Festive in Death (In Death #39)(72)

“You had it made for me?”

“He did the work.”

“It couldn’t mean more to me. The thought, or the symbol. The day you carried these flowers is one of the best days of my life.”

She gave him a smirk. “One of?”

He drew a gray button out of his pocket. “The day I met you, the day this dropped off that hideous suit you wore, is another.”

“Sap.”

“Guilty.”

“Me, too.” She moved in, held him close. “I’m feeling pretty lucky. Even decorators, florists, caterers, and Trinas can’t take that away.” She tipped her head up. “It almost makes me want to have a party.”

Laughing again, he kissed her.

“Aw, look how sweet you look!”

Eve glanced over, watched Mavis Freestone bounce in. She wore red tights with boots of the same color that slicked up toward the crotch a sparkling white top barely managed to cover. Her hair was a tumbling mass of silver-streaked blue.

“It can’t be that late,” Eve said.

“I’m early. Way early. I came with Trina. She wanted plenty of time to set up. Leonardo’s hanging with Bella until later, and he’ll zip uptown after the sitter comes. I figured I could get dressed here, surprise him, because my outfit is fan-mega-tastic. And even if he did design it, he hasn’t seen me in it yet.”

She danced over to them, fairy-like, even on the skinny heels of her boots, wrapped arms around them both. “Merry-squared! I so totally love Christmas and you guys and everybody else.”

“How do you feel about caterers?”

“I’ve got goodwill pumping out of my pores. Extreme.”

“Then come with me.”

• • •

When Mavis stepped into the ballroom she gasped. Then she squealed. Then she bounced.

“This is ultramazing! Holy wow, Dallas, it’s like a vid set or a fairyland. It’s like both and with elegante tossed in.”

Eve took a long look. The massive trees, the lights, the flowers—the plantings that looked as if they grew out of pristine mounds of snow. All the pale gold, shimmering over tables and chairs, the bold red, the bright white, the arbor of greenery and crystals around the fireplace, combined to just that. Ultramazing.

A woman in sharp black marched in, gave Eve the eye. “Why isn’t the terrace bar set up? We don’t have time to stand around doing nothing.”

Mavis patted the woman’s arm. “She’s so totally not one of you. She’s the boss. Hey, you guys are going to pass drinks, too, right? The bubbly for sure. And little nibbly food. I so abso-poso love the bubbly and little nibbly food. If you need to practice, I’m all in for volunteer. Hey, Dallas, maybe you should have nibbly trays in that other room, you know the one. People hang in there sometimes, and nibbly trays would be mag.”

“Nibbly trays,” Eve directed the woman in black, “in the salon where the gifts are displayed.”

“Of course. We’ll set that up.”

“Great.” Eve turned to Mavis. “Anything else?”

“Oh . . . let’s see.”

For the next few minutes, Eve entertained herself watching Mavis send the head caterer scrambling to comply with suggestions, wishes, additions. Because it was Christmas, she opted for mercy, and pulled Mavis away.

“That was fun,” Mavis commented.

“Not for her, but yeah. Best, everything’s under control, I kept my part of the deal, and Summerset can polish it all off.”

“Now we get to groom. My favorite pre-party activity.”

“Why?”

Mavis hooked her arm through Eve’s. “Because it feels good, it smells good, and when it’s all done, you look good. But we’re not going to look good.”

“We’re not?”

“Hell no. We’re going to look ultramazing. Take it easy on Trina, okay?”

“Again, I say why?”

“She’s still a little whacked about finding the dead guy. Sima’s dead guy. She’s been putting on the brave since she’s looking out for Sima, but she let it drop with me. So I know she’s still pretty whacked about it. Most people don’t find dead bodies unless they’re you. Finding them, I mean, not being them.”

“She wouldn’t have found a dead body if she hadn’t been where she shouldn’t have been. Okay, okay,” Eve muttered when Mavis just looked at her.

“It’s worse maybe because she knew him and really didn’t like him.”

“Nobody really liked him.”

“Sima did. Mostly.”

“Did you know him?”

“Nope. I don’t use Buff Bodies. I started using Fit Plus. It’s ‘plus’ because they have all these parent/kid classes, or kid classes. We all go, my honey bear, our Bellisima and me, when we can. Or one of us goes with Bella. Completely family friendly, so we like it. But I know Sima a little, and Trina gave me the whole lowdown on the dead guy before he was dead, and more LD after he was. She’s a little bit freaked you’re going to arrest her for something, but you’re not. Right?”

“I would if I could just to keep her out of my hair. Literally.”

With Mavis, Eve turned into her bedroom.

Trina stood, quietly arranging what Eve thought of as her instruments of torture on some sort of table beside some sort of salon chair. Another table—a massage table, Eve recognized—stood in front of the simmering fire.