Jace’s pleasant smile from when he described the guy diminished. “He became my dad and Keeg’s, and introduced me to one of the most amazing women in the world.” He and Nance exchanged a fond look, though I could see the sadness in their expressions aswell.
“They must’ve been greedy for kids,” Keegan chimed in, “because they adopted me from there too, but I was too little toremember.”
Nance smiled. “We were very greedy for those little rosy cheeks youhad.”
Keegan rolled his eyes in an overdramatic display, as though he didn’t want there to be any confusion about his annoyance. “Oh, why did I even bring itup?”
“Crawford and I loved kids, and God blessed us with two of thebest.”
Jace must’ve seen the question in my expression because he looked at me for a moment before his gaze sank, and he said, “Our father’s not with usanymore.”
Nance’s, Jace’s, and Keegan’s expressions all seemed to mirror one another’s as they mourned the man missing from their dinnertable.
“Crawford was a lieutenant at the station and was about to transition to the assistant chief position when he had an accident on the job,” Nance said. “I was a proud wife, and I’m a proud mama.” She clearly had every reason to be. But even as she admired Crawford and Jace, I could tell the Kruses’ mood had shifted as they reflected on the one they’dlost.
“And I’m an exhausting brother,” Keegan followed up, seemingly trying to ease the tension. “See the kind of expectations this one sets me up for? I’m still questioning mymajor.”
“Oh, there’s nothing wrong with questioning things,” Nanceinsisted.
“No, no. Nothing wrong with questioning things at all,” Jace added as he gazed right at me, clearly referring to the conversation we’d shared on the rideover.
Keegan and Nance didn’t seem to pick up on the insinuation, and the conversation naturally shifted away from their grief over losing Crawford, something I could tell by their mention of him, still weighed on them a great deal. Changing the more macabre subject, Jace, Nance, and Keegan caught up with one another about theirdays.
Even in the short amount of time I’d spent around Jace, it was evident he really was this good ol’ boy he presented to the world…the sort who couldn’t be so easily persuaded by the spotlight and big paydays. I’d seen this before, actors or models or even average Joes trying to put on an act as though it was too much for them, in hopes of maybe getting some more money out of a deal. But in all my years in PR, I’d never encountered a JaceKruse.
Knowing the consequences of this sort of endorsement deal I’d come to him with made me almost feel bad for presenting him with theopportunity.
Did he really need the toxicity that came along with all that? He’d experienced the fun part of having his fifteen minutes…or really, fifteen seconds. If he walked away, he could still keep his life intact without dealing with any of the negative bullshit—the rumors and speculation, the social-media drama, the onslaught of attacks that naturally followstardom.
I tried to shake the uneasy feeling. What was I thinking? If he said yes to working with Hacksmore, it was hisdecision.
And if a little persuasion was all it was going to take to keep this account from Freyda Inc., I could managethat.
6
Jace
“That wasn’twhat I was expecting,” Dax said as we headed onto the backporch.
He had a beer Nance had offered him, and I held on to my glass of sweet tea fromdinner.
We’d finished eating about thirty minutes earlier, Dax falling effortlessly into the conversation with Nance and Keegan as they discussed the Netflix seriesThe Haunting of Hill House, which apparently, they were all fans of. I sat back and enjoyed their speculation about some of the plot twists, or what Nance kept referring to—to Keegan’s chagrin—as plotholes.
“What were you expecting?” I asked as I walked over to the porch. It was dark out, leaving the back and the woods behind the house illuminated by the porch light I’d flipped on before we steppedout.
Dax moseyed over to me. “More of a business meeting,” he replied as he sat. “I thought Nance was going to be a godfather-esque figure who would need to know all the details of the deal we werediscussing.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t what I meant. I just wanted her to get a read on you. And she likedyou.”
“Did she tell youthat?”
“She doesn’t need to tell me these things. We know each other well enough that I can pick up on it. If she didn’t like you, she would have kept looking at me real distinctly. That’s how we do it—give each other signals when dealing with someone particularlyawful.”
“Glad to know she didn’t do that with me,” Dax said with alaugh.
“Not yet, at least, so we’re good on that front, and you seem like an honest guy,Dax.”
“Let’s get something straight, Jace. You don’t know me, and I don’t know you. Honest definitely isn’t a word I’d use to describemyself.”
