I shot a disbelieving look at Mosley, who held up his hands in mock surrender.
“Don’t look at me. This was all your grandmother’s idea,” he replied.
I sighed, knowing that I had no choice but to give in. Despite the fact she was more than three hundred years old, and my great-grandmother many times over, Mallory Parker was still a force to be reckoned with. “What do you have in mind?”
She grinned. “Just a small, little party at the Rhododendron Inn. Nothing too big or fancy.”
I snorted.Big and fancyperfectly described the Rhododendron Inn, a luxury resort that catered to Ashland’s wealthiest citizens, along with tourists who could afford to pay the resort’s sky-high prices. Given its location atop a nearby mountain, the inn was especially popular during the fall leaf-peeping season, as well as the winter months when its ski slopes were open. Even though it was nearing the end of March, the weather had turned cold again, and we’d had a significant snow a couple of days ago, with more expected later this week, which meant that skiers, snowboarders, and sledders were still flocking to the resort.
“Tell me what you have planned,” I said.
Mallory grinned again, then launched into detailed descriptions of everything from the flowers to the food to the decor.
“When did you have time to put this together?” I asked. “You’ve been on your honeymoon for the last few weeks.”
Mallory waved her hand, making her diamond ring sparkle again. “Oh, I asked Roslyn to help me with a few things, since she did such a great job stepping in with the wedding at the last minute. Don’t worry, pumpkin. Everything’s done, so you won’t have to lift a finger.”
Roslyn Phillips was the vampire owner of the Northern Aggression nightclub and another one of our friends. She’d finished planning Mallory and Mosley’s wedding after the original coordinator had gotten sick.
“We’re not calling it a reception, though,” Mosley said. “More like a welcome-home party to celebrate the start of our new lives together.”
He smiled at Mallory, who beamed at him again. The two of them were so obviously, completely, truly in love that my own chest tightened with equal parts happiness and sadness. I was thrilled that Mallory had found someone who cared as much about her as she did about him, but I was also a little jealous that I didn’t have someone similar in my own life. Hence the odd, uncomfortable mixture of pleasure and pain zinging through my body.Heart stings, my mother used to call such disparate feelings.
Thinking about my mother, Lily Rose Pike, made another heart sting zing through my chest, and I resisted the urge to rub the throbbing sensation away. My father had been a mean, sadistic bastard who had abused my mother and me for years before he’d finally beaten her to death right in front of me. Renaldo would have murdered me too, if not for Fletcher Lane, the assassin known as the Tin Man.
Fletcher had rescued and then hidden me in a safe house, which was where I’d first met Gin, who had been his apprentice at the time. But my father and brother had quickly found the safe house, and they would have killed me, if not for Gin. Even as a teenager, she’d put herself in danger to protect me. That was one of the many reasons I’d fought alongside her over the past several months while she’d been unraveling the Circle conspiracy.
Remembering how Gin had saved me all those years ago made another thought pop into my mind. “Wait a second. When exactly is this not-big-and-fancy party of yours?”
Mallory winced, as though she’d just been caught with her hand in the proverbial cookie jar. “This coming weekend.”
“Thisweekend? As in when Gin will still be out of town with Owen, Finn, and Bria?”
Gin was taking a much-needed vacation, along with Owen Grayson, her significant other; Finnegan Lane, her foster brother; and Detective Bria Coolidge, her biological sister. I applauded Gin for scheduling some time off. If anyone could use a break from all the crime and corruption in the city, it was the Spider.
Not only was she an assassin with a list of enemies a mile long, but now that Mason Mitchell was dead, Gin was also the official queen of the Ashland underworld, and thus responsible for settling disputes between the various crime bosses, most of whom were about as mature as two-year-old toddlers throwing temper tantrums.
“Well, the four of them were at the original reception,” Mallory replied in a defensive tone. “I didn’t think they would mind if we had a little party while they were gone.”
I snorted again. “You mean you didn’t want to risk another one of Gin’s enemies crashing this new party and ruining it like Emery Slater did the first one.”
Mallory winced again. “Okay, fine, pumpkin. You caught me. Yes, I decided to hold the party this weekend while Gin is gone. I thought hernotbeing there might lessen the risk of something bad happening.”
It was a fair point. Trouble followed Gin Blanco around like a wolf stalking a deer through the forest.
The waiter returned with our food. Filet mignon with a balsamic fig reduction and garlic mashed potatoes for Mallory, fried chicken with buttermilk biscuits and black-pepper gravy for Mosley, and a chopped salad with a side of pimento-cheese toast for me.
Underwood’s might charge an exorbitant amount, but the food was definitely worth it. My salad had the perfect mix of crispy romaine hearts, ripe cherry tomatoes, crunchy matchstick carrots, and cool cucumbers, along with warm lime-zest grilled chicken, gorgonzola cheese crumbles, and a honey-mustard vinaigrette that was delicious enough to drink all by itself. The thick slices of Texas-style toast were golden brown, and each one was slathered with a generous layer of rich, creamy pimento cheese with a spicy jalapeño kick.
Thirty minutes later, I popped the last bite of cheese toast into my mouth, sat back, and sighed with happiness. “Don’t tell Gin, but this meal is just as good as her barbecue. Maybe even better.”
Mosley chuckled. “Only if you don’t tell her that Underwood’s biscuits are just as light and fluffy as hers always are.”
I grinned back at him. “Deal.”
Even though we were all stuffed, we still ordered dessert. Mallory and Mosley split a piece of chocolate cheesecake drizzled with a warm cherry sauce, while I inhaled a vanilla-bean pudding topped with a mixed-berry compote and dusted with crumbled shortbread cookies.
I was relaxing and enjoying my post-dessert sugar rush when Mallory perked up in her seat.
