I narrow my eyes skeptically as I pluck the other smoothie from the carrier and take it to where Her Highness is sprawled out on one of the sofas watching a YouTube video of a girl with hot pink hair strumming a guitar, performing a cover of one of Jay’s songs.
“Who is she?” I ask as I hold out the smoothie. My gaze snags on her T-shirt that reads ‘I’m making a human. What have you done today?’ I chuckle.
She’s got a thing for quirky T-shirts. And she’s actually making two humans, but only family is privy to her pregnancy and the fact that she’s carrying twins.
It won’t be a secret for long. She’s four months along, and there’s definitely a baby bump. The moment she steps out in public, it’ll be news.
“Oh, thank you.” She points the remote at the TV and pauses the video as she accepts the smoothie. “Her name is Finley Bell. I’ve been watching her for a few weeks now. I think she’d be a great fit for King Records.”
“I’d always wondered what musicians thought about other people singing their songs. Especially if that person performs it better.”
She quirks a brow. “Are you saying she’s a better performer than me?”
I chuckle. “No, you nut. It was a general question.”
She shrugs as she pinches the straw between her fingers and takes a sip. “There’s always going to be someone who can perform better, but it doesn’t make the rest of us less talented.”
“I like your way of thinking.” I jerk my chin, gesturing to her cup. “What’s with the whipped cream? It’s a protein smoothie, not a milkshake.”
“Pregnancy craving.” She rolls her eyes. “And it doesn’t make me want to throw up.”
I wince. She has been really sick. I don’t know shit about pregnancy, but I got a crash course in morning sickness after her house manager slash cook, Grace, once found her sleeping on the bathroom floor in front of the toilet. She’d been too sick to make it back to bed, so Grace called for me to come carry her.
“That reminds me.” I walk over to the counter and grab the cellophane-wrapped bottles, bringing them to her. “This is from Hazel.”
“Really?” She inspects the two small bottles through the clear wrapping. “She figured it out, huh?”
I shrug. “You haven’t been there in months, and you’ve gone from ordering lattes nearly every day for the past year to protein smoothies with whipped cream and cherries.”
“Am I that transparent?” She grins.
Only to anyone who knows her. This house used to smell of coffee, bacon, and pancakes almost every morning. I looked forward to that smell. But now she can’t stomach it. Which is why I have to stop in at the café every morning for my fix. Not that I mind.
“I wouldn’t worry about Hazel. She’s been fangirling over you since the first day you walked into her café, and she hasn’t even so much as asked for an autograph or pulled out her phone for a selfie.”
Jay snorts. “I’m not worried about Hazel. She doesn’t strike me as an attention whore.” She points to the weird tree trunk in front of the sofa that serves as a coffee table. “That’s for you.”
I snatch up the glossy black card and move to sit on the opposite sofa. The front is an image of a single mask. I flip the card over.
* * *
You are cordially invited to the Annual Heritage Masquerade Ball.
Date: Friday, The Twenty-fifth of October
Time: Eight O’clock
Place: The Old Heritage Hotel located in downtown Heritage.
Theme: Forbidden.
* * *
“Are you going to this?” I ask her.
“Nope. You are.”
“The fuck I am.”
“Don’t snap at my wife,” Zach playfully chides as he sits down on the edge of the sofa beside Jay. “I gotta go, babe.”
Jay groans and pushes out her bottom lip in a pout. “I hate when you leave me.”
Zach chuckles as he leans over to kiss her on the lips. “Me, too. I have practice, so I won’t be home until later.” He moves back to lift her shirt, pressing a kiss to her little baby bump, and I drop my gaze to the invitation in my hand. “Love you.”
“Mean it,” she replies.
They’ve only been married for just over a year, so they’re still in their little honeymoon bubble. Sometimes I wonder if they’re even aware of how intimate they are in front of Troy and me. They probably don’t care, since technically this is their house.
Zach kisses his wife one last time before he stands from the sofa. He holds out his fist and bumps it with mine. “Take care of my family,” he says proudly.
Making his way back to the kitchen, he fist-bumps Troy before grabbing his backpack and heading out the garage door.
It suddenly occurs to me that if these two twenty-year-olds can survive the shitstorms they’ve endured over the last two years, then I can surely pull my head out of my ass and ask Hazel out.
Right?
Troy comes into the great room and plops down on the third sofa, stretching his massive arms across the back. “You look off today.”
I raise my brows. “You sayin’ I look like shit?”
He shrugs. Troy isn’t a man of many words, but when he speaks, he’s straight up. “You get hold of some bad pussy or somethin’?”
I huff out a single laugh. Perceptive motherfucker. My head starts to throb all over again just thinking about last night.
Jay chokes and coughs as she rolls to her side and sets her empty smoothie cup on the coffee table. Her face is ten shades of red as she looks at me expectantly, and I shake my head.
We’re close but not that close.
Changing the subject, I hold up the invitation. “Explain this.”
She gives me a conspiratorial grin. “You’re welcome.”
I shoot her a look.
She shifts on the sofa to a sitting position. “Levi, it’s one of the biggest events of the year next to the Winter Wonderland Ball. I thought it would be good for you and Troy to have a night out. And it’s for charity,” she adds. “The tickets are five thousand a couple.”
I snort and look over at Troy. “We are not a couple.”
Troy wiggles his eyebrows, and Jay barks out a laugh. “No shit, dickhead.”
This is now the dynamic of our boss-employee relationship.
“I got one for each of you,” she explains. “As far as a date, you two are on your own. I’m not cupid. Although….” She taps her chin with her index finger. “I will take credit for at least one happy couple.” She grins. “Mimi told me it’s one of those kinky parties.”
Mimi Mackenzie is Jay’s grandmother, one of Heritage Bay’s wealthiest socialites and charity event planners.
“Why aren’t you and Zach going?” I ask.
Her face twists up like she sucked on a lemon. “I’m not up for all that peopling. Besides, Zach and I already made plans to carve pumpkins with our families. Go have some fun, Levi. You guys deserve it.”
I’ll admit I’m intrigued. I look over at Troy and grin. “Are we going?”
Troy chuckles. “Fuck yes.”