“Why can’t I go tonight?” she asked.
“Because our family is hosting the hunt.” I looked down at her as she stepped onto my shoes and let me lead. “It wouldn’t be fair if we won it, right?”
“It’s not fair anyway.”
Are you pouting?
I stared down, amused. “On your birthday, do you get presents or give them?” When she didn’t answer, I answered for her. “It’s the same difference. The hunt is a present to the town from us. There are other treasures for you out there.”
I looked over, seeing Christiane stumble as she tried to dance with her husband, Matthew, his pathetic demeanor as superbly fantastic as his son’s dumb attitude. I mean, what was she thinking, marrying him? He barely had the courage to manage a sentence. He was quiet. She was quiet. That house must be a party every day. How did they decide when to have sex? Through text?
And then an image of them having sex invaded my brain, and I bit back the snarl before it escaped.
“Where are they?” I heard Octavia ask.
I blinked, turning back to her. “Where’s what?”
“My treasures.”
“You have to find them,” I told her. “And fight for them. Nothing is given.”
Her lips twisted to the side, and I almost laughed. I wanted her to dream, but this was where dreams were dangerous. Nothing ever happened how you wanted it to. It was going to be harder than she thought, and she would fail many times before she won. That was what she didn’t know yet.
It wasn’t the fight that got you. It was the lure that you could always quit.
She could use some practice.
I stopped dancing and dug into my breast pocket, handing her the parchment I’d cooked up. “I had a feeling you’d be sulking.”
She took the folded paper and opened it up, her black fingernail polish chipped as she took in my present for her.
She gasped. “A treasure map!”
I pointed up. “It’s somewhere in this house. Above us.”
She darted her eyes around the room, finally tipping her head back and gazing up to the railing of the dark gallery on the second floor.
“Can I have help?” she asked me.
We couldn’t see anyone, but we knew who was up there, and I knew whom she was referring to.
I nodded. “Mmm, go ahead.”
I’d put some words on the map she might need help reading anyway.
She started to run away, but she bumped right into someone, and I moved to catch her, but he was way ahead of me. He grabbed her shoulders and set her right again before standing up straight.
I looked up, seeing a man in a full white mask and a cloak step back, look at her, and then take a dramatic bow.
“M’lady,” he said.
“Sorry,” she chirped.
And then she ran away, heading for the stairs to fetch her cousin. I chuckled, nodding at the man as he passed, and thankful my kid was tough but also polite.
I looked back at him, noticing the cloak. A little overdressed, but okay.
I glanced upstairs, seeing a shadow pass the ceiling as Tavi ran for Madden.
He always hid during functions like this. Kai tried to explain he was uncomfortable in social situations, but I think it was a courtesy on Mads’s part. Guests were uncomfortable when he was around.
Slipping my hands into my pockets, I drifted around the room, gazing at my wife as she danced with Kai’s father, his wife deep in conversation with a few ladies from the garden club. I caught Rika’s eyes as she stood near the fireplace, munching on another green tea macaron.
She froze, seeing me watch her. I cocked an eyebrow. Another one? You want a cake, too? Maybe two cakes, Rika? She hesitated only a moment and stuffed it into her mouth, followed by another one, before flipping me off and stalking away with her chipmunk cheeks full of unhealthy food for the baby.
I laughed, just teasing her. Winter had had her cravings, as well. Live it up.
I gazed back at my wife, loving her this time of year most of all. She adored the music, the food, and all the little things. She couldn’t see the lights, but in a way, she did. She said they made the house feel different. Warmer, somehow.
I loved that nothing escaped her. Even the scent of wrapping paper. It had never occurred to me wrapping paper had a scent, but she made me lie down under the tree every winter and inhale the presents.
She was right. I noticed it now.
Kai and Banks walked back into the ballroom from wherever they had been hiding, Banks’s hair now hanging down around her as Kai straightened his tie. Will twirled Emmy around the now-spacious dance floor, since some of the guests had left, his laughter filling the room.
But then I saw Matthew head across the room, through the center hall, into the dining room.