I force away my inappropriate thoughts as I greet Oak’s mother. “Hi, Katrina. Thanks for coming.”
“Oh, no, thank you for allowing me to come.” Katrina leans down to give me a hug. She’s four inches taller than me without shoes. In heels, she’s nearly as tall as Oak. “I brought something for our meal.” She waves her hand toward her assistant, who offers me the white box. “When I was in Small Wonders, my character always brought food and flowers whenever she was invited to a person’s house. Flowers were her signature item. It’s why, at the end of the movie, it’s so meaningful when Sassy—that’s the stepdaughter—gives her flowers from Sassy’s mother’s garden. It’s such a beautiful scene. Did you see it?”
I shake my head and then regret it immediately when her face falls.
“Vaughn’s more of an action girl,” Oak interjects. “Let me take that. Vaughn, this is Amanda, Mom’s assistant. And the guys behind her are Gary and Tobias.”
He lets go of my hand to take the box and carry it over to the table that is already full of food. Paisley went kind of crazy at the grocery store, wanting to make sure that Oak wouldn’t be unhappy with the food at our house. I shouldn’t judge, though, because I made three desserts last night.
I shake hands with everyone, even Gary and Tobias, who look at my hand like it’s a snake’s head. “Come and meet my family.” I lead Katrina over to my sister. “This is my sister, Paisley. She keeps us all together.”
“God, I can’t believe I look like a sweaty line cook in front of Katrina Ford,” Paisley laments. She wipes her hand on her apron before holding it out.
Katrina bats the hand away and hauls Paisley into her arms, meat-stained apron and all. “Goodness, aren’t you beautiful. Why are you working behind the scenes instead of in front of a camera?” Kat exclaims as she draws away.
Paisley blushes. “I like working at Diamond,” she mumbles.
Katrina’s attention is a little intimidating, but fortunately, I’m able to distract her from my sister by directing her toward the twins, who are now tossing the ball with Big D.
“These are my brothers, Spencer and Shane.”
“Oh, oh, my heart.” Kat pats her chest. “Your family is so adorable. I want to gather you all up and take you to Malibu with me to live full-time.”
“Do you live on the beach?” Spencer asks. “Because we’d be down with that.”
Shane nods his head eagerly.
“Of course! It’s a public access beach, but you can certainly walk right from my deck to the sand.”
“Radical.” He and Shane exchange fist bumps. “When’re we moving in?”
“You two aren’t moving anywhere,” I inform them. “Go inside and wash up. Paisley’s almost done cooking.”
The twins grumble a bit but know from past experience that they won’t get to eat if they don’t wash their hands. As they take off, Katrina’s smile turns to me. “And your parents?”
I shoot an awkward look at Oak, who grimaces in return. He doesn’t talk to his parents, so why would Katrina know about my past?
“They passed away a couple of years ago. Car accident,” I explain.
Her face falls. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize.”
“It’s okay.” I mean, it’s not okay. It’ll never be okay, but it’s getting easier to tell that story, easier to pass it off as one of those incidental facts about my life. Seventeen, went to Thomas Jefferson High and my parents died when I was fifteen.
“Mom, is that cashmere?” Oak interjects.
I sag with relief that we’re moving on from the sad and uncomfortable topic of my parents’ deaths.
“Isn’t it wonderfully obnoxious? Carlo sent it over from Gucci today.”
“It’s seventy.”
“It gets chilly at night,” she protests.
“You look great,” I tell her and then grab Oak’s hand again, this time to pinch the tender skin between his fingers. He shuts up and I almost regret that more.
Fortunately, Paisley calls for us to come over because dinner is done. The kitchen table has been carried out the patio doors so we have enough seating for everyone. My sister refuses to eat until everyone is seated, even the bodyguards and the assistant.
Katrina sits between the twins, who take turns staring at her in confused adoration and shoveling steak into their mouths.
“Be nice,” I mutter under my breath to Oak, who’s decided he needs to sit so close to me that we’re practically on top of each other. I’m not going to examine why I don’t move away even though there’s enough space for another family between me and Paisley.
“My mom makes me crazy.”
“You’ll miss her when she’s gone.”
Oak’s face grows somber. His hand skates up my back to rub lightly along my neck. “I know you’re right. I’ll try harder for you.”
“Do it for yourself.”
I have to give Oak credit. He tries. During dinner, he asks how her renovation is going and the two laugh about the number of times she’s redone her Malibu home, although there’s an underlying thread of sadness there, as if they both know she’s trying to rebuild something in her life but never achieves any satisfaction in it.
“Maybe I should put a slide in it? I saw the other day where someone had put in a slide for their kids.”
“We like slides,” Spencer says.
Both Paisley’s and my mouth drop open, because our twelve-year-old brothers would rather be dropped in acid than be caught on a playset.
“You do not,” Paisley accuses.
“Do, too.” Spencer glares. Shane nods in fierce agreement.
“Since when do you like slides? I asked if you wanted to go the park last weekend and you said it was for babies.”
“We do like them,” Spencer insists. “We just didn’t want to go to that shi—stupid one over on Fifth Street. It smells like a Dumpster.”
“That’s the nicest park in El Segundo,” she protests.
“Then El Segundo smells like a Dumpster.”
“Oh, well, I don’t need to put a slide in,” Katrina interjects. Her head bobs back and forth between Paisley and the twins.
“No. Slides are awesome. Paise doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
Shane chimes in. “She’s getting old. She might need a hearing aid soon.”
“Shane Bennett, what are you talking about? I’m not even twenty-three!” Paisley cries. She looks to me for help, but I’m too busy giggling into my napkin.
Oak buries his face in my neck, trying to muffle his gales of laughter. “I love your family,” he says between gasps.
Me, too. Me, too.
After dinner, we all clear the table with Oak muttering something under his breath about how he hasn’t seen his mother lift a plate outside a movie since he was five. But Katrina helps as much as anyone else. Maybe one of her roles has helped her interact, but she comes off as sincere and sweet.
In the garage, Big D finds the ladder game, which he drags out into the backyard.
“What’s your point system?” Big D asks Paisley as he swings the tethered golf ball in his hand.
She shrugs. “One point for the bottom pipe, two for the middle and three for the top.”
Ty frowns. “No. You count how many bolas are left on the steps. Each one is a point.”
“What’s a bola?” Katrina asks nervously beside me. “I’ve never done this before.”
“The bola is the string with the two golf balls on either end,” I explain. “The goal is to get as many of the strings as possible to wrap around the three posts.”
“If we were at your house, you could set the rules, but you’re at mine so we’re keeping score the Bennett way.” Paisley juts out her chin.
“I recognize that look,” Oak says on the opposite side of me. “It’s the look that says we’re doing it this way and no other.” He cups his hands around his mouth. “Give in now, Ty. I can tell you from experience that there’s no point in arguing.”