Chapter 19
ON SATURDAY MORNING, CHARLOTTE MADE breakfast for everyone. I’d stayed over, still stewing in the guest room when Henry’s mom and Tess had gotten home a little after two a.m. What had Henry and Ellie talked about? What advice did she want? Was it something to do with Chase?
Pancakes had just been flopped onto my plate when a text from my mom popped up on my phone. CALL ME, it read.
My heart jolted. Relax, I tried to tell myself.
Maybe this wasn’t about the Bank of Fairfield account.
Maybe my aunt Kim had figured out James was in Rhode Island with Isa instead of here with me and told my mom about it.
To his credit, my cousin checked in at the end of each day.
Last night he’d buzzed in around midnight: Staying at Henry’s again, are we?
I swallowed hard, knowing I needed to face the music. “I’ll be right back,” I told Henry and Charlotte, sliding off my barstool. “My mom wants me to call her.”
Fear flashed in Henry’s eyes. “Everything okay?”
I shrugged, needing to keep my cool in front of his mother. “She’s not the queen of context.”
“She might just miss you!” Charlotte chimed in.
“It was an all-capitals call me,” I told her.
She sucked in a melodramatic breath, then smiled and sipped her coffee. I slipped out the patio sliding doors into the foggy morning. My stomach clenched as I pressed my phone to my ear, listening to the ringtone.
One.
Two.
Thr—
“Audrey!” my mom exclaimed.
“Hi, Mom,” I said, ready to take the hit. “Please let me explain—”
“Your hair,” she cut me off. “What did you do to your hair?”
My shoulders sagged in relief.
“Your tagged photos on Instagram,” she continued before I could fall to the flagstones and happily weep. “I knew the Constellation party was last night, and I wanted to see if anyone had posted photos.”
Rookie mistake, I thought. I could police my own social media, but not everyone else’s.
After Caroline’s welcome speech and dinner, the cater-waiters had migrated out to the deck to take pictures together.
Kenzie, Mia, and I hadn’t been able to stop laughing when Griff coerced Henry into reenacting the Titanic pose.
“You look stunning in that dress, honey,” my mom said. “And I would’ve let you borrow those earrings if you’d asked, but…” She sighed. “Audrey, your hair.”
I found my voice. “Mom, you’re always telling me to spice things up. You even said I looked like a scraggly street urchin before you left. What was I supposed to do?”
“Not enter your Reputation era,” she said. “You look like you’re about to hit the dance floor with Tom Hiddleston!”
Well, at least the inspiration for my new look had come through loud and clear.
“Jealous much?” I lightly quipped, because my mom had a major crush on him. Most of her suggested YouTube videos were Tom Hiddleston interviews, and one of her ongoing beefs with my father was who deserved to be the next James Bond.
“This is not a joke, Audrey. Did Laurie at Blush do it?”
I ignored her; I wouldn’t snitch on Tate. “I’m sorry you don’t like it, Mom.”
“No, I don’t,” she said. “But the real question is, do you like it?”
Not really, I thought, if I was being honest. It had been fun to turn things upside down for a while, but the haircut didn’t feel like me. It felt like I was playing a part.
And every time I glanced in the mirror, I almost scared myself out of my skin, not recognizing my reflection.
“It’s too short to pull back in a ponytail,” I mumbled.
“Mmm,” my mom hummed. “And it’s hard to blow glass without a ponytail, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I agreed, my heart warming. She’d gotten it right. Blow glass, not make glass. “I need to buy a clip or something.”
“I have some in my bathroom,” she said at the same time I asked, “What does Dad think?”
“Believe it or not, he didn’t notice,” she said. “He couldn’t get past how short your dress was.”
“Did you tell him you picked it out?”
My mom laughed, and I couldn’t help but smirk when she didn’t answer the question.
THERE WAS NO WAY I WANTED TO DANCE back into my dress before heading home, so Henry let me keep the NYU sweats I’d slept in and offered me his favorite navy and orange anorak. It had started drizzling outside. He got a little worked up when I refused to swear that I’d return it.
I winked. “You know where I live.”
Charlotte and Tess stopped us before we left. “One quick question,” Tess said, gesturing between Henry and me. “Are we still doing the ridiculous fake-dating thing?”
I glanced at Henry and he glanced at me.
You take the lead on this one, I tried to communicate. They’re your parents.
And it was your idea!
“Let us rephrase,” Charlotte said after a few awkward beats. “Was this mistakenly dumped in the trash?”
And lo and behold, she held up Henry’s framed junior prom photo of him and Ellie. My heart twisted.
“We should keep the frame,” Henry said. “It’s really nice.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “But I think I’ll soon have a much better photo for it.” He took my hand and turned to me. “Audrey Barbour, will you go to prom with me?”
“You already asked me,” I said.
“No.” He tilted his head in his flirtatious Henry way. “I asked you if I should wear tails.”
My heart did a pirouette.
“Absolutely not,” Charlotte said. “You’re not tall enough.”
Henry flushed but didn’t look away from me as he muttered, “Mom, I know.”
“It would be my pleasure,” I told him, then put a hand to my heart and pretended to swoon. “There’s nothing better than a man in a tuxedo.”
“What about a white dinner jacket?”
Charlotte, Tess, and I groaned. “Go, go!” Charlotte waved us away. “Take your date home, Humphrey Bogart.”
“Really?” Tess said to her wife as I tugged Henry toward the garage. “Casablanca? I like James Bond best in that jacket.”
TWO HOURS AFTER HENRY DROPPED ME AT home (I was thrilled when he escorted me inside for an extended goodbye), I grabbed Brigitta’s keys and drove over to the Hair Doctor they must’ve had an early flight back to Brazil.
A plate of cookies was left as a goodbye gift, but they were chocolate chip.
I heard you were allergic to peanut butter!
the accompanying note read. I hope you enjoy these, just like Junior and I enjoyed the last several days here.
Fingers crossed you’ll see us around town soon! Val
I took it her marathon of interviews went well, and the note was so sweet that I couldn’t resist biting into a cookie…
Before spitting it into our front stoop’s planter. God, that’s terrible, I thought, wiping my lips after expelling some extra saliva. Did they accidentally use salt instead of sugar?
It was the thought that counted!
Fair Winds’ next guests—two septuagenarian BFFs from New Jersey—weren’t arriving until Tuesday, so before I went upstairs to survey the damage, I unlocked the hot shop to turn on the furnace.
Now equipped with a big clip to hold my hair back, I was excited to blow something.
“Let’s get this party started,” I whispered as I loaded glass cullet into the furnace.
Hopefully it would melt by the time I finished cleaning Fair Winds.
I felt my phone buzz in my jumpsuit pocket and, assuming it was Henry, fished it out and accepted the call without looking. “I have a great idea for a new Christmas ornament,” I said without greeting. “Acorns, but we torch the lids to have this cool metallic sheen.”
“You can definitely put me down for one,” Not-Henry said. “Although that’s not why I called…”
I smiled and rolled my eyes. “What’s up, James?”
“Two things,” he said, sounding weirdly serious. “Number one, Isa loves your hair.”
“It’s so Gracie!” I heard her shout.
“That was what my stylist was going for!” I shouted back.
“Yes!” James also shouted. “Break my eardrum, why don’t you?” He sighed overdramatically. “In the Luxembourg Gardens just turned one of her songs into a duet. Isa wrote a verse from the ex-lover’s perspective.”
“Ooh, I love that,” I said, and when James didn’t reply, I asked what the second conversation topic was.
“Well, there’s neither an elegant nor a subtle way to say this…” James began, then let a second of suspense build before he said, “Audrey, why is your carriage house on Here-to-Stay?”
No, I thought. No, no, no!
“I mean, I’m looking at it right now,” he said. “Isa was searching for a Here-to-Stay for a weekend getaway with her mom next month, and Fair Winds came up as a Connecticut suggestion.” Pause. “Last I heard, my mom still hadn’t successfully convinced yours to rent it.”
I opened my mouth. No words spilled out.
“This is why you told me to stay at Brown,” he guessed. “To ensure I didn’t get in the way, right?”
I somehow squeaked out a yes.
The line was silent for a few moments before James chuckled. “Oh, dear cousin, how little you know me,” he said. “Just because your mom briefed me like a CIA handler doesn’t mean I wouldn’t go rogue with you.”
Relief washed over me. “I didn’t want you involved,” I explained. “If I get in trouble, I don’t want you dragged into it.”
“Audrey, I agreed to leave you unsupervised,” he said. “No matter what, it’s a pretty safe bet that I’d be just as screwed as you.” He paused, and I was able to picture his smirk. “What sounds good for dinner? Isa and I can pick it up on our way.”
“What?” My eyes widened. “James, no. You guys can’t come!”
“Relax—”
“I’ve got this,” I interrupted. I was on a roll; I couldn’t have James and Isa try to shut me down or get in my way. “I’m good at this. Have you read my reviews?”
“We have,” Isa said. “They’re very impressive. I had planned to reach out to you with some questions before James recognized Fair Winds. We just want to make sure you’re being safe.”
“Like you guys were that time Grace lied about being sick so you could totally blow off school and spend the day in Philly? Without telling anyone?”
The line was dead silent.
“Your sister is super chatty when she’s drunk on eggnog,” I told James. Grace had called me on Christmas to say she missed me, then ended up confessing her deepest secrets for an hour. ’Twas the highlight of my holiday season.
He cleared his throat. “Well, for the record, I ditched school. I didn’t skip.”
Isa giggled.
“Audrey, these stakes are higher than Grace’s day off, or any of my bullshit,” James said. “If you don’t want us to show up with pizza and ice cream later, you need to tell us why you’re doing it.”
I told them about needing money for Blue Ridge, but not the part about pretty much stealing from my parents.
“Call us,” James said. “If anything gets sketchy or shit hits the fan or the house goes up in flames, call—”
“Nine-one-one,” Isa cut in. “Call nine-one-one, and then call us.”
“You guys are terrible babysitters!” I said lovingly, and after making a few more promises, I hung up, with a sigh of relief.
FAIR WINDS, SHOCKINGLY, WAS EVEN NEATER than before Valerie and Junior’s arrival. “Huh,” I said to myself, thinking for sure there’d be some dried cookie batter spattered on the kitchen counter. Nope, nothing. The kitchen was spotless.
And so was the rest of the apartment.
But after taking my initial lap around the apartment, I took a second—and a third. Something felt off.
The hot shop would have to wait until I figured out what that was.