Armed and Fabulous (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (13 page)

I nudged her side with my elbow.

"Yum," she said, licking her lips as she watched Jord.

I rolled my eyes and leaned into my dad,
whispering
in his ear, "You said yes when Ted asked you if he could marry Serena."

"My greatest regret,"
Dad
whispered
back
, releasing me so he could spin
me
around
,
exclaim
ing
loudly
,
"Look! It's
Lexi
!"
and cutting Ted off in the process
.
He pointed to my head for extra effect.

"We can all see that, dear," said my ever
-
tolerant mother, who, for the record, loved Ted to bits because he was
so
smart and success
ful. The rich bit helped too. The latter
certainly helped Serena
accept
Ted's
prematurely r
eceding hairline. "Lily, darling, looking lovely as always. How are your parents?"

Lily plastered a bubbly smile on her face, the kind she always adopted when talking about her cold
,
indifferent
parents. "Fine! Thank you!
"

"Where are they these days?"

"Australia."

"How...
sunny."

My friendship with Lily was set the day I met her, but our parents didn’t exactly get along. Lily’s parents were rich, slightly standoffish and traveled frequently, often working abroad
for long stretches
,
as they were now
. They were nothing like Lily
,
who was warm and funny and had about as much ambition as
I
—plenty
,
but no idea
wh
ere
to
direct it
.

Mom fussed
over
us, seating Lily
and me
as far away from Ted and Serena as possible
. It made me realize how much wiser
she'
d
gotten in
her
old, sorry, advanced age. We used to tease Ted mercilessly and she
wouldn’t
let us anymore. I think Ted misse
d
it.
Normally
,
he
went
bri
ght red every time he
saw
Lily
, and
today was no exception.

"
Garrett
and Daniel are due any minute," said Mom, her eyes flitting over the table as she added
brightly
,
"We have a full
house
tonight."

My father is a retired cop
, as w
ere
his father and their brothers and sons.
My oldest brother is
Garrett
.
MPD, as a whole, thinks it’s hilarious to have a homicide cop called Detective Graves
,
but
I heard
it makes victims
’
families cry.
Then there's Daniel
,
who's
a
lso a
detective with a different team and
also
working his way up. Serena skipped the
becoming a
cop urge, a
s well as
the urge to marry one. Finally, the youngest of the boys, Jord, is a beat cop and happy to be one
.
A
recent incident involv
ed
his elbow being used
a little
to
o
enthusiastically during an arrest last month
. It
resulted in
bumping
him down to traffic duty
, as well as
gave him
a leg up to bi-weekly anger management classes
. I hoped
Garrett
and Daniel were bringing their wives and kids. Jord rarely ever brought anyone, which was fine with Lily
,
because to her,
our
family dinners meant he was
virtually
her date. Even if he didn't
realize
it.

Garrett
arrived first, letting himself in,
before
returning to
usher in his wife, Traci, and their three children. I blinked when I saw their t-shirts. Traci'
s read
“
COP WIFE.
”
Their children,
Patrick
,
(
t
he T
eenager
)
, Sam and
Chloe, wore
t-shirts
that
read
“
COP KID.
”
Two of them
were visibly
embarrassed
and the third couldn’t read yet
.

Traci gave me a friendly hug and smoothed her blonde hair behind her ears.
M
arried young
,
Traci had been in my life since my mid-teens
. She
was a
friend,
a
sister and
sometimes employer, offering me
cash for babysitting favors
.

"Nice shirts," I sai
d, running my eyes over them.

"I know. Right?
Garrett
thinks they're great."

I raised my eyebrows.
"Okay."

Traci punched me lightly on the arm. "Enjoy them while you can. They may never be seen again."

Garrett gave me a quick hug before
helping
Chloe
in
. I wondered if he knew about my dead boss and had to bite my lip to stop myself from asking him.

Traci went
into the kitchen to help my mom
, and
Daniel
arrived with his wife
moments later
. Non
e of us had ever fathomed how Daniel
persuaded Alice to marry him, much less how he bagged her in the first place. She was smart,
magazine cover
pretty, a dedicated runner
with a body to match
, only a few years older than
I
,
and
the
mother of his two little chi
ldren, Ben and Rachel.
There
i
s
nothing wrong with
Daniel
. He’
s a
n all round
nice guy, a dedicated cop
and a good husband,
which must have gained him entry
into her
league
, after all, great guys like Daniel are hard to find.

When everyone was crowded into the
already stuffed to bursting
living room, Serena perched on the
big leather couch
next to Ted
. She
gathered his hand into hers and beamed
. Realizing she was being ignored, her sharp whistle
pierced
the air and called
us all to
attention
. I made a quick check to see if she had any notecards because she had a habit of giving presentations, rather than news
;
but whatever she had to tell us, it was apparently going to be short.
Hallelujah!
Garrett
caught my eye and winked, clearly thinking the same thing.

"I'm pregnant!" Serena
exclaimed
and everything else was lost to the sound of my mother shrieking and
the
chorus of congratulations. Lily dutifully squealed and clapped her hands
while
Dad and I exchanged
concerned
glances. He was definitely thinking what I was thinking. There was only one thing worse than Serena and Ted
—Serena
and Ted breeding.

"Yay," I said
feebly
, as the thought of their progeny entering the world
dawned on me. "
Marvelous
."

"And we want you to throw the baby shower, Alexandra. And be
g
odmother," Serena added to sweeten the deal.

Huh? Lily elbowed me.

"Th
ank you," I blurte
d, instead of
W
hy me
?
A baby shower? I've
attended
my share
of them,
but I'
d
never thrown one. I had a sneaking suspicion that Serena had terrified everyone else
so
I was her one
last
hope to
hostess
a good shower.

"Thanks, Alexandra," said Serena, cutting off my protest before it even began. "My friend
,
Jane
,
threw a fabulous pink
-
and
-
blue themed party for our friend
,
Alison. We hand-painted
sleepers
with non-toxic fabric paint and did baby jar shots. Non-alcoholic
,
of course. I'll give you a list of names and a date."