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Bear tensed slightly. “Yeah, that’s them. Marcus and Natasha Sparker. I’ve only met them a few times, but they’re a real piece of work.”

Alex didn’t doubt his words. Even standing on the opposite side of the room she felt intimidated by them.

“Now that we’re here, should we go and rescue our friend?” she asked.

Bear looked at her strangely. “Ah, no. We don’t want to interrupt them. Jordan will come and find us when he can.”

“What do you mean, ‘when he can’?”

“Remember what he said about his parents showing him off? They’ll parade him around for a while—which is what he agreed to do in order to get us here—but then they’ll get sick of him and he’ll be free to hang out with us for the rest of the night.”

“That’s horrible,” Alex said. How could anyone’s parents be so uncaring? “What do you normally do while you wait?”

“What do you think?” Bear tipped his head towards the buffet spread. “These people might be snobs, but they’re snobs with access to the best chefs in all of Medora.”

Alex laughed, feeling her anxiety dissipate, and she eagerly followed him in the direction of the food.

Thirty

“I’m exhausted.”

Alex looked up from her chocolate mud cake to find Jordan collapsing onto the chair beside her, loosening his bow tie and stretching out his legs.

“You look it,” she agreed, spooning another bite of pure heaven into her mouth.

“You’re supposed to tell me how devilishly handsome I look,” he said with a pout. “That no amount of tiredness could ever diminish my ruggedly perfect looks.”

“My mistake,” Alex said, enjoying her cake too much to pay close attention to his words—at least until he slid the dessert away from her and started devouring it. “Hey!” she cried, pulling the plate back and shielding it behind her arm. “Get your own!”

He looked at her with the saddest puppy-dog expression she’d ever seen, and she glanced from the cake to him and back again, before sighing and removing her arm.

“We’llshareit,” she said, emphasising the ‘share’.

“You’re the best!” he said, or at least that’s what she thought he’d said, since his mouth was full of chocolate.

“Are you done for the night, mate?” Bear asked from Alex’s other side.

Jordan nodded and swallowed quickly. “Yeah, I’m free. And it’s a good thing too, since I think if Emily Walters continued making those goo-goo eyes at me, I might have ended up in an arranged marriage.” He shuddered while Alex and Bear laughed even though they didn’t know who he was talking about.

“Jordan, darling, there’s one more person we’d like you to meet,” came a feminine voice from behind them.

Alex looked around to see Jordan’s parents standing there waiting for him.

“But, Mother—” he started.

“Come along, son,” his father interrupted in a tone that allowed no room for debate. “This will only take a moment, and then you can come back to your…friends.”

Alex didn’t like Jordan’s father one bit. The cursory glance he gave her and Bear only highlighted the fact that he considered them to be beneath his notice. His wife didn’t even look in their direction, but instead she ordered her son to stand up straight and fix his tie.

Jordan sent Alex and Bear an apologetic look, promising to be back soon.

“They’re…” Alex failed to think of an appropriate description that could be said in public.

Thankfully, Bear understood the words she couldn’t say. “Yeah, I know.”

They watched as their friend was led across the room to yet another group of haughty-looking aristocrats. While he appeared to fit in with them, there was something in his stance that screamed of rebellion. Alex was amazed that Jordan could have grown up around these people and yet still turned out to be the decent—if playfully arrogant—friend that she knew.

“How did it happen?” she asked Bear, before realising that he couldn’t read her mind. “How did he turn out sonormalsurrounded by all this?”