She nodded. “For as long as I’ve worked here, at least.”
“But who is he? What does he do?”
The bartender lifted her shoulders. “No one knows. He’s our resident eccentric billionaire.”
My eyes widened. “Billionaire?”
“Supposedly.”
“Huh.”
I sat back in my chair and subtly watched Wolf. From his feather coat, he drew Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and began reading.
“So it goes,” I muttered to myself.
A quick Internet search yielded limited results on Wolf Godfrey’s mysterious existence and fortune. I expected he’d been born with a different name, since the one he’d chosen did not appear anywhere I looked. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do a deep dive. That evening, Evelyn asked me to accompany her to a combined family dinner, during which the Greys and the Delacourts would share a table together for the first time.
My name got lost in the confusion of introductions. I recognized Evelyn’s father, Niall, a round man with a red face that spoke of his Irish and English descent. He kept well away from Evelyn’s mother, who had attached herself to Marie’s side. On Marie’s other arm quivered her fiancé, Ned, who was not at all the type of man I’d expected Marie to marry. For one thing, he was shorter than her. Some might consider him attractive, but the moldability of his chin and the jagged scar through his left eyebrow kept him from achieving conventional handsomeness. His thin shoulders did not fill out the fabric of his sports coat, and he walked with a stumbling gait, as though one of his legs was shorter than the other.
When he first spoke to me, I tilted my ear toward him and asked, “What was that again?”
“I’ve heard a lot about you and Evelyn,” he mumbled quickly.
“I’ve heard about you too,” I lied. Evelyn hardly spoke of Ned, and I didn’t spend enough time with Marie to get to know him.
Ned’s father, Edward, looked like an older version of his son. The Delacourts must have had something going on for them though, because father and son both bagged magnificent women. When Penelope made her entrance, my eyebrows lifted of their own accord. This woman took Gwyneth Paltrow’s magic golden vitamins. There was no other explanation for the ethereal glow that radiated off her silky skin and hair.
An awkward silence radiated over our party as we waited to be seated. Evelyn and I exchanged a glance, and she rolled her eyes. Once we got to our table, the situation didn’t improve. After the server took drink orders and silence fell again, I decided something had to be done.
“So,” I said, clearing my throat. “Marie, Ned. How did you two meet?”
Marie launched into the story. Ned smiled warmly at her, interjecting here or there to clarify a detail. Thankfully, the question broke the spell that hung over the two families. Polite chit chat began.
“See?” Evelyn muttered. “This is why I brought you along.”
The dinner went well enough until dessert and coffee. Throughout the meal, I’d caught wind of conversations between Penelope and Marie. Penelope continuously made snide comments about Marie, disguised under a thin veil of suggestions and backhanded compliments. Marie handled her mother-in-law with grace and respect, never rising to the bait. Evelyn, however, grew increasingly agitated.
“It’s quite tacky,” Penelope said as she picked at a slice of cheesecake without ever putting it in her mouth. “What pair of grown adults wants to put on such a show of indecency in front of their parents and family?”
“The garter pull is a fun tradition,” Marie countered. “It’s supposed to make people laugh.”
Penelope shuddered. “I won’t tell you what to do, but these trampy girls need a lesson or two in propriety. My boy certainly won’t be sticking his head up your dress.”
As Marie flushed, Evelyn’s fingers curled into a fist. Sensing danger, I pulled her away from the table.
“Excuse us,” I said to everyone. “We’re going to freshen up.”
Once free of the restaurant and the haughty Delacourts, Evelyn paced along the lobby. “Who does she think she is, talking to Marie like that? If she knew what I could do, she wouldn’t dare—”
“Marie had it handled,” I said. “You can’t control everything.”
Evelyn muttered murderously under her breath. Her phone buzzed, and with a glance at the screen, she said, “Oh, great. Just what I need.”
She stomped off to take the call, so I leaned against the wall to wait for her, unwilling to return to dinner on my own. A scene at the front desk caught my attention.
A woman—average in almost every aspect—had come in. She seemed to be arguing with Janine about something. Surreptitiously, I inched closer.
“No, that can’t be right,” the woman was saying. “Megan wouldn’t check out early without letting me know. I’m her sister.”
“She didn’t precisely check out,” Janine replied. “She left without settling her bill.”
“She wouldn’t do that.”
Janine sighed. “She did. Anyway, I’d give her a call because we haven’t seen her since last night.”
Before I could listen to more, Marie stomped out of the restaurant with steam pouring from her ears. “Where’s Evelyn?” she demanded.
“Taking a call.”
“Ugh!” Marie threw up her hands. “She leaves me all alone with that monster of a woman! Did you know she picked this hotel as a wedding venue? I had no say in it! And Mom’s no help. Jack,” she pleaded, taking my arm. “I can’t go back in there. Please save me. Tell them I had an aneurysm or something.”
I cast a longing look at Megan’s sister and Janine, dying to hear more details, but Marie needed me. With a sigh, I said, “I’ll see what I can do.”
3
Jet lag continued to treat Evelyn like a cheap date. The next morning, I dared not wake her. She slept like the dead, her mouth open and a spot of drool dampening the pillow. While she dozed, I balanced my laptop on my knees and researched Megan Hollows, the woman who’d apparently walked out on her bill two nights ago.
Unlike Wolf Godfrey, the mysterious supposed billionaire, Megan’s
