Mercifully, Nina gonged a wooden mallet against the singing bowl just then, the warm and brassy sound reverberating throughout the room.
“Nice to meet you, Jack,” Charlotte said politely, moving her hands to her lap to avoid shaking hands. He smiled and moved on, and Wes crashed into the seat in front of her.
“Jesus H. Christ,” he said, dropping his head into his hands.
She exhaled, flopped back against her seat. “Yeah.”
“I mean, Nina is truly evil.”
She laughed, glancing at the undecorated cookie in the shape of a snowman in front of her. “Quick, help me get started on this.”
He dipped a knife into a tub of white frosting and started spreading it over the naked sugar cookie.
“Looks like Brighton’s up next,” he said quietly, keeping his eyes on his work.
Charlotte glanced to the right, where Brighton was currently chatting up a lovely woman with gray and black tattoos all over her arms. Brighton rolled up her blouse’s sleeve to reveal something inked on her upper arm, and Charlotte felt her stomach plunge to her feet.
She’d had no idea that Brighton had gotten a tattoo.
They’d talked about it before, how Brighton wanted one and had even wanted to get matching ones, but Charlotte had always been hesitant, worried it would diminish her professionalism. Now she knew that was silly, but as a fledgling in the music world, she’d been high-strung about missed opportunities.
She forced her gaze away, forced her brain not to care.
“Yeah” was all she said back to Wes. “Have you seen Sloane yet?”
He nodded, his expression going a bit dreamy. For a second, Charlotte envied him—at least he knew what he wanted, even if he didn’t think it was possible. She found Sloane across the room, now talking to Gemma and laughing about something. Sloane’s gaze slid to Charlotte. Charlotte smiled, but Sloane didn’t react, so Charlotte offered a little wave. Still nothing. Charlotte frowned…until she realized Sloane wasn’t looking at her—she was looking at Charlotte’s current Speed Date and Decorate partner.
“Did she mention our hand-holding?” Charlotte asked him.
“Um…she did, actually,” he said, still spreading icing.
Charlotte tilted her head. “And?”
“And…” He blew out a breath and shoved the knife back into the tub of icing as though committing a murder. “She told me to go for it.”
“Go for it?”
“Go for it.” He waved his hands between the two of them, looking like someone had just run over his puppy.
“Hmm,” she said as she watched Sloane’s eye flit to his back over and over again.
“Hmm? That’s it? That’s all the sympathy I get?” he asked.
She just shrugged. “Obviously, you’re not going to go for it. Nor am I.”
“I feel like I should be offended.”
“Wes, come on,” she said, taking the knife and filling in some thin spots of icing Wes had left behind.
He narrowed his eyes. “Okay, that’s it.”
“What’s it?”
“What happened?” he asked.
She tilted her head. “When?”
A lifted brow. “You know when. Your little trip into the forest with Brighton the other day. Doesn’t seem like you.”
