Cruel Fortune (Cruel #2)(64)

The car came to a stop in front of his parents’ building, thankfully ending our conversation about my books. We took the elevator up to their mansion and found Charlotte, Etta, and Nina already in the kitchen. And, similar to the last time when my eyes had expanded at the mere sight of the kitchen, now, they did it for the sheer quantity of gingerbread on every single surface in sight.

“Oh, Natalie, dear,” Nina said with a smile. Her apron was coated in flour, face smudged with it. “I’m so glad that the girls could convince you to join us.” Her eyes turned to Lewis. “No thanks to my son.”

Lewis held his hands up. “I would have invited her eventually.”

“Liar,” Etta said.

“We both know you wouldn’t have,” Charlotte agreed.

I laughed. “Well, I love gingerbread, and this sounds like a perfect Christmas tradition. So, tell me where to start.”

Nina pointed out all the various pieces and the stages of cooling. The gingerbread had to be a hundred percent cool before they could use royal icing to put them together. The girls were in the process of whipping up the icing right now. Lewis and I stacked pieces together based on the number of houses we were making, which turned out to be a dozen. Plus, there were nearly a hundred cookies still coming out of the oven for some charity event.

It took us ages to get it all sorted, but by the time the gingerbread cooled, we’d all had a drink, and we were ready to get started.

“Mom, did we tell you what happened to Natalie at Trinity?” Etta asked. She was using a piping bag to expertly put her house together.

I looked like an idiot, using a knife to try to smear the icing onto my house. It would just be heavily frosted. Hopefully, it stood.

“Oh god, what happened to me?” I muttered as I thought about all the things that could come out of her mouth.

“Elizabeth asked to dress her for the Percy wedding,” Charlotte said in delight.

“Really?” Nina asked with a smile. “Elizabeth is a lovely woman. You’d be lucky to have her expertise.”

I glanced down at my flare-bottomed jeans and flowy purple shirt that looked like it had walked out of Free People, but I’d found it at my favorite thrift store back home. I’d gone hippie to the max. After wanting to impress them, I’d put the Upper East Side behind and gone full-out Natalie. Now, I didn’t know if that was a mistake.

“I don’t know if I’m going to take her up on it,” I told them.

Charlotte gasped. “What?”

Etta looked skeptical.

“I already have a dress.”

Lewis just raised his eyebrow, as if he knew what was coming.

“A dress,” Charlotte said. “But not a Cunningham Couture masterpiece designed for you for the occasion. There is a difference.”

“You cannot miss the opportunity,” Etta said.

Nina sighed at her daughters. “I’m sure you will look lovely in whatever you choose. Don’t let my spoiled daughters dissuade you from your choice.”

“I think you’ll look beautiful either way.” Lewis’s eyes said that he was just glad that I was going.

I hadn’t agreed to go…exactly. I kept holding out on actually saying I was going, but I didn’t say I wasn’t either. Calling Elizabeth’s assistant and asking for a dress sounded like a confirmation. Having the dress Jane had gotten me at Bergdorf on standby sounded like I could make a snap decision on the day of.

The conversation shifted to mundane topics as we finished up our houses. Mine looked like it was a bit of icing short of collapsing at any point. Charlotte’s and Lewis’s were passable. Much better than mine, but not professional grade. While Etta’s and Nina’s were beyond amazing. Etta’s house was more of a mansion with candied windows and a vaulted ceiling. Nina’s was definitely more castle-like. It even resembled Hogwarts.

“Well, wow,” I muttered. “I feel inadequate.”

“All gingerbread houses are equal,” Nina declared.

“They all taste the same. That’s for sure,” Lewis said, plucking a gingerbread cookie from the tray and bringing it to his mouth.

Nina narrowed her eyes at him. “Lewis Edward, did you just eat one of my charity cookies?”

He crunched down on the gingerbread man’s head. “Yes, ma’am.”

She shook her head at him. “Boy never learns.”

Charlotte and Etta had pulled out their phones and were scrolling now that their houses were complete.

“Hey, Mom, I’m going to go see Brodie,” Charlotte said.

“Yeah, Ava is back already. So, we’re going to hang out,” Etta said.

“Try to stay out of trouble,” she said. “And say good-bye to your father.”

“Good-bye?” Edward asked, appearing in the living room and stalking toward the kitchen. “I’m right here. Who am I saying good-bye to?”

“We’re leaving, Daddy,” Etta said. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek.

Charlotte followed suit. “We’ll be by later,” she said.

He kissed both girls on the tops of their heads and then shooed them out of the house. “How did the annual gingerbread celebration fare?”

Nina raised an eyebrow. “I see you came down at the end.”