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Pippa’s demeanor changed instantly. She sat forward, shoulders hunched, tongue flicking out to lick her lips nervously. “I’d love to say I’m going all out,” she admitted, “But the truth is that there isn’t much point because I don’t have anyone to invite.”
Bunny frowned, confused. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I don’t really know anyone in the city, and Texas is just too far away to ask anyone to travel over for it.”
It was hard to believe a woman as friendly, vivacious, and bubbly as Pippa didn’t have a horde of friends and family ready to help her celebrate such a wondrous occasion.
“Even your family?” Bunny asked incredulously, realizing her faux pas a little too late. “I’m sorry, that was rude,” she added hastily.
“No, it’s fine,” Pippa assured her with a gentle smile. “I’m estranged from them. So I really just have two friends back home who I’d even want to ask, and they’re both busy with their own broods to look after.”
She didn’t sound bitter, just accepting. Bunny decided she wasn’t going to push the issue.
“Well then, we’ll just have to put our heads together,” she told her friend with a decisive nod.
Pippa looked up to meet her gaze. “What do you mean?”
“You don’t seriously think I’d let you go without a baby shower, do you?” Bunny asked coyly. “Even if it’s just the two of us, we can have a fun day and do something to celebrate the new lives you’re bringing into the world.”
Pippa’s shoulders straightened and a sparkle of appreciation lit her eyes. “Oh Bunny,” she gushed, sounding taken aback. “Really? Are you sure? Only I know how busy you are—”
“I’m positive,” Bunny insisted. “Let me know if there’s anything in particular you’d like to do, and I’ll come up with some ideas. Let’s catch up in a couple weeks and firm up our plans?”
“That sounds perfect,” Pippa said, standing up with a flourish of girlish excitement. “Thank you so much! You’re an angel.” She waited for Bunny to stand as well before leaning in for another hug. “I’m so glad to have met you.”
“Takes one to know one,” Bunny said with a grin. “I’m so glad to have met you, too.”
“I’ll call you,” Pippa promised, picking up her purse on their way to the door.
Bunny chuckled. “You’d better.”
Pippa threw out a hand. It landed on Bunny’s arm, indicating a topic of great importance that the pair had forgotten to discuss. “Ooh—speaking of calls, did you ever hear back from that hot guy you met through your work you were telling me about?”
“Bye, hon,” Bunny said emphatically, backing up into her apartment as Pippa loitered in the hallway beyond.
“Mind your own business, Pippa,” the taller woman said with a grin. “Got it. Talk to you soon.”
Bunny was still smiling when she closed the door. Having never really connected with people in the city well enough to have a group of friends to hang out with outside of work, Bunny knew how Pippa felt. She was pleased she could be that one person for Pippa, and even happier she now had that person in her life, too.
Clearing the glasses away, Bunny tidied the kitchen a little. She was just contemplating looking at the tempting pile of takeout menus in the top kitchen drawer when a movement by the living room entrance caught her eye.
Death was standing with his arms crossed, shoulder resting against the entry frame. His expression was as unreadable as it usually was, and for one heart-stopping moment Bunny thought he might have suddenly gotten his memory back.
“You really are, you know that?” he said, his voice low and his eyes not leaving hers.
“Sorry?” she said, not taking his meaning.
A smile ghosted over his lips, there one moment and gone the very next. “An angel.”
She shook her head, laughing gently at what she assumed was a joke as she pulled a Mexican restaurant menu from her drawer of tricks. “Well, I mean, strictly speaking I’m just a regular old human,” she said with a half-shrug. “As mortal as they come. I just have this really unusual role to play in the lives of other humans on top of all that.”
She turned to look at him, surprised to find he’d left his position by the door and was now standing directly in front of her. She blinked and inched back, her butt bumping into the kitchen counter behind her. He was undoubtedly in her personal space, but she didn’t feel threatened. In fact, she felt quite the opposite.
“I mean you’re an angel,” he told her, his dark gaze focusing intently on her face, “because you’re sweet, and kind, and generous, and thoughtful.”
Heat flushed her cheeks as a blush spread across her face like wildfire.
“Oh,” was all she managed to say, searching her brain to add something that sounded a little more confident and a lot less flabbergasted. The sentiment was a huge compliment coming from him, the likes of which she’d not experienced before.
