“There you are!” said Vivian, Ramsey’s tall, beautiful, and heavily pregnant sister.
“Mom! Aunt Sara said—”
“Yes, I know, dear, you ratted on her and she threatened you. Since you and your brother are being babysat by her next Saturday I think you should think twice about tattling.”
The boy looked pale for a moment. “Aunt Sara, I ate two of your shoe cupcakes and they were the best.” With that, he ran through the garage and out of sight.
“Jocelyn,” Viv said, “you and I have hardly had any time to speak, and I certainly haven’t been able to thank you for this lovely party. And what a very pleasant surprise it’s been to find out that your sister is—”
“Step!” Sara and Jocelyn said in unison.
“Sorry. To find out that your stepsister is one of the famous modeling twins. She asked that we find you, as she can’t stay long.” Viv smiled as she held her arm back to make way for Sara and Jocelyn to go through the kitchen and out to the back garden. She wasn’t about to let them escape.
“And Sara,” Viv said as they left the house, “Ingrid came with her. I’m so glad. Maybe now things can be worked out.”
Jocelyn was able to walk forward only because Sara and Viv were behind her. The crowd parted, all of them smiling fondly as they looked from the tall, very thin, heavily made-up Bell to Jocelyn. Bell had on a couple of big leather triangles that exposed the left side of her waist, and her right leg was bare from midthigh down. Her hair was a thick mass of extensions, and a child could have used her earrings as Hula-Hoops.
Compared to the conservatively dressed people around her, she was like a neon sign on a dark night. Some of the women tried to look scandalized, but Bell looked so radiant that no frown was genuine.
“Darling,” Bell said when Jocelyn was near her, then she did an exaggerated bend, as though Joce were two feet shorter than she was. Bell gave double air kisses to Joce’s cheeks, then pulled back and said, “How sweet you look. Really. I would have guessed you to be no more than fourteen years old. I love the no-makeup look.”
Joce knew that to the wide-eyed observers Bell sounded like an adoring sister. Here she was, a superstar, flying all the way in from wherever just to attend her sister’s little party. Joce didn’t dare open her mouth because she knew that what would come out would be “What do you want?”
But neither Bell nor Ash had ever been at a loss for words. “You can imagine my surprise when Ingrid mentioned that her husband worked at Edilean Manor. Such a small world, isn’t it? And when I saw a photo of him, I thought they truly needed to be together. I’m such a romantic. When Ingrid said there was a big party in Edilean this weekend, and I saw that you were catering it with those purple cookies of yours, I just knew I had to come and give you my endorsement. Tell me,” Bell said, batting her falsely thick lashes, “you don’t still put that liquid marijuana in the chocolate cupcakes, do you?”
Three people put the cupcakes down. One woman took a cake from her child.
Jocelyn could think of nothing to say that didn’t involve profanity and physical blows.
“Well, darling Cindy,” Bell said, “I must go, but Ingrid’s staying on for a few days to be with her husband. I do hope you can spare him from working in your garden. Oh, by the way, Ash and I had a gift made for you.”
She held out a thin blue velvet box, but Jocelyn knew what was in it, so she kept her hands to her side. Sara took the box and opened it. The Steps had had the jewel-shaped pieces of coal from Miss Edi set in what was usually described as “pot metal” and made into a necklace and earrings. They were masterpieces of tawdriness.
“I hope you get as much enjoyment out of them as Ash and I did.” With that, Bell gave two more air kisses to Jocelyn, then she floated away into a crowd of young girls who were barely able to control their squeals of delight.
When the crowd had departed, trailing behind Bell, Sara looked at the jewelry set she held. “Is that coal?”
But Jocelyn’s attention was on the woman Bell had left behind, the woman she’d seen from upstairs. She wasn’t as tall as Ash and Bell, and she didn’t seem to have that air of believing herself to be the greatest thing that ever walked the earth, but just the way she held her shoulders gave it away that she was a model. Her beautiful face was made up to look devoid of makeup, and her clothes were simple but probably cost Jocelyn’s last year’s salary.
“You must be Ingrid,” Jocelyn managed to say at last, and the woman smiled at her.
“I apologize about that introduction. Bell can sometimes be less than the nicest person on earth, but she did arrange for me to be here today. Your party looks lovely.” She looked to the side of Jocelyn. “Hello, Vivian. Is he here?”
“If you break his heart again, I’ll—” Viv said, but her husband put his arm around her shoulders and nodded toward the back fence.
“This is between them,” he said. “Let Luke work it out with his wife. Come on, I saved you some of those purple cookies.”
After they left, only Sara, Jocelyn, and Ingrid remained.
“I see him,” Ingrid said, her pretty face melting into a smile, then she hurried toward the flowering trees that ran along the back of the property.
Turning, Jocelyn saw Luke staring at Ingrid, unmoving, his face unreadable. When Ingrid got to him, she put her long arms around his neck and kissed him on the mouth.
It took Jocelyn several moments to react, then she turned to Sara. “I understand everything now. Keep me occupied by married Luke so I see no man but the one chosen for me: Ramsey.” Turning, she started toward the front of the house and her car.
“Joce!” Sara called after her. “Let me explain.”
&nb