“I sent Michael instead,” Emily said, unable to repress a giggle.
“Oh, your sister and Officer Friendly? They did seem to be getting pretty cozy when you were missing last summer.”
“I’m not sure that anything’s going on, but I’ve been getting a weird vibe from them the last couple of days.”
“They make a cute couple.”
“I ought to stay out of it because they’d both probably freak out and retreat if anyone said anything.” She grinned. “But it’s awfully hard to resist.”
“Resist what?” Will asked, bouncing into the doorway.
“Playing matchmaker for my sister,” Emily said.
“Oh, stay out of that, if you know what’s good for you,” he advised. “Just watch from afar without meddling.”
“Wow, someone’s bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tonight,” Olivia remarked to Will. “We’ve talked about overdoing it on caffeine, haven’t we?”
Will turned a quick pirouette that ended with a flourish. “Nothing artificial about this, baby. Just a good night’s sleep, the sleep of the just. You should try it sometime, Liv.”
The five-minute warning rang out before Olivia could really retort, but she and Emily made eye contact and grinned. Emily considered that proof that her charms were working. Actually, she noted as the second act began, the whole chorus was on their toes. Everyone she’d given one of the protective herb bundles to was more alive and alert than she’d seen them in ages. Had they all been dancing the night away in fairyland?
She didn’t know how to explain Charles, the actor who played Mr. Knightley. With him, it wasn’t alertness so much as a sensitivity she’d never seen from him before. He was blessed with good looks and a great voice, so he’d managed to coast through his career without trying all that hard. No matter how he played a role, women swooned, so he didn’t seem to feel like the extra effort would offer any benefits. He came across okay from the balcony, but on the stage with him, Emily usually felt like she was doing the heavy lifting while he stood there and looked good.
Tonight, though, he was actually acting. The role was the quintessential boy next door who’d known Emma all her life and was waiting for her to grow up and notice him, but he’d never shown the kind of vulnerability she felt tonight. It was like he finally got it. With him doing his share of the work, her job became easier, and by having to work less, she was able to convey more with more subtlety. Normally it took every ounce of imagination she had to show warm affection for him, but now it came naturally.
She hadn’t given him any herbs since he wasn’t a dancer and their offstage relationship wasn’t the sort that made gift-giving likely. So it wasn’t that he was getting more sleep than he had been. Maybe he’d actually fallen in love with something other than a mirror, so he finally got it. She’d have to find out if Will had picked up any gossip.
Twenty-eight
Lincoln Center
10:00 p.m.
Michael had barely noticed the rest of the ballet, he was so worried about what might be going on with Sophie. He couldn’t tell the difference between one kind of magic and another, so he had no idea if she’d outed herself in the way she’d handled the situation. All he could tell was that she did seem to have handled it. He wasn’t able to spot Josephine in the theater, even when he’d scanned the crowd with his binoculars during intermission.
While he was distracted, he was surprised to find that Mari was utterly captivated. During the ballet, she’d been on the edge of her seat, leaning forward, gasping with each spectacular move. Fortunately for her, the final act was full of men in tights, some of them even shirtless or with open shirts that revealed ridiculous abs. When the ballet ended and the cast came out for bows, he couldn’t help but grin to see Mari applauding as enthusiastically as any of the ballet fans in the audience. He sighed in relief when Sophie came out to take her bow, to applause and cheers. She seemed okay, but then Sophie very rarely let anyone see her sweat.
The bows seemed to go on forever. Each of the stars bowed individually, then as a group. The rest of the company bowed. The orchestra was acknowledged. The company bowed again. The director came onstage and talked for a while about what was special about this year’s production. He failed to mention the snow monster, much to Michael’s amusement. There was more applause, and the director kissed each of the female stars on the cheek and hugged the men. Michael expected Mari to be bored by all this, but she was clapping along with everyone else.
“That was amazing,” she enthused on their way out of the auditorium toward the reception in the lobby. “And I can see why you wanted to come. Doing a favor for your neighbor, my ass. She is hot. Though I guess in this show she’s cold. And now I know why you quit wearing your wedding ring.”
“She had nothing to do with that. I stopped wearing the ring because it’s been seven years, and that’s usually the timeframe for declaring a missing person to be dead.”
“Uh huh. It had nothing to do with meeting a pretty ballerina who can probably twist her little body into some very interesting shapes and crack walnuts with her thighs.”
Michael closed his eyes and counted to ten. He did not need that mental image at this moment. He was just about to tell Mari to please shut up when she said, “Hey, there’s your friend.”
Sophie had changed out of her dance costume into an evening dress, and she was surrounded by admirers. “Let’s get a drink and let her work the crowd for a while,” he suggested.
They found a waiter with a tray of champagne glasses and both of them took a glass. Michael forced himself not to down the whole glass when the first sip proved cool and refreshing. “Am I gonna have to make sure you get home okay?” Mari asked, raising an eyebrow.
“It’s one glass of champagne.”
“That’s one more than I’ve ever seen you drink.”
“When you see the waiter going around with trays of Coke, let me know.” To be honest, he was starting to feel a little fuzzy, but he wasn’t sure he could blame the unaccustomed drink going to his head.
“C’mon, I want to meet your friend,” Mari said, tugging his elbow.
“I don’t need you playing matchmaker,” he told her as he reluctantly followed.
“Are you kidding? I want her to introduce me to some of her dancer friends. Did you see the bodies on those men? Talk about buns of steel! And I’m curious about the woman who makes Tank twitch when he talks about her.”
As they got closer to Sophie, he saw that although she’d changed clothes and had taken her hair down from the tight bun, she still wore stage makeup. He’d never seen her that way before. She’d always been rather minimalist in that department. Her high heels brought her closer to eye level with him, though she was still much shorter than he was.
“So you did decide to come,” she said. He thought he detected a hint of gentle teasing in her tone and her smile.
“Emily said you could use some friendly faces in the audience. This is my partner, Marisol Lopez. Mari, this is Sophie Drake, my neighbor’s sister.”
Mari shook Sophie’s hand. “That was absolutely incredible,” she enthused. “I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting to like ballet, but the Rev here said it was athletic. It really was.”
Sophie gave her a genuine smile. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. This actually isn’t one of my favorite ballets. There are others with more story to them.”
“If it gets better than this, sign me up.” Mari said.
“Oh, where did you get the champagne? I’m parched,” Sophie said.
To Michael’s amusement, Mari instantly said, “I’ll go get you some.”
When she was gone, Michael said softly, “You did that on purpose. It’s not fair putting the whammy on my partner.”
“How do you know she’s not just being nice?”
“I couldn’t get her to bring me a glass of water when I was in the hospital.” He dropped his voice as low as he thought he could make it and still have her hear him. “What happened
onstage?”
“You mean the snow monster?” she replied, her voice equally low. “Or are you critiquing my pointe work?”
“So it wasn’t special effects and part of the show?”
For a split second, he saw the worry and fear beneath her cool façade. “No, though it would probably improve the ballet significantly. I’m not sure what caused it, but I don’t think I did anything that should get me in trouble.”
“Josephine was here, and she brought friends.”
“Of course she did. I hope she was disappointed.”
Before he could say anything else, Mari returned with a glass of champagne for Sophie, and soon more admirers approached—a gaggle of velveteen-clad girls clutching programs. “I guess I’d better let you enjoy playing prima ballerina,” he said. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
“It was lovely to meet you, Mari,” Sophie said. “If I get cast in any more productions, I’ll be sure to get tickets for you.”
“What I’d really like are phone numbers for a few of those guys,” Mari said with a grin.
“Trust me, you don’t,” Sophie said with a wince. “The nice ones have been married forever.”
“I’m good with boy toys, too. I’ll catch them before they’re married.”
“I hope you like big egos, then.”
“I’m not really thinking about talking to them.”
“Then I’ll see what I can do.” She turned to greet the girls, giving Michael a smile and a slight nod over her shoulder as she took a pen from them and began signing autographs.
“She’s interesting,” Mari remarked.
“That’s an understatement.”
“Is it just me, or is there something funny about her eyes?”
“One’s blue, one’s gray. But the light and the angle have to be right for it to show. Once you see it, though, you always see it. I think that’s why she bothers Tank.”
“Hmmm,” she said, giving him a sidelong glance.
“Don’t even start,” he warned.
“Rev, are you blushing? That’s so adorable! You’ve got a crush!”
If he hadn’t been blushing before, he was sure he was now. If he’d been in junior high, he’d have sworn that he did not have a crush and then would have run off and grabbed Sophie’s books or taunted her, just to prove he didn’t. But he was an adult, so he fought back all the instinctive urges and said as calmly as he could, “As you said, she’s hot, and I may be widowed, sort of, but I still have eyes.”
“Ah, so you brought me to play wingman. That’s cool. I can do that.”
“I don’t need a wingman, and if I did, I have Emily and Emily’s dog. But she’s just getting her dance career started again after taking some time off, so after tonight I imagine she’ll be jetting around the world, being a prima ballerina.”
She studied him for a while, tilting her head slightly to the side and narrowing her eyes. Then she grinned, shook her head, and said, “Wow, it is serious. I was going to make a joke about one-night stands fitting well within the jet-set lifestyle and you needing a rebound, but if anything happens with this, it’s not just a rebound, is it?”
“Shut up, Mari,” he said wearily. He wasn’t in the mood to argue with her, and this wasn’t the time to be thinking about this sort of thing. He really had no idea how he felt or what he thought. And besides, he’d just spotted Josephine.
Although he’d have paid good money and bought popcorn for a hypothetical bitch-off between Mari and Josephine, in reality the last thing he wanted or needed was his partner running into a rogue enchantress. Pretending he hadn’t seen Josephine, he turned and began walking casually across the lobby, heading for the bar. Mari came along with him, chatting about tight buns in tights, with hand gestures to illustrate her points. She didn’t seem to notice that she’d been redirected.
He watched Sophie over Mari’s shoulder. Amelia and Athena were approaching her from the direction opposite Josephine and her entourage, which relieved him somewhat. At least Sophie would have some backup. He noticed another woman headed in that general direction and did a double take. She looked familiar, but entirely out of context. Then he realized it was Mrs. Smith, dressed in a luxurious evening suit. And he’d thought he was just being silly when he imagined her living on Park Avenue and using the bag lady persona as a disguise.
It looked like something was about to go down, and he wanted to be there for it, but he didn’t want Mari anywhere near it. Scanning the crowd, he got an idea. “Hey, isn’t that guy the one who did the Arabian dance?” he asked, nudging her attention toward a slender, dark-haired man nearby.
“You mean the really steamy one where he was barely dressed? I don’t know. He’d need to unbutton his shirt for me to get a definite ID. But I’d better check. What do you think of ‘Hi, I have handcuffs’ as an opening line?”
“A surefire attention-getter.”
She grinned. “Works for me.” She headed off, abandoning Michael so entirely that he had no qualms about making his way toward the confrontation.
Mrs. Smith had held back, within earshot of the enchantresses but not engaging. He joined her. “Fancy meeting you here,” he said.
“I leave the shopping cart behind every so often. And I had a feeling things might get interesting tonight.”
“I think it’s about to get more interesting.”
She shook her head. “No, not here. They wouldn’t risk it. But I am curious to see how your fairy princess handles it.”
So was Michael. This scene could end up being more entertaining than the ballet, just with less jumping and spinning. Sophie took the offensive, moving forward to meet Josephine and her cronies. “Why, Josephine, how wonderful that you could make it while you’re in New York. It’s just not the holiday season without The Nutcracker,” she said, her drawl thicker than usual. She glanced at the women flanking Josephine. “And you brought friends. I do hope you enjoyed the ballet.” She stuck her hand out toward the woman on the left end of the line. “I’m Sophie Drake.”
The woman glanced at Josephine, looking for a cue. Josephine narrowed her eyes, and the woman lowered the hand she’d just started to extend. Sophie raised an eyebrow, but otherwise didn’t react to the snub. She kept her smile plastered on and continued. “Things did get a little exciting in the second act, but we were fortunate you were there to take care of it, Josephine.”
“What?” Michael whispered to Mrs. Smith.
“Shh. This is getting good,” Mrs. Smith whispered in response, not taking her eyes off the scene.
Josephine’s mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. Amelia stepped up beside Sophie and added, “And it’s a good thing, too. We barely had a chance to react.”
The women with Josephine all turned to look at her, but she remained speechless. Next to Michael, Mrs. Smith chuckled. “Oh, she caught her in a trap, alright,” she said, grinning.
“But she’s giving Josephine credit for saving the day. Isn’t that what Josephine wants?” Michael protested.
“Yes, but now Josephine can hardly accuse her of using fae magic to fight off the creature. If she does, she doesn’t get to take the credit, and I’m not sure her ego can handle that.”
Josephine finally pulled herself together enough to say, “Well, that is part of the job. I’m glad I was here to be able to help.” Spots of bright color had formed on her cheeks and she looked like she could have spit nails, but she maintained her poise as she turned and walked away, her flunkies following her, but glancing back uncertainly at Sophie.
Athena hugged Sophie. “Oh, well played!”
“Yes, but it made me sick giving her the credit,” Sophie said with a grimace.
“But she couldn’t accuse you, and that’s what’s important right now,” Amelia said.
“It also makes it harder for me to accuse her, and that’s what I’m going to have to do to keep her from taking over.”
Michael started to ask Mrs. Smith what she thought, but she’d disappe
ared, melting into the crowd. Athena spotted him and said, “So, what did you think of our Sophie’s dancing?”
“Impressive,” he said. “But are people going to expect a battle against a snow monster every night?”
Sophie smiled. “I’m sure they’re trying to figure out what happened out there even as we speak.”
His pocket vibrated, and he checked his phone to find a text from Mari. “You’re on your own, Rev, see you at work,” it said. He felt bad for being relieved at her absence, but it was nice not to have to worry about his partner getting caught up in any of this.
More autograph seekers approached Sophie, and Amelia and Athena joined Michael while Sophie dealt with her fans. “It’s really a shame her life has to be so complicated when she has that kind of talent,” Athena said, shaking her head sadly.
“She has other kinds of talents that are just as important—more important, really,” Amelia said. “This is just entertainment. We’re talking about the survival of mankind here.”
“We need to find a way to stop Josephine so we don’t have to worry about all this,” Michael said. “It’s too bad I can’t find a reason to arrest her.” He paused, then added slowly, as the thought firmed up in his head, “But surely we can get her in trouble with her people. Don’t you have some kind of code of conduct? I’d think that lowering the barriers to the Realm would be pretty high on the list of no-nos, considering your mandate.”
“We don’t have any real proof that’s she’s responsible,” Amelia said.
The crowd was starting to thin out, so it was easier to spot Josephine and her gang, still huddled together and eyeing Sophie from across the lobby. With Sophie being such a center of attention, there was little they could do here. If fans weren’t asking for autographs, photographers were asking her to pose for photos. She took picture after picture with other dancers or with various patrons, smiling the whole time, but Michael could see the weariness overcoming her.
The lobby was all but empty by the time Sophie was left alone. Michael approached her once the last fan had gone. “You’re still here?” she said.
A Kind of Magic Page 17
