Bloodstone Heart (32 page)

“What do you mean crazy hair? I spent twenty minutes with this goop Sally gave me to make it look like this. Crazy hair, my butt!” Alyssa smiled and nodded again.

Mark continued, “The blonde in the butch is one of our hosts, Anton.”

Anton took Alyssa’s hand, kissed it and said, “It’s a pleasure.”
 

Mark said, “Hey man, get your own date!”
 

Anton laughed. “I have one. She’s just not here yet.”
 

Mark eyed him teasingly and said, “Uh huh! We’ll see.”
 
Then he turned to Josh, and his expression changed to surly tough guy. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know you.”

Blake stepped in and answered, “My apologies, Mark, Alyssa, this is Josh Brenner. He’s staying with us while we help him with a problem. In fact, we might need your services.”

Mark said, “Sure. But back to introductions, Josh, nice to meet you.
 
Any friend of Blake and Dean’s is all right with me. So Alyssa, these are the guys I told you about and guys, this is Alyssa Sarducci.”

Alyssa nodded. “Nice to meet you.
 
Mark has told me some wild stories about you all.”

Blake, Dean, and Anton looked at each other in a bit of a panic and it was Blake that said, “Um. Wild stories? Mark that’s not...”

Mark interrupted, “It’s cool.
 
Alyssa is hip to the supernatural.” Still the three men looked at each other unsure. “You don’t know who the Sarduccis are, do you?” The men all looked puzzled. “The Sensational Sarducci Circus?” Mark pressed. “You’ve never heard of them?”

Alyssa grabbed his arm and started to whisper, “Not everyone has heard of us.
 
We’ve only been in America for ten years. Most of our fame was in Europe, Mark.”

He smiled at her as proud as he could be, “I’m sorry. I just think it is so cool.” Turning back to the others he said, “The Sarduccis are famous for their high flying act and fortune tellers.
 
Alyssa, here, was blessed with both talents.”

“You’re embarrassing me, Mark,” she said and then she explained, “Yes, my family started out as a group of gypsies that traveled around entertaining. One thing led to another and a circus was formed. Up until last year, the Sarducci circus had been performing for over fifty years, but one too many accidents and the lack of interest in the circus these days, brought an end to our careers.
 
I’m just a secretary now for a small medical office in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.”

Dean was mesmerized. “Cool.” Blake could tell his mind was working overtime imagining the pretty woman in all kinds of flexible positions when he smacked him on the back of the head and said, “Knock it off, fuzz face.”

“What? I didn’t say anything. And I told you about the fuzz face crap.”

“It wasn’t what you were saying, it was what you were thinking, smut boy.”

“Phhht. Like no one thought it? Stay out of my mind and quit calling me boy, Moron.”

Mark laughed at their bickering and then Alyssa too followed suit.
 
She said to Mark, “I thought you were kidding about the bickering, but now I see what you were talking about.”

Dean said, “So, Alyssa, can you do a back flip in that dress?”

She smirked at Dean and said defiantly, “Yes, but not in these heels.” They all laughed.
 

Rowan and Sally entered the room and both said in stereo, “What’s so funny?” as they glided over to the arms of their boyfriends. Blake and Dean were stunned silent, which was quite a feat, and both Anton and Josh found this amusing.

Rowan was dressed in a turquoise blue silk satin gown with a sweetheart neckline. The color made her blue eyes look brilliant.
 
Her waist length hair was done up with spirals of golden red curls delicately falling to her neck.
 
A silver ribbon was weaved into her hair like a headband on a Greek goddess. There were silk georgette sleeves to soften the neckline from her very light colored skin to the deep turquoise blue. She looked stunning and Blake was tongue-tied. As she took his arm, he proclaimed quietly just to her, “You look absolutely gorgeous.” It tickled her to see him this enchanted.

Sally was dressed in an emerald green, off the shoulder, velvet gown.
 
It was fitted to perfection, accentuating her hourglass figure as if it had been made just for her.
 
A slit came up to mid thigh on her right leg, which allowed her to walk with ease. The rich, deep green velvet made her gorgeous green eyes look even more hypnotic than usual and also accentuated her auburn hair.
 
Sally’s hair, too, was up and showed off her slender neck, but it was pulled back into a large braided chignon at the back of her head with little wisps of hair purposely pulled out on either side of her face. Dean’s mouth was wide open and if his jaw could have hit the floor and his eyes pop out of his head like in a cartoon, they would have - at least twice.
 
Sally walked to him, put her index finger under his chin, closed his gaping mouth, and said, “I’ll take that as a compliment,”as she laughed.

“Uh, wwwa ... Uhhh ...Wow! You look amazing!” he said.
 

Anton took the silence as his cue to do introductions.
 
“Mark and Alyssa, these two beautiful women are Rowan and Sally. Sally and Rowan, this is Mark Rosenthal - the PI that worked with Darby, and his date, Alyssa Sarducci.”

In stereo, Sally and Rowan said, “Very nice to meet you both.”
 

Dominic, looking very James Bondish, sauntered in to the study and announced, “I think it’s time we head to the tent.
 
Devon and Darby will be coming up to the house very soon and almost everyone is here, but before we go, I just want to say thank you to all of you for coming and, ladies, you look lovely.” The women smiled at him. Dominic then turned to Mark and Alyssa. “You must be Alyssa Sarducci. Thank you so much for coming. We’ve become quite fond of Mark here.” He patted Mark’s shoulder. “Any relation to the Sarducci Circus family?” he said as they left the room.
 
The others followed. As Anton headed through the door, he turned to look at Josh.

“You okay, Josh?” he said.

Josh seemed to be in his own lonely little world and Anton got a tiny glimpse of his thoughts before Josh shut his mind tight. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude - it’s a bad habit. You’re worried about...Lanie, is it?”

Josh nodded.

“And you’re feeling bad to be going to a party when she is out there in danger?”

Josh again nodded and said, “Yeah.”

“Probably wishing you could see her all dressed up and enjoying herself?”

“Definitely. She would have loved to celebrate this occasion with Darby. She spoke very fondly of her.”

“Darby is an amazing woman,” Anton said. Josh sensed sadness from Anton at that moment. “I know this is hard for you. We will get her back, just not tonight.” Josh smiled and Anton heard a knock at the door.
 
“I better get that since Bernard is in the kitchen. Will you excuse me? Might be my date.”

“Yeah, go.”

“Just follow the rest out to the tent in the back.
 
You can’t miss it.”

“Right,” Josh said as he headed towards the crowd.

Anton walked to the door and answered it to find Jules standing there looking amazingly gorgeous. When he bought the dress for her, he knew it was beautiful, but a dress is just a dress. The woman in the dress made it look stunning. Just as he had expected, the blue dress made her sapphire blue eyes look even more amazing than they usually did.

“You look beautiful, Jules.
 
Thank you so much for coming,” he said feeling a little like Dean and Blake had just felt.

“You look pretty handsome yourself,” she said. “Can I come in?”

Embarrassed by his stunned state, he said, “Of course, I’m sorry! Please, come in.” He took her hand gently, kissed it as she came in, and then closed the door and led her back to the back of the house and to the tent, never taking his eyes off of her, and smiling the entire time.

Anton led her past the crowd and quickly made a beeline for a table in the back corner so he could have her all to himself.

Chapter 26

Bernard went down to the cottage to walk the guests of honor up to the house. Devon opened the door dressed in his tuxedo and Bernard said, "Master Devon, your dinner awaits."

"Thank you, Bernard. Darby?" he said. "Are you ready, Sweetness?"

She answered as she came down the hall, "I am."

Bernard and Devon both stared at her.
 
She looked stunning.
 
Devon's mouth opened, but words could not be formed no matter how he tried.
 
Bernard was the first to come around when he said, "Oh Miss Darby, you look radiant. How do you make such a simple dress look so very regal?"

"Thank you, Bernard. You are so sweet." She looked towards Devon who still could not form words but smiled with such pride as he raced to her side and gently kissed her cheek.

Her dress was a deep, rich wine color, made of silk, and strapless. The sheath was well fitted to the knees and then formed a flair much like a mermaid tail and a small train trailed behind her. Her neck, ears and wrist were draped in garnets almost the exact same color as the dress. Her hair was up in a cross between Sally's braided chignon and Rowan's dripping curls, perfectly complimenting her dress with her gorgeous blonde locks. The dark color of her dress contrasted nicely with her blue eyes and ivory skin.
 

She said, “I'm not really sure how I'm going to get up the hill to the house in this dress without getting the train and hem filthy."

"That's easy. I'll carry you,” Devon offered. “It wouldn't be the first time."

She smiled as she wrapped her arms around Devon's neck and he swept her up off her feet like she was a pile of feather light blankets. Bernard turned and opened the door for Devon, then shut it behind them.
 

As they walked up the hill to the front of the house, Darby said to Bernard, "You and Dominic shouldn't have gone to all this trouble.
 
I keep telling Devon, I'm a cheap date.
 
Pizza and beer and I'm a happy girl."

"It's no effort at all for you, Miss Darby. It's been such a long time since anything happy has happened at this house, it is a thrill to have an occasion to celebrate." He smiled as he opened the front door and Devon set Darby down gently.
 
She kissed him on the cheek, and then wiped the glossy pink lip print she had left behind off his face. They suddenly heard a familiar clickity-clack noise of what sounded like four hundred dogs running along the floor only to find Sammy dressed in his own little tuxedo jacket with a little black bow tie. Of course, he had his ball in his mouth and Darby bent down and rubbed his velvety ears lovingly, saying, "I promise, after dinner I'll throw the ball for you, okay?" As if he understood her words, his tail wagged frantically with anticipation.
 

Darby started to walk towards the dining room with Devon following, when Bernard interrupted them by saying, "Not in the dining room tonight, Master Devon and Miss Darby. Tonight's special and we have set up a tent in the back for just this occasion."

With raised eyebrows, both Darby and Devon steered to the right and followed Bernard to the back of the house to a set of French doors.
 
The doors led to the lawn but tonight a parquet floor had been laid down instead and the entire lawn was covered with a humongous white tent. Thousands, maybe millions, of tiny white twinkle lights dripped from the ceiling, walls, and fixtures. Four huge crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling of the tent and there were more flowers than Darby had ever seen in any one place. Along one side of the tent was a long table with an ice sculpture of cupid and somehow it was illuminated from inside the ice as it morphed from one color to the next and slowly dripped.
 
There were hors d'oeuvres of every kind covering the rest of the table along with a pyramid of stacked champagne glasses.
 
In the middle, a dance floor was set up and a small orchestra behind that. The side of the tent behind the orchestra had no canvas and was left open to view the huge pond with its floating lit orbs that complemented the light of the rising quarter moon. Just to make sure no one got cold, there were heaters here and there making it perfectly cozy.
 

But what was most amazing were all the happy faces of their friends and family yelling, "Surprise," as they stepped down into the tent and the orchestra began to play. Darby leaned into Devon's waiting arms as her eyes welled up and tears began to flow. All the guests were now huddled around the happy couple as they tried to progress further into the tent. Devon and Darby were stunned speechless as they were greeted by their closest friends and family. Congratulations were made and hugs were given and received.
 
Tears of happiness were spilled and new acquaintances were made.