Page 78 of Painted in Love

“Oh my God,” Saskia whispered just before Daniel wiped his cake-covered hand down Tasha’s face.

She squealed. And laughed. Then he smeared cake and icing between them as he kissed her clean.

Then it was a free-for-all, cake flying, shrieks and laughter filling the air like music, every Maverick kissing their lover, licking away frosting and cake and acting like children.

Although children didn’t kiss like that.

“Too bad we ate all of ours,” Saskia whispered in Clay’s ear.

“I can get us some more.” He winked. “I’d love nothing more than to lick it off every part of your body.”

She shivered with desire. Then, looking at the food fight, she smiled, her heart full for the first time ever. “I think I love your family almost as much as I love you.”

Fernsby stood with Susan beside the sad remains of his beautiful cake, their arms linked as they surveyed the damage her Mavericks had wrought.

“I do believe, dear lady, that your brood was even worse than the children.”

She laughed. The adults’ tiered cake was in far worse shape now than the smash cakes. “What about your brood? Your wonderful Harringtons were no better than my Mavericks.”

He almost smiled. Just a little, just for her. Because she was such a special lady whom he admired with all his shriveled heart. “Agreed. Our broods can be atrociously juvenile at times,” he drawled.

Yet he’d stood back and applauded, if only in his mind, as Dane threw cake in Cammie’s hair. Then she’d licked cake and whipped cream from his face. And Ava and Ransom had been close to steamy.

It had been a delirious melee. Fernsby, of course, had maintained decorum, not wishing to dirty either his hands or his pristine suit.

What a beautiful, boisterous bunch they were, all these Mavericks and Harringtons. His heart actually swelled.

Susan gazed beyond the untidy table at her delightful brood. “I used to be the one they always came to. But, my dear Fernsby, you are startlingly good at handing out advice without them even realizing they’ve been advised.”

He wanted to crow at her compliment. Though it was undeniably true, it held so much more weight coming from the incomparable Susan Spencer. “Thank you, Susan. But we all know you are the heart of this family.”

She squeezed his arm, leaning a little closer. “How about if we share that heart, you and I?”

He couldn’t help but say, “I find that immensely pleasing, my dear sweet lady.”

She winked. “If there’s anything in your life that you’d like to talk over, I’m always here for you.”

The image of a certain woman from long ago came suddenly to Fernsby.

As though she could pluck that very image from his mind, Susan said, “Anything. Absolutely anything.”

Something inside him crumbled. “You’re very good at seeing straight into someone’s soul, aren’t you?”

She just smiled. Such an endearing smile. A lovely woman indeed.

“One day, dear Susan, you and I will get smashingly drunk.” He bared his teeth in what he hoped was a smile. “And I will tell you all my secrets.”

She beamed back at him. “I can’t wait.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Saskia was shaking in her boots. Literally. She stared at the video monitor in the small room in which she, Clay, Adrian, and Gareth were sequestered. “Look at all those people.”

She balled her fists, her nails digging into her palms.

Adrian had gone a few steps bigger and better than a press conference and booked a morning talk show. Hugo had outed her on Friday, and now, on Tuesday, she would out him.

If she didn’t faint from terror first.

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