“Come, meet everyone. Let me get you something to drink,” Bird exclaimed. “As you guessed, this is Godiva . . .”
Doris couldn’t look away from Joey Hu, though she couldn’t say why. He wasn’t imposing like Mikhail Long, but he was very handsome and moved with an agile, fluid grace. It was unusual for an Asian man to have blond hair, but it suited him. He was elegantly dressed, which was miraculous given that he’d come straight from the airport, after a long flight from . . . hadn’t Bird said he was visiting family in China?
Her gaze tracked him as he offered his hand to Bird. His fingers were long and clever-looking, with nails neatly trimmed and buffed. When he passed Doris, his friendly smile turned her way.
Their eyes met, and every cell in her body was charged with light.
His eyes glowed golden—real gold, the breathtaking gold of stained glass windows—and he stood still.
The world stood still.
Doris hadn’t had a hot flash in years, but she felt like she was having one now. Except it wasn’t only heat, but a bright golden light that shimmered through every nerve. In that moment the entire universe came apart and then refit together in a new pattern.
No.
She wrenched her eyes away, realizing she was still standing over the cake table with crumbs and frosting splattered down her dress. Doris backed up and plopped into her chair.
She stared down at her frosting-smeared hands as Bird and Mikhail welcomed Joey, showering him with questions. Doris easily picked out Joey’s voice from theirs. It was such a compelling voice, neither high nor low, his words quick, like a running stream, with laughter threading through. He spoke with the slightest Chinese accent, which only made it even more compelling. Another shiver ran through her as he explained that his plane had been delayed because of a storm.
Doris gave in to temptation, and took a single quick peek. He was staring right at her.
She looked away again, but the after-image lingered. All last summer Bird had talked about this amazing friend of Mikhail’s. Doris hadn’t paid much attention, but now every word flashed in her memory as if written in letters of fire: popular, a born flirt, everyone loves Joey…
In other words, a player.
Nope.
Nope. Nope. Nope.
Doris was comfortable. She was secure. She knew who she was: Doris Lebowitz, spinster.
Everybody knew that spinsters and the drama that people called romance went together like dry ice and lava.
“ . . . and this is Doris Lebowitz, who wrote the cookbook with that recipe you liked, remember, the night before you left on your trip?”
Doris made herself meet those brown eyes again—ordinary dark brown, not gold—and smiled politely. She got firmly to her feet as she said in her most cordial voice, “So very nice to meet you. Alas, it’s late. I have pies to bake for the homeless dinner tomorrow.”
Her heart hammered against her ribs and her fingers trembled as she swung her purse over her shoulder and marched away.
TWO
JOEY
Mate! Mate! Mate! Mate!
Tian Hu Jiu Wei, (or simply Joey Hu, as the rare Nine-Tailed Silver Fox preferred to introduce himself to the world), held his breath. Deep within him, his fox leaped around in a circle, barking in crazy joy. But the human part of Joey sighed in regret as beautiful, entrancing Doris turned her back on him and decamped as if all the hounds of Hell were at her heels.
“Did she really say ‘alas?’” Jen murmured.
Godiva turned to skewer Joey with a glare. “What just happened?”
Joey’s heart thundered, but he did his best to hide it. “We just met.”
Inside him, his fox was still shouting, Matematematematemate!
Nine-tail foxes were powerful tricksters. But they had other kinds of magic as well. For Joey’s entire life, he had been sensitive to love in all its degrees and expressions. He did his best to aid those who faltered on the road to love, and delighted in others finding joy and happiness. But in recent years, as his human whiskers turned to silver, he had begun to wonder if the ultimate joy of finding one’s mate was ever to be his.
Yes! His inner fox yipped, prancing in that dizzying circle. Yes! Yes!