Page 52 of This Is How It Started
Adam laces his hands behind his head and leans back on two legs. “It’s good to be king.”
Normally, I’d tell him he was a jackass but...lobster pot pie coming my way. And apps. And maybe, since Adam is buying, some really good French champagne.
“We should’ve invited Campbell,” Adam says, and I note that Jess is conspicuously missing from the sentence.
“And Jessica too,” I add, if for nothing else to read Adam’s face. My brother has no game when it comes to hiding what he’s thinking.
But tonight he’s playing poker. “And Jess, too,” he says.
“They’re probably having their own celebration.”
“Probably.” Adam is watching me over the rim of his water glass. “So are you back at Windham full-time now?”
The thing is I’ve never been full-time even when I was. But I nod because my family will be relieved that I’m finally coming out of my grief and getting on with my life. Let it be my secret that I don’t have any clients waiting in the wings or any leads on listings. Campbell was the only one.
I consider telling Adam that I’m helping Brooke save our family home but intuitively know what she told me was in confidence. She never said it was, but something passed between us that day. A camaraderie of sorts. Her confession couldn’t have been easy.Your father gave everything to your mother, his first wife.I got sloppy secondsand a house that’s more of a burden than a benefit.
A server brings us plates of wood-fired asparagus with smoked pork shoulder and lentils and ahi tartare. Everything looks too pretty to eat, but I’m digging in. Adam orders a bottle of champagne. The good stuff, though honestly, I wouldn’t know André from Cristal. The sommelier pops the cork and pours Adam a taste. Adam gives a thumbs-up, even though his idea of living large is a blue raspberry Slurpee. The sommelier pours us each a glass and leaves us to enjoy.
I dip into the asparagus. “My God, this is so good.” When I take a gulp of the champagne, I get bubbles up my nose.
Both Adam and I bust up laughing.
“We have to do a real celebration,” I say while going in for the ahi.
“This is a real celebration.”
“I mean with the fam. I can’t believe you sold your business, Adam. Dad wouldplotzas Mom would say.”
“It would definitely have blown his fucking mind. I’m sure he thought Switchback was a losing proposition.”
“No, he wouldn’t have invested if he thought that.”
Adam pins me with a look. “If he thought it would keep me from being homeless, he would.”
“There is that. But he never believed for one minute you’d be homeless, just penniless, living in the Tenderloin in one of those single-room-occupancy hotels where everyone shares the same cracked toilet.”
Adam laughs, nearly knocking over his champagne flute. “Thank God it never came to that.”
The server comes to take our order, and we both get the pot pie, though I’m already full from the appetizers and bubbly.
“Campbell says the house is a dump with promise.”
I nod. “He’ll make it great. Mr. Scott will do the landscaping, and it’ll be gorgeous when the two of them are finished.”
“I can’t believe he pulled the trigger.”
“Why?” I ask, surprised. If anyone would buy a vintage Craftsman in sore need of renovation, it would be Campbell.
“I just thought he’d wait a little while, that’s all.” Adam shrugs in that noncommittal way of his, but it seems like there’s more he isn’t saying.
I want to pin him down on it when I see Stephen sitting across the dining room by himself. “Look who’s here.” I nudge my head in Stephen’s direction. “I bet he’s waiting for Hannah. We should go over and say hi. Invite them to eat with us.”
Adam follows the direction of my gaze and puts his hand on my arm as I start to get up from the table. “Let’s wait.”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake, you don’t—” I stop short as a blonde joins him, and for a second I can’t breathe. “Is that her? The woman you saw him with coming out of the Fairmont?”
Adam gives the woman a hard look. “I can’t tell.”
