“I can understand that. I had a rough childhood when it came to financial stability, but I had friends to rely on.” She glanced over to where River and Jax were dancing to a slow ballad. River grinned up at her husband, and there was such joy on her friend’s face that it filled Lucy’s heart. “Friends are important. Sometimes they’re more important than family.”
She loved her siblings, but she wasn’t close to them anymore. Her brothers were living their lives, and her younger sisters had each other. River and Ty and Sawyer had been her lifelines.
And now they were all back in Bliss where they belonged, and their little family could get a wee bit bigger with the additions of Michael and Jax. Someday Sawyer would find a blow-up doll he truly loved and they would all be complete.
“Don’t I know it,” Van replied. “My blood family scattered to the four winds, but Hale is still here with me.”
She had to ask the question. “So…are you thinking about it?”
She had to wonder if they were curious about the lifestyle here in Bliss.
Van’s lips curled up, and he didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “Hell, yeah, we’re thinking about it. If you hadn’t gone and gotten a couple of boyfriends, you would have known exactly how hard I’ve been thinking about it.”
She had to chuckle. “Well, I will be on the lookout for the right woman. I’m feeling like matchmaking.”
Van’s hands came up. “Nope. We can totally do that ourselves. Thanks.”
She kind of liked the look of fear in his eyes, and she immediately started making a list in her head. She knew some fun ladies.
“Hey, what the hell, Sonya?” A feminine shout could be heard over the dance music.
She turned and sighed because the Fosters were sitting at a table in the back, champagne and wine bottles all around them. She’d been surprised they had come to the party. Well, three of them were. Sonya, Kendall, and Chet had taken the table and ordered bottle service. There was a cheese plate that hadn’t been touched in the middle of the table, and they’d spent most of the night staring down at their phones.
“Damn, that is going to stain, but at least you can try.” Van opened a bottle of club soda and offered it to her with one of the clean towels. “Tell her to dab not scrub.”
Kendall Foster was standing up, pointing to the large stain on her gray and black jumpsuit. It fit her slim form to perfection and was likely from some celebrity designer.
Lucy grabbed the club soda and towel and started to make her way over. Sonya was setting her now half-filled glass of Pinot Noir on the tablecloth, that had also taken some damage.
The laundry team would love that.
“Could you watch what you’re doing?” Kendall asked. “Do you know how much this cost?”
Sonya had already grabbed a napkin off the table and approached her sister. “I’m sorry. It slipped out of my hand. And of course I know. Who do you think pays your credit card bills?”
Kendall set her own glass down. “Don’t make it sound like you pay for me. You just do the paperwork.”
“Because you’re too irresponsible to do it,” Sonya shot back.
“I brought some club soda.” Lucy didn’t want to get in the middle of this, but she also didn’t want the sisters to start a fight. At least Chet seemed deeply uninterested in anything except his phone screen.
Hailey, one of the servers working the rotating hors d’oeuvres, strode up. “Don’t use club soda. We need hydrogen peroxide and dishwashing soap for that material. We’ve got both down in the laundry.”
Kendall groaned. “Fine. I was planning on wearing this to a party next week.”
“Go. Let the professionals help you,” Sonya urged. “I’ll deal with this.”
Kendall’s eyes rolled. “Fine. But I’m going back to the villa. This is all lame.”
She walked away with Hailey.
“Sorry. She’s not in a great mood.” Sonya started picking up the bottles as a couple of the staff members began the process of cleaning up the table. “This is all very nice. She’s just still upset about what happened the other night. We had a little incident.”
“That fucked up party was all Brock’s fault.” Chet didn’t miss a beat. He picked up his glass as they were moving the soiled tablecloth out. “And I say that bartender over there is a fucking hero.”
Sonya sighed. “Again, sorry. The gathering we were having got out of hand. The bartender took a couple of punches meant for Chet. They were drunk and he got in between them. He was really mad. I thought for a moment he was going to kill Brock.”
That seemed overly dramatic. Van hadn’t mentioned it had gotten so heated. He’d made it sound like he’d simply taken an accidental hit. “I assure you our staff is always professional. Here, let me take those and we’ll bring out some new food for you.”
Sonya waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. I think I’ll head back, too. It was so nice to meet you. Chet, let’s go. We can get more wine back at the villa. I want to ski before we have to leave. You know Dad said we should all enjoy our last weekend here. We have a big meeting when we get back home.”
“Yeah, sure. Like I need to be there.” Chet yawned and stood up anyway. “You know big brother will shoot down any suggestion I have. I don’t know why any of us go to those things. Brock is going to get everything after Dad croaks, and he’s going to hold it over our heads forever.”
She was so glad she wasn’t a member of that particular wealthy clan. They couldn’t pay her enough to deal with that shit.
“Hey, Lucy,” Van called out. “I’ve got a problem, and you might be the one to solve it.”
Well, she’d known the evening wouldn’t go off without a hitch. She made sure the table was being properly reset before turning back to the bar. In the distance, she could see that Alexei had found Michael and they seemed to be talking.
“What’s up?” It looked like the servers were all circulating. Well, all but the server with shrimp, but sure enough Long-Haired Roger had taken up a space at the fancy cheese section and was even now slipping some cave-aged Gruyère into a sandwich bag.
“Whoever stocked this bar for me mistakenly brought over this Scotch.” He patted the super-expensive bottle. It was the kind of Scotch that could easily vote, a single malt. “It’s a private bottle for one of the suite guests. I could send it back to the main bar…”
She immediately saw the problem. “And then it would take twenty to thirty minutes to get up to the guest who’s paying for good service.”
“And good service is quick service,” Van summed up. He poured out three fingers of the amber liquid. “I don’t know why it’s being stocked down here, but there it is. Suite 210. Can you have someone run it up there?”
It wasn’t the largest of the suites, but it had a nice view. She picked up the tray. “I just sent one on break and another to help save a jumpsuit. I’ll run it up myself. It’s not far. I can be back ten minutes tops. When Charlene comes off the floor, ask her to switch to the canapés. We need to keep a vegetarian tray circulating.”
Bliss had several non-meat eaters. She liked to make sure they had some snacks, too.