Page 61 of Just Say Christmas
Isaiah said, “You’re supposed to be playing my hand. I was winning.”
“Oh,” she said. “I forgot.”
He sighed and shook his head. “The problem with you is that you don’t concentrate.”
“Isaiah,” the older woman said, “that’s not very nice, is it?” She told Victoria, “I’m Zora’s mother, Tania.”
“Oh,” Victoria said. “Victoria Gibson. Nyree’s maid of honor.”
“Are you an artist as well?”
Victoria laughed. To her horror, she snorted a little, and Tania definitely noticed. She’d swear that Tania had glanced at her jeans, too. She and Alex were clearly sisters under the skin, because Tania was as fashion-forward as Zora wasn’t. At least, she was wearing wide-legged trousers, which Victoria hadn’t realized anybody actually wore outside of magazines, and a necklace that coordinated with her outfit, she had sleekly dark and perfectly cut hair swept back from a high forehead, and her makeup was understated and flawless. It was a weeknight, and a kids’-mural-unveiling party, but nobody had told Tania that.
“No,” Victoria said, moving on from the snort. “I’m a lawyer. A prosecutor. The last thing from artistic. I’m here because I painted a bit of Casey’s sky. Nyree wouldn’t have trusted me to do anything else.”
“And I’m here because I painted the grass. Hi, Mum.” That was the new arrival at last, kissing Tania’s cheek. He was a very good-looking fella with dark hair and lively eyes, wearing a white shirt cut close to his body, tucked neatly into gray trousers, cut ditto. Victoria would bet that he’d taken his tie off in the car. He looked like a laugh was just under the surface, and now, he smiled, joyously expectant once more, or still, like meeting her was a gift he couldn’t believe he’d been given, stuck out his hand, and said, “Hi. You must be Victoria. I’m Hayden. A lawyer as well, and Zora’s brother.”
“He’s gay,” Isaiah told Victoria.
“Uh . . . thanks,” she said.
“Isaiah,” Tania—who’d be his grandmother, though she didn’t look likeanybody’sgrandmother—said. “We don’t say that.”
“Oh,” Isaiah said. “You’re supposed to introduce people with details, though, so they can get to know each other.”
“Notthatdetail,” Tania said. “It’s too personal.”
“But true, as it happens,” Hayden said. “And not shameful. No worries, mate.” He put a quick hand on Isaiah’s hair and ruffled it, and Victoria thought,He’s not just charming. He’snice.
Casey had been listening, and practically bouncing up and down. Now, her head whipped around, and she dashed toward the stairs.
Ah. There you were. Victoria wasn’t dashing. She was just standing there. It was Nyree, and Luke behind him. And Kane, bringing up the rear, wearing rugby shorts and a T-shirt as usual, his feet bare, and all of him looking dark, medieval-swordsmanlike, and enormous. He saw her, a smile spread over his face, and she stood there, frozen, and thought,Hi.He came straight to her, put his arm around her, bent down and kissed her mouth, and said, “Hi. I like your jeans.” After that, he whispered in her ear, “I think I can see a bit of your belly. Least if I lift up that shirt a little, I can. Bet I can see your back too. I love looking at your back.”
She’d have thought about Zora’s mum, but she didn’t have a thought to spare.
As for Nyree, she had a splotch of red paint on the side of her neck, her hair was stuck on top of her head in a knot with the ends sticking straight out, and there was paint of all colors on her short overalls, which Victoria was pretty sure weren’t any more acceptable than her own jeans. She’d bet anything that overalls weren’t in fashion. As usual, though, Nyree looked one hundred percent confident. In fact, she looked lit from within, in the white heat of a creation-exaltation that would be followed, Victoria knew, by a crash. Pregnancy took energy all by itself. She’d looked it up.
Poor Marko. He must know that she needed to sleep. Kane and Luke probably knew that she needed to sleep. Victoriadefinitelyknew that she needed to sleep. Nyree would find out that she needed to sleep too, although possibly only seconds before the crash. Hopefully that would happen before the actual wedding.
There was something about sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind. She suspected that Marko enjoyed reaping the whirlwind. He was strong enough to stand up to it, too. That was fortunate.
Right now, though, Nyree was saying, “So who wants to see a couple of murals? Isaiah, we’ll start with your room, and then we’ll move on to Casey’s. I’d do a drum roll, but . . .” She laughed and drummed on the swell of her belly with her palms. “The results, ready for reveal. A world of magic. Let’s go see it.”
Casey said, “I can’t wait. I can’t wait. I can’twait.Can you wait, Isaiah?”
“Yes,” Isaiah said. “But it’s very exciting.”
“Well, come on, then,” Nyree said. “No need to wait any longer. Victoria will go downstairs first and get ready, and then . . . We’ll go tell some magical stories.”
31
The Witching Hour
VICTORIA
The crowd of onlookers stretched down the passage to the stairs, and Victoria stood to the right of Isaiah’s door, out of the way, holding her cello and bow. She couldn’t go in, because there was anXof yellow tape over the door. Kane was towards the back, but one fortunate aspect of his height was that she could still see him. She raised her bow at him in salute, and he stared back at her. Not smiling.
She could feel his power like a shiver across her skin. It was the night before. Ithadmeant something. Either he had a thing for the cello, which was the weirdest fetish she’d ever heard of, or . . . something else. She just didn’t know what, because she’d left early for work today, possibly needing to run out so shewouldn’tknow what, and he’d still been asleep. Since then, she’d told herself that she’d imagined it. It was sex, that was all. Just a more intense version than anything she’d known, which wasn’t news, since she evidently hadn’t known much.
