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“Well, I hope by usual, you mean this more confident version of the girl that I remember being,” Ivy says.
“Are you telling me you were shy at one point?” Celeste chuckles. “Girl, you’ve grown these past months into a beautiful butterfly. You should show off your gorgeous self.”
“I’ll try.” Ivy glances over her shoulder. Then glances at Jackson.
It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Have I missed something?
I’m probably on edge after the phone call with Marty earlier.
It looks more and more like Ivy’s father was murdered. Marty not only talked to the man who caused the accident that took Richard Love’s life, but to the man’s wife.
Both claimed not to know Nicole or Alec, beyond what they’d seen in the media. But where the man refused to answer any of Marty’s questions, the wife was more than happy to chat about the miracle that saved her life a mere day after Richard’s death.
Apparently she was on death’s door prior to the accident and the couple was half-a-million in debt. Within twenty-four hours of her husband committing vehicular manslaughter, she was matched with a donor for a kidney transplant. By the time she was released from the hospital her medical bills and house were all paid in full. She didn’t have a name or number for the person she called her guardian angel. Only praise.
Call me a cold-hearted skeptic, but I’m not buying the idea that the charity she received was actually charitable. And until I hear otherwise, I’m going to go right ahead and assume that Nicole paid to have Ivy’s father killed and his murder covered up. We just don’t have proof that Nicole was the one behind it.
On top of this unsettling news, I got a Google alert for a TV interview Alec did this morning. I almost threw my phone across the room when he stared down the camera and suggested the whole situation with Ro was miscommunication. The cocky bastard even went so far as to offer a supposedly heartfelt apology for any bad blood between them, like that would be enough to undo the pain and fear he caused her.
It’s almost as if he expects to get away with what he did. Even with the photos we gave to the police and Ro’s testimony. And with what Marty told me about Nicole’s financial situation it wouldn’t surprise me if she bought a judge and a jury that will side with that prick.
“Are you okay?” Ivy asks me.
“Huh?” I card fingers through my hair. I don’t want to concentrate on the what ifs tonight. Nicole and Alec will still be there in the morning. Tonight is about Ivy. I know she misses being around the queens. I know she’s enjoying the freedom. She deserves to have a great night with her friends. Without my paranoia ruining it for her. “Yeah.”
“Are you sure? We can go if—”
“No.” Absolutely not. “It’s nothing that can’t wait. Tonight is for having fun.”
“We are going to have such a great time now that you’re back on your feet,” Celeste says as we enter the main room with its curvaceous obsidian bar and muscular bartenders clad in nothing more than gold hot pants and glitzy bowties. “Can we expect a visit from Uma tonight?”
“Perhaps.” Ivy presses her lips together, but there’s a glint in her eye at the idea of bringing Uma out to play.
Gold chandeliers glitter over white linen tables and chairs shaped like shoes. Women in cigarette girl costumes carry brightly colored beverages in crystal glasses and jugs. Ostrich plumes vie with pearls and white roses in sumptuous arrangements that somehow don’t detract from the queens prancing around the room to speak to their patrons.
I fall in line behind Ivy and the queen as we’re led through to the VIQ area. The last time I sat at this table I was looking for Ivy, and Adira demanded I pay a toll for his help. I was dolled up for the stage and expected to entertain.
I can only imagine what the toll might eventually be for keeping the fact that Ivy and I aren’t wed a secret from his best friend.
Celeste seats Ivy on a glass and pink feather seat that’s shaped like a high heeled shoe. His eyes widen and so does his mouth as he holds Ivy’s ring finger up. “Oh wow. Look at this rock. It’s pure perfection.”
Ivy frowns at the rings on her finger before she beams up at the queen. “It’s quite heavy actually.”
My pulse stutters. I never asked what Adira told the queens in regard to Ivy and I being married. If he asks questions it could blow everything, since I told Ivy they were all at the wedding.
“I bet it is.” Celeste clutches at his chest. “I’m jealous, honey.”
The queen sashays off to talk to someone else as one of the cigarette girls comes over to take our drink order; the first act kicks off.
I order champagne and they serve it in crystal flutes as the first act ends. Another queen takes the stage.
I move my chair closer to Ivy’s and lean in. “Are you having a good time?”
“I’ve missed this.” She rests her back against my chest.
I love that she’s comfortable with me again. The nearness makes my skin buzz and my chest swell. I wrap an arm around her middle.
We stay that way through several acts before Adira ventures out to the table. Of course his friendly hug wins out against mine and she jumps up to receive it.
