Page 16 of A Crane Family New Year

Chapter Six

Finally, they found their way back to the party. Mostly thanks to Zander, who clearly hadn’t needed a search party to help him find his way.

“I’ve been through here before,” she told him as he started to angle down a familiar corridor.

“Not this way.” Zander, his hand in hers, tugged her toward what she thought was a room but was the entrance to another wing.

By the time they reached the main staircase, she breathed a sigh of both relief and disappointment. They’d been in a bubble for the last half hour, and she had to admit it’d been the best thirty minutes she’d spent with a man in ages.

She handed over his tuxedo jacket, and he mentioned that he’d enjoyed being lost with her if she’d like to do it again sometime.

They mutually released each other’s hands when they stepped into the main foyer. Zander, palm on her back, followed her into the party.

“There you are!” Jaylyn Crane swished toward them, a pair of chunky leather army boots appearing beneath her long, black sparkling dress. She gave Chloe a perfunctory glance before looking up at her brother. “I was about to send out a search and rescue.”

“With dogs?” he asked with a completely straight face. Chloe snorted, hiding a laugh behind one hand.

“Uh, no.” Jaylyn shifted a look between them.

“What do you need?”

“I wanted to make sure you didn’t leave.”

“Of course I didn’t leave.”

“Okay.” She twisted her lips, and for a brief moment, Jaylyn appeared vulnerable. Then she snapped out of it in a blink. With a flip of her dark hair, her tough-girl demeanor returned. “I’ll take a glass of Dad’s wine. Champagne is tiresome.”

Chloe didn’t know how expensive pink champagne could ever be tiresome, but then she hadn’t been raised by a billionaire. It wasn’t hard to imagine a young Jaylyn drinking nonalcoholic pink bubbly from a diamond-studded sippy cup.

“I’ll have the bartender crack this open. Chloe, a glass for you as well?”

“After the adventure we had excavating it? Hell, yeah.”

“Very well. I’ll return shortly.”

In a silent exchange, Jaylyn rolled her eyes at her brother, who gave her a slow blink. Once he was gone, Jaylyn spoke to Chloe directly for the first time. “He’s so formal.”

Chloe had noticed that, but she hadn’t found him unapproachable. There was something sexy about his air of appropriateness—a façade that fell away the moment she made a slightly naughty reference.

“You two disappeared from the party to steal a bottle of the good stuff?” Jaylyn asked. “Was that all you were up to, or do you have the good silver tucked into your dress?”

“Silverware doesn’t resell as well as vintage lederhosen. I was delightfully surprised to find some in Reese’s sock drawer.”

Unlike her brother’s laugh, Jaylyn’s was loud and boisterous. “You’re fun. We should do shots later.”

While Chloe wasn’t opposed to doing shots, she wasn’t going to down tequila at Reese and Merina’s house. She’d already stuck her foot into her mouth multiple times, and she’d drunk two small glasses of champagne. Plus, she didn’t want to forget a single moment with Zander—tonight might be the only chance she had to flirt with a Crane.

“Second thought, I have my eye on a guy in the band, so no shots tonight. I don’t want to be hammered when I approach him.” Jaylyn’s gaze went toward the next room where a jazz band was arranged on a raised platform.

“The bass player?” The gray-haired gentleman looked a good twenty years older than Jaylyn.

“No, no.” Jaylyn pulled Chloe close and pointed. “The keyboardist.”

“Ohh.” That was a different story. He wore a fedora, sunglasses, and a stylish brown suit. “He’s handsome.”

“He’s hot. I’ve been over there once already to confirm he’s not wearing a wedding band. I also did some reconnaissance with the waitstaff to ask if he was involved with anyone here. He’s not.” She sang the word not, giving it two syllables. “He was watching me dance. He’s the one I’m kissing at midnight. I mean, if you can’t rustle up someone to kiss at midnight, what the hell’s the point of being at a New Year’s Eve party?”

“Right.” Chloe thought of her odds of kissing Zander as Jaylyn’s intense gaze burrowed a hole into her brain.

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