Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“No,” Cam said to the gallery owner, adding a quick shake of his head to underscore.
“No? But…but…” the little man with the sad comb-over stuttered, his words tripping and falling over his lips. “This is one of the most prestigious galleries in New York City. In the world! Surely—”
“It feels like a mausoleum. I’m sure that’s perfect for somebody’s art, but not mine.”
“Mr. Kelvin said—”
“Sebastian is my agent, not my boss. It’s what I say, and I say thanks but no thanks.”
“But, Mr. Mitchell, we were hoping—”
“I’m on the phone here.” He raised his brows and cocked his head for the send-off.
“Uh, well, I would think—”
“Uh-huh. Good-bye.”
Cam watched the man’s stick-up-his-ass gait as he headed back to the office, not resuming the conversation until he closed the door.
“Geesh, some people.”
“Where are you going to hold your first exhibit?” Walsh asked. “It’s a big deal.”
“Yeah.” Cam glanced around the tasteful starkness of the gallery Bash suggested he consider. “Not here. I want it to have more…I don’t know. More meaning than these art cemeteries Sebastian keeps sending me to.”
“You’ll find the right spot.” Walsh cleared his throat, and it sounded like gears shifting to Cam. “We were talking about Jo’s ass.”
“Were we?”
“Yeah, the fact that you couldn’t take your eyes off of it at Christmas.”
Only took Walsh fifteen years to notice. Cam had been looking at Jo’s ass for years. Or maybe he’d just been better at hiding it before. He was slipping.
“I know you’re her cousin and may not see it, but take my word for it. Jo’s got a great ass.”
The quiet between them absorbed the words Cam immediately regretted saying before Walsh spoke again.
“Yeah, but you…Well, I didn’t think you thought of her like that.”
“Dude, so I’m an ass man. Don’t make it a thing.”
“We’ve just both always protected Jo,” Walsh said, pausing before punctuating the thought. “Kept the pervs away.”
Walsh was always the proverbial dog with a bone when something didn’t add up, and whatever he had sensed at Christmas was the bone he wasn’t ready to relinquish.
“Look, I’m not perving on Jo. I’m a red-blooded male. A great ass walks past, I’m gonna look. I don’t care if it’s Mother Teresa. Rest in peace, but if Mother Teresa had a great ass—”
“Dude, ew. Mother Teresa? That’s practically sacrilegious.”
“Never claimed to be religious.”
“Okay, well just checking. On Jo, I mean. Not Mother Teresa.”
“Hey, I’ve always known the deal with Jo. I’m not forgetting now.”
“What do you mean you’ve always known the deal with Jo?”
Dog. Bone.
“Never mind. I gotta go.”
Cam pushed off the wall and started toward the gallery exit, back onto the charming street, bustling with more hipsters than Cam had ever seen in one place. Like a flock of skinny jeans and man scarves had migrated to this one neighborhood.
“Hey! Before you go…” Walsh cleared his throat again, and it seemed even deeper and more shifty this time. “I have a favor to ask.”
“I’m not picking up your dry cleaning, Bennett.”
Cam grinned, enjoying that they could tease each other again. It wasn’t what it used to be, and maybe it never would be again, but it was closer than anything he had with anyone else. Sad when the only guy you’re close to steals your wife.
“Yeah, my assistant Karma can do that, I think.” The hesitation in Walsh’s voice stopped Cam in the street, a quick frown settling onto his face even while the summer day went on without him.
“What is it, Walsh?”
“It’s Kerris.”
Yeah, he’d had Christmas dinner at Walsh and Kerris’s house. He and Walsh talked a few times a month. They’d even done lunch a time or two when Walsh was in Paris. But they didn’t talk much about Kerris. It just made things easier. For Walsh to bring her up…
“Is she okay? The pregnancy going all right?”
“Things were fine when I left New York two days ago, but now I’m not so sure.”
“What’s up?”
“I called her and she just didn’t sound right. Something’s not right, but she didn’t want to worry me. I could tell.”
Emotions wrestled in Cam’s chest. Concern for Kerris and the twins she was carrying. But pinned to the mat was lingering resentment and pain that the family of his own he’d been so close to having now belonged to Walsh. Cam never knew from one moment to the next which emotion would come out on top.
“Can’t you have Trisha check on her?” Cam knew Walsh’s former assistant and Kerris were friends.
“Trish is in London. Her new position has her flying high and not home as much.”
“Soooooo…you want me to do what?”
Surely not…
“I know this is awkward, but my dad is still recovering from the heart attack, which is why I’m here in Hong Kong in the first place.”
“How’s he doing?”
“Better.” Walsh blew out a weary breath. “It was touch and go there for a while, but he’s out of the woods. Still, the doctors say it could be months before he’s back full steam.”