Page 45 of A Very Happy Easter

“Does her husband know about this?” I blurted.

“There’s very little he doesn’t know about, so I’m gonna say yes.”

“Sofia’s brother is Ben,” Heath added. “The guy we met in the hallway with Augusta.”

“This is all very incestuous,” I joked. Even worse than my family.

Again, Nye shrugged. “Emmy likes to do things her own way.”

When the girls asked if I wanted to head outside to the ice rink with them, I glanced at Heath, and he gave me a nod and a smile of encouragement. This wasn’t like the parties I normally went to. The men were loud and confident but not sleazy, and I knew Heath would be keeping an eye on me. He’d positioned himself by the window with a good view of the garden, and besides, I had two new friends. I wanted to make the most of it.

“Do you know how to skate?” Olivia asked. “There are instructors going around helping people if they need to learn the basics.”

“I took lessons when I was younger. I can’t remember how to do any of the fancy stuff, but I won’t fall over.”

Lily stuck her hand in the air. “That’s me. I always fall over. Max brought me some of those kneepads, but I look like such a dork that I decided I’d rather have bruises.”

Olivia was right. The rink did empty when Indigo Rain started playing, but we could still hear the music well enough from outside that we carried on skating. People drifted in and out of the ballroom. It wasn’t like a concert where you had to stake your claim or lose your spot. Indigo Rain was the support act rather than the main event, which I thought might rankle the band members, but they seemed reasonably chilled about the whole thing. Travis Thorne stopped to chat between songs, and someone brought him a cocktail and a chocolate snowball.

The three of us skated for twenty minutes and posed for the event photographer. To my surprise, I found myself smiling. Then we headed back to the terrace, where we still had a great view of the band and Heath was waiting with my jacket and another mocktail.

“Having a good time?” he asked.

“Way better than I thought I would be,” I admitted. “I’m so used to these kinds of events being a chore.”

“You must be Edith?” a voice said from behind me.

I turned to see Emmy and her spare billionaire had materialised two feet away, and I mean materialised. Spooky. I didn’t see her approach. I didn’t hear her approach.

“Uh, that’s right. Edie Renner. And you’re Emmy?”

“Emmy Black, and this is Gideon.”

I’d noticed that as Gideon moved around the room earlier, he’d been quite tactile, holding women’s arms and kissing them on both cheeks, European-style, but he just gave me a charming smile.

“Are you enjoying the party?”

Had somebody briefed him? Told him I didn’t like to be touched by strangers? That was so thoughtful, not to mention unusual.

“I truly am. I’ve always wanted to see Indigo Rain, but I don’t do well in crowds.”

“You and me both, my dear. Can I get you another drink?”

“I’m fine, but thank you.”

The last thing I needed was alcohol clouding my judgment. I was quite capable of putting my foot in it all by myself, and in this crowd of scarily competent individuals, I’d stand out like the village idiot.

Twelve

“What are they doing?” I whispered to Heath an hour later.

Emmy was blindfolded, gripping a laser pistol in her hand as someone spun her around three times. Then she extended her arm, raised the gun to the target, and hit a bullseye.

Holy crap.

“She can see through the blindfold, right? She must be cheating.”

The guy standing beside me shook his head. “No, she just has insane spatial awareness.”