“Inside joke,” Aggie said. “My mother was trying to get him to tell her how much money he makes.”
Sed snorted. “Sounds like my mother-in-law.”
“I thought you and Jess cut all ties with her after the way she acted at your wedding,” Eric said.
“Yeah, well, she decided she could control herself if she was allowed to see her grandchild. She’s been marginally successful at not pissing off Jessica so she doesn’t get disinvited from the delivery room.”
“Jessica looks pretty hungry if you ask me,” Aggie said. “If anyone is pissing her off, it’s you.”
And Sed finally left the buffet to allow the growing line a chance to score some food.
“You’re brilliant,” Jace told Aggie.
“Eh, Sed thinks like a typical guy. He’s easy to manipulate.” She kissed the corner of Jace’s mouth. “I’m still trying to figure out how to get you to do what I want you to do when I want you to do it. You’re still a bit of an enigma to me.”
“Tripod is not complicated,” Eric said. “Just bring out the short jokes. They get him all flustered, and he forgets he’s brooding and that he lacks a sense of humor.”
“He’s not short, he’s perfect,” Aggie said. “Maybe you’re just freakishly tall.”
Jace lifted his eyebrows, the corner of his mouth twisting in a smirk. “Eric’s just jealous because my dick is bigger than his.”
Eric stared at him with his mouth hanging open, apparently without a proper comeback.
“Yeah, well,” Eric said finally. “My dick’s not small. It’s perfect. Maybe yours is just freakishly large.”
Aggie and Jace laughed.
“And I like it that way,” Aggie said, giving Jace a courteous slap on the ass.
Eric grabbed two plates and, as if on cue, Rebekah sidled up to him, bypassing the entire line.
“Hey,” Aggie chided. “We were here first.”
“Eric was holding my place,” Rebekah said, the red streaks in her blond hair matching her ball gown perfectly.
“I was?” Eric said, his lips twitching with amusement.
“Yes.”
“And where have you been, Miss Reb?” Aggie asked. “Setting up more pranks to scare the piss out of me and Jace?”
If the looks of confusion on Eric and Rebekah’s faces were fabricated, they should have gone into theater instead of music.
“What are you talking about?” Eric asked.
“The message you wrote in lipstick on the mirror,” Aggie said. “Very mature, Eric.” She crossed her arms over her large breasts and scowled at him.
Jace had almost forgotten about the creepiness they’d experienced before they’d entered the castle. He shuddered as the feelings of unease settled upon him once more.
“What did it say?” Eric said with a snigger as he filled his plate with food. “Get out! Get out of Aggie’s pussy, Jace. You’re late for your own rehearsal dinner?”
“You know damned well what it said, jackass,” Aggie grumbled.
“He is mine,” Jace told them. He lifted a heavy white china plate from the end of the buffet as Eric followed after his wife down the spread of food.
Eric’s head swung in Jace’s direction, and his eyebrows shot up toward his bizarre hairline. “Do you have something in the closet you’d like to share, little man?”
“No.” He prodded Eric in the ribs with his elbow. “That’s what the message said.”
“I’d love to take credit for rattling the unrattleable—”
“Is that even a word?” Rebekah interrupted her husband.
“If not, it should be,” he said.
“It wasn’t you?” Aggie asked, leaning around Jace to look at Eric. Her ice-blue eyes were pleading with him to admit he was lying.
“Nope. We’ve been here waiting for you to arrive,” Eric said. “Maybe Jace’s fangirl—he only has one that I know of—has come to sabotage the wedding.”
“Or maybe the place really is haunted,” Jace spoke his thoughts aloud.
“Did you see a ghost?” Rebekah said excitedly. “I heard the queen’s ghost haunts the grounds. I’ve been hoping to catch sight of her all evening.”
“I saw…” Jace crumpled his forehead as he tried to make sense of what he’d seen out in the field. “Something.”
“You did?” Aggie squeaked.
“It was just some reflection of light on the fog.” Jace shrugged, trying to convince himself—more so than his captive audience—that what he’d seen hadn’t been a ghost. He didn’t believe in such things, did he?
“Rawr!” Eric growled and bumped into Jace, trying—and failing—to startle him. Eric earned a stomped-on foot for his efforts.
“You’re sure you didn’t write the message on the mirror?” Aggie asked.
Eric shook his head. “Maybe you’re seeing things.”
“I saw it too,” Jace said.
“So you’re having sympathy hallucinations,” Eric said with a shrug.
“This is cool!” Rebekah said. “I want to see it. Did you wipe it off?”
Aggie shook her head. “We’ll show you later.”
Much later, Jace thought. Maybe after the sun rose and Halloween was over. Rehearsal dinners usually continued until dawn, didn’t they? He hoped so. Jace bit his lip and continued to fill his plate, not paying much attention to what he was going to have to eat once he sat down.