Freddie had continued throwing themselves into their duties as if they had something to prove—to Richard, to themselves, to each other—but lately Nick had been edging ahead in this MVP race nobody seemed to care about but them. I only saw him when he was rolling out of bed at 5:00 a.m. to shower, put on a blue suit, kiss me, and leave, and then again when he got back from the far end of wherever at 11:00 p.m. to take off his blue suit, shower, kiss me, and pass out.
Lacey poked Nick’s arm with her toe. He didn’t move. “Should we let him sleep?”
“Might as well,” I said as the doorbell rang, a harsh, tolling noise that reminded me of BBC shows set in wartime. “If he’s that tired, he’ll face-plant into Gaz’s cake, and that will end in tears.”
Gaz had failed the auditions for the latest season of Ready, Set, Bake, and while he was devastated, he was not daunted. When I opened the front door, he and Cilla were red-faced and holding a board between them on which sat a birthday cake befitting a wedding.
“He’s bent on getting on this bloody show,” Cilla grumbled.
“Five…different…tiers,” Gaz panted as they shuffled carefully into the living room and slowly, painstakingly, slid it onto the coffee table. He breathed out hard as Cilla grabbed her back.
“I am now off the clock, Garamond,” she declared.
Gaz nodded, frowning intently at his creation. “Hello, Lacey, you look marvelous, happy birthday, does this cake seem uneven to you?”
“If you could give us ten minutes before you start yammering on about your cakes, that would be ideal,” Cilla said, hugging Lacey herself.
“I said she looked marvelous, which she does,” Gaz protested.
Lady Bollocks swept into the room. Gemma Sands was close behind her looking unusually chic for an adult who was dressed like a schoolgirl.
“You left the door wide open, Rebecca. You cannot run this place like a barn,” Bea said, dropping her handbag on the sofa. She eyeballed the cake with skepticism. “Did someone get married without telling me?”
“Hello to you, too,” I said.
“You’re too tan, Lacey,” Bea added. “Hasn’t anyone taught you about sun damage?”
“Yes, but she’s been working her bum off. Best impulse hire I’ve ever made,” said Gemma. “You should hear Olly talk about her. I’d assume he was in love, if he weren’t gay as a balloon.”
Cilla, who had grabbed a Tatler with Nick’s friend Annabelle Farthing on the cover—the headline: THIRTY TASTIEST TOFFS UNDER 30—dropped it back on the table and crossed her arms with interest.
Lacey fumbled the bottle of gin she was opening. “He’s what? He never…I don’t think—”
“Gotcha,” Gemma said, grinning. “I knew something was going on there. Happy birthday, you two. Ooooh, is that Annabelle’s Tatler? I remember when she and Nick got caught trying to take a bath together. It was very scandalous for the primary school set. Where is he, anyway?”
“Napping,” I said. “He’ll wander down eventually.”
Bea made one of her usual noises of disapproval, then took off her winter-white wool coat and held it out into the air expectantly. “I waited an absolute eternity in the foyer for my hostess to fetch this,” she said.
“It was at most two minutes, darling,” Gemma said.
“Two, ten, thirty, it’s all the same in the art of etiquette,” Bea said. “I’ve told you a thousand times, Rebecca, if you insist on not having a live-in staff, then you’re meant to be collecting people’s coats and hats at the door.”
“No one wears hats anymore,” I grumbled, but I took her coat anyway. Bea was very good at being Bea. No one ever really told her no. I begrudgingly headed to the coat closet and ran smack into Freddie.
“I see Bea’s put you to work,” he said, shrugging off his dark blue wool overcoat and handing it to me. “And at your own birthday party. Shocking.”
“Are your arms broken? Hang it up yourself.”
“Sassy as ever, Killer,” he said, but he reclaimed his coat and took Bea’s in the bargain.
“Someone’s got to keep you in line,” I said. “How are you?”
“Better than Knickers, I assume,” he said. “He’s been busy.”
“You know how these things go,” I hedged.
“Yes, ebb and flow, and all that,” Freddie said, not making eye contact with me. “I’m in a bit of an ebb at the moment. Never been broken up with this much in my life.”
“Was this the…physicist?”
“No. She dumped me because she said she was getting back together with her ex-boyfriend. This one was a research