“Pumpkin! There you are!” Mallory’s voice boomed through the corridor. “Where have you been?”
I plastered a smile on my face, spun around, and walked over to her. “Sorry. It got a little hot and stuffy inside the ballroom, so I stepped outside to get some cool, fresh air.”
Mallory arched an eyebrow. “Really? Is that why there are bloodstains all over your dress?”
I glanced down, but I didn’t see any stains on the blue fabric, just a few damp spots from where I had already dabbed the blood away.
“What bloodstains?” I chirped in a bright voice.
Her eyebrow arched a little higher. “I’m more than three hundred years old, pumpkin. I can tell when you’re lying. Plus, Silvio and Liam left the party several minutes ago, along with Sophia, and none of them has come back. You disappearing, along with the three of them, is a sure sign of trouble. So you might as well tell me what’s going on.”
I sighed, but I had never been able to sneak anything past my grandmother, so I filled her in on everything that had happened over the past few days, from Clyde O’Neal threatening me, to Tucker killing the hit man outside my mansion, to our fight with Clyde and his giants tonight.
“Silvio and Liam are outside dealing with the bodies, along with Sophia,” I said, finishing my story.
Mallory crossed her arms over her chest. “Why didn’t you tell me about any of this before now?”
“I didn’t want to ruin your party.”
She huffed. “Please. I was expecting something like this to happen. Why do you think I invited Silvio, Liam, and Sophia in the first place?”
I frowned. “Because they’re our friends, and you wanted them to celebrate with you and Mosley?”
“Of course they’re our friends, and I did want them to celebrate with Stuey and me. I love them all dearly.”
“I hear abutin your voice.”
Mallory grinned. “Butthey also happen to be very handy in certain situations. Besides, I learned an important lesson about planning parties a long time ago.”
“What lesson?”
She shrugged. “That bad things are bound to happen in Ashland,especiallyat parties, so it’s best to be prepared. And that nobody can handle bad things like us and our friends.”
Laughter erupted out of my lips, loosening the knots of tension in my chest. I might be creative with my magic, but my grandmother was the smartest person I knew, which was one of the many reasons she was my hero.
“Well, now that you know what’s going on, I should go help Silvio and the others.”
A hopeful look filled Mallory’s face. “Will Hugh Tucker be helping you too? Because a man like that could help with allsortsof things.”
“Grandma!” I playfully swatted her shoulder. “In case you’ve forgotten, you are a married woman.”
A blush spread across her cheeks, and a soft, dreamy look filled her blue eyes. “A very happily married woman.” Her gaze sharpened. “But you, my dear, are quite single, and Hugh Tucker is quite handsome. Even better, he actually has a brain in that attractive noggin of his. And perhaps best of all, he looks at you the same way my Stuey looks at me.”
“How is that?” I asked.
“Like he would do anything for you,” Mallory replied. “Even hide out in the woods in the middle of a cold winter night to protect you from a killer and not take any credit for it after the fact.”
She was right, but I still hesitated. “But what about everything he did for Mason and the rest of the Circle? Tucker might not have been at your wedding reception, but he still had a hand in ruining it. Just like he had a hand in kidnapping me, Gin, and Bria from the Posh boutique and in threatening me in the Circle cemetery outside the Mitchell mansion.”
“Sure, Tucker has done a lot of bad things to us, but we’ve done some bad things to him in return.” She gave me a chiding look. “You did stab him in the thigh with an Ice dagger and then basically hold him prisoner in a shipping container for a couple of weeks.”
I grimaced at the reminders. “So?”
“So I’d say we’re all more or less even. I can overlook those things for you, pumpkin. The question is, can you overlook and forgive him for them yourself?”
I thought of the raw pain and aching sadness in Tucker’s voice when he’d told me about his father and the Circle and how he didn’t want me to feel beholden to him the way he had been to Mason Mitchell. How we both constantly bottled up our feelings and put on a calm face for everyone around us. How we’d both been stuck in horrible situations and still survived them. But most of all, I thought of how my heart quickened and my entire body hummed whenever I was near him.
“I’m an idiot,” I muttered.
