Page 20 of Hush Money
He shifts me around so that I’m on his back then nods at his brother.
“Okay, J,” he says, “we’re ready.”
Julian starts snapping pictures as Cato nods and smiles at his onlookers. Brooks is playing on a video game of some sort, and Julian and Keaton’s mom, Kitty, is standing next to us, tears in her eyes.
I smile back at her then lean down and leave a kiss on Keaton’s face as Julian snaps one more photo. When he sets me back down, he smiles.
“Can you come with us to dinner tonight?” he asks. I tilt my head.
“Keat, I don’t want to?—”
“I need you there, Eve. Please,” he says, his voice just above a whisper. I finally smile and nod. Just like me, he needs a buffer from his own family. And I am happy to be that for him.
A few hours later,I’m combing my hair out and straightening out the long navy dress I chose for dinner when there is a knock on our door.
“Hi, Keaton,” my mom answers from the living room, her voice as unenthusiastic as always. I make my way out to where he’s standing in our doorway, looking devastatingly handsome in a nice shirt and slacks.God,he really is gorgeous. It’s sort of unfair to have more wealth than every other human ever andalso have gotten the best genes. Leave some for the rest of us. We say a quick goodbye to my mom and make our way down to the car. When we get inside, I gasp.
Nan.
“Nan? What the… How in the…” I start to say as I leap over the seat to wrap her in a hug. She smiles and squeezes me, handing me a card with my name on it.
“It was Keaton’s idea,” she says. “They came and broke me out on their way here.” Tears prick my eyes as I turn to my best friend. He squeezes my knee as I squeeze his hand.
“Thank you, Keat,” I manage to say.
A little while later, we are finishing up dinner at some insanely fancy restaurant that I’ve never even heard of uptown. Cato apparently owns a share of it, and we have the entire place to ourselves. I am so overly stuffed and so uncomfortable.
I’m still not used to being with billionaires, no matter how much I do it. These people have absolutely no concept of the life that most people lead, and we have no concept of theirs. Our realities are different, so when our paths cross, it’s just…weird.
But Julian, Keaton, Nan, and I are at one end of the table with Kitty. Cato has some business buddies he’s invited at the other end. Brooks is running around the restaurant, and his poor nanny is doing her damndest to keep it together.
Cato finally agreed to let Kitty join for dinner but only after Keaton begged him. Their divorce was so ugly, and I know Julian and Keaton are still not over the way their father treated her. But unfortunately, there isn’t much they have the power to do about it—yet.
“Well, I am just so proud of you, Keaty,” Kitty says, reaching a hand over to pat his. “You too, Evie. You should be so proud of yourselves.”
I haven’t spent much time with Kitty, but when I have, I always feel lighter afterward. She’s calming, nurturing, empowering.
All the things a mom is supposed to be.
“Thanks, Mom,” Keaton says. She smiles then turns back to me again.
“Evie, I just wanted to say thank you.”
I swallow.
“Thank me for what?”
“For being such a good friend to Keaton all these years. I hope you two keep in touch. You are good for each other.”
“That’s the truth,” Nan echoes.
Keaton looks at me as he sips his wine that Cato ordered for all of us.
“Yeah,” he says. “We are.”
EVIE
“Do you need anything before I head out?” he asks me.
