Page 210 of Silver Sweet

Jane is about to speak—but the bathroom door opens. Beckett sticks his head in and glances between the three of us like we’re conspiring. “What’s happening here?”

For some reason Eliot and Jane turn tome.

I raise my hands. “Not it.”

Beckett enters and gracefully hops onto the sink vanity, settling on the counter. He wears a pair of dark pants and a plain white T-shirt. I’m a little thunderstruck he’s even here. He’d warned everyone that he might not be able to make it since the big NYBC Spring Benefit Gala is this week.

“What’d I miss?” Beckett asks, his eyes onme.

“Dude, you missed nothing. You’ve been a star student attending Wednesday Night Dinners this month when you’re knee deep in rehearsals forManon.”

“Don Quixote,” he corrects me.

I grimace. “No, I swore it wasManon.”

“I’m performingManonthis month. Rehearsals are forDon Quixote, which is in June.”

“Oh my God,” I groan. “Your life is so confusing.” I’m also blasted with sheer disappointment in myself. I almost never mix up Beckett’s schedule. The tour must be overloading my memory.

Thankfully, Beckett is smiling, clearly amused by me. “What’s going on, Tom?”

For some reason, I’m the center of attention, so I just come out with it, “Phoenix and I are official.”

Beckett blinks. “Officially what?”

Eliot bellows with laughter. “This is too good. Dear brother, you do know whatdatingis?”

Beckett makes awhat the fuckface and motions to me. “They were already dating.”

“We were but we weren’t,” I interject, causing more confusion. “We didn’t have labels. Now we have labels.”

Jane presses her fingers to her lips, her eyes volleying back and forth between all of us.

Beckett looks like he might hurl. “Boyfriends?”

The door flies open again. Charlie has entered the chat, looking nonplussed that we’re all congregated in the hall bath. Though it’s not small. Two sinks. Plenty of room. It’s honestly one of my favorite bathrooms in the house with pinstriped olive-green walls and a Monet painting of a vase overflowing with gladioli, lilies, and daisies.

Even so, I did not prepare myself to blow my news in the fuckingbathroom.

Charlie shuts the door. “Are we talking about Audrey?”

“Yes,” Eliot says immediately.

“No,” Jane side-eyes him, and Maeve reaches her teeny-tiny fingers toward Charlie. “Uh-ku.” Baby Maeve’s version ofuncle.

Eliot shakes his head at our niece. “She’s obviously pointing at her least favorite.”

“You’re all her favorite,” Jane notes.

“I love you, sister, but there are rankings. Life is dull without them.”

Jane is handing off Maeve to Charlie. You’d think Maeve has spent her entire life being held by my eldest brother. She rests her head on his shoulder and quietly closes her eyes.

Eliot grinds his teeth, his jaw flexing.

“He’s boring her to sleep, dude,” I assure him under my breath. “Means nothing.”

Jane twirls a feather between her fingers. “How’s Ben doing?”