Page 3 of Happily Never After

“Shut up. How are you affording all of this? With our plan coming up and everything, I mean.”

Claire glanced around the ballroom. She didn’t want Rachel snooping in her business, and definitely not in her financials. Luke didn’t even know about her and Mindy’s plan. “I just wanted to have one last celebration before we really buckle down. I want him to know how important he is to me. And besides, I’m paying for this mostly with ad revenue from people streaming the proposal videos, actually.” A dozen proposal videos on their YouTube channel were pulling in a surprising amount of cash.

“Didn’t you look at last week’s paycheck?” she added. “We had a huge bump in traffic.”

Mindy shrugged and reached for the mojito the bartender had just set down. “It’s direct deposit. As long as the rent’s paid and my checks aren’t bouncing, I don’t really pay much attention.”

Claire shook her head and dragged one of the cocktail tables an inch to the right.

A gaggle of Luke’s friends walked into the ballroom, and she waved them into the backyard. Despite a strict no gift policy, she had now added two six packs of beer and a Cuban cigar to the table with Rachel’s gift bag. Scanning the ballroom and the yard showed that everything was under control for the moment. There already seemed to be a rousing game of flip cup happening near the eastern tree line.

The catering team arrived, sending the smell of smoked ribs wafting down the hallway. They set to work in Luke’s kitchen, making his favorites—miniature bacon cheeseburger sliders, smoked ribs, mac and cheese, and soft pretzels.

“I’m not complaining, but Luke eats like a toddler,” Nicole observed, snatching a cup of mac and cheese from a passing waiter.

Claire shot her a dirty look before glancing at her phone. “Oh shit, he’s here! Kyle, get everyone from the back. To the living room. And lights off, please,” she said to the chef, who sighed and moved his pan to an unlit burner.

Twenty people piled into the living room, ducking behind furniture and stumbling over each other in the dark. Rachel refused to crouch and instead stood behind a coat rack, sipping a dirty martini and inspecting her nail beds.

A pair of headlights wound up Luke’s serpentine driveway. The lights flashed over a shape, and Claire’s breath hitched. What the hell was that, a hunchback? Her heart rateskyrocketed. The lights shifted, revealing a clumpy bush that bore an undeniable resemblance to a stooped human being.

She exhaled noisily.Get it together, girl.She definitely would have remembered if one of the members of ESA, the group of murderous frat boys who had tried to kill her the summer before, was a hunchback.

Sawyer crouched next to her on the floor. He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, and she relaxed. Even if there was a murderous hunchback in her front yard, she was well-equipped to handle them. Six months of self-defense lessons with Sawyer, who owned a private security company, had turned her into a machine.

It had been almost a year since she had been drugged, kidnapped, and nearly murdered in a newly constructed hotel owned by one of her clients. Barely three months later, she and her friends almost single-handedly took down a local ring of kidnappers and serial killers masquerading as a fraternity, Epsilon Sigma Alpha, at her alma mater. Nightmares about that night still plagued her—her father’s blood swirling into the moonlit lake, sweaty, meaty arms wrapping around her from behind. The crunch of a broken nose.

Even though ESA had fallen silent, she still looked over her shoulder every time she walked the streets of West Haven. Her brain incessantly scanned for danger, cataloging all the men in a two-block radius. Prickles of fear caused her to turn around abruptly in grocery stores, trying to catch the person she was certain was staring at her, tracking her. Last week, an abrupt about-face had startled an old woman so much that she screamed and dropped a glass jar of pickles.

The local chapter of ESA may have been taken down, but there were more. A quick Google search had revealed two dozen chapters spread across the United States. Fraternity details had been wiped from university websites after the West Havenbranch had been shut down, but that hadn’t stopped Claire’s research. Barney Windsor and his cronies were just the tip of the iceberg. Something told her this silence wasn’t going to last for long.

The limo pulled to a stop, and Tito slid out first, followed by Luke, who didn’t seem to notice that his side yard was full of vehicles. The two appeared to be deeply involved in conversation as they came up the walkway, Luke enthusiastically gesturing with his toned arms. He raised his hand to the keypad, typing in the code and pushing the door open.

“Surprise,” everyone yelled as he flicked the light on.

“Fuck.” He juked to the side and covered his junk with one hand.

Everyone laughed and clapped while Luke leaned against the breakfast nook, hands on his knees.

“Happy birthday, handsome,” Claire said, sidling up next to him and giving him a kiss on the cheek. “You didn’t think I would forget, did you?”

Luke unclenched one hand to draw her close. “You’re insane.”

“Yeah, yeah. I love you too.”

He dipped her suddenly, kissing her deeply. The muscles in his back rippled as she gripped them for balance. Her heart swelled in her chest, and all thoughts of ESA vanished like they were wiped from a whiteboard. Warmth spread from her fingertips to her toes. Did he really need to be present for his birthday party? Nobody would notice if they disappeared upstairs for a few minutes, right? They had just replaced the comforter and pillows but had yet to break them in. An arm with a snake tattoo reached between them and startled her out of her hormone-fueled thoughts. His friend Andy never did have a grasp on personal space.

She stepped away and let the throng of friends and family descend on him. Luke smiled and laughed as he shared anecdotes with each of them. He was a grumpy pain in the ass at least sixty percent of the time, but she loved him anyway.

“Great party, Claire,” Kyle said through a mouthful of ribs. “The whiskey fountain is a nice touch.”

“Thanks.” She picked up a glass of white wine. The surprise was over. Luke was having a great time. Finally she could relax and enjoy.

Kyle took a step closer to her and lowered his voice. “Do you have a second to talk? It’s about the case. I know it’s not the best time, but I think you should hear it from me first. You know, rather than onMarnie in the Morning.”

So much for relaxing. She set her glass down more forcefully than she intended to on the granite countertop. What was it this time?

“Okay,” she said reluctantly, and followed Kyle back down the hallway.

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