Page 98 of The Ex-Best Thing
I can’t deal with her yet. I’ll handle that later. “Should we call Nancy?”
“Probably a good idea.” Benny finds her number and calls. She must answer, because he speaks. “Hi. Yeah, we’re all together. We were wondering where you—oh.”
I sense his body tightening, and alarm bells immediately go off in my head.
“You okay? You sure?” he asks.
I reach for the phone, and Benny relinquishes it. “What happened, Nancy?”
“Nothing, honey,” she says, soothing me, but she sounds tired. “Just had a hard night, that’s all. I wasn’t feeling up to a walk this morning.”
“We can come to you.”
“Stay put. I’m fine, I just need to rest. I love the video, and I think Lonnie is a good-for-nothing scoundrel.”
“Agreed.” I hesitate. “Can we at least bring you lunch?”
“Not today. Maybe tomorrow.”
“Okay. Here’s Benny.” I hand the phone off, but I don’t have a good feeling about it.
27
BREE
“Have you called Mom yet?”Zoey asks, sitting on the bench swing beside me in Colby’s backyard. The music video has been live for three days now, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
I lean my head back against the top of the bench and let out a gusty sigh. “I don’t want to face her.”
“You have to eventually. This isn’t really sustainable. The longer you put off the conversation, the worse it’s going to be.”
“I know,” I whisper.
“Hey, what is goingonout there?” a man calls, coming into the backyard through the break between Benny and Colby’s houses. Even with his sunglasses on, I can immediately tell it’s Peter. Initial panic washes over me when I realize I have no disguise on, but it’s quickly replaced with a sense of calmness. Peter’s not here to snap pictures of us. He’s probably looking for Benny.
Halfway across the lawn, his steps come to a stop, and he looks between my sister and me.
The back door opens, and Olive pokes her head out. “Noah’s on the phone, B. Want to talk to him?”
“I’ll call him back.”
“Bree Belacourt?” Peter says, passing a hand over his eyes and blinking at me.
Olive must notice Peter isn’t either of the men who frequent our space, because she says something into the phone and hangs up.
“Yeah.” I give an awkward chuckle. “Sorry.”
He shakes his head, clearly still trying to wrap his head around it. “Why?”
“For being dishonest. Hey, have you met my sister? This is Zoey.”
“In my dreams, yeah,” he says, coming forward with his hand out to shake hers.
Zoey stares at it in mild disgust. “Not a cute line.”
Peter waits a second longer before sliding his hand into his pocket.
“Did you need Benny?” I ask.
