“Thank you, baby girl. You stay with Aunt Mia and rest.” Chloe placed a kiss on her forehead. “I love you a million dance shoes.”
“I love you a million princess dresses.” Sophie clapped in excitement. “Go Mummy, go, but bow first.”
Chloe turned to me with hesitation in her eyes. “Are you sure you don’t want to dance with some of the other girls in here?”
“You would be doing me a great favor if you would dance with me and not leave my side the rest of the night.” I put my hand out for hers. “I need you to save me from my ex and all the other vultures in here.”
“Oh, you poor thing. All these beautiful women want a chance to dance with you.” Chloe teased as I pulled her into my arms and onto the floor. “Can I stand on your feet like Sophie did?”
I let out a loud laugh at her request, which mistakenly only gained us more attention from the reporters. The cameras flashed as I moved us across the room.
“Chloe, I can protect Sophie from being in the tabloids because she’s a child, but I may not be able to convince them to leave you out of it.” I moved us into the crowd of dancers. “However, I would greatly appreciate if my egg-hunting partner saved me tonight at her own risk of the tabloids.”
“When you put it that way, how could I say no?” Chloe leaned in closer. “So, tell me, who are you hiding from the most?”
“The she-devil in the red dress who paid a lot of money just to have dinner with me.” I slowed our movement to stay in the middle. “She’s standing on the edge of the dance floor ready to pounce.”
“She’s very pretty, why would you not want to dance with her?” Chloe looked up at me. “And that dress is amazing.”
“She may look amazing, as you say, but her personality is not.” We stopped dancing when the music ended. “You wanna go see how the silent auction for the eggs is going?”
“Sure,” Chloe answered quietly.
“Don’t look so disappointed, we can dance more in a little while.” I took her by the hand. “I just want to get away from the cameras for a few minutes.”
Chapter 26
Chloe
Trey danced us around the floor so effortlessly. He clearly spent a lot of time at parties like this. I was, however, still in awe of the whole place.
“I’ll go with you since you promise to bring me back to dance more.” I put my hand in his. “I do want to see what’s happening with the egg auction anyways.”
Trey seemed to know his way around the venue. He spun us one last time into a dimly lit hall then opened a doorway that led us through a few more rooms.
“I thought you might like the tour of the place.” Trey stopped to look around the room. “Really I just wanted some privacy. Hope you don’t mind the back way.”
“I can’t imagine what it’s like to always be photographed, yet you do it with such ease.” I smiled at him. “Don’t you ever get angry about it?”
“No need to get angry. It’s wasted energy.” Trey gestured to follow him. “It did force me to find these secret ways around, though.”
“Ah, I was wondering how you knew this route,” I laughed. “You found it running away from paparazzi.”
“Oh no, I found this route when I was pretty young. I used to get so bored at these things.” Trey opened yet another door. “I found myself pretending I was on a mission and I was the only person who could save the world.”
“I can picture the Hawthorne boys sneaking through the dark, playing.” I looked around, picturing it in my head. “Must have been fun.”
“It wasn’t the Hawthorne boys. It was just me,” Trey said, looking around as well. “Parker was always reading in a corner somewhere, the twins were being chased by their nannies, and Murphy was a girl.”
“I beg your pardon.” I crossed my arms. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means I had no idea that a frilly girl in fancy dresses and perfect hair would want to sneak through the dark, sometimes crawling on the floor,” Trey answered in deep thought. “One time, I had my flashlight I’d stuck in my suit pocket and I was crawling across the room, when Murphy jumps out from behind the curtains.”
“Did you get mad?” I asked, wanting to hear more.
“No, not mad. I did squeal like a pig, and she hasn’t let me forget that our whole adult lives.” Trey shook his head laughing. “From that time on, if I snuck away, she’d be right on my heels.”
“I have a much bigger appreciation for your sister after that story,” I said. “Remind me to ask her about this.”