“Now that I don’t really have the job, it seems like a stupid reason to not date him. Jobs come and go, ya know?”
“Exactly.”
“How often are you guys able to see each other?” Parker asked.
“Every week is different. Weekends are a given so far. He flew to New York last night to meet with a potential investor today. But when he comes back, I’ll either meet him in LA or he’ll come here.”
“You can always look for a job in the city.”
Grace sighed. “I might not have a choice. But I don’t want to change my employment to accommodate my boyfriend. If I can even call him that.”
“I think that’s a safe bet.”
Grace looked over the railing to see Scout rolling around on the grass at the bottom of the driveway.
“I really don’t know how he labels me.”
“Future Mrs.?”
“It’s a little soon to be talking like that.”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it.”
“I really haven’t.” But she was now that Parker had planted the seed.
“Mrs. Locke has a nice ring to it.”
“Stop, you’ll jinx it.”
Scout bounded up the steps and somehow had completely covered himself in mud. He ran straight to Grace and looked like he was going to jump in her lap.
“No way, dog.”
Scout thought it was a game and started to bark, and as he did, he placed one paw on her leg.
“Ewwww!”
She and Parker both laughed.
“I haven’t had a dog since I was a kid,” Grace said. “I wonder if Dameon likes pets?”
Parker laughed harder. “Yeah, right . . . you’re not thinking about being a wife.”
Grace found a clean spot on the dog to pet. “Maybe just a little.”
“I think that went well.” Tyler sat across from Dameon at a crowded coffee shop in Manhattan’s financial district.
“It’s always easier to win over investors when you meet with them in person.”
Dameon had come to the conclusion that pushing through the next two years without the financial help he went into it with was reckless on his part. Too many people in his company were depending on his corporation to pay their bills. And even though the profits would help him reach all his financial goals without an investor, the risks could bankrupt him if it all fell apart. Watching what Grace was going through helped him take the plunge to start looking for the right fit.
“I have the feeling that their concern about all the wildfires in California is the only thing holding them back.”
“The photographs didn’t help. If they pass, we might try and focus on West Coast firms.”
“It’s a different life here.”
There was a half a foot of snow lining the streets, and people were bundled up from the top of their heads to their booted feet.
Dameon’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He saw an image of his mom light up the screen. She didn’t usually call him in the middle of a workday.
“I should get this.”
Dameon accepted the call and lifted the phone to his ear. “Hi, Mom.”
“Hi, honey. Am I disturbing you?”
“You never disturb me, Mom.” Dameon glanced at Tyler, who was smiling at him. “What’s up?”
“I won’t keep you long. I just called to ask if you sent the clown.”
“Did I send the what?”
“The clown?”
Yep, she said clown. “What clown?”
His mom started to giggle. “You should get your money back because only half of it came.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“Maybe Tristan sent it.”
“Mom, can you start over? Is this clown a person or a doll or what?”
All he could picture was some kind of stuffed animal.
“No, it’s not alive. But it looks like it could be. Only it’s sliced in half. It’s the darndest thing.”
If his mom wasn’t giggling as she talked, he would swear she was having some kind of a stroke.
“Mom, what were you doing before the clown showed up?”
“I was sleeping. Tristan gave me these cookies that help me sleep. You know I’ve had trouble since your dad passed. These cookies really help.”
Dameon rubbed his temples. “Tristan gave you cookies?”
“Yup.”
Damn his brother. “Any chance these cookies make you hungry?” Dameon found Tyler listening intently to one half of the conversation and quietly laughing.
“Of course they do. There’s a little bit of pot in them.” His mom whispered the word pot and started to laugh.
“For fuck’s sake.”
“Oh, honey. Don’t cuss like that. Just come over and make the clown leave.”
“I’m a little far away.” And it was obvious that his mom was hallucinating. Dameon’s thoughts turned to Grace. “I’ll see if Grace can come over and help.”
“I hope it doesn’t scare her.”
Dameon shook his head. “I’m sure she can handle it. Just stay in the house and please don’t eat any more cookies.”
Tyler quietly laughed.
“Okay, honey.”
Dameon hung up the phone and shook his head.
Tyler busted up. “Tristan is the one who works in a marijuana dispensary, right?”
Dameon dialed Grace’s number. “I can’t make this shit up.”
“Hello?”
He tuned out Tyler’s laughing to talk to Grace. “I have a huge favor to ask.”
Grace pulled into Dameon’s mom’s driveway thirty minutes later. The house sat in the hills of Glendale in a subdivision that looked like it had been built somewhere in the fifties.
The front yard was minimally landscaped with a single maple tree and an evergreen hedge that separated the yard from the sidewalk. She double-checked the house number with what she’d written down and knocked on the door. She stood waiting for several seconds and started knocking again.
Still nothing.
Grace looked under the planter by the front door and found the house key Dameon said she’d find. Feeling a little awkward letting herself into a home she’d never been to before, Grace called out Lois’s name as she opened the front door. “Lois?”
“Back here.”
Grace sighed in relief and let herself in.
“Did you bring the pizza?”
She followed the woman’s voice to a back room behind the kitchen. Lois sat on a sofa with a pile of laundry and a bag of potato chips. She glanced up and smiled at Grace. “Oh, aren’t you a pretty little thing.”
Grace smiled. “Hello, Mrs. Locke. I hope you don’t mind that I let myself in.”
“No, no, of course not. I’m sure Dameon said it was okay.”
“He did.”
Lois patted the pile of laundry beside her. “Come sit down. Let me get a good look at you.”
Grace moved around the table holding the partially folded laundry and scooted the clothes aside so she didn’t sit on them. “Dameon was a little worried. Said something about a clown?”
Lois waved toward the front of the house. “Oh, he’s in the other room. I just left him in there since he wasn’t hurting anything.”