Fairest (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #2)(42)

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow evening. Be sure to have fun,” Sara called out as Mina closed the car door. She gripped her duffle bag with her extra clothes for the weekend thankful that no one else was spending the night. Her embarrassment became monumentally worse when Sara turned the car around and did their family tradition of saying goodbye by doing a double horn beep and wave.

When Mina’s family drove away and she could no longer see the taillights of her mom’s car, she finally gathered enough courage to make her way toward the nearest cluster of laughing students. Unfortunately, the closest groups of girls happened to include Savannah White and Priscilla Rose. Mina felt her hackles rise in annoyance when Savannah verbally made fun of her.

“Aw, how sweet, Grimey, that your mommy drove you here. Does she still make your bed and pack your lunch for you too?” Savannah laughed obnoxiously at her own joke. The queen of white blonde curls, though horrible, still looked amazing in red shorts and a white-striped distressed t-shirt and sandals.

“Uh, no, Savannah, she only drives me when the chauffeur has the day off,” Mina snapped back feeling surprised at her own outburst. But it wasn’t long before the group began firing other comments back. She gritted her teeth and kept walking, ignoring both Savannah and her groupies. But where else should she go? She saw Steve and Frank down by the lake trying to push each other in; the mock fight ended when both boys ended up in the lake. She supposed Nan had to be at the house, so she decided to start her search there.

The path to the house was marked with stone steps and lined with gardenias. A beautiful porch wrapped around the whole house offering rockers, benches, and the occasional swing. She decided to follow the porch around to the back of the house, where she found another outdoor seating area with blankets and an expensive outdoor fireplace. Mina was secretly envious, and she hadn’t even been inside yet. Entering through the back led Mina right to the heart of the house, the kitchen.

The kitchen had the latest state of the art appliances, granite marble countertops, three separate ovens, an indoor grill, and a huge island. Mina found Nan sitting on the island, talking animatedly to two students.

“Mina, good, you’re finally here. Look who came,” Nan motioned towards her company, and Mina stopped when she immediately recognized one of them. It was Brody with a girl. No, wait, that wasn’t a girl with short blonde hair. It was Valdemar, Brody’s cousin.

Both Brody and Valdemar turned to greet her. Brody quickly looked away, barely making eye contact. Valdemar walked over and gave Mina a warm welcome like they were long lost friends.

“Good to see you, Nina.” He opened his arms wide and pulled her into a quick and awkward hug.

“Good to see you again, Valdemar, and it’s Mina,” she corrected.

“That’s what I said, lass. You mustn’t have heard me right. And tonight, just call me Peter.” He backed up a step and leaned against the island pressing a shoulder accidentally against Nan. Her cheeks burned red, and her eyes flickered toward Valdemar/Peter and quickly away.

Brody nodded his head in greeting, meeting her eyes with the barest hint of question burning behind them. She knew without a doubt that he was going to approach her tonight and talk to her. She turned and looked over the table full of snacks and drinks; she had seen another table just like this filled with food outside as well. Nan’s mom and Dr. Martin really knew how to throw a party. Mina wondered briefly where they were until the roar of a boat engine revving to life drew her attention out the window toward the lake.

There Dr. Martin and Veronica could be seen taking a group of kids out onto the lake in his speed boat. She watched in fascination as the four teens, wearing bright orange life jackets, screamed in excitement when he steered to the middle of the lake and hit the throttle. They quickly became little bouncing balls of orange as they skittered across the lake at breakneck speed.

Briefly, Mina wondered why Nan wasn’t out there enjoying the boat ride, until she remembered her famous company. Nan was hiding out in the kitchen trying to keep Peter all to herself. She knew that once everyone else saw him the party would quickly congregate to wherever he was, which also meant that she was probably going to hide him from most of her guests for as long as possible. She had no idea how Nan was going to accomplish keeping his anonymity; she was just glad that she didn’t have to do it.

Brody followed Mina to the snack table and began to fill up a paper plate with small, rectangular sandwich bites. Mina grabbed a two liter bottle of Coke and began to fill her own blue plastic cup with the bubbly goodness when Nan caught her off guard.

“Mina, have you seen Jared lately? I invited him, but I haven’t seen him at school.” Nan spoke innocently enough, but the question spooked Mina and she lost control of the two liter bottle, dropping it into her cup and flipping both onto the floor. The two liter rolled under the table spilling pop in its wake.

“Stink!” Mina dropped to her knees and raced under the table to upright the bottle. With a pile of napkins, she haphazardly began to mop up the spilled mess. It wasn’t even close to enough napkins.

Brody ducked under the table and handed her another stack of napkins. With his own stack, he began to help clean up the quickly spreading puddle. Her hands shook in embarrassment; she could feel her cheeks and neck burning. She stopped mopping to glance at him. He wore a blue shirt, which complemented his eyes, and in this close of quarters she could smell his cologne. He must have sensed her staring at him because he looked right at her and smiled out of the corner of his mouth.