He nodded once and lifted his hand as if to knock on the glass that separated them from the front seat. “Kenny can take you in to the reception. I told Katie to look out for you, and you might see your uncle at the preparty they have going on upstairs. I won’t take long, I swear.”
“Okay. Wait!”
He turned back to her and she wiped her lipstick off his mouth. Fortunately, she’d chosen a fairly neutral shade. He grinned, did the same for her smudged mouth.
“Perfect,” he said, inspecting her. He tapped on the window between them and the driver, Kenny, and another man who had been introduced to her earlier by the name of Roger. Both men acted in the capacity of driver and security for Everett. The pane lowered.
“Ready?” Kenny asked.
“As we’ll ever be. Can you please escort Joy inside once we get near the doors?”
“My pleasure,” Kenny replied.
The next thing she knew, the door was opening. A shockingly loud cheer went up before Everett ever put his foot on the pavement. Once the crowd caught a glimpse of who the limousine held, the clamor increased several decibels, female shrieks spiking through it. Joy didn’t have an opportunity to be nervous between the cacophonous cheering and shouts for Everett’s attention and the flashing of cameras. Everett leaned into the limo and took her hand, helping her alight. He squeezed it slightly once they both stood on the carpeted sidewalk, and she instinctively paused next to him. She made random eye contact with a girl of about ten with dark bangs and a ponytail, who was looking at her with huge eyes. She smiled.
Lights flashed and people screamed Everett’s name and she was walking by his side toward the doors. Distantly, she realized he was calling hello to the people closest to the fence as if they were his neighbors, asking casually how they were. His manner had a civilizing effect on those nearest to him. They ceased their screaming and just grinned at him from ear to ear, like he was a hero son or brother making his triumphant return home.
He halted a few feet from the glass doors and pulled lightly on Joy’s hand. He swept down and kissed her briefly. The crowd catcalled, and suddenly Joy was being escorted up an escalator by Kenny, the burly driver. Everett had told her that Kenny had worked for him for years now.
“Do you ever get used to it?” Joy asked him, stunned by being in the proximity of so much potent adulation.
“Not really. I thought I’d seen it all being Britney Spears’s bodyguard. But working for Everett trumped that experience—in the most interesting ways,” he said with a rueful smile.
Joy chuckled and followed him off the escalator. She could just imagine. They stepped into a crowd of well-heeled guests sipping champagne. She caught sight of Seth’s head at the far side of the lobby. There was a definite advantage to having a six-foot-four-inch-tall uncle—she could typically spot him in the largest crowds.
Kenny snagged a glass of champagne from a wandering waiter and handed it to her.
“Oh, thank you. I think I see my uncle over there,” she told Kenny.
“Will you be all right if I leave you?”
“I’ll be fine. Thank you.”
Kenny nodded politely and turned to leave. Wilkie James saw her approaching first. He called out excitedly to her and ran over to give her a hug.
“I haven’t seen you in ages,” he enthused, stepping back to inspect her. “Look at you—Ellie Granolith is going to be furious that a high school teacher has stolen her thunder on the night of her screening.”
Joy laughed at the reference to the reputedly spoiled, difficult star of the film. She’d never met Ellie personally, but her uncle had been forced to work with her last year repeatedly and had told Joy point-blank that the rumors were 100 percent accurate, if not generous in favor of Ellie.
“Quiet, Wilkie. With your luck, she’s around here lurking behind the ferns or something. That’s the last thing we need to do, insult Ellie Granolith. You look fantastic,” she said, tweaking his bow tie.
“You’re the one who looks fantastic. But why did you cut your hair?” Wilkie asked in his typical candid, irrepressible manner.
She took a sip of champagne to cover her discomfort. None of her L.A. friends knew about her cancer diagnosis. She hadn’t wanted to burden them. Worry and fear were not feelings she cherished passing on to her friends. Joy knew all too well from her experience with her mother that there was nothing they could have done but sit by and watch helplessly.
“Shut it, Wilkie. I think her hair looks stunning,” Seth said, suddenly standing next to both of them. She grinned as Seth swept down to kiss her. “You’re glowing. I’d like to think it’s from excellent health.”
“And aren’t you the handsome devil in your tux?” she complimented, sidestepping his reference to her health.
Seth had been born fourteen years after Joy’s father, making him only ten years older than Joy. She’d adored her uncle Seth for as long as she could recall. As a child, she’d worshipped him
like a girl might her affectionate, protective, cool older brother. Even after Joy’s father had left them during Joy’s mom’s protracted illness, Seth had never wavered as the immovable, solid pillar of her life. She suspected she wouldn’t be alive today if Seth hadn’t been there.
“Where’s Everett?” Seth asked her, glancing around. Was that a hint of worry she caught on Seth’s face? She recalled what he’d said yesterday when they spoke on the phone and she’d told him about her date with Everett: At first he’d been silent, but then he’d said, “Everett is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met—movie star or normal guy. But be careful, Joy. I don’t really know him all that well. And their kind really is a different breed.”
Joy had gotten what Seth meant. Everett belonged in the highest realms, that narrow band where the stars burned most brilliant. Yet she innately understood that Everett Hughes would resent being confined to such a shallow sphere.
“He’s doing a few interviews. He said he’d be right up,” she answered her uncle.