“Liar.”
I put my hand on his shoulder, and then I let him wrap his arms around me. I feel him kiss the top of my head. “I’m so proud of you,” he says.
I pull back and look at him. “You should be telling Joanna that.”
He laughs. “She’s got enough of an ego,” he says.
“She sold me out,” I say. The words slip out. “To the tabloids. I thought it was Cassandra, but it was Joanna.”
My father nods. “Don’t tell your mother,” he says.
“Dad, did you—”
“Yes,” he says. He guides me farther into the kitchen. “But you’re not going to upset her.”
“Upsether?”
“Your sister is who she is. Sometimes I don’t know where she came from, but I love her. I love her just as much as I love you. Things haven’t been easy for her, and lord knows she’s made some bad decisions, but she knows what she did was wrong. It won’t happen again.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I told her if it did, I’d give her something to squeal about.” I look at my dad. He has a twinkle in his eye. “I pay more attention than you think,” he says.
“It’s not fair,” I tell him.
He pinches my cheek, the way I remember him doing when I was little. “Fair is overrated,” he tells me. And then he picks up his scotch. “Do your old man a favor, will you?” he asks. “I’m going to duck back there.” He gestures with his elbow in the direction of the bedroom. “Cover for me?”
“Dad…”
“I believe you owe me,” he says. “I just have to check a few scores.”
I laugh. “Fine.”
We both look out into the crowd at Joanna. “She’s happy,” he says. When he says it, he seems happy, too.
I find Cassandra and Jake sitting on the stairs. Her legs are over his lap, and she’s talking animatedly about something. Some champagne spills out of her glass and down onto the carpeting when she gestures.
“Hey,” I say. I come and sit down next to them, tucking my dress up behind me.
Cassandra hands me her champagne, and I take a sip.
“Cool party,” Jake says.
“My sister leaked a story about me to the tabloids,” I say. “She said they gave her ten grand.” I set the glass down.
“Jesus,” Jake says.
Cassandra looks thoughtful. “I saw that piece about you and Jordan and this one—” She gestures to Jake. “I figured.”
I look at her. I bite my lip. “She overheard us talking.”
Cassandra nods. “Yeah.”
There is something about the look in her eyes, steady, strong, that lets me know she knows. She knows I thought maybe it was her. But we don’t need to talk about it. Just like I don’t need to tell anyone else about my sister. What’s done is done.
“She’s always been pretty selfish,” Jake says. “But this takes the cake.”
“Ugh, cake,” Cassandra says. “Do you thinkwecould be selfish and get some early slices?”
