Laughing, she punched his shoulder.
She decided a Sunday afternoon drive downtown didn’t completely suck. Closed case, long sleep, hot food—and a command center. Life could be a lot worse.
Maybe it would be the first first birthday party she’d ever attended, but how bad could it be?
Better not think about it.
“You’re sure the present deal got there?” she asked as he maneuvered into a parking place.
“I am.”
“I just don’t want to screw up, be those people who forgot the present for the kid.”
“Delivered yesterday, and stowed away by Leonardo.”
“Okay. I bet there are going to be others there.”
“I certainly hope so.”
“No, I mean others. The others who crawl or walk like drunks with their hands waving, or zip around like Bella.”
“Ah, as in children. I’m sure you’re right.”
“Why do they stare? They’re always staring. Like dolls,” she said as they walked into the building. “Or sharks.”
“I have no idea, but now I’ll likely worry about it.”
“Join the club.”
She took the stairs as she had countless times before Roarke, to the apartment that had once been hers. To the apartment, she thought, that, like her home office, no longer remotely resembled what had been hers.
She was a lot more than okay with that.
“Start the clock,” she told Roarke, and knocked.
The door swung open into noise, into color, into movement.
Balloons, streamers, flying . . . unicorns, fairies, and a rainbow-colored dragon.
All this lived behind the nearly seven-foot black man in a black vest over a red skin shirt. He grinned widely.
“Hey there, skinny white girl.”
“Hey back, large black man.”
She accepted the hug that had her eyeballing the long red feather that curled down from his earlobe.
How many first birthday parties had the owner/bouncer of a sex club on the guest list?
Then again, Mavis.
“Hey, Roarke.”
“Crack. Good to see you.”
“Cak, Cak, Cak,” came the call from behind him.
He turned, caught Bella on the fly. And the birthday girl, the pretty little golden-haired sprite in a frothy, sparkly pink dress and sparkly shoes that flashed with lights, nestled in the arms bulging with biceps and tattoos.