Moonlight Masquerade (Edilean 8)

“Did you?” Reede asked. He was in the new Jeep that he’d borrowed from Colin and he didn’t know where anything was. He needed something to wipe away the sweat that was beginning to trickle down the back of his neck. “I bet the man was . . . surprised.”

“Shocked, is more like it,” Sophie said. “I wouldn’t have poured beer over him if he hadn’t been looking at me as though I were going to ask him for something.”

“Like what?” Reede was unbuttoning his shirt as his body overheated.

“Money, I guess,” Sophie said. “He looked rich.”

“Did he?” Reede pulled his shirt off but his hands got stuck in the cuffs.

“He did. He had that arrogant, bored look that comes from never having to worry about money.”

Reede stopped pulling on his cuff and gave his attention to what Sophie was saying. “Surely not everyone who can pay his bills is arrogant.”

“Maybe not,” Sophie said. “Maybe I’m generalizing based on my recent experience, but the man in the bar looked bored rich.”

“ ‘Bored rich,’ ” he said and couldn’t help smiling at her phrasing. He unbuttoned a cuff. “Was the man ugly?”

“No. He was actually rather handsome. Not as beautiful as Russell, but passable.”

Reede smiled broader. “You wouldn’t like to go on a date with me, would you?”

Sophie was glad she was on the phone so he couldn’t see her grin. After what Carter had said to her about her looks, it was nice to think a man did like her as a person. And Dr. Reede had never even seen her. That made her feel even better. “Yes,” she said, “that would be nice. When?”

Reede took a breath. “Saturday. In costume.”

“What?”

“We’ll have a date in costume. For Halloween. At a house owned by a friend of mine. Eleven. We’ll have lunch.” He knew his sentences were staccato, but he was so nervous he couldn’t think clearly. “Afterward we can go to the McTern party. It’s big. In costume.”

Sophie’s first thought was that this wasn’t possible. She didn’t have anything appropriate to wear, and she had work to do. But then she remembered that she was no longer supporting her sister and stepfather, so she could afford to have only one job.

“Bad idea?” he asked softly in her silence.

“No . . . I . . . I rather like it, but I don’t have a costume. Maybe Kim has one in her closet.”

Reede let out the breath he’d been holding. “It’s all arranged. My cousin Sara will make anything you want. Any ideas on that?”

It had been so many years since there’d been any frivolity in her life, that Sophie was having trouble adjusting to the idea. She and Carter had never gone to a party together. He’d always said it was because he hated them and just wanted to be alone with her. At the time she’d been pleased by what he’d said. Now she realized it was because he didn’t want people to see them together.

“I’ll match you,” Sophie said.

“What does that mean?”

“If you go as Edward the Seventh, I’ll go as—”

“Queen Alexandra.”

“Absolutely not!” she said. “I’ll be Lillie Langtry.”

“Yeah?” Reede asked, smiling. “So how about Spider-Man?”

“Mary Jane.”

“Papa Bear?”

“Goldilocks for sure.”

“Is she the one in the blue dress with the head-band?”