Her Song

6 - Festive Foliage

**Kim**

Has there ever, in the history of the world, been a single festive dinner that didn't come without even a tiny side order of drama?

Lucy's Thanksgiving party had been a huge success. Her Nigella obsession had paid off, the food had been amazing. Even more amazing had been the eye candy. Lucy had threatened to bash our heads in with a stiletto when she'd noticed that Tony, Zac and I were sitting there ogling her dad.

It was an unalterable truth that Troy Connelly was hot as fuck. Obviously it was not something that you normally wanted to admit to your best friend about her father but it was the truth. What was hotter than the way he looked was the obvious devotion that he had to his wife. Clearly all mere mortals like me were being set up for a crushing disappointment if they thought that they'd meet a man like that. Although Lucy seemed to have hit the jackpot with Bas. Tony had both Zac and I squirming with discomfort as he ogled Bas and shared his eloquently dirty thoughts about Bas's level of attractiveness.

It may sound like I'm only into older men with my older boyfriend and my ogling of my friend's father. I'm really not. I'd like to point out that I also spent a good portion of the night surreptitiously observing Van. Josh, Ace and Gray were all good looking guys, Gray particularly with his shock of black hair, puckish features and pale, ice blue eyes was eerily good looking but there was something about Van that left him leagues ahead of the others. Maybe it was his extra maturity or maybe his height. Whatever it was about him I felt my eyes drawn to him time and again, not something I wanted my friends to notice. Extravagantly eyeing off Troy had become a joke among us, mainly because we knew that it wound Lucy up. If people noticed my interest in Van questions would be asked and I'd already faced enough of those after the night I'd thrown myself at him. Things had only calmed down after Bradley and I had gotten together.

A couple of times I thought that he was watching me as well. I'd lifted a hand to my cheek wondering if I had gravy on my face. When I'd cut my eyes in his direction he was concentrating on his plate but that gorgeous, uncomfortable smirk tilted up the corners of his mouth.

So with my sneaky glances at him I just happened to be looking at him when he'd pulled his phone out of his pocket. My heart leapt into my throat at the expression on his face as he read the message on the screen, it was a combination of weariness, despair and resignation. A hand scrubbed over his face as he slid the phone back into his pocket had him restored to his usual knowing aloofness. As he glanced around the table I'd dropped my eyes to my wine glass. When I looked back up he was rolling his neck, seemingly satisfied that no one had witnessed his momentary lack of composure.

We'd been busy eating slices of pumpkin pie, a slice of which I'd accepted with some trepidation and was happy to find didn't taste remotely of pumpkin, when Fiona's phone rang. I'd been bang on the mark when I'd told Lucy that Fiona would drink her calories. As she listened to the person on the other end of the call her face had remained smooth but you could see the Botox was a having a hard time keeping the scowl from her forehead. "You deal with her and I'll have someone deal with this fucking mess. " She ended the call and began to violently stab at the phone with her perfectly manicured forefinger. She stopped typing and read for a moment before making a frustrated sound in the back of her throat. Whatever it was that she'd seen had not impressed her.

"Van darling," she said sweetly, "do you think you could possibly control your fucking brother?"

His spine stiffened as he ground out, "Not likely."

"What? What's happened?" Lucy had asked concerned. As the manager of his band I guessed she'd want to make sure that nothing drastic career wise was headed their way.