Chapter 12
KENSEY
The quiches were calling my name. I had spotted them on a passing tray and snagged three before the server could get too far, earning a slightly startled look that I ignored completely.
I was not ashamed. I had been on my feet for hours and I had earned every single one of them.
I carried my bounty and slipped through the open patio doors.
I let the night air hit me. God. That was what I needed. The room wasn’t stuffy, but there were a lot of people, which meant a lot of breathing and competing perfumes and colognes mixing with the food and liquor smells. It was a lot and I needed a second of not brushing up against someone’s arm.
The sound of the waves was low and soothing. It worked on my nervous system immediately, the way it always did. I’d forgotten how much I missed this. The east coast had beaches but they weren’t the same. It wasn’t nearly as warm and the humidity was definitely higher.
The patio was dotted with small clusters of people—a few couples leaning against the railing, a group of buyers I recognized from earlier in the evening deep in conversation near the far end.
I found a little corner near the railing where the string lights cast a warm, amber glow and nobody was standing.
I claimed it as my safe space. No bodies.
No voices. No smells. Just me and the sea air.
I looked up. Clear sky. The moon was big and bright and sitting right over the water like a decoration specifically for the party. I stared at it for a moment and just breathed.
The event was a success. I could feel it in the room, in the way people were moving and laughing and lingering instead of doing the polite circuit and leaving early.
The food was gone almost as fast as it came out.
I had watched three separate people go back for second helpings of the crostini, which meant I had been right about the quantities.
Thank God we’d gone with extra. A party that runs out of food is not a party.
I bit into a quiche. Warm, flaky, some kind of caramelized onion situation happening inside. Excellent. Walter had been right about suggesting we add them. I chewed and stared at the moon and told myself I was doing a very good job of not thinking about Drew.
Except I wasn’t, obviously. I was thinking about him constantly, the way you think about a song stuck in your head.
Not because you chose it but because it was just there, running underneath everything else.
A steady ticker running through my mind.
Drew is so handsome. Drew is a great guy. Drew is good for you.
I ate my second quiche and stared at the moon.
“There she is.”
Callum was walking toward me with Victoria on one arm and Cleo on the other, the three of them moving through the patio like they had all the time in the world and every right to be wherever they happened to land.
Which, to be fair, they did. To be a Blackwell in this world must be one hell of an experience.
Cleo stepped forward. She had always been beautiful, and like Drew, she’d always been kind. I never bragged about my association with the famous Blackwell family. I respected their privacy and never talked about them to anyone else.
“Kensey.” She pulled me into a hug. “You look absolutely stunning. I mean it. That dress looks bonkers on you.”
“Thank you.” I laughed a little. “I feel a bit like I’m playing dress-up, honestly.”
“I wish I looked that good playing dress-up,” Victoria said firmly, arriving at my side and looking me over with wide, appreciative eyes. “That is not dress-up. That is a woman slaying in the perfect outfit. There’s a difference and you need to own it.”
“Annika,” I said simply.
Cleo tilted her head. “Annika picked it out for you?”
“Drew asked her to find something from the collection.” I smoothed a hand down the fabric self-consciously. “He said it made sense. Free advertisement.”
There was a beat of silence. Cleo and Victoria looked at each other. A look that lasted less than a second and communicated an entire conversation.
“Right,” Cleo said mildly.
“Free advertisement,” Victoria repeated, with a small smile she didn’t quite manage to hide behind her champagne glass.
“He’s a thoughtful employer,” I said. “I feel very grateful I get to be wearing anything Blackwell. Like a princess. At midnight I turn into a pumpkin!”
“How has it been, working with him?” Cleo asked. “Is he terrible?”
“He’s not terrible at all, actually.” I meant it. “He’s focused and he knows what he wants and he doesn’t micromanage once he trusts you to handle something. Which is not what I expected, honestly.”
“What did you expect?”
I considered that. “I expected the Drew who lost his keys three times a week and forgot to eat lunch and thought planning ahead meant thinking about something the morning it needed to happen.”
Callum laughed. “That Drew still exists.”
“He does,” I agreed. “But this Drew kept fourteen models moving through a fitting without anyone losing their mind. So he’s gotten more organized with age.”
“He’s grown up a lot,” Cleo said fondly. “The store did that. Having something real to run.”
“It suits him,” I said. “I told him that on my first day. He looked at me like I’d said something surprising.”
“He doesn’t take compliments well.”
“He takes them fine. He just doesn’t believe them.”
Victoria was watching me. I had already decided I liked her and she was really good for Callum.
“Ever think about moving back to LA?” she asked.
I shrugged. “Maybe. I only came home this summer because mom broke her arm. It wasn’t super serious, but it felt like a good time to come visit.
I realized I’d been signing up to teach summer school and just saying I’d see them next year.
” I shrugged. “So this year I stopped doing that because I’ve realized I don’t have a lot of summers left where it’s an option. ”
“How is she doing?” Cleo asked.
“Much better. The bone is healed. She’s in the cast for another week or two and she’s absolutely insufferable about it, which I choose to take as a sign she’s back to her normal self.” I smiled. “She’s doing a puzzle. A thousand-piece polar bear in a snowstorm. Round. No corners.”
Victoria’s mouth dropped open. “That’s sadistic.”
“That’s what I said.”
“I love her already.”
“She’s the best.”
Callum had moved to stand at the railing beside me, looking out at the water. “It’s good that you came back,” he said. “Drew could use the support on this campaign. Edith keeps things moving at the store, but she made it clear she didn’t sign on for any promo events.”
“She’s terrifying,” I said.
“She is,” he agreed. “But she’s very good at her job and she keeps him honest, which he needs.”
“I met a couple of your cousins,” I said. “You guys sure do share a lot of DNA. Little carbon copies. Well, technically large copies.”
Victoria laughed. “I agree. Meeting all of them is very intimidating.”
“They’re teddy bears,” Cleo said. “At least now they are. Briggs always intimidated me, but he’s the softest of them all once you see him with Mandy.”
“Don’t let him hear you say that,” Callum said.
“He wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Victoria said. “Except maybe in court.”
“Mom and my Aunt Mimi are in heaven right now,” Cleo said. “They’ve got all the grandbabies at the house. Most aren’t old enough to do pony rides and eat their body weight in sugar, but the day they are, things are going to get dicey.”
I told myself not to laugh at Cleo’s mention of the house like it was a three-bedroom rancher. I’d been to the house. It was a massive sprawling mansion.
“How is your mom?” I asked.
“She’s been keeping extra busy expanding Aunt Mimi’s charity,” Cleo said and looked at Victoria. “Thanks to Vic.”
“What charity?”
“Callum and Victoria did this thing at the store opening, a charity event to help feed kids in LA. Mimi has been doing it in New York. It’s still in the early stages but it’s happening. Right now Mimi’s here with Tiana, ironing out the details with Victoria’s help.”
“That’s wonderful,” I said. “That kind of work matters so much.”
“It does,” Victoria said. “I love it. I love that the Blackwell family is throwing their weight behind it. I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”
“She’s going to change the world,” Callum said quietly with love and pride as he looked at his wife.
Victoria looked at him with an expression so soft and unguarded that I had to look away. Not because it was uncomfortable, but because it felt private. I didn’t want to intrude.
“I’m hoping to change a small corner of it,” Victoria said.
“That’s how it starts,” I said with a smile. “One meal at a time. We have some kids at my school we all pitch in to try and keep fed and clothed. Scholarship kids, like I was back in the day.”
“That’s awesome!” Victoria exclaimed.
I laughed. “Thanks.”
“I like you, Kensey Blake,” Victoria said. “I’m officially declaring us friends.”
“I’ll take it,” I said.
I felt him before I saw him. It was a familiar tingling at the back of my neck. I turned and Drew was there, loosening his tie just slightly at the collar, scanning the patio until he found our little cluster by the railing. His expression shifted the moment he spotted me.
He made his way over, sidestepping a couple deep in conversation near the door and pausing briefly to shake someone’s hand before continuing toward us.
“Here he is,” Callum said.
“Here I am.” Drew stopped at the edge of our group and looked around at all of us with mild suspicion. “What’s happening over here? Are you corrupting her?” He looked at me. “Are you okay? Has anyone said anything terrible to you?”
“They’ve been lovely,” I said. “Genuinely lovely.”
“We were just telling her she should move back to LA,” Victoria said brightly.
Drew looked at her. Then at me. “Were you now? And how did that go?”
“It didn’t,” I said.
He glanced around the patio and back at me. “How are you doing? You’ve been on your feet since before anyone else got here.”
“I’m fine. What about you? Did you eat?”
“I’ve been munching.”
“The food is a massive hit,” I told him.
“I know.” He looked pleased with himself. “We did good.”
We both laughed and then I heard Callum clear his throat. I had almost forgotten they were standing there. When I turned, the three of them were staring at us. I didn’t miss the grin on Cleo’s face.
“Dance with me,” he said. “You promised.”
I took a slow breath and reminded myself that we were friends celebrating a successful evening. That was all this was.
“I did promise,” I said.
I took his hand.
He turned back to Callum, Victoria, and Cleo, sweeping his other hand toward the doors in an exaggerated invitation. “All of you. Come on. We’re celebrating.”
“Now you’re speaking my language,” Victoria said and grabbed Callum’s arm.
Cleo was already moving toward the door, her dress catching the string lights as she went.
The room had shifted. The crowd had loosened. The alcohol had done its work. The DJ had moved away from the carefully curated background music and into something with more of a pulse. It wasn’t club music, but the dance floor in the center of the room had a few brave couples on it already.
Drew led me through the crowd with his hand in the small of my back, the same way he’d guided me into the venue hours ago. My whole nervous system noted it. We reached the edge of the floor just as the song shifted into something slower. Of course it did.
Drew turned to face me. He raised his eyebrows once in that quick silent shorthand. Well?
I put my hand in his and let him pull me in.
We weren’t pressed together. There was a respectable amount of space between us, the kind that made sense for two people who were friends and colleagues at a professional event. But his hand was warm at my waist and mine was on his shoulder and I was very aware of every single point of contact.
Callum and Victoria had found their own space on the floor. I watched her tuck herself against his body like she’d found exactly where she was supposed to be. Cleo had been pulled in by one of their cousins, Dash.
“See?” Drew said quietly, near my ear. “Prom.”
I laughed softly. “Better than prom.”
“Significantly less throwing up.”