Page 1 of Something’s Brewing

CHAPTER ONE

“Are you sure you don’t want to go?” Madison asked her sister-in-law, Eve.

“Positive. In case you didn’t know, your brother is a baby when he’s sick or hurting,” Eve said.

Madison laughed. “Yeah, he always has been.” Her brother, Mason, had sprained his ankle playing basketball the day before.

She glanced over her shoulder at her teenage daughter lying on the bed. “I rushed home to spend time with you, Sophie.”

“We have my entire senior year before I leave for college.”

After a year working in DC as a Naval Criminal Service Investigator, Madison had barely been home in Minneapolis twenty-four hours before Eve shoved a masquerade invitation into her hand.

“Besides,” Eve said, “you need to have some fun. Maybe meet someone.”

“It’s a masquerade ball. Nobody will know who I am.”

“That’s the fun part.” Eve winked.

Madison looked to Sophie, who scrolled through her phone and kept watch on her as she got ready. “I thought you and I could hang out.”

“It’s a few hours, Mom. Go. Have fun. Kiss a random stranger.”

“Kiss a random stranger? Where did you come up with that?”

“Isn’t that how the Hallmark movie meet-cutes work? Strangers meet, have a good time, leave not knowing who the other person is, and find out later they’re the perfect match?”

“You two are hilarious.” Madison shook her head. “That is not how real-life romance works.”

“Cynic,” Eve said.

“Realist,” Madison countered.

Sophie held up her phone. “This eye makeup would look amazing with your dress.”

Madison studied the smokey blue look on the screen. “Nice. I can do that.”

A short while later, she slipped on a butterfly mask made of gold filigree and dark blue enamel, one jeweled wing sweeping wider across her face. Then she stepped into the fitted midnight blue dress Eve had loaned her.

Sophie clapped. “Oh my gosh, Mom, you’re gorgeous.”

“You really are, Madison,” Eve agreed. “The men at the party won’t be able to keep their eyes off you.”

“You should be wearing this,” Madison said. “I still feel bad that you aren’t going.”

“Please don’t. I’m happy you’re going. Besides,” Eve said, handing her a pair of earrings, “it has to feel good dressing up once in a while.”

Madison laughed softly. Eve wasn’t wrong. Most days over the past year had involved civilian clothes, a badge, and long hours.

Madison followed the winding tree-lined drive to the massive estate perched high above the Mississippi River and handed her keys to the valet. Technically she wasn’t crashing the party but arriving in someone else’s place. Still, it made her feel slightly devious. She handed Eve’s invitation to the security guard at the door.

Relax, Madison, she thought to herself, you’re not running an undercover op.

A staff member led her into the ballroom.

The room glowed beneath enormous chandeliers that looked salvaged from a grand Southern hotel and illuminated the space with a gentle warmth as the sun dipped low. Notes from the orchestra drifted across the ballroom, weaving through the hum of conversation. Guests in elaborate masks moved across polished marble floors as waitstaff floated through the crowd carrying trays of champagne and delicate hors d’oeuvres.

For a moment, she simply took it all in.