Page 110 of Loaded

She groans. “Day after Christmas.” She shakes her head. “I drew the short straw.”

“I guess so.”

“It’s fine,” she says. “I’m used to it by now, and Seren always turned it into a big production.”

“At least you never go to school on your birthday. Mine was the first day of school twice.”

Bea laughs. “I suppose everything has its trade-offs.”

I take the gift from her and gesture for the door. “Let’s go, or we’ll be late.”

“Can’t have that,” she says. “I have someone to show off.” Her grin lifts my heart.

When we get into the car, I start tapping the address in. “Oh, you can just go,” Bea says. “I’ll tell you how to get there.”

“You know how to get there by heart?”

“It’s at my parent’s inn,” she says. “It’s home.”

“Oh.” I hadn’t noticed that when she sent me the address before. “That’s kind of cool. Is it big enough for the Harrison wedding?”

“Barbara wanted a small wedding,” Bea says. “Not sure she’ll be getting that, but they really did try to contain the guest list. No more than three hundred guests.”

“So four hundred?”

Bea laughs. “Probably. One of the problems with being fancy is that you have a lot of work contacts you don’t want to offend.”

“And a lot of them probably come in sets,” I say. “Like, if I were to invite Jean-François to our wedding, I’d have to invite Sabato as well, or I swear, Gucci would blackball me.”

“Gucci?” Her smile is so cute. “Really?”

I shrug. “It happened once. I thought Sabato was still in France, so I only called Jean-François about this kind of last-minute gathering.”

“How did you fix it?”

“It’s a long story that involves me wearing a women’s swimsuit for an entire round of golf.”

Bea’s laughter’s loud and long. “I’m afraid I need evidence of that.”

“There better not be any,” I say. “Because if there is, I’m going to have to murder someone.”

“Yes, well, most of my stories involve people that no one has ever heard of.”

“Says the granddaughter of Audrey Colburn?—”

“Fostergreatgranddaughter. I never even met her.”

“And the granddaughter of the Governor.”

She rolls her eyes.

“Roommate of Jake Priest.”

“He’s a pain in the pattoo.”

“Can’t argue that one. But your other brother is the heir to the Richmond fortune, and you’re family to Bentley Harrison.” I shrug. “I’m just saying, you’re not exactly one to talk about having no connections.”

She grunts.

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