Page 90 of All In
“I did,” I said. “It’s a little shotgun I renovated.”
“Now that,” Henry said, gesturing at me with his fork, “is a smart investment. I’ll bet you've already accrued equity.”
“I guess so.”
Beverly brightened at this, and I heard her release a little sigh. It sounded like relief. She laid her hand on my arm and said, “I guess that settles it as to whether or not you were moving back here. I’m a touch disappointed, but your visits will give me something to look forward to.” She patted my hand and turned back to her food with a smile.
“Sure, I can visit,” I said, not looking at Theo. “New Orleans isn’t very far away.”
“Yeah, it's only a four-hour plane ride,” Oscar said. “Right, Theo?”
Beverly looked up from her food, her smile vanished.
“I mean, we don’t see Theo too much these days,” Oscar said, leaning back in his chair. “Since he’s going back and forth to New Orleans so often.”
I felt cold all over while Theo returned Oscar’s gaze with a hard look.
“Is that so?” Beverly asked, touching her fingers to her throat. “Do you visit often?”
“Not that often,” I said.
“Not that often?” Oscar replied, his laugh sounding a tad sour. He cocked his head at Theo. “I'll bet you've got some serious frequent flyer miles racked up.”
“Maybe I do,” Theo said, as he and Oscar stared each other down.
“Kacey had a performance for the release of her new album,” Dena said into the silence, in a low, calming voice. “We had to miss it, unfortunately, but Theo was able to attend and lend support.”
“Oh,” Beverly said. “How wonderful.”
“It is,” Theo said. “Kacey’s becoming a huge success.”
I waved my hands. “Hardly.”
Theo glanced at me. “Sony Records wants to sign her.”
Dena gasped. “Really? Oh my God, Kacey, that’s huge.”
“That is quite something,” Henry said.
“They just want a meeting on Monday,” I said. “Nothing is finalized.”
“This Monday?” Beverly asked. “Oh, you’ll have to leave so soon then. But it’s wonderful.”
I felt a split in my heart—sadness at Beverly’s obvious relief and anger at Oscar’s catty remarks. Clearly neither of them had any confusion about what I was supposed to be to Theo.
Nothing.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE
Over the course of the dinner, I watched the light dim in Kacey’s eyes under the shadow of my mother and Oscar’s comments. My mother had her reasons for being protective about Kacey and Jonah—I wasn’t about to call her out on them. But Oscar was being a dick and I had no clue why, except that it hurt Kacey.
Just Kacey?
I shrugged that off.
After dessert, Oscar didn’t wait around, but muttered something about waiting outside for Dena. Kacey was saying goodbye to my parents, so I followed him to the street.
