perfectly.”
“I’m not a goody-two-shoes.”
“Well, not after all the years with me,” she said, delivering a devious wink.
I wasn’t. I just always followed the rules. My family was in the public eye, and my mother instilled being a lady. I had fun. I did.
But with my impending marriage to Camden hanging on the horizon, I had to admit, maybe it wasn’t as much as I wanted.
“They always go so over the top at these things,” Raelynn said.
I looked around the open ballroom of the hotel, the chandeliers dripping with crystals, gold curtains hanging open, pooling decadently on the ground. Waiters wove between patrons almost invisible in their black and white tuxes.
Everyone sipped champagne, lavish fabrics making the most expensive dresses cling to their lithe bodies. Hair styled to perfection, and makeup done expertly even under all their masks.
I adjusted the black lace clouding my vision, making sure it hadn’t shifted too much in the car.
“Shots?” Raelynn suggested.
I cringed. The night was still young, and I hadn’t even seen my father yet. Maybe shots weren’t the best idea. A waiter walked by, and I snagged two flutes of champagne. “How about some champagne first.”
Raelynn accepted the glass with a raised brow. “Careful. That stuff will sneak up on you just as bad as tequila.”
The bubbles tickled their way down my throat as my mother’s words floated through my mind.
Never drink too much at these big events. You don’t want to be known as the drunk woman everyone murmurs about. But always have a glass to keep your hands busy. A lady doesn’t fidget.
My mother wasn’t wrong, either. There was always one or two women who always showed up and got a little too loud. I’d stand back and watch as everyone gawked and whispered behind their manicured hands.
“I’m surprised you came,” I said. “I thought you’d still go see Nova.”
“Nah. We agreed I should come be here with you. I think Nova is taking the chance to detour to another adventure rather than coming too close to home.”
Nova had a small apartment in New York, but each summer she rented a van and traveled around, blogging her adventures. She’d gotten a job with an adventure magazine, and I wasn’t sure if she’d ever stop living out of a van now that she got paid to do it. We were supposed to meet up for a girls’ weekend outside of the city, but Camden’s order squashed that.
“Besides,” Raelynn said. “I have an acquaintance hosting another…party here, too.”
“An acquaintance?” My brows scrunched, taking in Raelynn’s Mona Lisa smile as she scanned the crowd. That smile and the lack of eye contact always raised some red flags with her.
Before she could answer, my dad’s booming voice interrupted the quiet bubble we’d created since entering.
“Verana.” He leaned in and softly kissed my cheek, reminding me of all the times he’d tucked me in at night as a little girl. I’d been short-tempered with my father since graduation, but I had to have faith that, like Mama said, he would always take care of me—he loved me.
“Father.”
“I wish you would have come to the house, so we could arrive as a family.”
“My fault, Mr. M,” Raelynn cut in.
My father’s smile grew tight. He tolerated Raelynn because of her family and their wealth, but he saw her as too wild and a bad influence.
“You look ravishing,” Camden said, coming up behind my dad.
I fought my heavy sigh at Camden’s compliment. There wasn’t anything wrong with it, and from anyone else, I’d smile and say thank you, but annoyance still pricked at the surface from our last meeting.
“Thank you,” I managed to ground out.
He stepped close, sliding his arm around my waist, his fingers skimming along the bare skin of my back. My muscles clenched as if trying to pull away from the slight graze.
“And who is this stunning creature?”
Raelynn’s lip curled into a smile that resembled a snarl. Camden held out his hand, never unraveling his other arm from my back, and waited for Raelynn to place hers in his. I could tell she wanted to do a lot more violent things with her hand than give it to him, but like me, she’d had too much etiquette drilled into her to ignore his request.
Camden brought her hand to his lips and would have probably kissed it for too long if Raelynn hadn’t gently jerked it back.
“This is my friend from college, Raelynn Vos.”
“Vos?” Camden studied Raelynn with a little more interest that went beyond lust. “As in