"It's not a strange vehicle. It's my vehicle." He gave her his sour smile. "Come up in the world, have we?" "Just blow me." Annoyed at the missed opportunity to pound on him, she started up the stairs.
"You have guests. Roarke is entertaining Mavis and Leonardo on the west terrace, first level. I'm about to serve canapes." "Goodie." But since the half candy bar was now a far, fond memory, she could admit, privately, that anything involving food sounded fine to her.
She wound her way through the house, and found everyone sipping drinks. Not exactly, she corrected. Mavis was gesturing with her glass as she bubbled, more frothy than the lemon fizz in her hand.
She stood on the patio in a pair of shimmering green boots that ran up to her knees like a thin coat of paint where they met equally tight pants in red, no blue, no red.
Eve narrowed her eyes as the pants changed hues every time Mavis wiggled, which was always. The shimmering green top floated down to her hips where a lot of beads dangled.
Her hair was red today, and to Eve's relief stayed that way even when she danced in place. She'd left it down so it trailed along her butt with the ends picking up that same shimmering green, as if they'd been dipped in paint.
The two men watched her, Roarke with a bemused and affectionate smile, and Leonardo with open adoration.
Roarke shifted his gaze, winked at Eve.
Rather than interrupt, Eve crossed over to where a wine bottle and glasses were set up. She poured herself a drink, then crossed the patio to sit on the arm of Roarke's chair.
"Dallas!" Mavis threw out her arms, and somehow didn't spill a single fizzing drop. "Did you just get here?" "Just." "I didn't know if we'd get to see you. But we wanted to come by so I could give Summerset a smoochie." "Please, you're going to make me sick." Mavis only laughed. "Then Roarke came in right behind us, so we're having a little hang. We're getting snacks." Her eyes, green to go with the shimmer, danced.
"So I hear." Eve leaned around Roarke. "How's it going?" she asked Leonardo.
"Couldn't be better." He beamed at Mavis. He was a giant of a man, with skin of coppery gold. A wide face with dark eyes that were currently accented with a sweeping line of silver studs at each corner.
He wore boots as well, pale blue that rode up his calves.
There his loose sapphire pants sort of poofed into them, reminding Eve of pictures she'd seen of she thought Arabia "Oh, boy, here's food!" Mavis made the dash over as Summerset rolled out a two-tiered trolley, laden with trays of fancy appetizers and sweets. "Summerset, if it wasn't for Leonardo, I'd scoop you right up and make you my love slave." He smiled, a wide, toothy smile. Fearing nightmares, Eve turned away and stared into her wine.
"I believe I have several of your favorites here. You're eating for two." "Tell me! I'm like an oinker every five minutes. Oooh, that's the salmon mingy with the stuff! This is just mag." She popped it into her mouth. "I just love eating." "You sit down now, honeypot." Leonardo walked over, rubbed her shoulder. "I'm going to fix you a plate." "Cuddle bear," she cooed. "He totally spoils me. This pregs business is the top deal of the day. You gotta look." Even as Mavis reached for the hem of her shirt, Eve was curling into herself and wincing. "Oh, Mavis, I don't… oh well." There was the belly, in all its glory and accented by an interlinking trio of belly-button rings.
"Now check this." Still holding the shirt up, Mavis turned to the side. "See? It's poking. I know I said it was poking before. You know like five seconds after I found out I was knocked up, but now it completely is." Eve tilted her head, pursed her lips. There was a little bit of a slope in that area. "Are you pushing it out?" "No. Feel." Eve wasn't quite quick enough to whip her hand behind her back. "I don't wanna. Don't make me touch it again."
"You can't hurt it." She pressed Eve's hand to her belly.
"Solid baby." "That's good, Mavis." Her palm was going to go damp any second. "Really good. You're feeling okay?" "At the summit. Everything is totally uptown." "You look beautiful," Roarke told her. "And cliche or not, you glow." "I feel like I'm sending off waves." She laughed and bounced to a chair. "I still get the weepies sometimes, but they're happy weepies mostly. Like Leonardo and I were talking a couple days ago about how Peabody and McNab are moving into the building soon, and we're going to be neighbors, at least until we get a bigger place, and I just flooded." She took the plate Leonardo brought her and cuddled up with him on the padded love seat. "So what do you think they want for, like, a housewarming?" "Don't they have regulation temp control?" "Jeez, Dallas." With a giggle, Mavis popped something else in her mouth. "Housewarming. You know, where people move into a new place and you get them a gift." "Hold on. You have to give them a gift for moving?" "Uh-huh. Plus they're shacking, so it should be a couple thing." She ate another canape, fed one to Leonardo.
"Why does there have to be a gift for every damn thing?" Eve complained.
"Retail conspiracy." Roarke patted her knee.
"I bet it is," Eve said darkly. "I just bet it is." "Anyway." Mavis waved it all away. "We really came by and we're all pumped that you're both here because we wanted to talk to you about the baby." "Mavis, since you got pregnant, when haven't you wanted to talk about the baby?" Eve leaned over, took a canape from her plate. "Not that there's anything wrong with that."
"Yeah, but this is a specific thing, that involves you." The?" Eve licked her thumb and decided to steal another loaded cracker from Mavis's plate.
"Uh-huh. We want you to be my backup coach." "You're taking up baseball?" Eve bit into the salmon thingy with the stuff, and decided it wasn't half bad. "Shouldn't you wait until you get the kid out of there?" "No. Labor and delivery coach. You'd back up Leonardo when I have the baby." Eve choked on the canape and turned white.
"Take a drink, darling," Roarke said with a laugh in his voice. "Put your head between your knees if you feel dizzy." "Shut up. Are you talking about… like, being there? In the actual place at the actual time? In the same room as… it." "You can't coach me through it if you're in Queens, Dallas.
You gotta have a backup coach, somebody who takes the class, learns about the breathing and the positions and the… stuff. Daddy Bear's first string, but you have to have one on the bench." "Can I just stay on the bench? Outside?" "I need you there." Tears swam into her eyes until they shimmered brighter than her boots. "You're my best friend in the whole universe. I need you with me." "Oh man. Okay, okay. Don't flood. I'll do it." "We feel," Leonardo said, and offered Mavis a green cloth to dab at her eyes, "that first for friendship there's no one who we want to share this miracle with more. Added to that, you're the most steady and solid people we know. In a crisis, you'd keep your heads." "Our heads?" Eve repeated.
"We want Roarke there, too." Mavis sniffed into her cloth.
The? There?"
Eve turned her head, and saw with pleasure the rare sight of utter panic on his face. "Not so damn funny now, is it, ace?" "We're permitted, even encouraged, to have family present," Leonardo explained. "You're our family." "Ah, I'm not sure it's quite proper for me to be… to see Mavis in that condition. Under those… circumstances." "Get out." Sniffles forgotten, Mavis giggled and tapped Roarke playfully on the arm. "Anybody with a vid player's seen me mostly naked. And this isn't about the proper. It's about family. We know we can count on you. Both of you." "Of course." Roarke swallowed a great deal of wine. "Of course, you can."
When they were alone, sitting in the soft light of dusk with the candles Summerset had lit flickering, Roarke reached out, gripped Eve's hands in his.
"They could change their minds. It's still months away, and they could easily change their minds and want this… event to be a private one between them." She looked at him as if he'd sprouted a second head.