Page 7 of Set the Moment
“I’ll give you a hundred grand for her to teach me privately until New Year’s Eve—only her—and she gets all the money after.”
Calista reels back as if I’d shot her and scoffs, “Excuse me?! How dare you try to bribe—”
“So? How much are her lessons?”
If my friend Georgia could see me right now still pining after the same girl years later, she’d laugh in my face. Georgia is the only person in my trio of friends who knew about my crush—considering Cleo, my other friend, is Sienna’s cousin.
“I beg your—”
“Hundred grand, four months of classes with her only. Take the money or—”
Calista’s eyes replicate saucers as she gasps and shouts, “You’re out of your mind!” before storming away.
I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose.
Guess I have to take matters into my own hands.
So much for that master plan to get Sienna alone.
“Honey, why would you buy a dance studio in the middle ofMaryland?I thought you were a painter…” My mother’s voice is light and questioning as I answer her fourth call of the day.
Sighing, I roll my eyes as I take a seat in front of my easel, pulling a smock over my bare chest.
“Did anyone ever question Shakespeare when he wrote all those plays?” I ask absentmindedly, positioning myself in front of my canvas. My body buzzes with energy and my fingers twitch to touch a brush.
After the recital and disappointing chit-chat with Calista Dupri, I’ve acquired a dance studio, a headache, and an itch to paint.
The headache and studio were a given considering the small two-story building cost me around three hundred thousand dollars and resulted in a nice, long chat with Dad. It was no surprise for Mom to call me every day, though.
What did surprise me was the itch to paint something. I haven’t sat and worked on a piece in months.
“Umm…yes? What did we send you off to that school for if you’re not learning—”
“Did you call me to lecture me or to talk to your favorite spawn, Mom?” My voice is teasing as I make light brushstrokes against the canvas, using lavender and light brown oil paints.
“Fine…I did have a reason for my call, sweetheart.”
My eye twitches as my mother eases the term of endearment into her sentence.Honeywas her usual nickname for all of us boys, but when Anna Heart truly wanted to get her way, she’d usedsweetheart.
Just as I open my mouth to question her, she beats me to the chase.
“Before you get mad, I just want you to hear me out.”
Gritting my teeth, I set down my paint brush and brace myself for whatever verbal torture my mother will throw out. Anna Heart may love her boys with her entire being to the point she’d become overbearing, but she also knows just the right way to get under our skin.
“I had a talk with Grace, and we just think you and Georgia should try—”
Oh for the love of God.
“Mom.” I feel cold as I look out of the one lone window in my bedroom. The street light is on in front of our house, and although it's pitch black outside, Iknow that somewhere out there in the underworld Hades is giggling happily at my expense.
“What?! You’ve known the girl your entire life and you’re not getting any younger. I’d at least like to see my last boy get married.” The calm I’d felt earlier at the recital while Sienna danced is nowhere to be found as my mother’s words hit me like a bullet train.
I’m only nineteen, but to her I’d might as well be forty-five. My parents had my brother, Jackson, when they were my age, and then got married soon after. Luckily for them, they’d been in love with one another well before Jackson came along. My brother followed in their footsteps, marrying my sister-in-law, Corinne, at twenty-one, six years ago. Asa, my second older brother, decided to rebel when he was fifteen. He’s repeatedly stood on the notion that he is against marriage and would not be getting married if his life depended on it.
He’s twenty-four now, single and mysterious as fuck living in New York, leaving me to bear the brunt end of our parents ideas of love, life, and family.
“Mom, you wanting me to marry Georgia is like telling me to marry Jackson’s fugly ass. Gross and fucking crazy considering she’s my best friend. And you aren’t dying, so stop.”
