Chapter 10
Keely was a bundle of nerves leading up to the big fundraiser. She didn’t know how she would’ve gotten through the last of the prep without Chloe’s persistently cheerful energy.
It didn’t help that Nick had disappeared just as they were getting ready to drive across town with a car full of food, but he had promised to meet them there.
”At least now I can carry food from the car to the event space without him nagging at me,” Chloe said with a laugh. She waved at Nat and Willa as they climbed out of the car.
”He really doesn’t let you carry anything?” Keely asked.
”The doctor told me that I shouldn’t lift anything heavy, and somehow in Nick”s brain that translated to anything heavier than a loaf of bread.”
”Have you seen the muscles on that guy?” Willa quipped as she helped them unload the hors d’oeuvres they had prepared. ”He can’t help it if he doesn’t have a working understanding of what is or isn’t heavy for mere mortals.”
”Very funny,” Chloe said, then ruined the brush-off by laughing. ”He does have big muscles, doesn’t he?”
”Yuck,” Keely said. The other two laughed, and she lengthened her stride. The event space took her breath away when she first walked inside. It was a huge wooden building with high ceilings and massive windows overlooking the ocean.
She set down the container of deviled eggs that she had brought and peeked inside to see if they had survived the short drive across town. They were still perfect, each egg white ringed with bright pink from the brine that she had soaked the boiled eggs in overnight. The whipped yellow centers were extra bright, helped with a pinch of turmeric.
”All good?” Chloe asked.
”Perfect.” She set the top back on to ward off flies and walked back out to the car. In the end, they had decided not to make any sort of entrée, just a selection of attractive and reasonably filling hors d’oeuvres followed by ice cream cake. Those were still in the freezer; they would run back down the hill to pick them up once the party got going.
Guests began to arrive just as they put the finishing touches on the food table. It was buffet style, with platters of hors d’oeuvres interspersed with piles of small plates for eating on the move. In addition to the deviled eggs, they had made crab cakes, miniature quiches, bite-sized Caprese skewers, and cucumber slices topped with decadent salmon cream cheese.
Willa scolded her brother for piling so many hors d’oeuvres on his plate that he had a veritable mountain of food perched on his hand. He just stuck his tongue out at her and disappeared into the crowd. Once a brother, always a brother, Keely supposed.
Where was Nick?
She scanned the crowd, but her tall brother would have stood out from the throng at a glance. She didn’t know where he could be. She tried to find Chloe and ask, but Chloe was busy chatting with potential donors about Community Property Renovations.
Keely hovered on the edge of the crowd, unsure of what to do. The food was made, and she didn’t know enough about CPR to try to talk it up alongside her friends. She stood awkwardly near the table of food, too nervous to eat.
It was times like this that she wished she could drink, but she knew better than to jeopardize her sobriety like that. She was only six months sober. Even though she had built the foundation of a normal life here, she had to be always on her guard. Alcohol hadn’t been her main problem, but alcohol would cause her guard to drop and her thoughts to fog, and she couldn’t afford that. Maybe someday, but not now. Not yet. She had to be smart.
And where was Travis? She knew that he had bought a ticket for the night, and she had wasted energy fretting over whether she should make small talk with him or ignore him, and he hadn’t even shown up. The nerve of some people.
The hors d’oeuvres were disappearing rapidly, and it was almost time to drive home for the ice cream cakes. She went through the crowd to find Chloe and ask if she wanted to come with her or if she should just make the short drive down the hill on her own.
”Keely!” Chloe exclaimed when she saw her. ”Come meet Guillermo and Sunday.”
She recognized the names from conversations that she had overheard between Chloe, Willa, and Nat. These were the huge donors who had funded CPR’s most recent project. The room was filled with their friends from San Francisco, potential donors all. She pasted on her most professional smile and held out her hand.
”No, we don’t do that anymore,” Guillermo said airily.
”Forgive my husband,” Sunday said in a musical accent. ”He has his peculiarities.”
”That’s the great thing about being rich,” he said with a teasing smile. ”Any oddities are now reframed as delightful eccentricities.”
”No one has ever called your refusal to shake hands delightful.” Sunday reached out and shook Keely’s hand. ”It is good to meet you, my dear. Chloe tells us that you are responsible for the phenomenal food.”
”Not all of it,” she said modestly. ”Chloe helped.”
”Helped is right,” Chloe said. ”You’re the mastermind here.”
She felt her face color and knew that she must be turning pink — one of the dangers of being a redhead. Sunday took pity on her and turned her attention back to Chloe.
”We thought that you might order us cheeseburgers and Neapolitan shakes again.”
”I can if you want to.”
”No, the food tonight is much too good to order in.”
”I was just about to run out for dessert,” Keely said.
”Oh, I’ll help you.” Chloe smiled at Guillermo and Sunday. ”We’ll be back in two shakes.”
”Two shakes of what?” Guillermo asked as they walked away. They were too far away now to hear Sunday’s response, only her lilting voice and her musical laughter.
”You don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” Keely said. ”I can handle it.”
”I know you can, but I’m grateful for the excuse to step away. I want to call Nick. And honestly, I wouldn’t mind putting my feet up for a while.”
”Where is Nick?” She had been too caught up in her worries about food for the event to dwell on it, but it was unlike her brother to just disappear when they needed him or when they might even possibly have need of him.
”Scot is in the hospital.”
”Oh no! What happened?”
”I’m not sure. It sounds like he fell, but I know that his health has been flagging lately. Travis has been worried about him, but I’m not sure what exactly is going on. I hope everything‘s all right.”
When they drove to Chloe‘s house, Nick was sitting out on the front step with his head in his hands. The moment he saw them, he jumped to his feet and turned solicitous, but Keely couldn’t get the image out of her mind of her brother folded in on himself, clearly worried. He focused on getting Chloe to the couch and setting her feet up on an ottoman, insisting that she rest for a few minutes before they went back up to the event.
She did as he asked, sitting back on the plush couch and elevating her feet, but her face was worried.
”Are you okay? How’s Scot?”
”He’s going to be okay, I think.”
”What happened?”
”I’m not sure. I guess he cracked his head on the kitchen counter, but I don’t know how. Travis found him. He’s a wreck.” He slumped onto the couch near Chloe, and she ran a hand through his hair.
Keely hovered nervously in the doorway of the living room, wanting to support her brother but not wanting to intrude. Neither of them seemed to notice her standing here, so after a moment she turned and walked into the kitchen. Her three ice cream cakes were stacked precariously in the freezer, and she carefully took them out and set them on the counter.
She knew now why Travis hadn’t shown.
She wondered if the entirety of his strangeness lately could be traced back to his worry for Scot. The owner of the Bottlenose had become a father figure to Travis. Here she had been so self-focused that she had wondered time and again why Travis was ignoring her, when really he was worried about Scot’s deteriorating health. She felt like a heel.
”I feel like I let him down,” Nick said in the next room.
”Scot?” Chloe asked. ”Or Travis?”
”Both.”
They continued speaking, their voices too low for Keely to make out their words. She shook herself out of her daze. She shouldn’t even be trying to eavesdrop. She was just worried. But she had other things to think about. She lifted the cakes and carried them through the living room.
”I can take these up,” she said in passing. ”You guys don’t have to come back if you don’t want to.”
”No,” Nick said, standing up. ”I should at least stop by.” He looked down at Chloe. ”Do you want to come, or would you rather rest?”
”I want to try all three of those ice cream cakes,” she said in a transparent effort to bring some levity back into the room. She held her hands out to Nick, who helped her up off of the couch. ”We can go for a bit longer, and then we’ll come home and rest.”
”Sounds good.”
”I just need to pee. For the umpteenth time today. Somebody is tap dancing on my bladder.” She hurried down the hall, and Nick turned to his sister with a tired smile.
”How are you holding up?”
She waved the question away. ”I’m fine. Are you okay?”
His smile fell, and the lines of worry around his eyes etched themselves a bit deeper. ”I think I really let Travis down. He needed me, but…” He glanced down the hall and continued quietly, ”I’ve been so caught up in my new relationship that I’ve let everyone else fall to the wayside.”
”Not me.”
”You don’t feel abandoned?”
”Me?” She laughed. ”You found me a house two blocks away.”
”I guess I did, huh?” He smiled weakly.
”Travis has been going through it lately, but he’s going to be okay.” The words were as much for her benefit as his.
“I just feel like I should’ve checked in more often. Things must’ve been worsening with Scot for a while. Travis has obviously been in a funk.”
“He started seeming kind of distant, almost out of nowhere, and I was wondering what happened, but this makes sense of it.”
“It did start kind of suddenly,” Nick said, nodding slowly. “I wonder if there was some incident with Scot before this that he never told me about. Or-” He cut off, eyes widening for a brief moment before he turned away.
“What?” Keely asked, cocking her head as he turned back.
“Nothing. I guess I’ll have to ask him about it,” Nick said, but his expression was distant now, like his mind was elsewhere.
Chloe reappeared before she could press, and they loaded into the car to drive the short distance back to the fundraiser.
When they got there, Chloe consolidated the remaining hors d’oeuvres onto a couple of platters, cleared the empty platters away, and dedicated one end of the table to the three cakes that she had made. Each one was covered with a glossy glaze that caught the light and shone. Beneath the glaze was soft frosting, decadent sponge cake, and local ice cream.
Ingrid came out of nowhere, appearing at her shoulder and making her jump.
”Those look phenomenal. What are the flavors?”
Keely laughed, releasing a burst of nerves, and took a breath. ”This one in front is blood orange cake with vanilla bean ice cream. The one with the golden glaze is pistachio cake layered with honeycomb ice cream. And that one is cinnamon cake layered with pumpkin spice ice cream.”
”They all sound amazing. Can I have a sliver of each?”
”Of course.” The cakes were still frozen solid, and so cutting thin pieces was easy. By the time she had served her new boss a slice of each cake, a line had formed behind her. She spent the next hour serving up cake, basking in words of praise as the phenomenal ice cream cakes became the center of attention.
”You have quite a talent,” Sunday told her when she came back for a second slice of the pistachio honey ice cream cake.
”I can’t take all of the credit. The ice cream comes from a local ice cream parlor.”
”You are too modest.” She accepted a generous slice of cake with a word of thanks. Her expression turned thoughtful. ”Would you be able to cater a small event next month?”
Keely’s eyebrows shot up. ”Really?”
”It will be here in Pelican Point, a family event, but I would dearly love to hand off the cooking to someone so capable.”
”I would be honored.”
”Do you have a business card?”
Her cheeks colored, and she shook her head.
”No matter. I will ask Chloe to send me your number.”
”Sounds good. Thank you so much.”
Sunday shook her head. ”Thank you.”
She went off through the crowd to find her husband, and Keely looked around to see if anyone was still waiting for a slice of cake. It seemed that everyone was happily engaged in eating and conversation, and so she cut a slice of the pumpkin ice cream cake for herself.
She had been too nervous to eat any of the hors d’oeuvres during the event, but suddenly she was starving.
She had done it. She had prepared all of the food for a big, fancy event. A real grown-up thing. And she had done a phenomenal job.
Maybe this whole adulting thing wasn’t so hard after all.
The next step, she decided, was to be less selfish. For the past six months, that selfishness had been a matter of survival. Her entire focus had been on sobriety and survival, and then adjusting to life out in the real world without her parents hovering.
But now she was doing it, and the people she cared about deserved her support.
Nick had been there for her in her worst moments, and she would do the same for him.