Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #4)

“You brought me here to run interference.” Mina pinched her lips trying to hide the smile. “You want me to tackle them.”

Brody laughed. “That’s why I like you. You get it.” He pulled up to the front of the large three-story house with its terra cotta roof. As soon as the engine died, the double mahogany doors opened, and Mrs. Carmichael rushed out, phone in hand, followed by two young women. Both of the girls looked to be in their late teens, one a stunning brunette with laughing blue eyes and suntanned skin, the other a striking redhead with full, pouty lips and pale skin. They stayed on the steps, and when Mina exited the car, their faces flickered annoyance.

“Brody, you kept our guests waiting.” Mrs. Carmichael turned and noticed Mina for the first time. “Oh, I’m sorry. You must forgive me. Please call me Melody. And you are?” she chimed.

“Mina,” Brody cut in, standing behind her. “She’s a friend from school.”

The words “friend from school” cut her a little deeper than expected. Granted, he’d never verbally stated they were more than that, but hearing it still hurt.

“Mina. Let’s go to the sitting room and get started.” Melody didn’t miss a beat.

Mina didn’t even know new houses still had sitting rooms. Her own house did of course, because it was hundreds of years old. But apparently the wealthy still liked to follow tradition. The sitting room was lovely with a large family portrait on a taupe-colored wall above the marble fireplace. Two Victorian white sofas faced each other across a white coffee table. An antique grandfather clock towered next to the bay window. Two high back chairs brought the room together in a perfect little circle, made for intimate conversation over tea. She could very well envision Melody sitting here with her friends talking about the latest news and gossip.

Once Mina was seated, Melody left to call the caterer for the event. Mina sat in a high back chair, and Brody sat on the sofa across from her. The redhead and brunette joined their party. The redhead slid onto the sofa, closer than necessary to Brody. She gave a slight tug on her white shorts before crossing her legs to dangle them in his line of sight. Her foot bobbed up and down, the tinkling of her charm anklet acting as a lure.

“So what happened?” she asked. “You’re late, and you kept us waiting.”

Brody sat a little straighter and shot Mina a worried look. She mentally kicked herself for sitting so far from Brody.

Brody answered, “I needed to pick up Mina.”

“Oh! So you’re going to help us with the planning?” the brunette asked. Mina heard a slight southern accent.

“No, I’m here for moral support.”

The redhead’s leg froze, and her eyes narrowed. “Like one of those twelve-step programs?” she whispered.

“No!” Brody and Mina answered at once.

The conversation was a bit awkward and stilted after that. Brody politely introduced the two guests. The tall brunette was Lara, and the spicy redhead, Daphne. Mina couldn’t help but picture Lara and Daphne as the video game heroine and the cartoon detective, although the girls in front of her were nothing like the fake ones.

Lara opened up a magazine from the coffee table in front of them and pointed to the full color spread from last year’s ball. “See, it frequently makes the headlines in Glitz & Glam Magazine.”

Anxiety filled Mina as she scoped the page—photo after photo filled with ruffles, flounces, and feathers. Not to mention a few close up photos of Mr. and Mrs. Carmichael. Mina’s gaze was instantly drawn to the photo of a very dapper Brody in a tux, with none other than Daphne on his arm. Her dress was a sweet peach that brought out the color of her hair and added a warmth to her cheeks.

Lara smiled, showing even white teeth. “It’s one of the biggest events of the season, and Melody is the planning committee chair. We’re on the junior planning committee.” Her eyes dropped to the floor coyly when Brody glanced her way.

It didn’t take a genius to see that both girls liked Brody. Who didn’t?

“I think all that’s left for us is to finish our playlist for the party.” Lara looked only at Brody as she spoke. “I’ve made a list of fast, medium, and slow songs, and we need to put them in order.”

“Isn’t that what a DJ is for? To put the sets together and play according to the crowd’s taste?” Mina asked.

Her question received two blank looks from Daphne and Lara followed by a snort from Lara. “This isn’t some cheesy homecoming. This is the biggest event of the year. We leave nothing to chance.” She handed out the song sheets to Brody and Daphne but ignored Mina’s open hand.

Not to be outmaneuvered, Mina got up and sat next to Brody to share his song list. This only encouraged another dour look from the girls.

Mina scanned the names of the songs briefly and felt a bit lost. She knew many of the popular songs from the radio, but she was stunned by the number of waltzes being played by the live band. Not once had she thought it was going to be that kind of a ball. She didn’t know how to waltz. Mina chewed her thumbnail, pretending to be interested in the discussion, while secretly thinking of a hundred excuses to get out of the date.

“So the ones marked with hearts are our must-haves,” Lara said. “We’ll intermix our live music with songs from the DJ. If we run out of songs, then we move on to the ones with stars on them. What do you think, Brody?” Her voice dripped with honey.

“Sounds all right,” he answered. It was obvious he didn’t want to be a part of this.

Daphne frowned. “Brody, really. You have to give us some input. After all, you’re as much a part of this as we are.”

“Okay then.” He picked up the sheet again and gave it more thought. “I think it needs something else. What do you think Mina?” Brody turned to look at her.

Mina dropped her hands to her lap and clasped them together. She really didn’t have an opinion and had stopped reading the list soon after she saw the word “waltz.” But she lied. “I think you need to add in some Dead Prince Society.”

Brody’s face broke into a huge grin. “That’s perfect! It’s exactly what we need to bring it into the twenty-first century.” He nudged her with his elbow and she blushed. “I’m so glad you agreed to come.”

Daphne forced a smile. “We could definitely put it on our Maybe list.”

He shook his head no. “Not going to happen.” He grabbed a pen from the table and wrote it at the top of her paper with a big heart around it. “We added them.”

Lara looked skeptical. “I guess we could do one or two songs.”

“No, I say we bring them in live. If we’re going to have a live orchestra for the waltzes, then they should switch off every thirty minutes. After all, the band is family.”

Brody’s announcement really sent the girls into a tizzy, but they aimed to please. Over the next hour, they crossed songs off, rearranged, and highlighted like crazy. The girls did everything they could to make it work—for Brody.

After a while, he disappeared to let his mom know about the song list and to get drinks, leaving Mina with the cartoon girls.

“So you know Brody from school?” Lara asked, playing with the locket around her neck. “I still think it’s weird that he insists on going to public school instead of private like us.”