pick up the tickets. Won’t it be mobbed with the new finale happening?”
“Maybe.” I pulled into valet parking at the Oasis. “But they won’t start without us.” That wasn’t true, but I couldn’t keep from teasing her. “I am the Prince Consort, after all.”
She rolled her eyes while smiling.
I handed the keys to the valet, got my ticket, then went around to help my gorgeous wife out of the low car. She could manage on her own, but it was the gentlemanly thing to do. Not to mention that if an opportunity arose to let everyone around us know that she was with me, I wasn’t going to miss it.
I gave her my hand as she unfolded herself from the passenger’s seat. She had her jacket over her arm along with her sparkly little evening clutch. She couldn’t have looked more beautiful.
“All set?” I asked.
“Yep. Lead the way. Just not too fast. Heels.”
I offered her my arm, which she took. “I could carry you.”
“Don’t you dare, Sinclair Crowe. Not unless you want a good zap of cold.”
I’d never have done it, but like I said, I loved to tease her. “Just trying to help.” We weren’t far from the theater.
We also weren’t the only ones headed that way. Quite a few people were streaming toward it.
Thankfully, it only took a few minutes of waiting in line to get our tickets and then make our way to the entrance, where we waited to be ushered to our seats, which were second row.
The casino kept a firm grip on the first row, using those tickets as gifts for the big rollers who dropped serious cash. I didn’t begrudge them. Second row was just as good, and my parents needed the casino happy.
Of course, there was always Frank Chiarillo, the guy who owned the Crystal Palace, a casino about half a mile away. He’d been trying to poach them for years.
The current act that headlined at his casino combined comedy with magic and food. Tony Tortellini and his Impastable Magic. Corniest name ever. I’d never seen it in person, but I’d watched a few clips on YouTube. He did things like toss pizza dough so high it vanished, put meatballs into a chef’s hat and turn them into doves, and make an enormous wheel of parmesan disappear.
His big finish was rolling his assistant through a giant pasta machine.
It was all very tongue-in-cheek and supposedly pretty funny, but again, I hadn’t seen it in person. I knew from experience that Tony was jealous of my parents’ success. Anytime they were at a function together, he made that very clear. I suppose that was to be expected from the number two guy.
An usher came to check our tickets and take us to our seats. “Right this way, folks.”
We followed him to the front and started to make our way to our seats.
“Princess! Sinclair!”
I looked at the older, blue-haired woman in the seat next to our empty ones and smiled. “Hi, Birdie.” She’d dyed her hair blue a while back and had been keeping it that way ever since. “What a nice surprise. What are you doing here?”
“Birdie!” Jayne put her jacket on her seat and gave Birdie a big hug. “What are you doing here? And why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”
“Well…” Birdie looked at the man beside her. “You both remember Jack Van Zant?”
I did. He was a raven-shifter and a witch’s familiar, although I guess werewolf-familiar was a better description because he only had eyes for Birdie. His salt-and-pepper hair gave him a very distinguished look that was slightly at odds with his stocky build. “Good to see you, Jack.”
He nodded back. “You too, Sinclair.”
Birdie’s grin was bright. “We just wanted to check out the wedding chapels.”
Jayne gasped. “Are you getting married? Did you get married?”
“No, no. If and when that happens, we’ll do it in Nocturne Falls. But the chapel there is doing really well. Because of that, we came out here to do some research on expanding and to see what kinds of things the chapels out here might offer that we don’t yet.” She was still smiling pretty big, though. “Strictly research. Combined with a little vacation to see the new finale.”