Page 52 of All In
“At least two,” I said. “I think they should have a brother or sister. I’m glad I did.”
Understatement of the century.
Kacey’s smile faded. “I’ll bet. I always wanted a brother or sister too. But dad could barely stand me as it was. It’s not surprising my parents only had one kid.”
“Have you talked to them lately?”
She shook her head. “Not since…I don’t even know when.” She shrugged, a tight, helpless gesture. “Not a word in a long time.”
“Such bullshit,” I muttered under my breath.The pleasant warmth in my chest from this conversation heated to anger.
“What did you say?”
“I said, it’s fucking madness they won’t even call you back. It’d been, what? Six months since you heard from them?”
“Longer,” she said. “I stopped calling them right around the time I met Jonah. We saw them on our trip to San Diego. Did he tell you about it?”
I shook my head. “He didn’t tell me anything, but his face was like a postcard when he got back.”
She tilted her head.
“I remember he looked…content. In a way a man in his position didn’t have any cause to look.”
She stared at me blankly, and I watched my words sink in, spread over her face, and draw a beautiful smile to the surface. “Thank you, Teddy,” she said softly.
I waved my hand. “Anyway,” I said. “You saw your parents then?”
She nodded. “Wesawthem,” she said. “Literally. From across the street. I didn’t want to talk to them. They looked happy so I let them be. Maybe I should do that permanently.”
“You want to?” I asked gently.
She shrugged again, her hands toying her long hair, examining the ends. “Might be easier than being rejected over and over again.”
“I know what you mean,” I said.
“You do, don’t you?” Kacey sat up on her pillows. “This is a personal question, but has Henry always been hard on you?”
I nodded. “Since Jonah and I were kids. Nothing’s ever good enough. I get sick of it. I’m so sick of giving a shit about what my old man thinks of me, and yet I can’t stop.” I snorted. “Sounds like such self-pitying bullsh—”
“Hello, look who you’re talking to,” Kacey said. “It’s frustrating as hell, right? Like you don’t want to care but you do. A lot.”
I looked. At her beautiful, open face; her simple words resonating in my heart. “Yeah, I do.”
“Why is he hard on you?” she asked. “Harder on you than on Jonah?”
“Definitely not. I never resented Jonah for it. Not even when we were kids. He stood up for me, but he never pitied me. I could never hate him. Or be jealous of him…”
The pain I kept so tightly locked down threatened to boil out. I kept the lid on tight.
“Dad’s never approved of my art and he never will. I should get used to it or get over it. If it weren’t for my mom, I’d move the fuck out of Vegas and open a shop somewhere else.”
“Oh, really? I can think of a city that could use your talents,” Kacey teased, and then waved her hands, as if she could dispel the words like smoke. “No, Beverly needs you. And I think Henry is reachable. I feel he’s got it in him to come around.”
“What makes you say that?”
“When I compare him to my dad.” She flumped back on her pillows. “Dad and I are a lost cause. I think my mother and I are becoming one, too. Every day I don’t talk to her makes it easier for her to let me go.”
“Let you go forwhat?Why did he cut you off? Why has he been a dick to you for so long and why does she go along with it?”
