‘Absolutely. I promise. On red velvet cakes.’ Bella grinned as she drew an X over her heart. ‘And I think you all know how seriously I take red velvet cake.’
Everyone smiled. Bella certainly did have a thing for red velvet.
‘Now tell me,’ Bella said briskly, belying the huskiness in her voice. ‘How are you all here?’
‘I thought it would be nice to be here for you tonight,’ Sienna explained.
‘And we agreed,’ Paige added. ‘But it was going to be tricky because we needed invites and we couldn’t just ask because you were the one in charge of that.’
‘And I said, who needs invites, when we can simply crash the event.’ Astrid grinned. ‘But of course, I couldn’t just rock up so – ta da! You like my disguise?’
Bella eyed thedisguise. ‘The hat?’ She looked at it doubtfully. Then, ‘The hat?’ she repeated looking at each of them as if questioning their decision-making skills.
‘And the glasses.’ Astrid turned her face from to side, endangering lives once more. ‘Although I may have perhaps overestimated their suitability as a disguise.’
She laughed then and suddenly they were all laughing and for the first time since they’d walked into the gallery as asurprise. Paige thought it was going to be okay.
‘But you can’t stay,’ Bella said, clearly miserable over the edict. ‘If Chase finds you here, he’ll?—’
‘He’llwhat?’
The very male enquiry caused a swift, collective indrawn breath from each of the women as all eyes flew to a rather surly, rather big guy standing behind Bella, rocking his screamingly expensive suit to perfection.
Paige had seen pictures of Chase Miller online, of course, but none of them did him justice. He was as Alpha badassery as his images had portrayed and he was looking at Bella with a mix of suspicion and something else she couldn’t quite place.
‘What will Chase do?’ he asked, his gaze flicking dismissively over Paige and Sienna before peering under the brim of Astrid’s hat, his eyes narrowing then quickly widening in disbelief. ‘Astrid?’
His strangled exclamation ricocheted around the tight circle but no one nearby looked up from their conversations.Ooh boy. This was not going to plan. One look at Bella’s face, drained of colour, told Paige her friend knew she’d been caught out.
‘Bella?’ Chase demanded. ‘What’s going on?’
‘It’s not what it looks like,’ Paige blurted, rising to her friend’s defence. It was the least she could do for the woman who had shown her nothing but understanding. ‘Bella didn’t do anything wrong.’
Except a resigned Bella was having none of it. ‘Itiswhat it looks like, and Ididdo something wrong. But this isn’t the time.’
She looked utterly wretched, gazing at Chase with both guilt and resignation and Paige’s heart went out to her – she knew exactly what Bella was going through right now.
‘The girls will go,’ she continued. ‘I’ll make myself scarce and wait in the office until everyone’s gone.’
The three of them protested but Bella just smiled and said, ‘It’s okay. I’ll call you after.’ Then she turned, her head bowed and walked away.
With one last withering look at them all, Chase also departed.
‘We’re not going anywhere,’ Paige said vehemently, her gaze tracking Bella’s progress through the gallery. ‘There’s a café over the road. We’ll wait there for her.’
Nobody argued.
* * *
Over two hours later, Paige was on her third cup of coffee, her eyes fixed on the Nayak as it slowly emptied out. They’d found a window seat when they’d first entered the café and had been staked out ever since.
‘So… what’s next for you?’ Sienna asked, swishing her honey-blonde hair behind her as she leaned in a little.
Until now the three of them had been mostly chatting about Bella’s predicament with Chase. Astrid was fretting about how her presence at the gallery had really screwed things up for Bella which had led to an upset stomach. She’d been to the restroom three times already and was there again now.
‘I don’t know.’ Paige blew out a breath, her curls ruffling as she dragged her attention from the window to Sienna. ‘I guess I have to wait and see if the tabloids manage to identify me then manage to connect the rather lurid dots.’ She stared at the lipstick mark on her coffee mug for a beat or two. She had no idea what she’d do if that happened.
House-sit in Antarctica maybe?
