“I’m going to get myself a club soda,” Teagan said, taking a step to the side in an effort to extricate himself from the conversation.
Nora took a corresponding step to stay in his path.
“So, tonight would be a good night to announce that you’re selling the John Currin paintings,” Nora said. “While everyone’s thinking about your mother. She has a lot of friends here. We might get a little premium for sentimentality.”
“I haven’t had a chance to look at the consignment agreement yet,” Teagan said.
“Rose already reviewed and approved it,” Nora said.
That was news to Teagan.
“I’d also like to review it,” he said, trying to remain calm. “I’m not sure that’s the direction I’d like to go.”
“I can send it to you right now,” Nora said, pulling her phone out. “What else are you addressing in your speech?”
Teagan resisted the urge to rub his face. “I was going to thank some of my mother’s friends for their support of the zoo and the foundation.”
“Do you have it written down? Let me see,” Nora commanded.
Teagan sighed and pulled his index cards out of his jacket pocket. Nora plucked them from his hand and put them into her purse.
“There’s a VIP lounge in the cabana behind the lemur house,” she said, pointing out the building. “Why don’t you meet me there in a few minutes, and we’ll go over the speech and the other donors who are here tonight.”
Teagan wanted to say no. He wanted to come up with some reason that he didn’t have to do any of it. He didn’t want to go sit in the VIP lounge with Nora, he didn’t want to give a speech where he’d pretend that he had a single fond memory of pulling his mother out of this party or any other, he didn’t want to talk to the people who’d handed her drinks and cheered her on as she spiraled further and further out of control.
“Yes, all right,” he said.
“You’re my favorite!” Nora chirped, finally stepping aside.
Teagan stood still until she was out of sight, mentally shouldering the other things he would do tonight, locking his knees and trying to refocus his mind on his existing plans.
This could go well.
Sometimes, things went well.
Nothing had gone well that he could bring to mind in that exact instant, and the gambler’s fallacy dictated that the chances of things going well were no better because of previous failures, but surely he was due for something to break in his favor for once in a metaphysical way, if no other.
“I’m getting a drink and going to the VIP lounge,” Sloane announced, giving Teagan a bright smile and walking fast after Nora.
That finally left Teagan alone with Darcy, under the judgmental eyes of many lemurs but thankfully few humans. Darcyglared off at the VIP lounge as though about to throw something at it, but she eventually wrapped two hands around his arm and shook him until he unlocked his knees.
“Hey, Bear Bait. Sometimes you need to make like Nancy Reagan and just say no,” she said.
Teagan laughed politely. “If Nora offers to do lines in the VIP lounge, you have my word.”
“No, I mean it,” she said. “What are we doing here? You’re not doing well tonight. You don’t want to give that speech. I look ridiculous. The parrots by the bar were already freaking out about the music and the band hasn’t even started playing yet—”
“You look beautiful,” Teagan replied, choosing the statement he could refute. He needed to keep it together, look like he had a plan, focus on Darcy and how thiswasgoing to work, if he could get through tonight. “You’re the most beautiful woman in the room, whatever you’re wearing, but you look beautiful in that dress.”
Darcy shook her head in faint amusement, her expression stating that she hadn’t forgotten everything else in her list. “It doesn’t fit. Sloane’s three inches taller than me and like twenty pounds lighter. It’s so tight around my hips that I couldn’t even wear underwear.”
“What—is that true?” He resisted the urge to look. Then he looked. He couldn’t tell. It did look tight, but Darcy’s hips could cause a traffic accident regardless of what she was wearing.
“Maybe you’ll find out later,” Darcy said, curling her mouth in a brief smirk. “We could go home now, and you could verify it.”
That sounded like a fantastic plan, a hope he was going to cling to until this evening was over. That it would endwith both of them at his home, Teagan taking that dress off her.
“Not yet. We’ll be here a couple hours, at least. But this is the last gala you ever have to come to. You never have to come with me again,” he said.
